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

The City of Toronto has initiated a Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (Schedule “C”) to determine possible locations for the construction of a pedestrian/cyclist link through the CN/CP railway corridor between Atlantic Avenue and Strachan Avenue, along with a workplan for achieving this pedestrian/cyclist link. A pedestrian/cyclist link would result an enhanced pedestrian and cyclist environment, allowing for improved access between the communities north and south of the CN/CP railway tracks.

The study area is bounded by Queen Street West to the north, CN railway corridor to the south, Strachan Avenue to the east and Atlantic Avenue to the west.

The study team is planning the first Public Open House (see attached notice) for Tuesday, March 9, 2010 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Liberty Market Building, 171 East Liberty Street, Tenant’s Lounge, 2nd Floor. The entrance is off East Liberty Street beside the Bank of Montreal. Members of the public will be invited to drop in to view information displays, provide their comments and speak one on one with project staff.

king-liberty-flyer-final-feb-19-2010.pdf

Join me and Mayor Miller to celebrate CTC’s 1st Anniversary.

The opportunity to make electric trains a reality in the Georgetown South Corridor is still very much alive.

Come celebrate the first anniversary of the Clean Train Coalition and find out how you can help bend the rails to electrify the Georgetown Corridor!

When: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 7 pm

Where: Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Music by Kitgut Stringband, Rob Joy, Michael Johnston & The Gentlemen Collars

Remarks by Mayor David Miller at 8 pm

Join me and Mayor Miller to celebrate CTC’s 1st Anniversary.

The opportunity to make electric trains a reality in the Georgetown South Corridor is still very much alive.

Come celebrate the first anniversary of the Clean Train Coalition and find out how you can help bend the rails to electrify the Georgetown Corridor!

When: Tuesday, March 2, 2010 at 7 pm

Where: Gladstone Hotel Melody Bar, 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

Music by Kitgut Stringband, Rob Joy, Michael Johnston & The Gentlemen Collars

Remarks by Mayor David Miller at 8 pm

With a sizeable snowfall expected over the next few days, the City of Toronto is reminding residents and businesses about the levels of snow clearing the City provides.

Large snowfalls require a coordinated approach by the City’s staff and contractors to ensure that City streets and sidewalks are safe.

As soon as the snow begins, Transportation Services sends out its fleet of salt trucks to the expressways and the main roads. After this, the salt trucks will then move on to the local roads. If the City receives five centimetres of snow, the plows are sent to the expressways and main roads and plowing will take place for the duration of the storm.

When the snow stops and if the snow accumulation reaches eight centimetres, plows will be sent to the local roads. Normally, local road plowing will be completed between 14 and 16 hours after the storm has ended.

The City will clear snow from sidewalks on local roads where it is mechanically possible to do so after eight centimetres (five centimetres in January and February) of snow has fallen. In the central core of the city, property owners are required to clear their sidewalks of snow 12 hours after a storm has taken place. To learn more about sidewalk snow clearing in Toronto and to view a map of where the service takes place, click on http://www.toronto.ca/transportation/snow.

The City of Toronto’s levels of service for snow clearing meet or exceed those set by the Province of Ontario for municipalities and road authorities. These levels of service were adopted by Toronto City Council in 2009.

Residents who have questions about snow clearing efforts in their area can call 311.

The City has 600 snow plows, 300 sidewalk plows and 200 salt trucks ready to tackle the winter season.

The City of Toronto’s Public Works and Infrastructure Committee will consider a program aimed at recovering repair and rehabilitation costs from companies that cut into the City’s roads to install, maintain or upgrade their facilities underneath the streets.

The introduction of pavement degradation fees at the committee’s March 2 meeting would allow the City to recover the costs of fixing and maintaining roads that have been severely affected by cuts to the roadway. This is based on research that shows the damage caused by cuts to roads requires the City to repair these roads more quickly that would ordinarily be the case.

These utility cuts have resulted in the premature deterioration of our roadways and have forced the City into significant costs to repair our infrastructure. In an average year, utility cuts require a total of between 200,000 – 300,000 square metres of permanent pavement restoration work. To put this in perspective, 250,000 square metres of pavement work is equivalent to reconstructing Yonge Street (four lanes) from Lake Ontario to Steeles Avenue each year.

Currently, the City spends more than $240 million to repair roads each year. In addition, about $70 million is spent on other work including road work in conjunction with watermain and sewer replacement and public realm initiatives. In 2007, the City approved a Personal Vehicle Tax that is being used to offset these costs.

The City currently recovers costs associated with the work to repair cuts which is valued at about $43 million a year. The implementation of pavement degradation fees will result in an average of $4 million for the City to repair portions of roads that have degraded due to the numerous cuts by multiple companies. The money collected from these companies and organizations would go into a reserve fund that would be used for construction, resurfacing and maintenance of the City’s roads.

Recently, I arranged a meeting with both the Architect and Developer of 1205 Queen St. West to give members of the community an opportunity to review the proposal for a development at Queen and Dufferin. Since the first community meeting over a year ago, some changes have been made to the application to address some design concerns raised by the Planning department. \The revised proposal is for an eight storey (65 units) condominium building with roughly the same gross floor area and density as the previous proposal. Most of the units are designed to one or two bedroom, 600 sp ft to 850 sp ft. The architect has proposed that the Queen Street facade will be brick (real or fake) to continue the streetscape and the height of the first podium will match the height of the Parkdale Community Health Centre, to the west, for continuity. At grade, commercial will be steel and glass retail space on both Queen and Dufferin flankage. The entrance for parking is proposed off the laneway (south of Dufferin), the exit for which is proposed onto Gwynne. In the lane at the rear of this property the Milky Way will be widened by 10′ to accommodate access. Once a complete application is received, Planning will circulate to a number of City Divisions for technical review and comment as per requirements of Site Plan. To review the plans please see attached pdf: 1205 Queen St W Plans.

