If March’s fierce transit debate had you feeling “perced to the roote”, April’s City Council meeting agenda will provide a sweet shower of refreshing new items.
The Big Ticket
- TCHC needs Council’s approval to shut down and demolish 134 townhouse units in North York. 108 families must be rehoused. This is just a fraction of the hundreds of units TCHC is closing every year because they are too dilapidated to live in and too deteriorated to be repaired. While this has been anticipated for years, Council has preferred to focus on keeping property taxes low and committing to billions in unnecessarily costly transportation infrastructure.
The Mayor’s office is bound to point to items like refurbishing 389 Church St., formerly planned to be the Red Door Shelter’s new home, as evidence that they’re tackling the problem. But with the social housing waitlist currently at 177,502 people total, they’re not even keeping up.
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This report on refugees and undocumented Torontonians brings up many issues. Two important areas: refugee claimants in the overcrowded shelter system, and the continued lack of clarity regarding the police’s role in a Sanctuary City.
This Is Important But I Can’t Bring Myself To Write About It Because No Governments Will Actually Fund This, Things Will Never Get Better, and We Should All Go Live In the Woods
Shelter and Housing
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Blah blah, criminalization of poverty, impoverishing criminals, whatever.
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The City is piloting a new model for making NIMBYs okay with shelters, including not calling them “shelters”.
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Remember when Council voted to cut 10 shelter jobs in the budget to meet an arbitrary 2.6 per cent target? That was a bad idea.
Accountability
This month there’s two Integrity Commissioner reports on councillor conduct!
- The Integrity Commissioner finds that Josh Matlow broke the Code of Conduct by implying a high-ranking bureaucrat lied to Council during a transit debate—a serious accusation. On request, Matlow later apologized publicly, so no penalty is recommended.
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Should Jon Burnside and John Campbell have known that “donations” and electronic billboards don’t mix? OK, let’s back up a bit. A sign company wanted to install a fancy new billboard outside a Leaside arena. In exchange, they offered to pay the arena board more rent, and the arena board was cool with it. However, the City’s sign bylaw didn’t allow it, so the sign company had to apply for a permit. Burnside (who is the local councillor and on the arena board) and Campbell (on the Planning and Growth Management Committee) helped get the sign company’s application approved.
Did the offer of extra rent count as an improper “donation”, and did the councillors and arena board chair know it could have been improper? The Integrity Commissioner gives everyone a pass this time.
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“Most contracts were consistently dominated by a small group of contractors over the past five years”: the Auditor General sounds the alarm on possible bid rigging.
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In the wake of a 2015 fight between TTC special constables and passengers, the Ombudsman has released a lengthy report about Transit Enforcement Unit oversight. The TTC has already carried out some of the recommended changes, and has agreed to implement the rest as well.
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I’m not opposed to more marathons in Toronto, but I do think Mary Fragedakis should have credited AP writer Bill Kole for the text of her motion. Yes, this is petty. No, I don’t care.
Development and Urban Planning
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Three new affordable housing developments are proposed in downtown and West End wards.
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There are two different motions calling for a survey of all Toronto’s potential heritage buildings—one from David Shiner and the Mayor, one from Joe Mihevc and Kristyn Wong-Tam.
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The revised proposal for the massive Mirvish Village development is set for approval from City Council.
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The Beaches’ strict zoning bylaw, over 30 years old, is desperately in need of an upgrade. Proposed amendments regarding restaurant size, new patios, and parking attempt to balance residents’ concerns about noise with the strip’s need for economic growth.
Environment
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Does the Licensing and Standards Committee know that e-cigarettes aren’t, like…disposable? Are discarded vape juice cartridges littering the gutters outside bars now? I want to know.
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This is how we’re funding park upgrades now, I guess.
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Urban Forestry needs Council’s go-ahead to tackle a looming gypsy moth infestation.
Well-Intentioned But Completely Non-Binding Asks of Other Governments
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Toronto stands to lose from New York State governor Andrew Cuomo’s “buy American” proposal.
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This is such a Michelle Holland motion, but it’s actually from Mary Fragedakis: asking Canadian telecoms to enable FM chips in smartphones. Anecdotally, my mid-range Moto X Play has FM radio enabled. I mostly use it for Metro Morning, and when I run out of skips on Spotify.
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Joe Mihevc is worried the Liberals will try to privatize airports.
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The City has thoughts about the Province’s basic income pilot.
Things of the Month
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Section 37 Benefit of the Month: a hefty $4.2 million from this Yorkville development.
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Tree Removal Permit of the Month: 15 Sapling Court. I just liked the irony.
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Heritage Property of the Month: Annex fixture 70 Lowther Ave.
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Best worst establishment name in a routine liquor license application objection: Loch and Quay.
Miscellaneous
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A parking pad application? In my Toronto and East York?
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Related: Sarah Doucette and Frances Nunziata want advance warning of items like parking pad applications and fence exemptions so councillors can get community feedback before Community Council meetings.
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Toronto the Good cautiously ponders permitting holiday shopping.
Number of Toronto parking tickets issued ticked up in 2016, but still waaaay down from a few years ago. pic.twitter.com/NMTriQdrsq
— Matt Elliott (@GraphicMatt) March 27, 2017
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The latest instalment in a long-running but extremely low-stakes mystery: the case of the weirdly fluctuating parking ticket data.
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Speaking of data…this year the City is moving forward on the Open Data Master Plan, an overarching strategy for making its data available to the public—something that Toronto has been slacking on.
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Council may vote to recognize April 28th as the Day of Mourning for Italian Fallen Workers. The 1960 Hogg’s Hollow disaster, where five Italian construction workers were killed in a fire in a tunnel under the Don, was just one notorious example of the exploitation and unsafe working conditions many Italian immigrants in the trades endured to build a better life.
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Just when you thought it was safe to import shark fins…
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Torontonians who can’t leave the house due to medical reasons may be able to vote from home in next year’s municipal election.
Corrections? Additions? Suggestions? Thoughts about vape litter? Let me know in the comments. Seriously, I don’t even vape…I don’t know…