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Toronto Ridiculous NIMBYism thread

Skeezix said:
I'm confused. Saying that we should be worried more about those without housing than someone's "right" to have a pirate-ship treehouse is ridiculous? How is that twisting anything?
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Because they're two completely different topics that need separate discussions.
 
Armour said:
To be fair, the new playgrounds found in parks like Underpass Park and Sherbourne Common appear as though they were designed by artists that probably spent little time horsing around as children. There needs to be a better marriage between creativity, design and function.
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+1. I was going to post much the same -- the playgrounds or added structures I've seen at Withrow, Corktown Common, and the new park at Rivertowne all look great and lots of kids are using them.

My wife LOVES the Corktown Common water feature. The little kids playing in the spray always brings a smile to her face and the soft rubber surface surrounded by big stones to sit on/jump off makes a great little park.
 
Re: the pirate ship playhouse -- the other thing that doesn't smell right is the price. It's big and ugly, sure, but dude's a contractor. Are you telling me he hired himself, used only high-quality material, and electrified the place? Because otherwise, $30k's a HUGE amount of scrap lumber and high quality... nails?
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
Re: the pirate ship playhouse -- the other thing that doesn't smell right is the price. It's big and ugly, sure, but dude's a contractor. Are you telling me he hired himself, used only high-quality material, and electrified the place? Because otherwise, $30k's a HUGE amount of scrap lumber and high quality... nails?
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I am waiting for the built in whirlpool, mood lighting, sound system, AC, elevator access, security cams, etc. All held together by corrosion resistant titanium nails.

AoD
 
Kids cannot play in their own backyard. With or without a treehouse, it seems.

See The Star at this link.

Winnipeg mom investigated for letting her kids play in backyard
The unexpected interrogation left her in tears; a local psychologist supports her and worries about anonymous complaints run amok.

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WINNIPEG—A Winnipeg woman says she was reported to and investigated by Child and Family Services simply for letting her children play in her backyard.

Jacqui Kendrick, a stay-at-home mom, says a CFS worker showed up unexpectedly in early April, saying they had received a complaint about her children being unsupervised.

Kendrick has three children ages two, five and 10, and says they often played in her fenced-in backyard after school.

Kendrick says she’s either with them or watching them from her living room, though she says her oldest child also helps out by looking after her younger siblings.

But she says because a file has been created, she’s worried that any future complaints could end up with her children being taken from her.

She also says the grilling she underwent from the CFS worker left her in tears.

“(The worker was) asking me about if we’ve ever dealt with CFS before, what my childhood was like, how I punish my children,” Kendrick says. “She had to look to see where my kid slept. She had to see if we had enough food in the house.”

CFS officials did not respond to requests for an interview.

Winnipeg psychologist Dr. Toby Rutner says children should be as independent as their abilities allow.

He says with increased use of the Internet, “it has created a situation where everyone feels entitled to give an opinion, but this approach that says everyone’s opinion is equal in value.”

He calls the case common passive-aggressive behaviour; where in the past, concerned neighbours would have had to knock on someone’s door, now they can make an anonymous complaint.

Kendrick says her children have been well trained in how to be safe.

“We’ve taught both the (older) kids so far that you look after each other. That’s kind of the point. The older ones should be looking after the younger ones,” Kendrick says.

“My 10-year-old is very responsible. We’ve taught the older ones already the whole stranger danger, and they know what to do. When my five-year-old’s out there, she knows she’s not supposed to go up to the fence.”

Manitoba’s Child and Family Services Act states a child 12 or older can be left home alone unsupervised. It doesn’t say anything about children playing in a backyard.
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There's a Gladys Kravitz in every neighbourhood it seems, ready to report on almost anything they don't like.
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Scarborough residents get expropriation warnings to make way for subway
There has been no official approval for the subway alignment, but owners are already digging in their heels.

From this link:

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Residents on a quiet Scarborough street, some who have lived there for four decades, have received letters from the TTC warning them their houses might be expropriated to make room for the new subway extension.

“I’m not going, they’re going to kill me to take me out of here,” Scott Cole said Monday, after receiving a letter on May 25 from the “Toronto Transit Commission” informing him that the bungalow he’s lived in on Stanwell Dr. for 26 years might be subject to a “Property Acquisition Process.”

There has been no official approval of the subway alignment — running north-south under McCowan Rd., which the homes back onto — that would affect these homeowners, but they’re now convinced it’s a done deal.

The letter says this particular alignment will be presented at a public meeting Tuesday, the first in a series of meetings planned over the next three weeks. However, the letter, received by at least a dozen neighbours, says no decision has yet been made by council, and the recommendation has not even been seen by the City of Toronto’s executive committee.

