Pools Of Water: Mosquito Season

Just wanted address and bring awareness, as we are approaching the summer season the need to get pools of water around the neighborhood in backyards and unattended properties cleared. As these will be lovely breeding grounds as the weather gets more balmy.

I want to also wanted to address the two vacant properties south of us on Perth and Sterling Rd:

First, the old U-Haul property located at Perth and Bloor has a gaping hole which was dug out last summer and now is a small pond. Im not sure if the property owners or the City have already visited the area to help destroy the Larva breeding in the water.

The same could be said about the The Towers Automotive property owned by Castlefield.

I hope both owners take responsibility and clear this matter up soon. With the threat of West Nile on the increase this doesn't sit well with me. I am in the process of contacting the Toronto Star (The Fixer), so they may guide me towards the right direction to handle this with the City.

Thanks,
Ranajit

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Update: Pools Of Water: Mosquito Season

Hi there,

Just a FYI. I was walking by the U-Haul site this morning and I saw crews pumping the water out.

Ranajit

I asked the Police to Patrol

I asked the Police to Patrol Perth regarding people not stopping at stop signs, which is becoming a real problem, and I noticed enforcement within days. I hope that having the 11 Division closer will mean more patrol cars passing by and deterrent by default. I suspect that making a local street one way may be in our future as a way of discouraging the people looking for a cut though from Dupont and Bloor.

I also spoke with Staff

I also spoke with Staff Inspector Lennox at 11 Division and he promised that he would try to step up patrols on Perth by the two elementary schools. He says he has the same problem on the street where he lives, people just run the stop sign all the time.

a bit of history to go with your vinigar ...lol..

Hi Ranajit

dont be to worried about truck speed, they're too bulky and slow...its the little sport car speed demons that go like crazy down the street, there the ones going too fast to be able to stop on time....

and yes getting police to put up a speed trap is almost impossible , again we found that out decades ago when chris was our councilor,,, he wasnt very much help to us in getting safety measures accomplished such as speed bumps or police speed traps, but as i remember when he last canvased for re-election in our community before the ward boundaries changed, he did put forth quite a sob story about how the poor land developer of the vacant cochrane dunlop site needed to be allowed to rezone so he could build his apartments, apparently the poor fella was paying so much taxes while just letting his land go undeveloped...i guess we all have differing priorities in life... ours were childrens safety while politicians were more worried about the private business plight of land developers...so whats new..eh..

we had to fight for literally decades to get the speed bumps put in on sterling rd. after a childhood friend of mine was killed. It was a terrible accident where nobody was to blame , but it hit home with everyone in the community just how narrow and little room there is on our streets for kids to play...thus our parents and the older generation at the time fought to have speed bumps installed. again under that same councilor speed bumps were denied to residents on sterling rd...

It wasnt till years later i picked up the ball on that very same issue and took a slightly different approach to it, What started off as me posing a very simple inquiry to the new councilor Silva's office unfortunately ended up in me getting the local news paper involved and only then finally getting a promise from the councilor that the application for speed control bumps was being put in........well we are a reasonable bunch of old school working class people (maybe too reasonable at times) so we waited , and waited , and waited.....it wasnt till much much later when adam giambroni came into office that we inquired as to why the speed bumps were taking so long to be put in that we got the answer from adam ,,,he said that silva never did put the application in in the first place....so adams people picked up the ball and asked council to rush the application through,,,within months we finally got our measly little handful of speed bumps to help protect our kids on our narrow street....there is alot more to this story if anyone wants to know more just ask me when you see me in the community ,,,or ask some of the other people who have lived her for decades...

.Btw those auto body shops on bloor , ,our parents were told decades ago when the land was made vacant that the city had planed to build a park there,,,well we waited...and waited...and waited...and then we one day we saw a bunch of concrete block going up,,,,some park huh.. and thats why no matter how nicely they present themselves I will always take what a politician tells me with a grain of salt, and its a big part of the reason why at our perth/sterling community meetings we DO NOT break up into separate discussion groups,,,because i want everyone in the audience/ community to bare witness to what the politicians and city reps say,,,its so so easy for a politician to tell one person one thing in a small group and then lie and deny they said it to the rest of the community , but if the rest of the people all heard it too then the politician has to follow through on their word...

