St Lawrence Market

[Northern Light]

Sue-Ann Levy is onto it!

LEVY: New cafe owner's business hit hard by pandemic and relentless construction

For Aroma Cafe owner Ben Chapari, surviving COVID was easy compared to the endless construction outside his downtown espresso bar.

torontosun.com

From the article:

I still want to know............What Challenges? What Conflicts? Identify them! Identify the cause of them! State why these were not previously known!

 

[mburrrrr]

If they pave that sidewalk as marked out, the Flatiron patio should be great this summer, though obviously it usually depends on office lunch and after work traffic, which won't be there this summer.

It’s amazing how fast they can work with some very big change orders for this delay. It will probably look finished next week until they have to dig it all up again next year.

The fountain works!

 

[DSC]

Yes, but don't worry. The City is now touting this fiasco as a huge success. Here's their PR
https://www.toronto.ca/news/complet...s-congestion-supports-cafeto-and-pride-month/ Closure allows better traffic flow, allows 5 or 6 crappy patios and supports Pride!

BTW. The anger in the neighbourhood has increased with angry letters going to Tory and Wong-Tam from commercial landlords, condo boards the neighbourhood assn and, of course, 'ordinary citizens' (AKA Voters!) Wong-Tam is trying to convene a meeting with residents but there is some push-back as others think one meeting and one story for everyone may be best way to get the story clear and the re-start plan firmed up.

The re-start demand is to start construction again later in summer and get it done by the end of December (the City says 3-months) with planting to happen, as originally planned, for spring 2022.

The excuse given has now moved from "it's all Toronto Hydro's fault", to unexpected underground infrastructure (apparently, an oil tank - size unknown to me), and now its "change in scope". Toronto Hydro refused to take the blame, the idea of anything of any size being unfound after 6-7 years of digging by all the Utilities and the City is hard to believe. Nobody involved seems to know of what "change in scope" was responsible, members of the stakeholder group know of no changes. And so it goes!

 

[Jonny5]

Yes, but don't worry. The City is now touting this fiasco as a huge success. Here's their PR
https://www.toronto.ca/news/complet...s-congestion-supports-cafeto-and-pride-month/ Closure allows better traffic flow, allows 5 or 6 crappy patios and supports Pride!

BTW. The anger in the neighbourhood has increased with angry letters going to Tory and Wong-Tam from commercial landlords, condo boards the neighbourhood assn and, of course, 'ordinary citizens' (AKA Voters!) Wong-Tam is trying to convene a meeting with residents but there is some push-back as others think one meeting and one story for everyone may be best way to get the story clear and the re-start plan firmed up.

The re-start demand is to start construction again later in summer and get it done by the end of December (the City says 3-months) with planting to happen, as originally planned, for spring 2022.

The excuse given has now moved from "it's all Toronto Hydro's fault", to unexpected underground infrastructure (apparently, an oil tank - size unknown to me), and now its "change in scope". Toronto Hydro refused to take the blame, the idea of anything of any size being unfound after 6-7 years of digging by all the Utilities and the City is hard to believe. Nobody involved seems to know of what "change in scope" was responsible, members of the stakeholder group know of no changes. And so it goes!

Thanks for the idea. I fired off my own email letter this morning copying both the Mayor and Councillor.

 

[DSC]

Thanks for the idea. I fired off my own email letter this morning copying both the Mayor and Councillor.

For those who may want to emulate @Jonny5 ...

Mayor Tory Mayor_Tory@toronto.ca

Councillor Wongtam councillor_wongtam@toronto.ca

Copying President SLNA (president@SLNA.ca ) might be good too.

 

[DSC]

Latest 'news' is that City Staff, who last week said there was 3 more months of construction, now say that a re-start in September might not mean the work would be finished by the end of December so they still plan to re-start in March 2022. The battle continues and, on the bright side, the street looks SO much better now they have added Jersey barriers to the expanse of not very level asphalt.

 

[Northern Light]

Wow! So why don't Cressy and Wong Tam just introduce a motion at Council to redesign the Streetscape Manual and make Toronto Hydro comply? Btw, I think it'd be great if we used an updated version of the acorns for all areas not covered by special lighting, one that uses a similar shape as a nod to the city's history with these lights along with more elegant materiality. One of my favourite projects is Los Angeles' full-on replacement of its standard streetlights.

Who would like to take credit.....??

Councillor Wong-Tam has a letter in to the July 5th meeting of Infrastructure and Environment seeking a report on all this.

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2021/ie/bgrd/backgroundfile-168511.pdf

Report due (if the request is approved) by October 26th, 2021.