“Staff will report their recommendations for the Scarborough Subway Extension (including property impacts),” the letter states, adding that the “meeting date (is) still to be confirmed.” The letter states that the TTC board will receive the recommendations July 11 and Toronto City Council on July 12, 13 and 14.

“I love this place,” said resident Vivek Bhatt. “I’ve been here 14 years. My kids grew up here.”

Bhatt said he won’t accept less than $2 million for his property from the city, but was adamant that he is only interested in expropriation as a last resort. “I don’t want to leave.”

The letter states that the city will undertake property-value assessments to make sure fair offers are made to each owner.

He said that in his opinion, the process of selecting an alignment — despite the lack so far of public meetings or a council vote — has already been made. “Obviously. Do you think they would do all this, send all this out, do all this planning, unless they already made their decision?” he said, holding up the eight-page package he received.

He vowed to make sure local Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who has been staunchly pro-subway and sits on the TTC board, will not be re-elected in 2018. De Baeremaeker could not be reached for comment.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said the agency sent less than 100 notices to homeowners in the potential path of the future line, alerting them that all or part of their land might need to be expropriated.

The final alignment for the heavily debated extension of the Bloor-Danforth line has yet to be confirmed, but it’s expected to run between Kennedy station and the Scarborough Town Centre. Council is scheduled to approve an alignment this year, with construction set to begin in 2018; the line wouldn’t enter service until 2023.

The letter, shown to the Star by three residents, includes detailed satellite images of each specific property, with lines indicating where the subway tunnel will run and where the adjacent rights-of-way will be located.

Cole says his property “is going to be turned into a parking lot, for all the trucks and equipment to build the subway,” according to his letter.

Only six feet of his rear yard is needed for the project, according to the detailed map and drawings he received. He questions what will be done with the rest of the land being expropriated. Ross said it’s possible that not all of a required property will be needed — it’s unclear if only parts of properties might be expropriated in some cases.

“In my opinion, they’re just going to sell all of this to big developers and make tens of millions of dollars,” Cole said.

He said he was given one year to live after he was diagnosed with cancer 14 years ago, and is now ready for a much easier fight.

“I don’t want anything they could offer me, $2 million, $3 million. This is my home. I’m staying, whether they like it or not.”
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An excellent case of "subway, subway, subway", but "Not In My BackYard!"
 
Ah, Councillor Fletcher pandering to the NIMBYs again. She rejects a $2-million investment in public, non-commercial soccer pitches presumably because - horrors - it would encourage the public to use public open space and public streets in the neighbourhood, much to the consternation of the nearby residents who prefer everything to remain quasi-private and underutilized, thank you very much. All on a site just off Greenwood, about a 4-minute walk from the Danforth and the subway. Apparently, Fletcher's logic has something to do with the neighbourhood not having sea access.

Good on the chair of the TCDSB for calling Fletcher out.
 
Skeezix said:
Ah, Councillor Fletcher pandering to the NIMBYs again. She rejects a $2-million investment in public, non-commercial soccer pitches presumably because - horrors - it would encourage the public to use public open space and public streets in the neighbourhood, much to the consternation of the nearby residents who prefer everything to remain quasi-private and underutilized, thank you very much. All on a site just off Greenwood, about a 4-minute walk from the Danforth and the subway. Apparently, Fletcher's logic has something to do with the neighbourhood not having sea access.

Good on the chair of the TCDSB for calling Fletcher out.
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Same story on CTV News Toronto. See link.
 
W. K. Lis said:
Same story on CTV News Toronto. See link.
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As a parent with a kid at Monarch Park, the quote that it's a controversial facility was out of the blue. Who is against the MP soccer dome? Why? The kids have been blessed with a great facility, and the biggest issue tends to be all the spring sports teams wanting to use it for early practices at the same time.
 
If anything, the St. Pat's field would be as good or better for a mixed use pitch as it's right off Greenwood. My guess is someone with their backyard facing into the playing field got mad because now they'll have to walk their dog all the way over to the MP off-leash area, rather than him crapping on the St. Pat's field out the back gate.

ETA: Read the comments on the Beach news link, and sure enough, the same folks that cut off and re-routed the street in front of St. Pat's now want to prevent any further bother to their apartments high in the sky above the Greenwood yards, which totally don't have any noise issues.
 
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https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.6782...AWpp8sr1O5RGE9KyRn8g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

Sorry to bang on about this, as it's actually worse NIMBYism than I thought. So, 101 Unity has a back parking garage that disturbs their neighbours, but have had Felstead cut in half at the end of the school to prevent the kids/neighbours from driving to St. Pat's or Monarch Park past their building. But, as currently configured, all the new users of the soccer pitch would come off Greenwood at Felstead and then into a parking lot between the school and apartment, ergo the increased traffic on their street... that they don't use to drive themselves.

Meanwhile, Unity Court at the back doesn't seem to have any traffic calming measures. I love it.
 
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