Colleen

The main source of noise in cities is… cars. Dense walkable and bikeable neighbourhoods allow people to reduce their vehicle use and thus the noise level of their environment.

If you are going to collect Community Benefits Charges, affordable housing is a better use than many others I've seen. But, yes, costs being passed on is part of my mixed feelings, especially because I fear most people might not love to see their tax dollars go there, so it might be CBCs or nothing.

Shawn Micallef: Doug Ford’s plan to sell off chunks of this popular beach threatens something we should hold dear If Doug Ford wanted to create a real legacy, he’d start an aggressive expansion of public parkland in Ontario to keep up with its massive population.

This weekend I wrote about Doug Ford’s plan to sell off a large chunk of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. Exactly the opposite of what should be happening: parkland expansion.

I have mixed feelings about this system but it's very frustrating that it's ignored and even denied as a tradeoff in "market vs affordable" fights. People get to take credit for "supporting" affordable while opposing the funding source. It's a sort of inclusionary zoning, but with less transparency.

1. City Council authorize the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat to provide $3,000,000 to the Kensington Market Community Land Trust to acquire, renovate and operate the property municipally known as 54-56 Kensington Avenue as affordable rental housing with at-grade retail space for a minimum of 99 years, subject to the successful acquisition of the property by the Kensington Market Community Land Trust by no later than May 31, 2021; approval of a business case for the property outlining the management plan, management qualifications and financial viability of the project, satisfactory to the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat; and the Kensington Market Community Land Trust entering into a municipal housing facility agreement (the "Contribution Agreement') with the City, on terms and conditions satisfactory to the Executive Director, Housing Secretariat. 2. City Council increase the Approved 2021 Operating Budget for the Housing Secretariat by $3,000,000 gross, to be payable to 54-56 Kensington Avenue, subject to Part 1 above, fully funded by Section 37 (Planning Act Reserve Fund) community benefits for this purpose, received by the City from the following developments: a. 275 Albany Avenue and 420 Dupont Street, secured for the provision of new affordable housing, in the amount of $1,107.01 (Source Account: XR3026-3701049); b. 231-237 College Street and 177-189 Huron Street, secured for capital improvements to Toronto Community Housing in Ward 20, however the funds have not been used for 3 years and as per the provisions of the by-law and section 37 Agreement, the funds can be redirected for affordable housing generically, in the amount of $221,085.94 (Source Account: XR3026-3700835);... e. 1-11 Bloor Street West, 768-784 Yonge Street, and 760-762 Yonge Street, secured for new affordable housing, in the amount of $2,100,643.63 (Source Account: XR3026-3701059); and full text at: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2021.MM31.19

Another consideration is that many cities fund affordable housing from new market-rate development. The $3 million for Kensington Community Land Trust mentioned in the video came from fees on market housing, including One Bloor, the epitome of luxury condos. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...

r/askTO u/wantsomesushi • 10h My condo is charging us an Occupancy Fee for my newborn - is this a thing? Hey all, I wanted to know if any other condo owners (or past owners) ever got this by-law enforced on them because my husband and I feel we should fight this as it seems unfair and predatory. Sorry if its long - I wanted to put all the relevant info in: We live in a 1+Den condo unit in Toronto. The Condo consistently has declared the den isn't a bedroom in all documents but it does have a window, a closet, and a door. We utilize this room for our 5 month old baby's crib and she sleeps in it. Husband and I sleep in the bedroom. A few days ago (Tuesday), I received an email titled "OCCUPANCY BY-LAW #7 REMINDER", , to which it indicated that per bedroom, there can only be 2 occupants allowed and once exceeded, we are to pay a monthly surcharge per person (in our case, almost $100). It justifies the fee saying it is ensuring "Fairness in shared costs such as heating, air conditioning, electricity, water, and waste management. Units with more occupants use more of these shared resources. Additionally, overcrowding can lead to wear and tear on building infrastructure, increased noise complaints and waste disposal issues". Then on Wednesday, both my husband and I got voicemails from the property manager to please return the call or go see him when we get the chance, seemingly urgent. An hour later, he sends us an email titled…

“Why aren’t people having kids?”

www.reddit.com/r/askTO/s/Bd...

@mark-carney.bsky.social strategic research reserve when?

A guy in my old building used to use the squash court to practice his sax. Didn't seem like it had the optimal acoustics.

