Recent news
LAST MINOR UPDATES WERE MADE AT AT 2:55 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 9th
By Roman Kowalczuk
This past Saturday was the FMTA's tenant summit in downtown Toronto. The A.H.N. (Accessible Housing Network) presenter had some good slides; I re-processed my pictures a bit to make them more punchy... tap or click the thumbnail to enlarge the image. I also reprised some of my notes from the FMTA meeting.
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As mentioned the calendar has been updated slightly. I put in a countdown to November 4 and the council by-election for Jaye Robinson's seat. Several candidates have web pages (City of Toronto link)
Kindly submit any important dates or corrections. An implementation of Google's calendar feature is pending.
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New on this page: an attempt to decipher the recent news (or whatever it was) about 7 St. Dennis Drive. This matter revolves around a proposal to put high-rise buildings (40 storeys and up) DIRECTLY across the street from the Ontario Science Centre. The street sign at 7 St. Dennis implied that North York Community Council would consider the complete application on September 24. They did not do so!
^ ^ ^ Above is a video link so be sure to come back to the "News" here when you're done.
In the video outtake from the council session the previous item just melds so smoothly into the 7 St. Dennis consideration, doesn’t it? And it’s interesting how chair James Pasternak exhibits such familiarity with the vacant lands across from the Ontario Science Centre! Lots of luck getting the local councillor to explain what just happened and why he was opposed.
The full Youtube link for the Sept. 24 community council meeting is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6kO9xQ7CTQ
So at the moment I'm not sure where things stand re: 7 St. Dennis Drive. The matter came up at the twelve and a half minute mark of the Sept. 24th "Public Meeting" and... from the video outtake, it would appear that the councillors spent a grand total 38 seconds on it before "adopting" a change to an application. There are several applications so exactly which application was deferred or referred or sent to council isn't clear since the numbers keep changing. In the picture you can clearly see where they plastered a label or decal over the original (February 23, 2023) "consultation"; the Webex recording of the consultation has been removed too!
One of my main issues going into the meeting was that last year's very strange "consultation" about 7 St. Dennis appears to have disappeared; ergo there had been a Webex recording, but that file is now coming up "Error 404".
Also - ahead of the meeting the local councillor did not comment on anything even closely related to 7 St. Dennis Drive... in point of fact he dodged the issue by just publishing a link to the A.I.C., but even this was via a link to his own, very private, very partisan tracking sub-contractor(s). And he has zero posted in the way of any semblance of a privacy policy.
Curiously, in his list of "development updates" the local councillor is running a link to at least one other "consultation" about St. Dennis Drive that produces an "Error 404".
It's seems that a sort of decal or sticker was plastered onto the sign, probably some time in August. I have yet to compare the previous numbers with the new ones, and all of this information with whatever it says is going on in the AIC which as we've seen is a piece of work bar none. All in all it seems like a funny way to run a railroad.
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Here's a look at an alt-version site calendar - one that uses Google.
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Doug Ford's provincial Tories managed to keep their seat in Quinte by-election that followed the sudden resignation of education minister Todd Smith. From her postings Sabrina Nanji did a lot of boots-on-the-ground research, interviewing the man on the street and knocking on doors. If I remember correctly she mentioned a low turnout... only 38 percent or so of eligible voters?
The city's consultation at Metro Hall about a possible renoviction by-law was four weeks ago; on the evening of Monday Sept. 9 there was a Zoom event that nobody seems to have recorded or transcribed.
I mentioned Geordie Dent’s summer letter to council about this stuff in a forums post.
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Ahead of the renewed/revived/resucitated... agenda item at North York Civic Centre on re: 7 St. Dennis Drive and the "vacant lands" (that's the term the developers used; it's in the "A.I.C.") across from the science centre, it may be good to question the wisdom of building so close to 200 Gateway. Or vice-versa. At the first "consultation" (the one in February 2023) nobody said boo about 200 Gateway, and as I mentioned the city's record of that appears to have vanished. The city did not apply the "update" decal to "200 Gateway" signage, which in turn does not mention the Sept. 24 meeting!
(Above) Recap of the illustration in the developer's plans for 7 St. Dennis Drive. Not shown: the new tower at 200 Gateway (which will be what, 25 meters to the south? 50 meters?) or the Menkes group's plan for the Foresters building. Nor do we see the vaunted elevated railway station across the street, or anything, really, about Tenblock's planned demolition of 48 Grenoble.
The A.I.C. does not... exactly mention the Sept. 24 North York Civic Centre meeting, or the February 23, 2024 one. So why did the councilor highlight the tracking link in his "important update"? (The link shown is to an animated facsimile of the February 2023 "consultation" that was attended by a handful (eg. less than five) area residents. If a tree falls in the forest and no-one is around to see it...?)
My page about the A.I.C. is here. It goes back about 14 months.
