McRoberts Ave. soiled by pile of dirt for months
When a dirt pile loiters for months next to your house, it’s infuriating that the city won’t do anything to roust it.
Living in the Big Smoke often requires a lot of patience with people and things that are right outside our doors but beyond our control. Everybody can think of a few good examples.
If it involves a bylaw breach, we expect the city to be proactive, particularly after complaints are made. After all, bylaw enforcement is usually a process that is driven by complaints.
So when more than one person reports a problem to the city that is still there, months after the complaints were made, it is not unreasonable that they’d feel irritated about it.
A reader emailed us a photo of a big pile of dirt, next to the curb on the west side of McRoberts Ave., just south of Eglinton Ave., saying it has been there since mid-November.
The reader said he reported it to 311 in early December and was told it could take up to four weeks for it to be removed, a deadline that passed a month ago.
We went there to take a look and bumped into Antonetta Fantauzzi, who owns the house at the southwest corner of McRoberts and Eglinton Aves. and is out of patience with the long pile of dirt next to it.
Fantauzzi said she also reported it more than once to 311, adding that she thinks it was dug up as part of the Metrolinx LRT construction on Eglinton Ave.
“I call and ask them to move it, and all they do is put pylons on it,” she said, adding it makes it harder for plows to clear snow and attracts garbage such as coffee cups, plastic bottles and cigarette packages.
The ongoing LRT construction has made life miserable for people who live in the area, she said, noting that traffic further east on Eglinton Ave. is constantly gridlocked. Status: We’ve sent a note to the city’s right-of-way management office, asking if it can arrange to have the dirt moved. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to thestar.com/yourtoronto/the_fixer or call us at 416-869-4823. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.