world19News #90 - August 25, 2001 |
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world19News This e-mail is going to people on the mailing list for world19. If you don't want to receive further notices, please reply to this e-mail with "remove" in the subject. Let us know if you prefer to receive this in "plain text" format. Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested. BACK AGAIN We've been prompted "back to life" to announce two important meetings happening this week -- on the same day!. 1. URBAN ISSUES FORUM Tues. Aug. 28 7-9pm In our last newsletters, we had often discussed the problems facing Toronto & other cities. In late June, a number of us met with Councillor David Miller and MP Sarmite Bulte to discuss this issue. We will also be arranging a meeting with Gerard Kennedy. Interested readers probably know that Ottawa has created a task force on urban issues, chaired by Judy Sgro, York West MP and former Metro Councillor. It's a Liberal caucus task force -- not one created from the House of Commons. How meaningful its work will be is questionable. Chair Judy Sgro has already announced that constituional changes will not be considered, and neither (according to a recent opinion piece in the Globe & Mail by Jane Jacobs) will be financial changes. So what can it accomplish? Aside from that slightly skeptical look, we believe that Toronto and other Canadian cities cannot solve the serious problems they're currently facing without developing new approaches with the federal & provincial govenments. As has often been reported, US & European governments have recognized how important vital cities are to national health, and have made major financial, constitutional and other commitments to building strong, health cities. There are many reasons the federal government should make direct and significant investment in cities, including issues like housing & homelessness, environment, transit. We still have some notes (now a couple of months old) on our website at www.city.world19.com. For useful background on how & why Ottawa should be involved, see especially the links (under "web links") to John Lorinc's Saturday Night article, and the article by Joe Berridge. This week's forum does not seem to have been well publicized, so we encourage those interested in urban issues and the health of our city to attend. Unfortunately, the meeting was scheduled on the same night as
another meeting about an issue of great interest to those in the Bloor Village/High Park
area, and one chaired by one of the Parkdale-High Park City Councillors (David Miller)... 2. CONTEXT / ELLIS PARK DEVELOPMENT As you know, the OMB approved Context's proposal. However, Context still does not have a building permit (they are not even on title as owning the land yet). Before they can apply for a permit, they have to go through development review, which is now underway. This meeting is an opportunity for us to have input into that review process, and in particular to let City staff know how concerned we are about the lot's contaminated soil and the threat that it poses to area residents and to local water courses, once Context starts to disturb it. Context's environmental consultant has told the City that the soil on the lot is too unstable to do the additional soil tests the City wants, and that the better approach would be for the City to simply grant it a permit to excavate the lot, then it would deal with contamination as it's found; in other words -- dig first, look later. Some City staff are actually considering this, so the public meeting is an important chance for our community to say NO. Context must not be allowed to disturb the lot until full slope stability and contamination studies are done. Another important issue is traffic. Context has made a number of changes to the plans that were approved by the OMB. One of those changes is that all entrances to the condo -- for pedestrians, passenger drop-off, resident vehicles, delivery vans and garbage trucks -- would now be on Ellis Park Road. All of these vehicle entrances converge at the spot where the two parts of Ellis meet. We need to use this public meeting to send a strong message to City staff that this is very dangerous, and quite unacceptable. Please plan to attend this meeting and encourage others in the area to come out too -- it will be our best chance to get our message across to the City. Obviously, the more people who attend (whether they speak or not), the stronger the message. One further thing -- we are still awaiting word from the provincial Ministry of the Environment on whether they will grant our request (and the request of several other groups) and order a full environmental assessment of Context's development proposal. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, petitions will be circulated in the park and the Bloor West Village area over the next couple of weeks, calling on the province to order the assessment. If you would like to sign, you may do so at MPP Gerard Kennedy's constituency office -- 2861 Dundas St. W. (just west of Keele). P.S. Our MPP, Gerard Kennedy, is helping to organize a
petition to be circulated in High Park on Saturday, August 25th. They'd like to get twelve
volunteers (six teams of two) to meet at the Grenadier Restuarant parking lot at 9:45 on
Saturday morning. If you can help collect signatures on Saturday, please contact his
assistant, Tim O'Leary at 416 763-5630. 3. WALKING GROUP A new walking group formed in Bloor West Village: The first walk was on August 13th, the next walk happens on Monday August 27, meeting at the Runnymede Subway station, Kennedy exit at 6:30p.m. We will walk for approximately an hour and a half and for those who want to carry on and socialize we will go to a cafe/pub afterwards. This is for adults who want to enjoy exercise and meeting members of their community. It is intended to appeal to all ages, and is not a power walking, competitive or athletic group. It's for fun. We will explore the neighbourhoods, go over to the Humber, and also walk the western beaches. We walk rain or shine. After August 27, it will be the second and fourth Monday of each month, so September 10, 24, etc For more information, contact Patricia McCully, 416-763-2540. 4. OLD ITEMS Oscar/Animal Services Those who remember our news (at www.oscar2.world19.com) about the sad state of animal services in Toronto may be interested to know that after 2 1/2 months, we finally received some information. The city councillors, city staff, and humane society employees we wrote & phoned seemed to exhibt little interest in responding or assuiming responsibility. We will provide an update here and on our website soon. Rennie Park soccer fields There has recently been media attention about potential health hazards here. This news was first reported in our newsletter in 1999. We'll update readers on this soon...
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