Thackeray St. gets a much-needed facelift

City also reacts quickly to flooding on corner of Danforth and Coxwell

Driving on Thackeray St. is a lot less like a roller-coaster ride now that the city has filled dozens of potholes that plagued it.

On Nov. 24, we reported on the tiny street, which runs for less than 200 metres behind old factories on Carlaw Ave., that were converted to spaces and storefronts for small businesses.

Except for a street sign and no-parking signs, it would be easy to conclude it’s a private laneway, used to access the back doors of the businesses that front onto Carlaw. But the potholes were so numerous and deep that reader Tony Mead said in an email that he feared damaging his car whenever he had to drive on it. The city told us they’d patch the potholes within a week. Mead wrote to us again last week, saying they’d been filled.

Our Nov. 27 column was about a huge puddle that forms at the northeast corner of Danforth and Coxwell Aves. whenever it rains, which seems like every other day this autumn.

We went there and watched as people slogged through the ankle-deep flood to cross Danforth, and thought the problem was due to improper grading that kept the water from reaching a nearby storm grate. But as is often the case, we were wrong. Eric Holmes, a spokesperson for transportation services, emailed to say that road work done about a year earlier included placing a cloth filter in the storm grate to catch construction debris. The cloth was mistakenly left in the drain, he said, adding that it would be removed right away, and that staff would keep an eye on it to make sure it drains properly.

After our Nov. 26 column about fire hydrant warning signs that were removed from University Ave. (they’ve since been restored), where two hydrants are so far back from the curb that drivers looking for parking don’t always see them, a reader weighed in with an interesting take on it. Raymond Kennedy said the applicable no-parking bylaw “needs to be carefully read,” noting that it says “parking within three metres of a hydrant is prohibited.

What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email

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