THE FIXER Residents anxious to see the light
It’s time to shine a light — or six — on a laneway behind a westend townhouse development.
About five years ago, a row of townhouses was built on the west side of Osler St., near Old Weston Rd. between Dupont St. and Davenport Rd.
With limited parking on Osler, a laneway was created behind the townhouses so residents would have somewhere to park. On the other side of the laneway are railway tracks and a wooded area sometimes frequented by homeless people.
To make the area behind the townhouses feel safer, six utility poles with street lights were erected along the length of the laneway.
But after control of the laneway was turned over to the city, somebody forgot to turn on the lights. Norm Sharpe called us last week to say the lights in the laneway have never worked, adding that a lot of the residents access their homes through the back doors and believe the lights would add a greater measure of safety. * STATUS: Martin Maguire, who’s in charge of street lights, said he went for a drive last week with Adam Giambrone, the local city councillor, and ended up in the laneway because residents had called Giambrone to complain.
They are now trying to figure out why the lights weren’t turned on sooner, but Maguire stressed that they will be fired up soon. * WHO’S GETTING IT FIXED: Martin Maguire, Toronto’s manager of street and expressway lighting; 416-392-5243; MMaguir@
To report a problem with street lighting in Toronto, call the “lights-out hotline” at 416-3954448. * UPDATE: Tanya Bruckmueller of Toronto Hydro called yesterday to say that the old box attached to a utility pole on Ravel Rd. — the subject of Monday’s story — will be taken down right away. So will the pole, since it no longer serves any purpose. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To e-mail us, go to thestar.com, click on the GTA tab, then click on
The Fixer. Or call us at 416-869-4823.