Since then, nothing has happened. And nothing probably will until the city steps in and orders London Transit to rework its routes.

Mr. Farhi, whose 22-year-old London-based company owns 80 buildings downtown – making him by far the largest landlord in the core – this week was on the Eh?Channel urging London Transit to find somewhere else than Richmond and Dundas for its main terminal. He wants to turn this area, where he just bought the old Simpsons building, now known as Market Square, into a upscale neighbourhood.

The plan put forward by Controller Gord Hume and his downtown task force was no less pretentious but more sweeping. It proposed making the downtown the greenest in Canada and turning Dundas into the most exciting street in London. This would require a gradual re-balancing of east-west traffic on Dundas downtown, replacing motorists with pedestrians.

“We recommend,” Mr. Hume wrote in the report, “that during the next 10 years we move to a European-style piazza for Dundas St. between Wellington and Ridout, where vehicular traffic is discouraged. The décor must be attractive, featuring trees and flowers, perhaps a fountain or two, with ample space for people to meet and talk and laugh and eat, a street that will be a pleasure to stroll and a delight to the senses with savoury smells wafting from street-side patios and cafes, offering beautifully decorated buildings and shops and throngs of people.

“We envisage Dundas St. as a grand promenade, extending from the Thames River east throughout downtown and continuing through Old East.”

To make it happen, Mr. Hume’s group argued, within two years east-west bus travel on Dundas between Wellington and Ridout should be removed. And within five years parking on this same stretch should be prohibited, the space thus captured used for bicycles and pedestrians and freeing the current sidewalk space for outdoor cafes, patios and store displays.

Well, the two years is up. Nothing has happened. The London Downtown Business Association, which commissioned Mr. Hume’s task force, is still not onside with most of the recommendations – changes to Dundas St. in particular.

So there has been no pressure on Larry Ducharme, general manager of London Transit, to find alternative arrangements to having dozens and dozens and dozens of buses from all over the city converge on this one downtown intersection. Mr. Farhi is correct; it’s an eyesore and a mess. Mr. Hume was more graphic: “No one is going to enjoy patio dining and entertaining as diesel buses roar by a few inches away. The narrow width of our sidewalks and streets mean we have to reclaim pedestrian space if this is going to work.”

Sadly, Mr. Hume also predicted in his task force report what might happen: “There will undoubtedly be great howling from some sectors (there has been). We urge you to be calm, strong and resolute. Decisions are going to have to be made (they haven’t). This idea is a big one. And a hard one.”

Too hard, so far, for our leaders to make.

WANT MORE INFO?

The Downtown Task Force had a lot more to say about changing and improving the downtown. You can read it here.