Better things are possible.

The problem with public architecture in Canada What explains this bland brand of badness? The central answer is hidden in the weeds of public policy: design procurement. Our governments do not care about design, and their practices make that clear

When interviewed, the late Ray Moriyama said that as a young architect he won the ON science centre, something he’d never win today. If we want that participation and creativity to solve complex issues, we need to start w/$ yes, but also policy: www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/6921292...

If they rip out Yonge just as Eglinton is finally getting built, I am going to set up a bot that emails IEC "It needs to be a network!" for every cycling item until the end of time.

It is darkly funny that the former mayor who was supposedly a suburb-understander can only cite examples of "side streets" where bike lanes might work that end at Bloor or Dupont. I wonder why?!

You, a resident of Ontario, went to bed on Tuesday night in a country where the Charter of Rights and Freedoms affords no protections to bike lanes. You woke up on Thursday morning and… precisely nothing has changed, despite what an already-long line of fulminating op-eds, social media posts, and talk radio rants have asserted. If you’re a cyclist in Ontario anywhere other than Toronto, this week’s court decision by Justice Paul Schabas provides precisely zero grounds for you to browbeat your municipality into installing or maintaining bike lanes. Even in Toronto, Schabas’s decision leaves intact Doug Ford’s powers to micromanage precisely which streets new bike lanes can be installed on. There is no Charter right to bike lanes, before or after Schabas’s decision. The only thing bike lanes and the Charter have in common is that they both protect cyclists, a fact which drives Ford, his cabinet, and the PC majority in the legislature to distraction. This week’s decision was about something both much simpler and far more important: the threshold a government needs to meet before it can cause harm to its citizens, and how many falsehoods it can tell in the process.

ICYMI, me on the Charter and bike lanes: www.tvo.org/article/anal...

@jacobdawang.com maybe?

NEW: Looks like CycleToronto won in court. Justice Schabas finds Ontario's law (AND version 2) to remove bike lanes infringe S7 of the Charter and is not saved by S1, in large part because the govt had no evidence to back up its claims.

Maple Dome

Local democracy!

Yes, you are right — the City’s standard notification process requires public notices to be mailed to all properties within a 60-metre radius of the subject property. As you can see in the attached screenshot, you’re building at (ADDRESS) is located within the TSCC (####) condominium corporation. In such cases, the notice is mailed directly to the property manager of the building, which has already been sent.

I have been informed by Community Planning that because I live in a tower (directly next to a tower site) I am less entitled to notice than someone living in a house

For apartments they only mail the property manager (who may choose not to circulate notice)

Major oversight for Minor Variances

"What might people do outside the labor force? In truth, this residual category is also called 'life,' and it therefore difficult to categorize neatly."

So after some ill-advised interaction with this group (likely person), it became clear to me that they had used an AI summary of the zoning by-law, and were upset that the city wasn't following the hallucinated zoning by-law and not the real one which they have never read.

I don't feel like its really sunk in for other people yet, that if the US is a geostrategic enemy, you must outgrow them.

No one is acting like thats the stakes here. Outgrow them or be bullied for ever and ever

Saw that this ad is circulating (HT @chanface.bsky.social) and I just want to once again point out how often these groups are lying about extremely basic facts. Shelters are allowed in RM. It's one of the 3 things allowed with no exceptions. There is no way to miss this if you are trying to read it.

Yeah, this is the worst thing about CETA. Every time you walk down a Canadian street, there's some European on the corner installing a windmill. You can't get away from them!

Rosette (cookie) - Wikipedia

We made rosettes in home ec, which require specialized tools that I imagine 95% of households didn't own and wouldn't have even known how to get then. I wonder if the teacher was just tired of pancakes. But it was a decent lesson in not being stupid around hot oil. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosette...

I am begging my fellow geriatric millennials to not go Boomer

Good morning to everyone who thinks today would be a great day to be able to take the GO train between Kitchener and Toronto

But my survey comments were so heartfelt and convincing!

Ugh! Yes this still:
- Finch Store's coffee license expires Aug 31st
- Council has still failed to legalize corner stores
- You can do yet another survey.

I would love to see a re-consideration of the Neighbourhood designation though, in areas of the core with transit access. Right now it's just not the case that you could assemble land and easily build something denser though. More Neighbours is working on something related to this.

Don't really *allow. Sorry typo.