April 1, 2015
City Centre Mirror
Justin Skinner

March 26, 2015

York Guardian

David Nickle

There are no plans to do anything with the two-storey brick building housing the Starbucks Coffee shop at the corner of Yonge Street and Davisville Avenue. But Josh Matlow isn’t taking any chances.

The councillor for St. Paul’s will be pushing to have the structure officially designated a heritage property. It sounds like there’s good reason. The building once housed a general store and post office owned by one John Davis ­— the same Davis that gave the name to the tiny, nearly-forgotten community of Davisville. The second floor lounge of the coffee shop was once home to the first town meeting of Davisville. Up the road, the Davis’ also owned a pottery business.

Sipping coffee on one of the old leather couches in the old town hall, Matlow calls the building “the heart of the area.”

“It’s not just because we get our coffee here,” says Matlow. “Its architecture defines the community — it is iconic. If it were to become a glass and steel condo, the heart of the community would be ripped out. It wouldn’t look like Davisville anymore.”

Mar 24, 2015

Inside Toronto

Justin Skinner

The Yonge and Eglinton area is facing mounting development pressures, but councillor Josh Matlow, the City of Toronto and a variety of local stakeholders are looking to get a leg up on any new proposals.

On Monday, March 23, residents crammed into a meeting room at Northern District Library to get a look at the public realm elements of the ongoing Midtown in Focus process, which will lead to amendments to a Secondary Plan that will shape development in the Yonge and Eglinton area.

City of Toronto planners Paul Farish and Helene Iardas highlighted “five place-making moves” that would redefine the Midtown Public Realm Character Area. Those moves included 12-metre setbacks from the street for new developments along Eglinton Avenue East, landscaping along Eglinton Avenue West, public squares at several intersections, a green promenade, traffic calming on Redpath Avenue and more.

February 13, 2015
City Centre Mirror
Justin Skinner

City offered competitive bid with money secured from development fees from other nearby sites

Faced with a dwindling congregation and a surplus of space, Manor Road United Church has decided to put the Davisville Village community first.

A couple of years ago, the church decided to sever its land and sell a portion off to help renovate its sanctuary space. Rather than automatically looking for developers to buy it up, the church is working on a deal with the City of Toronto that would see the land converted into green space.

“We could have sold the land to developers for housing for seniors, condos or townhouses,” said Manor Road United Church Reverend Debra Schneider. “Councillor (Josh) Matlow had a meeting regarding the (Manor Road) Lawn Bowling Club and we had a couple of members there. They became aware councillor Matlow had funds available for park land and we started discussions from there.”

The church, at Manor Road East and Forman Avenue, will use the money to revamp its 90-year-old sanctuary space. The funds from the city will help make the space accessible and will allow for the installation of glass partitions to help convert it into a mixed-use space that can be rented out.

February 10, 2015
The Globe and Mail
Oliver Moore

An attempt to get more information about the controversial subway proposal for Scarborough was quickly squelched at Toronto city council Tuesday.

Councillor Josh Matlow ‎had put forward a series of "administrative inquiries" asking about costs, ridership projections and other key issues. Some of the answers he got from staff fell short, he argued, and he sought to have the questions referred for further debate.