Jadestone24
06-25-2006, 07:12 PM
I can't say that I don't agree with her Toronto looks a lot different than when I was a kid, It actually looked like a clean city. Now it looks horrible.
Toronto looking tired and dirty
By SUE-ANN LEVY
I wish I could say I'm proud that Toronto will be front and centre today when more than a million people take in the colourful Gay Pride parade.
Or that I'm thrilled to see the outdoor patios and downtown streets packed with people soaking up the sights and sounds of another summer in the Big Smoke.
The fact is, I'm not the least bit proud to show off my city.
The powers that purport to run City Hall refuse to admit it but Toronto is tired, shopworn and suffering from neglect.
I see it whenever I walk in my Yorkville neighbourhood or take my dachsie Kishke to my local park. I've noticed the decay -- many times -- on my marathon training runs north and south of the downtown core.
Despite all of Mayor David Miller's promises to make this city clean and beautiful, the streets still look filthy.
Litter pickup -- even in the high traffic tourist areas where city resources have been targeted -- is hit and miss.
I see a litter vacuum (one of 60 that are used throughout the city) travel down my street and throughout Yorkville each morning. By evening, I often find styrofoam food containers, coffee cups, loose papers, empty pop tins and a pile of butts swirling around the neighbourhood streets.
Last Sunday the garbage bins in Yorkville were so full, I spotted the remains of coffee cups and melted ice cream spewing down the sides.
Bins overflowing
Solid waste general manager Richard Butts says the vast majority of bins downtown get emptied seven times a week and those in high-tourist areas like Yorkville twice on Saturdays and Sundays. There seem to be no shortage of resources dedicated to the daily cleanup efforts or for the 600 special events like today's Pride parade either.
There's $13.8 million budgeted for sweeping, pretty street furniture, flowers and trees in a special three-year Clean and Beautiful Plan. There's a $317,000 Clean and Beautiful City secretariat chock full of bureaucrats devoted to the cause. The mayor even has his own Roundtable on a Beautiful City.
That's on top of the $14.5 million approved in this year's city budget to pick up litter and empty litter bins, $650,000 to clean around parked cars and $14.8 million for street sweeping and flushing.
"I think it's a busy, busy city ... but generally I see an improvement," Butts said, noting that keeping the city clean is also the responsibility of businesses, residents and tourists.
But in fairness, it's hard for any resident to take pride in a city that looks so decrepit. It's not just because of the litter. The sidewalks are cracked, crumbling and, like too many of Toronto's roads, are sorely in need of an overhaul. The city's planter boxes sport thin anorexic trees, if any at all.
This year there's something new to add to this eyesore. Weeds have taken root in the city's parks, in between the cracks of sidewalks and in city planters -- practically anywhere they can proliferate like fungus.
We can thank council's socialists for that. Two years ago they passed an anti-pesticides bylaw, which banned the use of all but a short list of pest control products practically everywhere including on city sidewalks and in city parks.
Transportation general manager Gary Welsh concedes the most effective way of removing the weeds was by using pesticides, as they did before the bylaw. Now they're wrestling to find a "suitable process" to replace pesticides, he said.
As for the sidewalk repairs, Welsh said that is part of the city's overall $300-million backlog in road repairs.
Parks, forestry and recreation general manager Brenda Librecz says they simply don't have the manpower to tackle the weed problem -- that one gallon of pesticides replaces 500 men pulling weeds manually.
Public angry
An alternative $19-million plan to get rid of the weeds in her 1,500 parks and parkettes was turned down by the city's budget committee, she said.
"It's a challenge but the public is angry," she added.
In my local park, the grass -- while cut once a week -- looks dry and patchy. The benches are archaic and the many beautiful trees appear not to have been pruned in ages, judging from the dead branches I fear might land on an unsuspecting resident's head.
Librecz said she should be spending $40 million a year just to maintain her parks. She got $23 million this year. As for the trees, an extra $1 million this year didn't even begin to address the backlog of city trees needing maintenance.
This year her group got $10.8 million to take care of 800 city-operated gardens and planting areas in the city. But that too barely scratches the surface. A proposal to allow neighbourhoods to adopt their parks -- engaging in weeding, flower planting and so on -- was resoundingly nixed three years by the two CUPE unions who rule the roost at City Hall.
As if all of these things don't make Toronto look seedy enough, the aggressive panhandlers have infested the city streets -- including those in my own Yorkville neighbourhood -- plying unsuspecting tourists for loose change.
Negative web reviews
It's gotten so bad the problem has earned the city several mentions this month on the well-used fodors.com website.
Like with most issues at City Hall, His Blondness the mayor and minions continue to bury their heads in their sand about the panhandling problem.
Councillor Jane Pitfield, a mayoral candidate, has tried since April to have council approve a motion asking for a report on a possible quality-of-life bylaw that would end the scourge of panhandling. The mayor keeps stalling her efforts, claiming there are weightier matters to discuss.
Pitfield will try again to have her panhandling bylaw considered a priority at this week's council meeting.
But I won't hold my breath.
