Removal of excess poles clears way
City makes necessary fixes after sidewalk squeezes highlighted in this column
Three’s a crowd, so two poles that were in the way of people using mobility scooters or wheelchairs were removed from a busy Etobicoke street corner.
Our Jan. 4 columnwas about a tight squeeze at Kipling Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd., caused by a pole installed last year on the northwest corner to hold up TTC streetcar wires.
The new pole was close enough to two smaller poles with pedestrian crossing buttons on them that there was insufficient sidewalk space for a scooter or wheelchair to squeeze past. The only way around them for people using mobility devices was to detour onto the road and mix it up with trucks and buses coming south on Kipling.
Within a week of our column, we got a note from transportation services saying the smaller poles had been taken out and the pedestrian buttons relocated to the new pole.
On Dec. 18, we reported on another sidewalk squeeze, at the northwest corner of Yonge St. and Drewry Ave., where construction debris, left behind after a job wrapped, littered the sidewalk. With TTC buses stopping on Yonge to pick up and discharge passengers, people were forced to step over road signs and pylons to use the front doors of the bus.
Worse, the wall of a building on the corner was right next to the sidewalk, leaving people with less than two metres of walking space when buses pulled up to the corner.
After our column, the contractor who left the stuff behind was ordered by the city to take it away. It was gone within a couple days.
Our Jan. 6 columnwas about a sidewalk that was still knee-deep in snow, after a plow had already cleared it, on Danforth Rd. north of Mack Ave. Winds from the west sweeping across a snow-covered open field were blown onto the sidewalk, leaving a stretch of more than 200 metres, with a TTC bus stop in the middle, completely filled in.
Transportation services arranged to have it plowed again and said they’d keep a close eye on it after a snowfall, to make sure it doesn’t get plugged again. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Send an email to jlakey@thestar.ca. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.