Post City
August 22nd, 2014
Angela Hennessey
Ping-pong tables are hitting parks all over the city — and all you need is a racket (and a ball).
August 22nd, 2014
The Toronto Star
May Warren
Trying to get from one place to another in Toronto can sometimes feel like a nightmare.
But councillor Josh Matlow (Open Josh Matlow’s policard) says the key to easing some of the city’s epic congestion, for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike is to make it harder for developers to take over public space for their construction.
July 2014
Neil Etienne
City Post
A controversial series of condominium proposals for Holly Street and Soudan Avenue will have a difficult time gaining Toronto City Council approval unless major changes are made.
In what Coun. Josh Matlow calls, “simply the worst infill development I have seen in four years,” Compten Management Inc. is proposing to place five-storey condo additions on top of two 14-storey apartment buildings at 33 Holly St. and 44 Dunfield Ave.
The condo proposal includes amenities, such as a pool, that the apartment residents would not have access to, and it’s this mix-and-match concept, along with the intensification of the neighbourhood, that has Matlow and local residents’ associations opposing the plans.
July 22, 2014
Mark Byrnes
CityLab at The Atlantic
A huge flashing sign from a shuttered record store in Toronto gets a new home after a lengthy preservation battle.
A 2009 photo of Sam the Record Man's flagship store just before the building was demolished and the signs were put in storage. (Mark Byrnes)
Surrounded by buildings as tall as they are often uninteresting, few places in downtown Toronto attracted as much attention as the stand-alone record store that once stood at the corner of Yonge and Gould Street.
Since selling its final CD in 2007, Torontonians have been waiting to find out what would happen to the flashing neon discs that used to lure them into Sam the Record Man's flagship store for nearly 40 years. The property's new owners initially agreed to incorporate the storefront into their construction plans. After reneging on that promise, city officials were able to finally secure the storefront's fate earlier this month—on top of a mid-rise tower one block away.
A nationwide chain, Sam's was ubiquitous across Canada while it lasted. Founded by Sam Sniderman (who helped create the Junos, Canada's music awards), the company started with a single location in Toronto in 1937 before eventually growing to more than 100 stores across Canada by the 1990s.
July 11th, 2014
Metro News
Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug Ford attempted Friday to trash the Eglinton Connects streetscape plan as a “war on the car,” despite a move to ease the impact of the remodel on motorists.
The brothers’ arguments failed to gain traction with council, which voted 26-7 for the plan.
It calls for wider sidewalks, more trees, bike lanes and other amenities, while shrinking through traffic to one lane in each direction between Mount Pleasant and Avenue Rds.
The makeover would take place as the $5 billion Eglinton Crosstown LRT line, now under construction, opens in 2020. The line will run for 19 kilometres in total with 11 kilometres underground.
Council was told the LRT eliminates the need for nine bus routes that now travel on Eglinton to the Yonge subway, opening up more space on the street for cars while encouraging more people to use transit.
July 10th, 2014
Shawn Star
Town Crier
A midtown mutiny might be in the works as eight shareholders of the Glebe Manor Lawn Bowling Club look to oust the club’s board in an attempt to stop the property from being sold to a developer.
The group, which includes three past presidents and a former board member of the 91-year-old Eglinton Avenue East and Mt. Pleasant Road area club, say they are prepared to go to court after president Phil Foubert failed to call a shareholders meeting by the July 8 deadline demanded in a letter sent on July 2.
Past president and current shareholder Wally Raynor, one of eight signatories on the letter to Foubert, said a lawyer retained by community members to fight a suspected but unverified sale of the club property to developer Michael Volpentesta will likely be seeking “to have an injunction placed on the sale of the property.”
July 4th, 2014
Oliver Moore
Globe and Mail
When Toronto dug its first subway, the long lines of streetcars on Yonge were proof of a ready-made ridership.
More recently, though, subway boosters have needed to weigh potential demand when making the case for the expensive form of transit. Which is why the city planning department’s new and higher Scarborough ridership projection last year was so pivotal, and so controversial.
An old ridership projection pegged peak one-direction usage at 9,500 passengers per hour, barely enough to justify a subway extension. The new one – which appeared as the transit debates rose to their crescendo – boosted peak ridership to 14,000, almost beyond the capacity of light rail.
In a stroke, the case for a subway was much stronger.
Amid political squabbles, good projections can help cut through the debate and offer the closest thing to an impartial assessment of a subway line’s worth. But if they’re wrong, they can help lumber a city with an expensive white elephant such as the under-used Sheppard subway.
July 3rd, 2014
Paul Moloney
Toronto Star
Toronto city council is being asked to prevent Mayor Rob Ford or any other elected official from barring some media outlets from city hall news conferences.
A motion from Councillor Paula Fletcher urges her colleagues to take a stand at next week’s council meeting against adopting exclusionary tactics while using taxpayer-funded facilities.
The city supplies both the venue and support staff, Fletcher said Thursday.
“This has got to do with the fact that this is public property,” she said. “City facilities and city staff should not be used to aid and abet somebody who says not everybody is welcome.”
“If you wish to go to your own property, you can invite whoever you like.”
June 26th, 2014
Justin Skinner
Inside Toronto
The Glebe Manor Lawn Bowling Club’s sale – or near-sale – of its Davisville lands to a developer has led to consternation from councillor Josh Matlow and residents in the area.
The owner of the green space on Manor Road East has been negotiating a deal with developer Michael Volpentesta, who aims to build five townhomes on the site.
That would put an end to the 90-plus-year-old patch of greenery in the Davisville neighbourhood, where green space is at a premium.
“We’ve been trying to sit down and meet with the president of the (lawn bowling) club since last March, but he hasn’t sat down with us,” Matlow said. “There’s already a possible deal between the club and the developer, but nobody in the community wants that.”
Matlow has secured council’s support to dip into the city’s parks acquisition fund in hopes of buying the property, either from the club or from Volpentesta. It’s believed the developer currently owns the land, though Matlow could not confirm the property’s sale had been finalized and, if it had, how much Volpentesta paid for the land.
June 25th, 2014
Jennifer Pagliaro
Toronto Star
Everyone should get to smell the roses in a Yorkville Ave. garden next to the Four Seasons hotel as the city looks to define and advertise open spaces on private property.
That goes for the misting fountain too.
In July, city council will decide whether new condo and commercial developments that incorporate green space, courtyards and other open spaces into their plans should be required to post signs stating the public is welcome.
On Wednesday, the planning committee unanimously approved recommendations for city council to adopt a new set of design guidelines for what are called privately owned publicly accessible spaces (POPS), including mandatory signage.
“Many members of the public have POPS in their neighbourhood yet they’re completely unaware that those spaces are welcome to them,” said Councillor Josh Matlow, who first raised the issue of signage at council in 2012. “I think residents will be very excited once they see the signs literally popping up in their neighbourhoods.”
