Storage lockers for skaters reopen
Skaters at Nathan Phillips Square can finally secure their personal items when they go for a twirl, after lockers in the change room were repaired.
Just before Christmas, we wrote that all 110 storage cabinets had been taken out of service when the ice went in at the start of the season in mid-November, leaving people with nowhere to lock up their stuff.
A reader told us that skaters had no choice but to stash their coats, shoes and other personal items in or under benches around the periphery of the rink, amounting to a smorgasbord for light-fingered thieves.
All the locking mechanisms had been removed from the cabinets, and city workers had been told they would not be replaced for the remainder of the skating season, the reader said.
But the situation quickly changed after our column. We soon got a note from a city spokesperson, saying all the locking mechanisms had been replaced and every locker was available to skaters.
We went there on New Year’s Day, when the ice was jammed with skaters, and found the change room was no less packed with people who were using the lockers.
Another one of our columns last month was about a small pond that formed after every rainfall on the sidewalk on the east side of Yonge St., just north of Bloor St., forcing pedestrians to slog through it or go around. A long, narrow utility cut had been patched with asphalt piled slightly above the grade of the surrounding sidewalk, preventing rainwater from draining away. Transportation services spokesperson Eric Holmes sent us a note confirming that the patch was “above grade,” and that city worked with Telus, the utility responsible, to correct the problem.
We also reported on a broken cover on top of a small utility chamber in the intersection of King and Sumach Sts., which created a deep crater that had the potential to damage vehicles that hit it. Holmes also sent us a note on that one, saying the cover had been replaced. 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