GETTING THEIR FIX
Meet Toronto’s street-keepers, the citizen-sentinels who make it their mission to alert officials to everything from broken trash bins to inaccessible sidewalks
It’s the neighbourhood watch of broken amenities.
Torontonians can call, email or tweet 311, the city division for non-emergency services, when they notice signs of urban decay, be they potholes or busted poles. But some diehard city scouts have taken it upon themselves to vigilantly draw attention to the city’s physical ills.
“So many people love this city and they are ready to help solve any problems that pop up,” Mayor John Tory said in a written statement.
“I’m glad when residents spot something they think the city should fix right away on a street, in a park, or anywhere else in Toronto, that many of them let 311 know through Twitter.”
The Star spoke with a group of these tireless sidewalk defenders — from a west-end woman tagging hateful graffiti to a Leslieville man who’s reported more than16 faulty trash cans this month alone — who make the city better for all of us.
“I think they rely on us to tell them what’s broken. It’s sort of like crowdsourcing.”
ARIC GUITÉ LESLIEVILLE
The abandoned bike warden Nicolas Bello, Garden District
Nicolas Bello bikes to work every day, so when he sees racks taken up by locked, rusted out “skeleton” bicycles, he calls foul, taking to Twitter to see them tagged and removed.
“It looks junky,” he said. He’s reported at least 86 incidents of abandoned bikes to the city since 2016.
“There’s a limited supply of bike parking,” Bello said. “If I see something broke and I figure no one else is gonna do something about it, why not me, right?”
Bello, who volunteers for the city-run Greeters program, which shows off the city to those keen to learn more about certain neighbourhoods, also reports garbage woes.
“You want to show them the best possible city that you can,” Bello said.
He said he sees abandoned bikes every day.
“Kudos to the city for keeping that Twitter channel open and having responsive staff,” he added.
The accessibility avenger Lindsay Zier-Vogel, the Junction
Lindsay Zier-Vogel takes aim at problems that obstruct the walkability of neighbourhoods; they can throw people who have mobility issues for a loop — quite literally.
This week, Zier-Vogel was carting her two children in a wagon on St. Johns Rd. near Dundas St. W. when she encountered two blocked sidewalks: one by construction materials; the other by a “huge” pole in the middle of it.
She said she was forced to walk onto the road into oncoming traffic to get around, calling it “an unsafe situation.”
“It was not passable, essentially,” she said. “I thought, that’s really not OK.”
She reported it to 311 and was notified that the city was looking into it.
Since 2012, Zier-Vogel has also been tweeting at the city to flag potholes that have the potential to destroy bicycles.
“I feel like there’s someone listening on the other end,” she said, adding she doesn’t always have time to wait on the phone. “There’s a forum for being able to say, ‘Hey this is happening and i t’s happening in real time.’ ”
The garbage bin guardian Aric Guité, Leslieville
Aric Guité is a dog owner, meaning he walks every day and requires garbage bins. On a recent jaunt, he noticed several waste bins had broken foot pedals.
“I was walking the dog and I had to touch the disgusting little flap thing to put the dog poop into the garbage can, and I didn’t like that. I walked down the street for a couple of minutes and noticed the next one didn’t, then the next one. It seemed that all of them were missing (foot levers) in my area along Queen St. (between Carlaw and Greenwood Aves.),” he said. Over three days in July, he reported at least 16 broken bins, sending @311 photos of each one.
It’s the type of diligent monitoring he’s been doing for “at least” five years, often reporting road maintenance and other troubles.
“The city can’t fix problems they don’t know about,” he said.
“They’re usually pretty squeezed for resources, so I think they really rely on us to tell them what’s broken. It’s sort of like crowdsourcing the information that they need to run the city, basically.”
The hate speech scout Katie German, Junction Triangle
In 2017, Katie German spotted Islamophobic graffiti painted on an electrical box outside a building housing several Muslim families, near Davenport Rd. and Symington Ave.
“It was pretty enraging to have that in a public space and it was facing a pretty busy intersection,” she said.
When she first saw it, German said she went into a shop for supplies and immediately covered it up. Then she tweeted at the city. “Everyone walking by was mad about it, so they helped me tape it up. I called 311 and also tweeted at them. I wanted it removed as quickly as possible,” German said, noting it seems social media often elicits quicker responses than phone calls. She said the problem was fixed in a few days.
German has been tweeting @311 since 2017. German has also flagged people postering graphic anti-abortion images in front of a community centre and, most recently, alerted the city to signage obstructing parking spaces during the Banksy exhibit.
German said there’s a culture of people relying on police to solve problems.
But, in the case of hateful graffiti, the city can also be an option.
“If I had phoned the police and reported an incident of hate speech, it could lead to more police patrols in the area,” she said, adding that might not be what the Muslim community wants.
“I like the city as an option.”