Featured News
![Tax increase - house models, money bag and red up arrow](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/tax-increase.webp)
Are Toronto property taxes really ‘absolutely out of control’? Here’s how they stack up against other cities
For decades in Toronto, property taxes barely went up. Under every previous mayor in post-amalgamation history, taxes were either frozen or increases were aimed “at or below the rate of inflation” or “in line with inflation.”
The result was decades of experts talking about how we had shockingly low property taxes by the standards of our region and the standards of other big cities. As a further result, we heard decades of city managers tell us how that was starving services and maintenance.
At a certain point, people really started to notice things falling apart.
More News
![](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ontario-place-after-scaled.webp)
Amid 865 trees coming down, Province releases 95-year lease with Therme
Under cover of darkness, Infrastructure Ontario began the removal of 865 trees at Ontario Place on the evening of Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Within a single day, workers had cut down the vast majority of those trees.
The work—which includes the removal of every single tree on the western portion of the waterfront site adjacent downtown Toronto—is part of the approximately $200-million in site preparations that taxpayers are funding to prepare the land for Therme, an Austrian spa company, to develop a stadium-sized indoor waterpark on the site. See before and after photos.
The next day, October 3, the Province released the details of its 95-year lease with Therme, which journalists and grassroots organizations have…
![Accident Avenue Road & Davenport Oct. 2, 2024](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/accident2-scaled.webp)
Pedestrian seriously injured at Avenue Road and Davenport
Another pedestrian was seriously injured this afternoon on Avenue Road near Davenport. The collision involved a pedestrian, and three cars. One car jumped the curb onto the sidewalk. The pedestrian was transferred to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Road safety improvements on Avenue Road are scheduled to start soon, which unfortunately was not soon enough to prevent another injury.
![Toronto traffic jam](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Rearview_mirror_and_Yonge_Street_traffic.webp)
Toronto’s ineffectual enforcement contributes to ongoing gridlock
After years of writing about traffic enforcement and pedestrian and cyclist safety, I became convinced that Toronto police either just don’t like or don’t respect policing the roads, and the leadership doesn’t see good reason to change that.
A former police officer told Habibinia much the same. There is a long-standing culture inside the police service where traffic enforcement is not considered “real police work” compared to “sexy” crime-fighting. Yet city hall, which sets the police budget, believes gridlock is a major problem, for people and for the economy.
![Nuit Blanche 2024](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Coalescing-Toward-2024-by-Michael-Rizzo-at-STRUT-Perth-Moves-scaled-1.webp)
Nuit Blanche returns October 5, 2024
The 18th annual Nuit Blanche Toronto will once again transform the city this fall, from sunset to sunrise, starting at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 5, and concluding at 7 a.m. on Sunday, October 6. This year’s theme Bridging Distance will explore the different ways we experience distance and reimagine how we can bridge distance through art. Entry to the City of Toronto’s biggest contemporary art festival is free, with almost 100 art projects and performances from close to 150 artists.
![Dianne Saxe newsletter](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Sax-newsletter-pic.webp)
August 2024 Newsletter
![](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/KR-memorial-ride-Bloor.webp)
Too many pedestrians and cyclists are killed by cars. There are solutions
For too long, society accepted that death was a fact of life on the roads. It was the cost of convenience to move from A to B as fast as possible in a car. We call crashes “accidents,” even when the causes, from driver speed to road design, are deliberate choices. It’s a cultural problem that such incidents are viewed as ordinary.
Cities must redouble their efforts to make change happen.
![Push button crosswalk](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/PedestrianSignalPushButton.webp)
Push. Pray. Walk: After yet another death, should Toronto replace these dangerous pedestrian crossovers?
There’s a certain anxiety that activates when some of us pedestrians push the button to activate one of Toronto’s standalone pedestrian crossovers.
You take a deep breath as the overhead orange flashing lights activate. You try your best to make eye contact with any approaching drivers. If you’re pushing a stroller, you grip the handles tightly. If you’re the religious type, maybe you say a little prayer. Perhaps you just cross your fingers while crossing the street. And you hope.
![Infrastructure 2024](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/infrastructure-2024.webp)
City infrastructure projects in our Ward
As well as all the building construction we are experiencing in our area, the City has provided a map and list of road and other infrastructure projects underway or scheduled for the near future in Ward 11.
Collectively these will affect traffic and getting around our Ward, and two are within our ABC borders: Watermain replacement at Yonge/Macpherson and Ramsden Road Park reconstruction.
![429-435 Broome St. NYC](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/429-435-Broome-Street-New-York-City-crop.webp)
Jane Jacobs would reject Toronto’s “city of yes” too!
“A green light for cataclysmic development” is how Jane would characterize City of Yes, not the city of gradual change that she observed to be what strengthens cities. If approved, buildings will be constructed on tight lots, out of scale, and high in income. Design contortions will be invented to take advantage of the as-yet-unidentified empty spaces. Buildings will be razed and truly affordable units lost.
Sound familiar? The proposals for NYC will sound eerily familiar to Torontonians.
Events & Public Meetings
![Scrivener mural launch](https://www.abcra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Scrivener-Launch3-150x150.webp)
Scrivener Underpass Mural Project
LAUNCH CELEBRATION
Wednesday, October 2, 2024, noon to 2 p.m.
Meet at south side of LCBO(10 Scrivener Sq.)
Live music by Elyssa Plaza + Bellosound
Come celebrate the Scrivener Underpass Mural by local artist Zuna Amir. Meet Zuna and her team of artists!