895 Lawrence Ave. East
By Roman Kowalczuk, 25 Problems.com administrator
Councillor Burningsides announced another extremely short notice, "virtual" development consultation with the local city planners. Didn't councillor Robinson move to put an end to this stuff? You don't hear much about how that idea is doing!
In his purported announcement (which is filled with his own private, partisan links) Burningsides did not describe the circumstances and parameters of the virtual consulation. Also, in order to include their own contact information ― eg. the name of the planner who is handling the file ― city planners usually publish TWO page, double-sided announcements. And with the city's hard copy advertising, there are no tracking links, right?
Especially since I am loathe to click on anything Burningsides sends, it at first seemed like he only passed on *ONE* page, and since the Post Office has been away on strike over a plan to cut back on mail delivery, it was a mystery how planners like Jenny Choi and Ingrid Fung were going to handle the ADVANCE advertising on this one, ha.
The virtual event is not clearly mentioned in the A.I.C. and on the main City of Toronto web pages following planner Ingrid Fung's link quickly took you out of the city to Redmond Washington: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/1d5d78dd-4800-4b52-8df9-ebce3157cbc3@f0bc8ec6-9ed8-4d0c-9189-411ad949cc65
So the above ^ ^ ^ would involve Microsoft, the *AMERICAN* company that is heavily invested in the OpenAI initiative. (Full disclosure: I have been looking at Google's Gemini service here on 25 Problems; where exactly do we see the City's disclosure?)
I am almost positive that it was not possible to "register" for the virtual event without supplying your address and Zip code and other personal information.
Clicking around produces only *MICROSOFT’S* terms of service. The City of Toronto was not mentioned!
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-teams-event-registration-site-terms-of-service-876e9338-a1cf-44cf-805b-d2a83b6b4399
In the end the body count was dismal - only about 50 people, many nameless. Several were unhappy ‒ complaints about noise, wind, sunlight, privacy, traffic, flooding, school space, affordable housing, the history of Don Mills and suitable amenities for seniors were on the list of beefs; one caller said the planners were presenting in a "disingenuous" way given the failure of the original application... another man said the design was like something out of Albert Speer's Berlin, and a woman questioned the need for condos when the market has obviously tanked.
Given the low turnout, I was surprised that the subject of just how the meeting was advertised was not raised. (Canada Post had been on strike in the days immediately preceding the meeting, so the long-standing method of service - mailing out notices - could not possibly have been done in a timely manner. So what means did they employ?!)
I asked why chat was disabled during the session (my sense was that just about everything was turned off!) and in response to the development people saying everything was hunky dorey with the school boards (it always is, isn't it?) and bussing is great, I mentioned how at the March 23, 2023 planning town hall the T.D.S.B.'s real estate guy drew a blank on the question of available school spaces! Whoever was running the meeting (and as per usual they did not have an engineer on board - did you know that you could do that? It helps to keep things running smoothly) ignored my comments.
And so off we go to the Land Tribunal! At the end of the show planner Ingrid Fung displayed a slide of contact information for the OLT:
The above says "OLT Case Numbers: OLT-25-000319 and OLT-25-000320" and "OLT Case Coordinator: Hannah Nastic (Hanna.Nastic@ontario.ca or 647-633-1761)" and "Next Case Management Conference Date: November 6, 2025"
I wonder if it is fair to want to see a list of the questions that didn't make the cut, during the meeting.
-- Roman
Temporary end of file. Last updated at 1:35 a.m. on Saturday, October 18th
...
Councillor Burningsides announced another extremely short notice, "virtual" development consultation with the local city planners. Didn't councillor Robinson move to put an end to this stuff? You don't hear much about how that idea is doing!
In his purported announcement (which is filled with his own private, partisan links) Burningsides did not describe the circumstances and parameters of the virtual consulation. Also, in order to include their own contact information ― eg. the name of the planner who is handling the file ― city planners usually publish TWO page, double-sided announcements. And with the city's hard copy advertising, there are no tracking links, right?
Especially since I am loathe to click on anything Burningsides sends, it at first seemed like he only passed on *ONE* page, and since the Post Office has been away on strike over a plan to cut back on mail delivery, it was a mystery how planners like Jenny Choi and Ingrid Fung were going to handle the ADVANCE advertising on this one, ha.
The virtual event is not clearly mentioned in the A.I.C. and on the main City of Toronto web pages following planner Ingrid Fung's link quickly took you out of the city to Redmond Washington: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/1d5d78dd-4800-4b52-8df9-ebce3157cbc3@f0bc8ec6-9ed8-4d0c-9189-411ad949cc65
So the above ^ ^ ^ would involve Microsoft, the *AMERICAN* company that is heavily invested in the OpenAI initiative. (Full disclosure: I have been looking at Google's Gemini service here on 25 Problems; where exactly do we see the City's disclosure?)
I am almost positive that it was not possible to "register" for the virtual event without supplying your address and Zip code and other personal information.
Clicking around produces only *MICROSOFT’S* terms of service. The City of Toronto was not mentioned!
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/microsoft-teams-event-registration-site-terms-of-service-876e9338-a1cf-44cf-805b-d2a83b6b4399
In the end the body count was dismal - only about 50 people, many nameless. Several were unhappy ‒ complaints about noise, wind, sunlight, privacy, traffic, flooding, school space, affordable housing, the history of Don Mills and suitable amenities for seniors were on the list of beefs; one caller said the planners were presenting in a "disingenuous" way given the failure of the original application... another man said the design was like something out of Albert Speer's Berlin, and a woman questioned the need for condos when the market has obviously tanked.
Given the low turnout, I was surprised that the subject of just how the meeting was advertised was not raised. (Canada Post had been on strike in the days immediately preceding the meeting, so the long-standing method of service - mailing out notices - could not possibly have been done in a timely manner. So what means did they employ?!)
I asked why chat was disabled during the session (my sense was that just about everything was turned off!) and in response to the development people saying everything was hunky dorey with the school boards (it always is, isn't it?) and bussing is great, I mentioned how at the March 23, 2023 planning town hall the T.D.S.B.'s real estate guy drew a blank on the question of available school spaces! Whoever was running the meeting (and as per usual they did not have an engineer on board - did you know that you could do that? It helps to keep things running smoothly) ignored my comments.
And so off we go to the Land Tribunal! At the end of the show planner Ingrid Fung displayed a slide of contact information for the OLT:
The above says "OLT Case Numbers: OLT-25-000319 and OLT-25-000320" and "OLT Case Coordinator: Hannah Nastic (Hanna.Nastic@ontario.ca or 647-633-1761)" and "Next Case Management Conference Date: November 6, 2025"
I wonder if it is fair to want to see a list of the questions that didn't make the cut, during the meeting.
-- Roman
Temporary end of file. Last updated at 1:35 a.m. on Saturday, October 18th
...