The notice mentioned that there was some community concern about the the area . . . → Read More: The Ossington Avenue Community meeting and the Surprise!]]> Early this week I arrived home to find a notice of a community meeting about the ”existing and future changes on Ossington Avenue between Dundas Street West and Queen Street West” hosted by Joe Pantalone, our city councillor and deputy mayor.

The notice mentioned that there was some community concern about the the area becoming oversaturated with restaurants and bars. The May 28th meeting was “an opportunity for business people are residents to jointly discuss concerns and opinions about the recent and future changes on Ossington Avenue”.

GREAT! I agree. It has been changing quickly. Perhaps it’s a time to examine the options.

Yet…. suddenly…. this!

Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, (Trinity Spadina), the councillor for the area, brought an urgent motion to city council at the last minute which was passed without debate. (also reported here and here)

Where was my opinion in the matter? where was the debate?

I went to the meeting and it was essentially Joe Pantalone and a couple people from the city explaining what they had done already. The meeting was very busy with 100-150 people attending. My impression of the meeting was that while there were community members complaining about issues in the neighbourhood, all these issues were ones that were already well addressed by current city laws. The city already has zoning laws for the neighbourhood – not allowing “entertainment” and also not allowing excessive noise. Aren’t these the problems?

It’s not restaurants, bakeries and cafes that are at issue. It’s noise, garbage and too many people up at night.

What do you think?

Update: Now Magazine’s Paul Terefenko has also weighed in with his report.