Review of powerful appeals body aims to give more consideration to local planning process.

October 5, 2016

Jennifer Pagliaro

The Toronto Star

Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, whose department oversees the Ontario Municipal Board, said there is little agreement on how best to reform the land use planning process in the province but that it should centre on “healthy, sustainable and safe” communities. (ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)

The province is proposing putting new limits on the controversial and powerful appeals body that oversees land use in Ontario.

After launching a review of the Ontario Municipal Board earlier this summer, Minister of Municipal Affairs Bill Mauro said Wednesday the review will address criticism that the board often ignores planning decisions made at the local level.

“We are going to try as best we’re able through the proposed changes that we’re putting forward to show more deference for local, municipal decision-making,” Mauro said at a news conference at Queen’s Park.

TTC boss warns $3.2-billion budget and timetable are in danger as city works to finalize route.

October 5, 2016

Ben Spurr

The Toronto Star

TTC head Andy Byford waits for the subway to slow down at the Bloor-Yonge Station earlier this year. (NAKITA KRUCKER / TORONTO STAR)

The head of the TTC is warning that the Scarborough subway project that council voted for less than three months ago is already at risk for delays and cost increases.

In an exclusive interview with the Star, Andy Byford said it’s still possible to complete the one-stop extension by 2025 and at a cost of $3.2 billion, “but we’re flagging it’s a red, as in danger.”

A-frame signs advertising sales offices are a hazard, says Coun. Josh Matlow.

Councillor Josh Matlow is sick of developers' A-frame signs, so he's taken to piling them up at Toronto's garbage bins.

They are just one of the downsides to growing the city up, but Councillor Josh Matlow is so fed up with those A-frame sidewalk signs advertising condos, he folds them up and stacks them beside the nearest garbage bin.

“I find it cathartic,” said Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s), who posts pictures on social media showing the signs he has collected.

Renters undergo a slew of background checks before they move into an apartment. Who's checking out the landlords?

September 22, 2016

Yale Fox (Guest Contributor)

Torontoist

Photo by ben marans from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Toronto has a food scene like no other. In a city where 51 per cent of the population hails from somewhere else, a cultural synthesis of flavours works to offer the best of everything. Hailed by no less than Vogue magazine as a paragon of cool, it wasn’t always this way. Back in 2000, an investigative series focused public attention on the truly dirty underbelly of Toronto’s (then nascent) foodie revolution: rodent and cockroach infestations, filthy food preparation surfaces, and unsafe food storage and handling. Compliance with health and safety regulations was as low as 42 per cent, and enforcement was opaque. A chronic offender faced almost no penalties: fines were rare, closures even rarer. And the public was kept in the dark.

Hydro One says the trees, which served as a sound barrier against nearby train tracks, were cut by mistake

September 10, 2016

CBC News

Coun. Josh Matlow says the residents he represents are angry Hydro One cut down mature trees that served as a natural sound barrier after promising not to at a community meeting. (CBC)

Roberston Davies Park was a quiet midtown green space — until Hydro One cut down the natural sound barrier provided by 29 maple trees that lined the nearby train tracks.

Summerhill-area residents say they were blindsided by the clear-cutting, and Hydro One says it was taken aback, too.

The power company had crews there last week to prune the trees away from power lines, but says workers chopped the trees down without permission.

They've issued an apology, but local councillor Josh Matlow isn't satisfied, and told CBC News the community isn't either. Matlow said the utility said it would need to do some pruning to protect power lines at a public meeting in past years, "but they did promise us that they did not have to, nor would they, clear-cut all these trees."

"This doesn't just affect our community; this affects the entire city and the province," Matlow said.

September 26, 2016

Momin Ahmad

Urban Toronto

As Toronto continues to grow, technology and more specifically the role of technology in urban growth has become a fixture of much academic and political discourse. NXT City, a non-profit organisation that helps to connect young urban leaders with city-builders and facilitates the shaping of Toronto's public places, focused on this discourse in their latest quarterly NXT City Talks event held on September 22, 2016.

