world19News #94 - November 25, 2001 |
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1. STELCO SITE DEVELOPMENT BEGINS A liaison committee has begun meeting, composed of community members (including world19), the developer (REON) and City staff and Councillor David Miller. The purpose of the committee is communication -- to keep the community informed and involved, and to keep the City & REON informed about our interests & concerns. REON recently won a "Brownie" award from the Canadian Urban Institute. These awards are given for "excellence in brownfield development". REON's award was given for "building an effective partnership with the local community" in the development of this site. The citation mentioned the fact that information, including minutes of all community meetings were posted on the world19 website. REON is producing a regular newsletter about the development, and has created a toll-free phone line 1-866-442-REON which will have weekly information updates and can also provide contact with their executives. We have posted the first newsletter (PDF format), plus
minutes of the first meeting of this liaison committee on our website. We also have text
of the "Brownie" citation. Our Stelco page has details on how you can receive
the newsletter directly. www.stelco.world19.com.
2. ELLIS PARK CONDO DEVELOPMENT - Public Meeting Nov.
26 In addition to the issues discussed below, there are a number of serious environmental concerns. See http://www3.sympatico.ca/2BIG ("latest news") for a summary of the Aug. 28 meeting. MPP Gerard Kennedy is pressing for an environmental review of this sensitive site. Contact his office for more information (416 763-5630). A public meeting on the development will be held: Monday Nov. 26, 7pm Grenadier Retirement Residence, 2100 Bloor Street (at Clendenan) main floor activity room (to the left of the reception area). The following notes come from the "2 Big for our Neighbourhood" group of residents: Over the past couple of months, as Context's proposal has gone through the City's development review process, working groups made up of community members, City staff and the developer's representatives have been discussing the many concerns over this proposed development ---- with local residents trying to persuade City staff and the developer to address those concerns. At Monday's meeting, we'll hear what progress the working groups have made, as well as the results of the City's own review of the development proposal. Most importantly, it will be the community's last chance to push for a resolution of the outstanding issues before the matter goes to City Council for the Dec.4-6 session.
Again, see www.world19.com for more information.
3. OTHER LOCAL NOTES & NEWS: a) Farewell to Peter Ochitwa / Mad Apples Those who have been on our news list for some time recall that on a couple of occasions he had "lent" us his restaurant on Saturday mornings for a community drop-in and informal discussion. During our "Save The Village" campaign a couple of years ago, we often met with local business owners & managers, and Peter was one of the most original and outspoken among them. One time he mentioned that in the past in another location he had opened his restaurant for these "coffee & muffin" meetings, and we were happy to take him up on his offer. Peter, like us, was sometimes frustrated by an apparent reluctance of some local institutions to try out new ideas & approaches. Several years ago, he had an idea to help raise money for his favourite charity (Children's Breakfast Club). He had arranged for a brand-new cement mixer to come out to Bloor & Runnymede, where it would spend the day "mixing" the world's largest Rice Krispie Bars to be sold to raise money for the Breakfast Club. All suppliers were onside; however he was told (locally) that he couldn't do it, local residents would object to the intrusion, and he couldn't close a portion of Bloor. He had brought this incident up as an exampe of how the different components of the community (e.g., businesses & residents) need to communicate more, and not stay within their traditional, narrower areas of interest. In the "Rice Krispie" case, he said if the businesses could have approached neighbouring residents well ahead of time, explained what would happen, listen to any concerns, then it would likely have alleviated any problems. We couldn't agree more; we have often encouraged community groups, organizations & institutions to broaden their approaches to others, as well as to meet (at least informally) among themselves to widen their involvement & awareness of the different interests & issues in the neighbourhood. Peter had other suggestions for Bloor Street festivals which were not taken up, such as closing Bloor as did other areas in Toronto ("Can't do it", he was told -- it took an outside group to do it for the now-annual Ukrainian Festival), or connecting a Village festival to High Park -- one of the area's greatest strengths. That didn't happen because it was not within the technical boundaries of the commercial Bloor West Village. This past fall however, the Roncesvalles BIA did just that, timing their street festival with the High Park Harvest Festival. The Bloor West Village commercial strip remains one of the most "successful" in Toronto; we think it (and the whole community) could be much better if we had more "Peter Ochitwa's" in it. b) Runnymede Baptist - "2001 Candles" -
Sun. Nov 25 c) Bloor West Eco-Village: News on organic foods -- a follow-up to their recent workshop is on our website. Also, they encourage anyone wanting to join their mailing list to email them at: bwevmail@lycos.com. d) Toxins in the Humber? The recent Toronto Star article, plus a note from a resident. See www.world19.com
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