I'm copying the bulk of the letter below:

*****

 

[daniel_kryz]

Wow! I never thought it would happen! I wish the motion were more comprehensive (ex. a complete overhaul of the Streetscape Manual, ways to ensure compliance by Hydro & other divisions along with increased funding in the 2022 Budget), and a directive rather than a request. But this still makes me very happy.

EDIT: Kristyn Wong-Tam seems to be the go-to councillor for public realm issues.

 

[DSC]

Wow! I never thought it would happen! I wish the motion were more comprehensive (ex. a complete overhaul of the Streetscape Manual, ways to ensure compliance by Hydro & other divisions along with increased funding in the 2022 Budget), and a directive rather than a request. But this still makes me very happy.

EDIT: Kristyn Wong-Tam seems to be the go-to councillor for public realm issues.

Though I wish you were right I think you are greatly over-estimating the 'power' of this motion. KWT and her staff (plus Joe Cressy and his staff) have been working with the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Assn since Pam McConnell's day to sort out the 'heritage street-lighting in St Lawrence. All this motion does is to TRY to push forward discussions that have gone on, to my direct knowledge, since 2013. I (almost) never give up and REALLY hope that when the City Staff report back in the fall we all get good news but I am increasingly cynical. (The recent and ongoing fiasco on Wellington Street with many of the same players does not give me much reason to hope either!)

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Though I wish you were right I think you are greatly over-estimating the 'power' of this motion. KWT and her staff (plus Joe Cressy and his staff) have been working with the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Assn since Pam McConnell's day to sort out the 'heritage street-lighting in St Lawrence. All this motion does is to TRY to push forward discussions that have gone on, to my direct knowledge, since 2013. I (almost) never give up and REALLY hope that when the City Staff report back in the fall we all get good news but I am increasingly cynical. (The recent and ongoing fiasco on Wellington Street with many of the same players does not give me much reason to hope either!)

The sad thing is that it seems that even the councilor doesn't know what is the current status of the city's agreement with TH. "It is helpful"? That's awfully wishy-washy language - like pretty please? Doesn't sound particularly authoritative to me.

AoD

 

[Andy_in_Toronto]

So this is now the workaround for the fiasco? The construction pits have been paved over and Jersey barrie placed. It does look like the Berlin Wall without graffiti.

 

[DSC]

So this is now the workaround for the fiasco? The construction pits have been paved over and Jersey barrie placed. It does look like the Berlin Wall without graffiti.

Patience my friend! No doubt the graffiti will come and until it does you can admire the tastefully scattered orange barrels!

 

[daniel_kryz]

Though I wish you were right I think you are greatly over-estimating the 'power' of this motion. KWT and her staff (plus Joe Cressy and his staff) have been working with the St Lawrence Neighbourhood Assn since Pam McConnell's day to sort out the 'heritage street-lighting in St Lawrence. All this motion does is to TRY to push forward discussions that have gone on, to my direct knowledge, since 2013. I (almost) never give up and REALLY hope that when the City Staff report back in the fall we all get good news but I am increasingly cynical. (The recent and ongoing fiasco on Wellington Street with many of the same players does not give me much reason to hope either!)

Hopefully we can look forward to big changes! I'm also worried and not 100% satisfied with the content & wording of the motion. And I don't understand why the motion doesn't give the Urban Design division at City Planning a say in this process. I guess we'll see what happens on October 26, 2021!

 

[DSC]

Hopefully we can look forward to big changes! I'm also worried and not 100% satisfied with the content & wording of the motion. And I don't understand why the motion doesn't give the Urban Design division at City Planning a say in this process. I guess we'll see what happens on October 26, 2021!

The motion asks for a report on the details of the street-lighting contract from Transportation because the contract for streetlighting from THSL is the responsibility of Transportation and at the moment the details about it (and even when/if it expires ) are very unclear. Once these rather important details are revealed (if they ever are!) we MAY be able to find ways to use the contract or re-negotiate it to allow the City to have some choices in both poles and luminaires. It is at that point that Urban Design would become involved. I have attended meeting with the Councillors and Hydro over the past 8 or 9 years and Urban Design has, sometimes, been there so they are not being forgotten about. I will be VERY interested in seeing what Transportation says in October and will not be amazed if they say nothing due to 'commercial confidentiality'. Stay tuned! (BTW, Hydro says that when the City developed the Streetscape Manual they were not consulted on the lighting sections and this does seem likely and really not the best way to develop such things.)

 

[deerparker]

There was a very loud preacher on the pedestrian island at Church & Front this evening screaming into an amplified mic. Patio people applauded when they saw a police cruiser, perhaps hoping it would have her group move along, but it was going to a more serious traffic accident at Front & George.