The Bulldog

Gord Lightfoot to christen Massey Hall renovation Thursday

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Renovated Massey Hall

Massey Hall will reopen Thursday night after a major renovation that lasted three years. Gordon Lightfoot will be the first musician to grace the stage tonight. Massey Hall tweets

Mockup of renovated Massey Hall

The legendary career of Lightfoot, a native of Orillia, has been marked with a declaration by Mayor Tory.

Mayor Tory’s declaration of Gordon Lightfoot Day

Mom pleads to criminal negligence in river death of son, 3

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Michelle Hanson
Kaden Young

Michelle Hanson has pleaded guilty to criminal negligence in the drowning death of her son, Kaden Young, 3, after she drove her vehicle into the raging Grand River near Orangeville in the middle of the night in 2018. Ms. Hanson also admitted to being impaired when she drove around signs intended to stop drivers from entering the flooded road. She said she had taken Kaden on a 1 a.m. drive because he was not sleeping. The boy was swept from the car and his body was not found for weeks. Toronto Sun

SERRA events to address “transformative” Canada Square

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Proposed Canada Square at Eglinton and Yonge/Oxford Properties

The South Eglinton Ratepayers and Residents will hold three public meetings in the coming days to persuade the City to do more to ensure adequate public services at the proposed Canada Square site on the southwest corner of Eglinton Ave and Yonge St. It is, as stated by SERRA, a transformative development for Midtown Toronto. The land is held by Oxford Properties on a 99-year lease. Oxford is a creation of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Service. The interest of SERRA (and the public in general) is well-stated by Andy Gort of the association.

The proposal that will be discussed is the same from about one year ago (277K sq m or equivalent 3.07M sq ft). I understand that it might be a $2.5B project and everything currently on the site would be demolished.

Residential – 2700 residential units (rental?), which would house about another 5000 residents in midtown (not included in our projection of 50,000 for the SERRA area). This would make up about 80% of the proposed building floorspace (217K sq m).

Commercial : 20 % of the building space would be for office development (Canadian Tire Headoffice), but that would not replace all the office space that is currently on the site (only 80% replacement or 61K sq m).

Community: a negligible 1K sq m (0.3 % of the total 277K floor space)

Park: 1.8K sq m (total site is 37.3K sq m), so the park allotment is 4.8% of the site. Normally we would expect up to 15%. This would be “deeded” back to the City and have to be unencumbered (no structures below grade)

Open Space : This is generally a positive story … very large area at 21.4 sq m, but some of it is roadsand driveways. Without that it is still a large amount at about 50% of the site at about 18K-19K sq m (total site area is 37.3K sq M), but directly below will be TTC/Metrolinx facilities and garages of the office and apartment towers, some of it very close to the surface (TTC), so little chance of large plantings (trees). Also, it will be at different elevations, so stairs required. Still great space for patios, sitting and maybe, if enough community space were allowed (ie daycare, school) could function as outdoor playground area.

In fairness to Oxford properties, I am sure they will be willing to provide more for the community, but it will be based on the standard required commmunity benefits that private developers have to provide and frankly, would barely provide for the community needs of the site’s new residents. That won’t help with making up for the deficit in midtown community services, which are acute.

That is where the City has to come in and start opening their wallet and effectively “buy back” a part of the 99 year lease they have arranged with Oxford for this property (plus another 99 year extention)

  • Thursday, Nov 25, 7-9 pm: City Planning and Oxford will present information and answer questions from attendees.
  • Wednesday, Dec 1, 12-2 pm: Comments and feedback from community participants.
  • Thursday, Dec 2, 6:30-8:30 pm; Comments and feedback from community participants.

Sneaky parking authority secretly sold lot to condo builders

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Green P lot at Duplux and Castlefield

The CBC has published a story Monday saying that the Toronto Parking Authority secretly sold the parking lot to the old Capitol Theatre to a developer, but councillors found out about the deal in June of 2018 and put a stop to it. The story says the TPA knew the lot had been earmarked for a park by City Council. Your City at Work. The lot is at the corner of Duplex St and Castlefield Ave behind the Yonge St movie theatre.

Warning as 2 people bitten by coyote in north Bayview park

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The City of Toronto is warning residents to avoid a North York park after two people were attacked and bitten by a coyote on Sunday afternoon. In a news release, the City said the attacks took place at Bayview Village Park, located on Bayview Ave just north of Sheppard Ave. The incident comes as coyotes continue to roam freely in residential parts of the City as seen in this report from earlier this month.