Chiara Padovani

Getting Around the City

The single change I'd push hardest for is a priority bus corridor on our main arterial, with dedicated lanes during peak hours and all-door boarding. Residents in this ward spend more time stuck behind parked delivery trucks on a bus than almost anywhere in the city, and we don't need a decade-long megaproject to fix it — paint, signage, and enforcement can be delivered in eighteen months. I'd pair it with two smaller commitments: a protected cycling connection linking our ward to the existing bikeway network, because a bike lane that ends at a highway on-ramp isn't infrastructure, it's a dare. And I'd push Transportation Services to synchronize signal timing for transit rather than car throughput on that corridor. The fastest way to reduce congestion is to make the bus the obvious choice, and right now it's the punishment option.

Taxes and Spending

My priority is state-of-good-repair funding for our aging community centres and libraries. These are the buildings where seniors cool off in heat waves, kids do homework, and newcomers take language classes, and we've let a repair backlog pile up because ribbon-cuttings win more headlines than roof replacements. The tradeoff I'd accept is deferring new capital projects, including some road expansion work, for two budget cycles. I'd rather maintain what we have than build what we can't afford to keep. This is a update.

Policing and Community Safety

The most pressing safety issue I hear at the door is pedestrian safety on our arterial roads, particularly around schools and transit stops. We've had three serious collisions near Danforth-area intersections this year alone. I'd push for automated speed enforcement at every school zone in the ward, faster installation of leading pedestrian intervals at signalized crossings, and a pilot of raised crosswalks on two of our worst corridors. Enforcement matters, but design changes are what actually slow cars down at 2 a.m. when no one's watching.

Climate Action

Basement flooding is the climate issue that hits homeowners here hardest, and it's only getting worse with more intense storms. I'd prioritize accelerating the Basement Flooding Protection Program in our ward's highest-risk zones and expanding the subsidy for backwater valves. Beyond that, I want a tree canopy target with teeth: every street reconstruction should include soil cells and new plantings, because mature trees are the cheapest cooling infrastructure we'll ever buy.

Housing

In the ward, I'd champion legalizing multiplexes as-of-right on every residential street, full stop, and pair it with a fast-track approval stream so a fourplex doesn't take longer to permit than a subdivision. At council, I'd advocate for the city to use its own land first: surplus parking lots and underused civic properties should go to non-profit and co-op housing providers at below-market lease rates before anything else. We can't subsidize our way out of this crisis, but we can stop making it illegal to build the missing middle.