Gord Perks City Councillor, Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park

Items of Interest

Following is a link to a recent article Keith Stewart posted on spacing.ca that ….how Toronto’s greening strategy can benefit the environment while building a stronger social fabric. Thought some of you might be interested.

http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/09/01/imagining-the-green-city/

3Rs working Group Recruitment Recruitment is underway to create a replacement list of members to fill vacancies as they arise in the 3Rs Working Group. Information on the recruitment is attached. Please feel free to circulate in your constituency newsletters or Email Alerts. 3Rs working Group Recruitment FLYER

Sorauren Park: History in the Making

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of speaking at an event organized by the Roncesvalles Village Historical Society. The event was a celebration of Sorauren Park; from farm, to industrial site, to TTC barns, and finally to a wonderful community resource in 1995.

The following link is to a video taken at the event, provided by the Historical Society

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXE418eYjb8.

If you would like to become involved in this community organization, please contact the Roncesvalles MacDonnell Residents Association at info@rmra-to.org.

GREAT NEW CITY SERVICE: 311311 is the largest, most exciting customer service improvement undertaken by the City of Toronto since amalgamation. 311 improves accessibility to non-emergency City services and information, and will increase the City’s effectiveness in responding to public inquiries.One easy number provides residents and businesses with access to City services, programs and information 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A customer service representative will answer calls to 311 and resolve the majority of enquiries within that one call. Access to 311 customer service is provided in more than 180 languages via telephone interpretation service; TTY service for the hearing impaired is also provided. Callers from outside of the city can reach 311 by dialing 416-392-CITY (2489).Customer service staff who provided support to Transportation Services, Toronto Water and Solid Waste divisions, or who worked in Access Toronto, have moved into 311 Toronto as customer service representatives (CSRs). The full staff complement of 122 FTEs came from within existing City divisions and budgets.311 Toronto uses state-of-the-art technology to track requests for service and is the largest in North America to launch with end-to-end service integration. What this means is that many of the City’s different work order systems will effectively work together to bring improved service delivery to the residents and businesses in Toronto. Another key component of the 311 system is the City’s knowledge base. As of launch day, the knowledge base contains more than 15,000 answers to 13,800 questions. Where applicable, callers making a service request will be given a tracking number that they can use to track the progress of their request through to completion. The list of track-able services will continue to grow as the 311 operation expands.

ALL ABOARD THE…

HUMAN

TRAIN!

Join concerned citizens from acrossToronto this Saturday as we march through communities along the tracks to send a message to Premier McGuinty that he must direct Metrolinx to use only clean, quiet electric trains for any expansion of rail traffic along the Georgetown corridor.

This is your opportunity to register your opposition to the province’s plan to run over 450 diesel trains through west Toronto neighbourhoods. Minister of the Environment, John Gerretsen, has until October 4^thto accept or reject Metrolinx’

Environmental Assessment. Come out this Saturday to add your voice to the growing chorus demanding modern transit and clean air in our communities.

ROUTE:

The Human Train will get rolling in Weston at 8:30 am with Whistle Stops in a number of communities along the way. See the Human Train flyer at http://www.cleantrain.ca/downloads.php for times and locations of local stops.

At 1:00 pm, the Human Train arrives in Sorauren Park for the Main Rally of the day!

At 2:30, the Human Train will leave Sorauren Park for a parade down Lansdowne to Queen and west along Queen to Trinity Bellwoods.

No matter where you join the Human Train or how far you walk, we urge everyone from every neighbourhood to join us at SORAUREN PARK at 1:00 pm for the main event.

We will all gather together in the largest park beside the railway tracks to demonstrate the strength of public opposition to running diesel trains through heavily populated areas, and strong support for clean, quiet, modern electric trains.

This is an event for all ages, with music, placard painting, arts & crafts, street theatre, and a roster of passionate speakers including:Toronto‘s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown, MPP Cheri Di Novo, TDSB Trustee Irene Atkinson, and Toronto Councillor Gord Perks.

Join musicians,Oh Susanna and Sho, Mo and the Monkey Bunch on stage at Sorauren Park, and then march with Gary Diggins and the GTA drummers as the Human Train leaves Sorauren Park for a parade through Queen West.

Start close to home and walk as much of the route as you can, but wherever you live, join everyone for the main event at Sorauren Park at 1:00 pm.

Contact info@cleantrain.ca if youd like to walk the entire route from Weston to Queen West. Also need volunteers to be part of some street theatre – the Metrolinx White Elephant Train.

Bring your family, friends and neighbours! Make a banner, bring noisemakers (musical instruments, hand-made drums, whistles) and wear something Clean Train blue.

SEE YOU ON SATURDAY RAIN

OR SHINE !

On Thursday September 17^th at 7pm, the final meeting of the Green Feasibility Study will be presented.