Users with full vision may be able to consult the city's "new" (but un-dated, so in this case the word "new" is a relative term) pages about the A.I.C. here: www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/application-information-centre
.. - Roman
By Roman Kowalczuk
This past Saturday was the FMTA's tenant summit in downtown Toronto. The A.H.N. (Accessible Housing Network) presenter had some good slides; I re-processed my pictures a bit to make them more punchy... tap or click the thumbnail to enlarge the image. I also reprised some of my notes from the FMTA meeting.
.
. 
_
As mentioned the calendar has been updated slightly. I put in a countdown to November 4 and the council by-election for Jaye Robinson's seat. Several candidates have web pages (City of Toronto link)
Kindly submit any important dates or corrections. An implementation of Google's calendar feature is pending.
----------
New on this page: an attempt to decipher the recent news (or whatever it was) about 7 St. Dennis Drive. This matter revolves around a proposal to put high-rise buildings (40 storeys and up) DIRECTLY across the street from the Ontario Science Centre. The street sign at 7 St. Dennis implied that North York Community Council would consider the complete application on September 24. They did not do so!
^ ^ ^ Above is a video link so be sure to come back to the "News" here when you're done.
In the video outtake from the council session the previous item just melds so smoothly into the 7 St. Dennis consideration, doesn’t it? And it’s interesting how chair James Pasternak exhibits such familiarity with the vacant lands across from the Ontario Science Centre! Lots of luck getting the local councillor to explain what just happened and why he was opposed.
The full Youtube link for the Sept. 24 community council meeting is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6kO9xQ7CTQ
So at the moment I'm not sure where things stand re: 7 St. Dennis Drive. The matter came up at the twelve and a half minute mark of the Sept. 24th "Public Meeting" and... from the video outtake, it would appear that the councillors spent a grand total 38 seconds on it before "adopting" a change to an application. There are several applications so exactly which application was deferred or referred or sent to council isn't clear since the numbers keep changing. In the picture you can clearly see where they plastered a label or decal over the original (February 23, 2023) "consultation"; the Webex recording of the consultation has been removed too!
One of my main issues going into the meeting was that last year's very strange "consultation" about 7 St. Dennis appears to have disappeared; ergo there had been a Webex recording, but that file is now coming up "Error 404".
Also - ahead of the meeting the local councillor did not comment on anything even closely related to 7 St. Dennis Drive... in point of fact he dodged the issue by just publishing a link to the A.I.C., but even this was via a link to his own, very private, very partisan tracking sub-contractor(s). And he has zero posted in the way of any semblance of a privacy policy.
Curiously, in his list of "development updates" the local councillor is running a link to at least one other "consultation" about St. Dennis Drive that produces an "Error 404".
It's seems that a sort of decal or sticker was plastered onto the sign, probably some time in August. I have yet to compare the previous numbers with the new ones, and all of this information with whatever it says is going on in the AIC which as we've seen is a piece of work bar none. All in all it seems like a funny way to run a railroad.
----------
Here's a look at an alt-version site calendar - one that uses Google.
----------
Doug Ford's provincial Tories managed to keep their seat in Quinte by-election that followed the sudden resignation of education minister Todd Smith. From her postings Sabrina Nanji did a lot of boots-on-the-ground research, interviewing the man on the street and knocking on doors. If I remember correctly she mentioned a low turnout... only 38 percent or so of eligible voters?
The city's consultation at Metro Hall about a possible renoviction by-law was four weeks ago; on the evening of Monday Sept. 9 there was a Zoom event that nobody seems to have recorded or transcribed.
I mentioned Geordie Dent’s summer letter to council about this stuff in a forums post.
----------
Ahead of the renewed/revived/resucitated... agenda item at North York Civic Centre on re: 7 St. Dennis Drive and the "vacant lands" (that's the term the developers used; it's in the "A.I.C.") across from the science centre, it may be good to question the wisdom of building so close to 200 Gateway. Or vice-versa. At the first "consultation" (the one in February 2023) nobody said boo about 200 Gateway, and as I mentioned the city's record of that appears to have vanished. The city did not apply the "update" decal to "200 Gateway" signage, which in turn does not mention the Sept. 24 meeting!
(Above) Recap of the illustration in the developer's plans for 7 St. Dennis Drive. Not shown: the new tower at 200 Gateway (which will be what, 25 meters to the south? 50 meters?) or the Menkes group's plan for the Foresters building. Nor do we see the vaunted elevated railway station across the street, or anything, really, about Tenblock's planned demolition of 48 Grenoble.
The A.I.C. does not... exactly mention the Sept. 24 North York Civic Centre meeting, or the February 23, 2024 one. So why did the councilor highlight the tracking link in his "important update"? (The link shown is to an animated facsimile of the February 2023 "consultation" that was attended by a handful (eg. less than five) area residents. If a tree falls in the forest and no-one is around to see it...?)
My page about the A.I.C. is here. It goes back about 14 months.
Users with full vision may be able to consult the city's "new" (but un-dated, so in this case the word "new" is a relative term) pages about the A.I.C. here: www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/application-information-centre
.. - Roman