Titled 'Smart Spaces: Will Tech Disrupt Public Space?' the panel discussion focused on the roles that technology can play in public programming for urban spaces as well as how newly emerging services like public Wifi, wayfinding apps and developments in mapping affect the public realm. The panel consisted of Ward 22 City Councillor Josh Matlow, Co-Founder of Civic Tech TO Dorothy Eng, Co-Founder of ProjexityMarisa Bernstein, and Co-Founder & Global Advisor of YouthfulCities Sonja Miokovic.

NXT City Co-Founder Mackenzie Keast delivering opening remarks, image by Craig White.

Community groups have noticed the banks of the Vale of Avoca by Rosedale and Summerhill are deteriorating.

September 13, 2016

May Warren

Metro

John Bossons, a member of the Summerhill Residents’ Association poses next to a damaged staircase in the ravine next to his home. Bossons and his neighbours say the sought after green space is being damaged by flooding.

Concerned Summerhill and Rosedale residents are ringing the ravine alarm bell.

Users of the Vale of Avoca ravine near Yonge Street and St. Clair say the sought after green space is being ruined by flooding and are calling on the city to take action.

John Bossons, a member of the Summerhill Residents' Association said the narrow strip of nature is under threat from increased storm water draining into Yellow Creek and eroding its banks.

“Storm water surges have hugely increased thanks to global warming,” he said, noting flooding has already washed out walking paths, one of the ravine’s two bridges, and a pedestrian staircase.

Human error blamed for freight train derailment in heart of the city after a Canadian Pacific Railway train collided with another on Sunday morning.

Aug 21, 2016

Ebyan Abdigir

The Toronto Star

A CP Railway freight train derailed near Bathurst and Dupont Sts., early Sunday after two trains collided, causing a diesel fuel spill. CP blames human error for the collision. (ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE / TORONTO STAR)

Human error is being blamed for a freight train derailment in the heart of Toronto Sunday morning that had crews scrambling to contain a diesel fuel leak.

The derailment happened after a train struck the tail of another train at about 5:20 a.m. near Dupont and Bathurst Sts., Canadian Pacific Railway spokesperson Martin Cej told the Star.

No one was injured in the collision and subsequent derailment and the diesel fuel leak, which Toronto police said had not been a threat to public safety, was quickly contained.

Cej said that one car was carrying batteries and aerosols, which are classified as “dangerous goods” under Canadian regulation, but they did not leak, he confirmed.

City councillor Josh Matlow raised new concerns Sunday about freight trains running through densely populated neighbourhoods.

Force of the Friday night blast pushed a couch out of the storefront window

Aug 20, 2016
CBC News

A Toronto police officer talks to Office of the Fire Marshal investigators inside Tweeder Medicinal after an explosion at the marijuana dispensary injured a man on Friday. (Chris Glover/CBC)

Toronto police say a man burned in an explosion at a midtown Toronto marijuana dispensary was among those charged in a large-scale raid of pot shops in May.

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash said Saturday that a 29-year-old man injured in the blast had been charged with two drug-related offences in the spring. He faces a count of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of property obtained by crime.

City says proposed legislation creates an impossible choice for the city - asking councillors to choose between affordable units and community infrastructure.

Aug 18, 2016

Torstar News Service

Without inclusionary zoning powers, the city has had to find other ways to get affordable housing built. In one case, the city is moving ahead in partnership with Dominus Capital Corporation to build 80 affordable rental units on surplus city land in CityPlace next to the rail corridor.

The city has put the province on notice that proposed legislation to build affordable housing will leave communities without desperately needed amenities such as community centres, park improvements and child care spaces.

While Toronto city council has long pushed for provincial rules that would force developers to create affordable units, a proposal from the province to do just that would exempt developers from paying for other community benefits.

Councillors and city staff say the province is asking them to make an impossible choice — build badly needed affordable housing or secure every day amenities that make communities livable and are increasingly necessary as the population balloons.