One of our very first meetings was a very dynamic one, many of the Portuguese speaking people were angry and very loud about their concerns,,the city rep turned to me and phil and said why dont we send everyone else home and just the three of us discuss the issues quietly and privately,,,I turned to him and said NO everyone stays, they all pay taxes no different from me or philip..they have a right to meet their city rep face to face and express their concerns even if it is loud ,if thats how they express themselves then so be it, we are a multi cultural city so that goes with the territory, we all have a different way of expressing ourselves. Just because some speak differently it dont mean they have less right to talk to "THEIR" elected representatives than those who speak english well,......besides I knew right away what the city rep was probably really trying to do, politicians dont like too many witnesses to their empty promises, so get rid of all the witnesses and they can say what they want to say to a small group and then deny it later...yes it sounds a bit paranoid but after decades of bad experiences in this community with the government reps id rather be safe than sorry when it comes to our community, so I cant afford to whole heartedly trust politicians like the old people in the community did years ago, we wont make that mistake again,,,their trust must be earned is how i look at it, we will work with politicians of all parties but we will do so cautiously .

again back to the trucks , i have had personal discussions with all the company owners on sterling years ago , and it was them who actually stepped forward and offered to tell their truckers to go south on sterling and stay off the north residential end . And this was offered to me by them years before the "no heavy truck signs" were put up....the president of Nestles her self even asked me why we never got speed bumps installed she said she drove down our street every day and thought they were needed, in fact nestles had to get a crosswalk put in because the speeding cars would drive so fast that their employees were afraid to cross the street to their parking lot ....so many of you might be surprised to know that the factory owners on sterling are not a bunch of evil capitalists ...lol...,,,they have always been willing to offer assistance,,,But in the end all the factory owners can do is tell their trucks to please not drive down the residential part of the street , what the actual contracted truck drivers end up doing is yet another story ....and not all the trucks come from the factories either, many just use our streets to get to bloor......

Im just saying the factorys like Colt packing , and nestles, and even malony electric when they were still here were actually volunteering to help before they were even asked to....and i might add , that there input to me, and there willingness to field questions from the press is what finally helped get our speed bumps put in...It was the politicians themselves that were the biggest hurdle in getting our hand full of speed bumps installed....It was not the factories fault that we could not get speed bumps as the politicians had miss-leaded us into thinking for so many years, it was the politicians themselves that were the reason or problem ...

I just wanna say one last thing Ranajit, dont be too abrasive with your tone towards falas we still are going to be entering into discussion and consultation with his people , so we want them to know that they are welcome and that we are reasonable and open minded ,,,,but still i like your spirit, and yes I guess in a way its important for falas to know you are very concerned about things happening on his property that may impact you and our neighbors...its a fine line diplomacy ...lol....keep up the spirit Ranajit...the more eyes and voices we can get on board the better a place to live this community will be for us and even for Falases future tenants too believe it or not....

sorry i have rambled on a bit ,,,but many of you new folks to the community arent really aware of the long history of political activism or how some things came to be in this community,,...

Yours Brett Rycombel
South Preth/Sterling Residents Association...

Stagnant Pool Of Water

I called Robert Falus (sp) directly at his office and he advised me they will be pumping the water out of the hole, didn't specify a time frame - typical developer. Its been over a week and the water is still there (I HOPE your reading Robert).

Im waiting for this week to blow by, see if it happens soon. If not, then it's The Fixer to the rescue and believe me it works. They will advise the city. The City will come in - drop pellets - and the property owner/managers will foot the bill for their service. Win Win, at least for the City and community.

The Fixer is effective. In the past I've gotten them to replace the "Do Not Block Intersection" sign on Bloor and post a "no trucks" sign on South Perth (but the cops turn a blind eye to it). I only hope one of these days we dont have a casualty on our hands, especially kids playing in the area.

I'll advise if I see any progress.

Thanks,
Ranajit

Pools of water

Ranajit,

Did you get any response back from the city and/or the Fixer about this?

Maybe we need to throw some goldfish in there. :)