Through consultation with the Community Design Team (community members, city staff) and a series of public meetings, a preferred design scenario was developed.

The purpose of this study is to assess the technical, environmental and estimated cost to develop an innovative environmental community centre project in Sorauren Park. The goal being to provide a preliminary design demonstrating how a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified community centre embodying the goals of the City of Toronto Green Development Standards may be realized on the site.

The study also focused on the integration of the Community Centre building site with the existing park.

Please join me on Thursday September 17^th at 7pm to see this feasibility study.

Wabash-Sorauren Green Feasibility Study Public consultation flyer

Please be advised that staff will be hosting a public meeting to get advice on the detailed design elements of the Roncesvalles Reconstruction project. Attached are the public notices, in English and Polish that are or have been delivered to folks in the neighbourhood. Please don’t hesitate to contact my assistant Meri , mnewton@toronto.ca should you have any questions. Please circulate this notice to everyone who may not have access to a computer or you feel would be interested in attending the meeting. Roncesvalles Community Consultation Flyer -POLISH

Roncesvalles Community Consultation Notice -ENGLISH

the Proposed Car Wash @ 2803 Dundas Street West (at the old McBride site)

Indian Road Crescent Public School

285 Indian Road Crescent (at Humberside)

Should you have any questions, please contact Meri Newton at 416-338-5178, by email at

mnewton@toronto.ca

HOSTED BY THE WEST BEND COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

E-mail: info@thewestbend.ca Website: www.thewestbend.com

• Hear from the developer and the architect

• Talk with City Planner Chris Dunn about this proposal

• Share your thoughts on this development.

Please see attached flyer.

West Bend residents meeting: Old McBride site proposed car wash discussion

Over the last few years, I have been working to upgrade Allan Lamport Stadium for community use through the installation of Field Turf in 2007 and a field cover in 2008. I now have great enws to share. The addition of a winter bubble will now allow Lamport to be a 365-day operation which is a very positive direction for not only Parkdale – High Park residents but for the City. At its meeting on Friday September 11^th, The Board of Governors of Exhibition Place approved a proposal that would see Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. investing $5.5 million in public soccer facilities across the City. The proposal included the following investments:· $3.5 million to replace the Field Turf at BMO Field with a natural grass field· $2.0 million investment in community sports facilities which includes an estimated $1.2 million to upgrade Allan Lamport Stadium with the winter bubble and a $0.8 million investment in the playing field at Lakeshore Collegiate Institute or some other community facility in Ward 6 (Etobicoke-Lakeshore) to covert the field to Field Turf Both The Ontario Soccer Association and The Canadian Soccer Association have applauded the plans to upgrade Lamport Stadium and provide natural grass at BMO Field. As stated in their letters of support, the soccer community will be better served because the soccer facility inventory in Toronto will increase. In fact, the upgrades to these three facilities will result in over 2,500 more hours available for community sport use.

Support your local shops and businesses. Put your money where your house is!

Sewer mains, water mains, streetcar tracks, sidewalks—they’re all being rebuilt. You can get updates on the construction by visiting roncesvallesvillage.ca or www.twitter.com/roncesvillage

It’s a chance to build community at the same time. Support your local shopkeepers—buy locally! After the digging, dust and detours, we’ll make a great street event better!

Construction doesn’t stop things from happening on our street: the contractors are getting off Roncesvalles, paving and cleaning up, for the weekend of September 19 and 20 to make way for the 2009 Roncesvalles Polish Festival, our great annual two-day party. The Roncesvalles Polish Festival has grown to become North America‘s biggest celebration of Polish culture in Toronto‘s best neighbourhood! For more information on the festival, please visit www.polishfestival.ca.

Construction doesn’t stop business from coming to Roncesvalles either. Over the past few months we’ve had a number of new businesses come to our neighbourhood. Please welcome Salon 96 (96 Roncesvalles, a very stylish hair salon), Simona (421 Roncesvalles, a new fashion store on Roncesvalles), The Little Hair Shop (477 Roncesvalles, a terrific little hair boutique), Mari Cla Ro (457 Roncesvalles, manufacturers and retailers of purses, handbags, laptop bags, and more, all made from recycled materials), Phila Optical (359 Roncesvalles), NW Styles (402 Roncesvalles inside Q8 Nails) and Rostecki Pharmacy (313 Roncesvalles), Rainbow Songs (277 Roncesvalles, specializing in early childhood music education and fun) and Olfer House of Beauty (51 Roncesvalles, hair salon and spa), all of whom have opened their doors in the past few months.

If construction doesn’t stop business from coming to Roncesvalles, it shouldn’t stop you from coming to Roncesvalles either! There are traffic restrictions—Roncesvalles has one lane of northbound traffic, and parking is limited—but we’re all open for business, so please continue to support your favourite shops through this challenging but exciting time.