Junction Triangle

The next DIGIN meeting takes place on Tuesday December 8th 2009, 7:00PM in the Ambrico Room of the Wallace-Emerson Community Centre, 1260 Dufferin St. (at Dupont).

DIGIN meetings are a great place to meet other residents and find out more about what is happening in the general Bloor-Lansdowne area. There are often representatives from Councillor Giambrone's office to provide updates about local issues and other news.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this month's meeting is that our local MPP, Tony Ruprecht, will attend. This should be an excellent opportunity to ask him about provincial issues that are directly affecting our neighbourhood. Do you have any questions or comments you would like to pass on to him? List them in the comments below.

Here is the agenda for this month's meeting so far. I will update it if there are any additions or changes:

The following is an update from the Clean Train Coalition:

Hello everyone. Here’s a quick update on recent developments.

Ernest Ave. sidewalk construction: Looking west from Perth Ave.

The Paton Rd. closing / Erwin Krickhahn Park expansion is not the only construction happening in our neighbourhood this week. Over the last couple of days, city contractors have been busy installing a new widened sidewalk and boulevard strip on the south side of Ernest Ave., connecting Perth Ave. to the West Toronto Railpath.

Although this may seem like a minor project, it has some serious benefits to our community:

• There will finally be a continuous sidewalk along Ernest Ave.
• Walking to the West Toronto Railpath will now be safer, as pedestrians will no longer have to mix it up with the trucks heading in and out of Solways Metals.
• The sidewalk will connect directly to the new location for the Boys and Girls Club, making it much safer for the kids.
• There will be a boulevard strip separating the sidewalk from the road, allowing for a tiny bit of much-needed greenspace here.

I look forward to seeing this completed!

Here is yet another post about the closing of the Paton Rd. stump and extension of Erwin Krickhahn Park. This time, just a couple of links to media reports from this week.

On November 16th, a reporter from the Toronto Sun interviewed several local residents at Erwin Krickhahn Park and posted a video that evening. On November 17th, they followed up with an article.

On November 19th, our local paper The Villager / Inside Toronto reported on the situation again, after interviewing several residents.

Erwin Krickhahn Park, Paton Road Extension

by Kevin Putnam

Summary:
An article written in response to a flyer distributed on 16 October, 2009, titled "Proposal to close Paton Road next to Erwin Krickhahn Park for Vegetable Garden".

How much trouble can 428.9 sq. meters cause? Apparently, plenty if you believe that extra green space in a local park is harmful for the following reasons:

Signs Encourage Stealing

An unknown vandal(s) has been knowingly encouraging locals to break the law by placing signs in the area saying there is free topsoil available at a City worksite at the corner of Paton and Rankin.

The signs, with no affiliation or contact information are designed to make local residents think that there is free top soil for the taking which is not the case at all. In fact a few locals have innocently fallen for this hoax only to feel terrible about it later. At casual glance these signs look like the kind of handmade sign that a neighbour puts up to announce a yard sale or say its OK to take away an item that has been put out. No wonder a few people fell for it.

This is stealing and may seem like a great idea or a funny prank but everybody in the community pays in the end when people help themselves (or cowardly) encourage others to innocently help themselves to materials that belong to all of us. Every City department is under financial duress these days so taking supplies only makes it harder for them to pay for all their projects, in this case for the Parks Department.

The Police have been notified and they have taken some signs as evidence. If anybody sees the person(s) putting up these signs or recognizes the handwriting please contact 11 Division immediately.

Stealing from the Parks Department is pretty sad and an attack on the community. It also sets a bad example for youth. Lets hope the community and the Police can find this vandal (s).

Due to all of the flaming, bickering, and fighting, comments have been closed on this article.

The Community Police Liaison Committee of the Toronto Police 11 Division has organized a winter clothing drive. Details in the attached flyer.

Railpath: Photo from the "unofficial" opening parade in June 2009.
Not that this is really "news" to anyone in our neighbourhood, but as of October 30 2009, the West Toronto Railpath is now "officially" open.

I wasn't there to attend the official opening ceremony, but I heard it was well attended by the media, local residents, Friends of the West Toronto Railpath, as well as Councillor Adam Giambrone and various members of the City's staff who were involved in the project.

Here are some links to media coverage from the event:

• Hume: Trail breathes life into 'dead zone', Toronto Star, October 30 2009.
• Old rail corridor opens to new recreational use, The Villager / Inside Toronto, November 2 2009.
• Toronto railpath park, NOW Magazine, November 5 2009.
• Well worth the wait for Railpath, Metro, November 6 2009.
• Full steam ahead for Railpath, Town Crier, November 23 2009.

There's also a video of the opening ceremony posted on Facebook, but unfortunately you need a Facebook account to be able to watch it.

I have been enjoying this new path all year long, and on average I'm on it at least once a day. So exciting to see it open and getting all the recognition it deserves. It's truly one of our neighbourhood's best features now.

Christopher Hume, the Toronto Star's "Condo Critic" had some nice words to say about our neighbourhood, specifically Wallace Ave., the Railpath, and the Wallace Station Lofts:

Wallace Ave., which no one would rank among the memorable thoroughfares in Toronto, is better than it looks. This mixed landscape of old industrial heaps and lowrise residential and apartment buildings can appear bleak, but the visitor soon realizes that this is a healthy and vibrant neighbourhood. The advent of the West Toronto Railpath, which passes beneath the Wallace Ave footbridge, will only enhance the area by making it more accessible and pedestrian-friendly.

Read the complete article online here.

For an interesting look back at the past, have a look at the picture on the bottom of this page at trainweb.org. It shows what is now the West Toronto Railpath and Wallace Station Lofts back in July 1985.

It has been a while since we last heard from GO Transit about the Davenport Diamond Grade Separation Project. The last meeting took place on April 22 2009, with very poor notice given by GO Transit.

Some details and slides from that meeting are posted on this website here. In short, this project proposes to grade-separate the railway tracks that run along the east side of our neighbourhood (between Campbell Ave. and Lansdowne) and the CN Tracks on the north side of our neighbourhood (between Dupont and Davenport). This would involve creating a huge wall/overpass or trench east of Campbell Ave., with the possibility closing Wallace Ave. Whatever the outcome of this project is, it will have a major impact on our neighbourhood.

In this latest update, we find out that the Davenport Diamond Grade Separation has been rolled into a much larger environmental assessment for the expansion of GO Transit's Barrie Line.