Back to School: Sept. 8 Toronto & East York Community Council

Well, we’ve had a lovely summer full of lakeside rambles and spider photography, but it’s time to head back to City Hall as regular committee meetings start up again. Here’s a quick¹ skim over Tuesday’s TEYCC agenda:

By the Numbers

• 21 crimes reported at Muzik nightclub in the last 3 years

• 14 new members on the Toronto & East York Community Preservation Panel

• 13 boulevard café permits slapped down

• 10 units of affordable housing secured as a Section 37 benefit (307 Sherbourne St.)

• 9 Applications for Fence Exemptions

• 8 Front Yard Parking Appeals

• 5 Applications to Remove a Private Tree

Street Names

Some of the people that streets and lanes are getting named after:

• Lillian Greene, a veteran activist who passed away in 2007. Here’s a bit from a retrospective on Voice of Women, the pacifist women’s organization she was a part of:

This Voice of Women activity was one of the most consistent projects for aid to the Vietnamese people. For ten years—1966-1975—it involved hundreds of concerned men and women, not only in Eastern Canada but in the United States, where it was against the law “to aid and abet the enemy.”
The Project was a full-time after-hours voluntary job. My husband and three daughters were completely supportive and pitched in with the work. Every single item of the final total of 30,000 knitted garments and cot blankets (in dark colours) for the children of Vietnam and Laos eventually came through the dining room headquarters in my home. Every participant was thanked either personally or by letter. Many joined Voice of Women and were active. Every item was received, repacked and expressed to the Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians in Vancouver. B.C.. from where shipments were made with other medical aid, etc., to Vietnam by ships. Voice of Women involvement enriched my life to this very day. [—Lillian Greene, on the Vietnam Knitting Project]

Some of us doubted at first the validity of expending so much time and effort on what was essentially an “aid” project, when political action and lobbying seemed more direct. But time and time again women would give variations of “I took my knitting to school/church/meeting/laundromat, etc., and when I was asked why I was knitting baby clothes in dark green or brown or blue. I would say that in Vietnam babies have to live mainly underground—sometimes they are floating in baskets and bowls in flooded trenches—and if, at any time, light coloured clothing could be seen they would be bombed by American planes. Women were horrified, shocked and wanted to know more and how they too could help.” Thus many new VOWs began their work for peace.

• Andrew Hazlett, a councillor and reeve of Forest Hill during the 20s and 30s, “the man who put the ‘Forest’ back in Forest Hill”.

• Alan Hutchison, a decorated RCAF vet, WWII POW, and also an obstetrician who, as the application adorably notes, delivered many residents of his neighbourhood, the Beaches.

Monthly Honours

• NIMBY Shit Masquerading As Concerns for Heritage Property of the Month: Ossington between Queen and Dundas.

• Transit Project of the Month: An East Bayfront LRT station.

• Boulevard Café Permit Denial of the Month: The resurrected Annex fixture Dooney’s, now located near Christie Pits.

• Private Tree of the Month: This slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) in the Beaches, which a neighbour complains is lifting up the driveway and walkway. Slippery elm is named after its inner bark, which was once used by baseball pitchers to throw spitballs, and, in pre-R. v. Morgentaler days, by desperate women to induce abortion. One might justifiably look askance at a tree with such a sketchy history. However, City staff say this one is perfectly okay and there is no reason to remove it.

Miscellaneous

• Um, I hate to be a buzzkill, but has anyone else noticed that the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies’ top-secret event locations are publicly available in the regular Endorsement of Events for Liquor Licensing Purposes?