ABCRA Fall 2024 Newsletter
Our Fall 2024 newsletter includes updates and news from the neighbourhood, upcoming events and opportunities to get involved in your City.
What have we been up to? Lots! We have reports on upgrades at Ramsden Park, Avenue Road safety improvements (now under construction!), art in the neighbourhood, updates on various development proposals in the works and ABCRA’s response to them, some upcoming events and opportunities to support local organizations. We’re particularly thrilled to be collaborating with Tapestry Opera to bring their free Box Concert series to Ramsden Park on Sunday, September 15 at 1:15 pm. and hope you’ll attend!
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.
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.
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.
Dogs Off Leash Area Criteria for Commercial Dog Walkers
We are writing in full support of Councillor’s Saxe’s request to close Ramsden Park to Commercial Dog Walkers, and to develop criteria for which DOLA’s are appropriate locations for Commerical Dog Walkers.
Unlike similar facilities in downtown Toronto, Ramsden Park’s off-leash area for dogs is located within 20 metres or less of a residential neighbourhood unlike most other off-leash areas which are located well away from residential neighbourhoods.
Ramsden Park: A Park that Built a Community
The ABC Residents Association believes Ramsden Park has an interesting and important story to tell. Since the City of York’s earliest beginnings, this unique landscape has had a meaningful connection to this community. We believe that Ramsden Park meets the criteria for designation as a Cultural Heritage Landscape.
August 2024 Newsletter
Councillor Dianne Saxe’s August 2024 Newsletter for University-Rosedale is now available!
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. 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.