Poles on sidewalk are an obstacle
Hazel Ave. pedestrians are left with little room to manoeuvre
You have to wonder about the acumen of people in charge, when new utility poles are put up in the middle of a sidewalk.
For years, Toronto Hydro has been replacing aging utility poles across the city, a process that usually involves putting up new ones right next to the old ones, and then chopping off the decommissioned poles.
But too often, the sawed-off poles remain for months or even years before they’re removed, resulting in lots of complaints to us about the street clutter created by the old stumps.
Linda Liontis sent us a link to a list of “municipal consent requirements” for installing stuff on city streets, which says that when poles are replaced, the old one are supposed to be removed within 12 months.
Fat chance. We know of locations where poles were replaced at least two years ago, but the decapitated old ones are still there.
So it should be no surprise when questionable judgment is exercised in not only removing the old poles, but installing new ones. In the what-were-theythinking department, Brian Bjolin sent us a photo of a chopped-off concrete pole on tiny Hazel Ave., just two blocks long, standing next to a recently installed wooded replacement pole.
Lots of poles in his Beaches neighbourhood were replaced last summer, Bjolin said, while the leftovers of the old ones were marked for removal with fluorescent paint.
“And if putting the new pole smack in the middle of the sidewalk wasn’t enough, this weekend saw a new sidewalk section poured, beautifully framing both the new pole and the metre-high remnant of its predecessor. “As the kids say: ‘WTF?’ ” We went there and found not just the ones in Bjolin’s photo, but a half-dozen old poles still standing next to their replacements in the sidewalk that runs along the north side of the twoblock-long street. WTF indeed. Status: Toronto’s accessibility guidelines call for a minimum of 1.67 metres of clear sidewalk space, so that people in wheelchairs or pushing child strollers aren’t forced into the road. The ones on Hazel aren’t even close. We’ve sent a note to Toronto Hydro, which is responsible for most utility poles, asking for an explanation. Stay tuned. What's broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Email
jlakey@thestar.ca or follow @TOStarFixer on Twitter