Odd-looking cages keep out the birds
There’s more than meets the eye to the positioning of strange metal cages above lights in an underpass on Bloor St. W.
Anyone who has to walk into an underpass at night will tell you that the darker it is, the creepier it feels. And how much cheerier it is to stride confidently through a well-lit tunnel.
Keeping the lights on is a challenge, judging by the ones in underpasses that don’t work. But keeping them clean, so they’re as bright as they’re supposed to be, is no less a problem.
The measures taken to prevent them from getting dirty can be deceptive, as is the case in a railway underpass on Bloor, between Perth Ave. and Dundas St.
Jeff Willim sent us a note that included photos of lights in the underpass for the Metrolinx rail line that passes over Bloor. The photos show, he says, that a mistake was made when metal cages were recently installed above them.
“Dozens of these cages were somehow installed upside-down at some point this past summer, making them vulnerable to the vandalism which they were installed to prevent,” said Willim. “As the pictures show, these lights have already begun to see damage from graffiti, which the cages could have prevented . . . I’m not too sure how anyone could have even installed every single cage upside-down without realizing, but it looks ridiculous.”
To us, the cages resemble tiny jail cells, but as soon as we looked at his photos, we understood they’re not supposed to cover the lights to shield them from vandalism, as Willim believes.
They look like another salvo in the endless battle to keep pigeons from roosting in underpass rafters and pooping on everything beneath, including people and lights.
They are intended to keep birds from roosting atop the lights — a warm and appealing perch in the cold of winter — and bombing them with droppings, or so we thought. Status: We checked with Toronto Hydro, which is in charge of street lighting. A spokesperson emailed to confirm that “the lights were installed as part of the bridge rehabilitation project led by Metrolinx. The cages were added to prevent pigeon roosting and bird guano potentially damaging the equipment. The cage, in of itself, would not stop graffiti (but) we take vandalism very seriously and ask residents to report graffiti to the City of Toronto at 311 or on our website at torontohydro.com/graffiti.” 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.