| Human connections are strange sometimes. Through a | | | | their ocean/ lake/ riverfront areas, making their |
| friend of a friend I heard about Jerry, who lives just | | | | waterfront areas a major attraction for locals and |
| about 5 minutes from me. I heard that, through his | | | | tourists alike.Unfortunately Toronto has had some |
| company A Perfect Tour, he runs specialized unique | | | | lapses in this area and some of Toronto's downtown |
| tours to places like Tuscany and Greece, and I also | | | | areas, particularly Harbourfront, have become |
| heard that he is involved in an initiative to revitalize | | | | concentrated areas of upscale residential highrise |
| Toronto's Waterfront, something that the citizens of | | | | developments dominated by concrete condominium |
| Toronto have waited decades for to come to | | | | buildings, with little space dedicated to green zones or |
| fruition.So I thought I'd track Jerry down to do an | | | | public recreational areas.My personal hope is that |
| interview with him and sure enough, last week, he was | | | | Toronto will choose a wiser plan for redeveloping the |
| able to squeeze in an hour long meeting with me in his | | | | Port Lands so that there is a healthy mix of residential, |
| packed appointment calendar.Jerry filled me in on the | | | | commercial and recreational land use that will make |
| fact that through his job with Air Canada he got | | | | that part of the city more livable and more attractive |
| connected with a travel agency for which he now | | | | as a destination for local citizens and vistiors from out |
| runs a variety of unique tours to Europe, to places like | | | | of town.In this spirit and simply as a concerned private |
| France, Greece and Italy and that the tours are usually | | | | citizen, Jerry has put together a consortium of experts |
| a week long, include unique luxury accommodation in | | | | over the last few years, including architects, consulting |
| private villas and contain a customized sight-seeing and | | | | engineers and graphic designers, who together have |
| activities program.Travel is obviously part of Jerry's | | | | developed a multi-stage proposal that is supposed to |
| soul. But in addition to foreign countries, Jerry also loves | | | | redevelop Toronto's waterfront over several decades. |
| his home town and as a single concerned private | | | | Let's hear how Jerry came up with this idea, what it |
| citizen, Jerry has put together a team of people to | | | | entails and how close it is to implementation.Susanne |
| develop a multi-stage multi-decade revitalization plan | | | | Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and |
| for Toronto's Waterfront.Personally, I sure hope that | | | | Transitions ( Travel and Transitions deals with |
| Toronto is going to move soon on a Waterfront | | | | unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, |
| Redevelopment Plan, since at present Toronto has | | | | real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers |
| huge tracts of former industrial land (the "Port Lands) | | | | and travel experts, insights and reflections, |
| by or close to the water that have been waiting for | | | | cross-cultural issues, contests and many other |
| many years to be developed, and federal, provincial | | | | features. You will also find stories about life and the |
| and municipal governments are still debating about | | | | transitions that we face as we go through our own |
| what plan to pursue.Other places like Barcelona, | | | | personal life-long journeys.Submit your own travel |
| Chicago, San Francisco or even San Antonio, have | | | | stories in our first travel story contest ( and have a |
| also undertaken major waterfront redevelopments, | | | | chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the |
| and they have done some quite amazing things with | | | | Amazon River. |