Facing the city's three biggest problems

Toronto has long been known as a great place to live. Excellent neighbourhoods. At the top of international "most livable" lists. Great food, diverse population, full of energy. But these days, we have a few problems.

- EDWARD KEENAN

Cherry Street bridge, closed for repairs, is one of two vehicle bridges leading to the Port Lands, which will be virtually inaccessible later this week. The city needs to put up $26 billion just to get its crumbling infrastructure into fair condition, according to a recent report.

So let's talk about those problems: no one can afford to live here anymore, for one; it's very difficult to travel anywhere, for two; and everything is falling apart, for three. Just a few things, see? Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Thing is, our few problems are the type that can overwhelm much of the rest of life.

Whatever you may love about the city, if you can't afford to live anywhere near it, and you have no money left after paying for housing to enjoy it, and it's very difficult to get to it, and then when you get to it it's falling apart, then that thing's contribution to your quality of life becomes purely theoretical.

At the city council meeting last week, attempts to deal with all three of these big problem areas were on the agenda. If you're a glass-half-full person, it shows that at least our government is aware of the issues. If you're more of a come-on-that glass-is-almost-completely-empty kind of person, then the measures taken and not taken demonstrate how inadequate our solutions are to the scope of the problems.