One misplaced pole down, one to go

When a utility pole ends up in the middle of a sidewalk, you have to wonder how it got there.

If two are in the same sidewalk, it’s hard not to conclude that the wrong person has too much authority over pole placement.

And when one of the poles suddenly disappears, but not the other, it only adds to the notion that somewhere in the city’s bureaucracy, a monkey is driving one of the buses.

We’ve been reporting on various problems involving utility poles, including an April 19 column about a pole that’s right in the middle of the sidewalk on Eastern Ave.

That prompted other complaints from readers about poles, including the curious case of two in the middle of a sidewalk on the north side of Finch Ave., east of Dufferin St.

Back in June, Arthur Forer sent us photos of the two poles on Finch, about 100 metres apart. He noted that the sidewalk is “below code,” and narrower than the standard city sidewalk width, which makes the poles even more of an obstacle.

“The sidewalk barely accommodates one person, and there is a street light pole right in the middle.”

We went there Thursday and found one of the poles exactly where he said it would be: Smack dab in the middle of the sidewalk, where it is in the way of pedestrians.

But when we looked west for the other pole, it was gone. Down the street, we noticed some pylons lying on the sidewalk, so we wandered over to take a look.

There’s a hole in the sidewalk, at approximately the same spot where the pole was in the photos sent to us by Forer, along with pylons with Toronto Hydro markings on them.

We can safely conclude that one was recently removed, and bully for that. But why not the other? Status: Mallory Cunnington, a spokeswoman for Toronto Hydro, which is responsible for utility poles, emailed to say she’s trying to find out why only one was taken out, and how they ended up there in the first place. She also said a crew will be dispatched to “secure the pylons.” 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, call us at 416-869-4823 or email jlakey@thestar.ca. To read our blog, go to thestar.com/news/the_fixer. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.