Toronto introduces 2010 Operating Budget

On Tuesday February 16, 2010 the City of Toronto staff presented the Budget Committee with recommendations to the 2010 Operating Budget. City staff recommendations on 2010 Operating Budget signify the start of the formal review process for our operating budget. After the recommended budget is presented, meetings will take place allowing for the revision of the budget and present an avenue for public opinion to be considered before any finalizations take place. Detailed information about the City’s proposed 2010 budget is available at http://www.toronto.ca/budget2010. I am hosting a meeting on Friday February 19th, at 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Bishop Marrocco Catholic Secondary School: Auditorium, 1515 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON to give folks an opportunity to receive information and discuss the budget before it goes to Council. In addition two Budget Committee meetings are being held for public deputations on Monday March 1^st 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. and Tuesday, March 2^nd 1:30 to 9:30 p.m. Both meeting will take place at Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St. W. Council Chamber In you can not attend please contact the Budget Committee at 416-392-7445, or e-mail buc@toronto.ca no later than 12:00 p.m. on February 26^th if you wish to make a public presentation. There will be a five-minute time limit for each presentation. Or you can submit a written presentation concerning the 2010 Operating Budget to: Budget CommitteeToronto City Hall10th floor, West Tower100 Queen St. W.Toronto, ON M5H 2N2 Fax: 416-392-1879

Lakeshore Westbound bridges – Gardiner and Jameson Avenue – Open HouseThree bridges in the Jameson and Lakeshore Blvd area are in need of reconstruction. Built in 1958, these bridges will be undergoing major structural repairs starting May 2010 with an expected date of completion date of September 2011.

PVBIA Fireside Culture Week:

Monday February 22nd 2010 will mark the launch of the 2nd annual Fireside Culture Week in the kitschy West Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale Village. Fireside is far from a read-a-long with your grandpa on a cold winter’s night. It‘s a week long celebration of art, fashion, food, music, comedy and “theatre” which will feature the best of best of this funky and artistic nook of the Mega-City. This series of live performance will take place at a host of venues along Queen Street West between Dufferin and Roncesvalles; where all of Toronto’s culture-seekers will be entertained with live music, spoken-word, dance and much more. Our week long celebration that pays tribute to the hidden talents that Parkdale Village and the surrounding communities has to offer. Performances will take place in traditional spaces such as Cadillac Lounge but also in more non-traditional performance areas. This year expect to see performances at off-beat locales such as Shop Girls, Parkdale Drink and Snowball Gallery, Wrongbar and MANY MORE!!! New changes to the event include a neighbourhood wide art exhibition of new and existing shows at Gallery DK, Gallery 1313 and Diane McGrath Studios. We’ve also partnered with Heart and Stroke Foundation as part of their Heart Month events, and will be asking attendees at these free shows to make a small donation to HSF. Whether it’s a show by Magician Rob Testa at the drugstore, Fire-Twirlers and Side-Show maven Nyphetamine walking on broken glass or a poetry reading while enjoying a cup of tea at Brown Sugar Café on Saturday afternoon, there’s something for every member of “our funky downtown family”

www.firesidecultureweek.com

PRA Meeting –March 11th Parkdale residents are invited to the Parkdale Residents Association meeting on Thursday, March 11th, at the May Robinson Auditorium, 20 West Lodge Avenue, from 7 to 9 PM. “A Parkdale Village Walk: A Sense of History and Community,”a walking tour being created by the PRA, will be previewed. The walk will debut on May 1st as a Jane’s Walk. Please feel free to invite your Parkdale friends and neighbours to the meeting. If you have any questions or comments about the PRA, please email info@parkdale.to or call 416-533-0044.

PVBIA Fireside Culture Week:

Monday February 22nd 2010 will mark the launch of the 2nd annual Fireside Culture Week in the kitschy West Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale Village. Fireside is far from a read-a-long with your grandpa on a cold winter’s night. It‘s a week long celebration of art, fashion, food, music, comedy and “theatre” which will feature the best of best of this funky and artistic nook of the Mega-City. This series of live performance will take place at a host of venues along Queen Street West between Dufferin and Roncesvalles; where all of Toronto’s culture-seekers will be entertained with live music, spoken-word, dance and much more. Our week long celebration that pays tribute to the hidden talents that Parkdale Village and the surrounding communities has to offer. Performances will take place in traditional spaces such as Cadillac Lounge but also in more non-traditional performance areas. This year expect to see performances at off-beat locales such as Shop Girls, Parkdale Drink and Snowball Gallery, Wrongbar and MANY MORE!!! New changes to the event include a neighbourhood wide art exhibition of new and existing shows at Gallery DK, Gallery 1313 and Diane McGrath Studios. We’ve also partnered with Heart and Stroke Foundation as part of their Heart Month events, and will be asking attendees at these free shows to make a small donation to HSF. Whether it’s a show by Magician Rob Testa at the drugstore, Fire-Twirlers and Side-Show maven Nyphetamine walking on broken glass or a poetry reading while enjoying a cup of tea at Brown Sugar Café on Saturday afternoon, there’s something for every member of “our funky downtown family”

www.firesidecultureweek.com

PRA Meeting –March 11th Parkdale residents are invited to the Parkdale Residents Association meeting on Thursday, March 11th, at the May Robinson Auditorium, 20 West Lodge Avenue, from 7 to 9 PM. “A Parkdale Village Walk: A Sense of History and Community,”a walking tour being created by the PRA, will be previewed. The walk will debut on May 1st as a Jane’s Walk. Please feel free to invite your Parkdale friends and neighbours to the meeting. If you have any questions or comments about the PRA, please email info@parkdale.to or call 416-533-0044.