If his half-baked efforts to tackle the city's litter problem is any indication, I don't have much faith in the mayor doing anything to clean up the panhandlers.
Toronto looking tired and dirty
By SUE-ANN LEVY
I wish I could say I'm proud that Toronto will be front and centre today when more than a million people take in the colourful Gay Pride parade.
Or that I'm thrilled to see the outdoor patios and downtown streets packed with people soaking up the sights and sounds of another summer in the Big Smoke.
The fact is, I'm not the least bit proud to show off my city.
The powers that purport to run City Hall refuse to admit it but Toronto is tired, shopworn and suffering from neglect.
I see it whenever I walk in my Yorkville neighbourhood or take my dachsie Kishke to my local park. I've noticed the decay -- many times -- on my marathon training runs north and south of the downtown core.
Despite all of Mayor David Miller's promises to make this city clean and beautiful, the streets still look filthy.
Litter pickup -- even in the high traffic tourist areas where city resources have been targeted -- is hit and miss.
I see a litter vacuum (one of 60 that are used throughout the city) travel down my street and throughout Yorkville each morning. By evening, I often find styrofoam food containers, coffee cups, loose papers, empty pop tins and a pile of butts swirling around the neighbourhood streets.
Last Sunday the garbage bins in Yorkville were so full, I spotted the remains of coffee cups and melted ice cream spewing down the sides.
Bins overflowing
Solid waste general manager Richard Butts says the vast majority of bins downtown get emptied seven times a week and those in high-tourist areas like Yorkville twice on Saturdays and Sundays. There seem to be no shortage of resources dedicated to the daily cleanup efforts or for the 600 special events like today's Pride parade either.
There's $13.8 million budgeted for sweeping, pretty street furniture, flowers and trees in a special three-year Clean and Beautiful Plan. There's a $317,000 Clean and Beautiful City secretariat chock full of bureaucrats devoted to the cause. The mayor even has his own Roundtable on a Beautiful City.
That's on top of the $14.5 million approved in this year's city budget to pick up litter and empty litter bins, $650,000 to clean around parked cars and $14.8 million for street sweeping and flushing.
"I think it's a busy, busy city ... but generally I see an improvement," Butts said, noting that keeping the city clean is also the responsibility of businesses, residents and tourists.
But in fairness, it's hard for any resident to take pride in a city that looks so decrepit. It's not just because of the litter. The sidewalks are cracked, crumbling and, like too many of Toronto's roads, are sorely in need of an overhaul. The city's planter boxes sport thin anorexic trees, if any at all.
This year there's something new to add to this eyesore. Weeds have taken root in the city's parks, in between the cracks of sidewalks and in city planters -- practically anywhere they can proliferate like fungus.
We can thank council's socialists for that. Two years ago they passed an anti-pesticides bylaw, which banned the use of all but a short list of pest control products practically everywhere including on city sidewalks and in city parks.
Transportation general manager Gary Welsh concedes the most effective way of removing the weeds was by using pesticides, as they did before the bylaw. Now they're wrestling to find a "suitable process" to replace pesticides, he said.
As for the sidewalk repairs, Welsh said that is part of the city's overall $300-million backlog in road repairs.
Parks, forestry and recreation general manager Brenda Librecz says they simply don't have the manpower to tackle the weed problem -- that one gallon of pesticides replaces 500 men pulling weeds manually.
Public angry
An alternative $19-million plan to get rid of the weeds in her 1,500 parks and parkettes was turned down by the city's budget committee, she said.
"It's a challenge but the public is angry," she added.
In my local park, the grass -- while cut once a week -- looks dry and patchy. The benches are archaic and the many beautiful trees appear not to have been pruned in ages, judging from the dead branches I fear might land on an unsuspecting resident's head.
Librecz said she should be spending $40 million a year just to maintain her parks. She got $23 million this year. As for the trees, an extra $1 million this year didn't even begin to address the backlog of city trees needing maintenance.
This year her group got $10.8 million to take care of 800 city-operated gardens and planting areas in the city. But that too barely scratches the surface. A proposal to allow neighbourhoods to adopt their parks -- engaging in weeding, flower planting and so on -- was resoundingly nixed three years by the two CUPE unions who rule the roost at City Hall.
As if all of these things don't make Toronto look seedy enough, the aggressive panhandlers have infested the city streets -- including those in my own Yorkville neighbourhood -- plying unsuspecting tourists for loose change.
Negative web reviews
It's gotten so bad the problem has earned the city several mentions this month on the well-used fodors.com website.
Like with most issues at City Hall, His Blondness the mayor and minions continue to bury their heads in their sand about the panhandling problem.
Councillor Jane Pitfield, a mayoral candidate, has tried since April to have council approve a motion asking for a report on a possible quality-of-life bylaw that would end the scourge of panhandling. The mayor keeps stalling her efforts, claiming there are weightier matters to discuss.
Pitfield will try again to have her panhandling bylaw considered a priority at this week's council meeting.
But I won't hold my breath.
If his half-baked efforts to tackle the city's litter problem is any indication, I don't have much faith in the mayor doing anything to clean up the panhandlers.