Originally conceived in the 1930s as the main airport for Toronto, the Toronto island airport (today known as Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport) has long been a source for political debate as to the proper use of its waterfront site in central Toronto. Building the airport necessitated the closure of park lands, a hotel, cottages and an amusement park on the Toronto Island site. Construction of the airport in the late 1930s was stopped and started and its final construction only went ahead after the death of the Toronto mayor who had opposed its construction.