Old mattress must be put to rest, properly

Cajoling the city into removing an abandoned mattress from public property is easier said than done.

Roy Martin copied us an email to Mayor John Tory expressing frustration over his inability to get the city to remove an old mattress dumped in the park-like hydro corridor near Willowdale and Bishop Aves.

He says he first called 311 on Sept. 11 to report the mattress and was given a file number.

“The mattress was still there Sunday, Sept. 18, so I called 311 again and spoke with Lina,” he said in his note. “I was stunned to be told that the case was closed!”

He has since pursued it with another city official, “but you should not be surprised to be advised that she has chosen not to call me back.”

The 311 operators Martin talked to are likely unaware of a fact also largely unknown by the public: the hydro corridor that runs across the top of Toronto belongs to Hydro One, Ontario’s largest electrical provider.

That’s no excuse for issuing him a report number then closing it, as if it was resolved. But it explains why his complaints went nowhere. Status: We’ve dealt with Hydro One before on junk that was fouling the corridor and they were quick to clean it up. So we’ve asked if it could do the same with the mattress. Clarification: In our Tuesday column about Bell Canada’s efforts to install Fibe wiring in Toronto home and businesses, we reported that it’ll be complete in 2020. Bell says the Toronto rollout should be done by the end of 2017. It also took issue with our comment that it looks like it is muscling out competition. The exact opposite is true, said Bell. It loves and encourages competition. Who knew Bell was so big-hearted? 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 email jlakey@thestar.ca.