There are a number of changes which the mayor’s office is proposing which may not be good for Ward 19 and downtown Toronto residents. Come out to the meeting and share your opinions on what is important for your Toronto so Mike can take this back to council.

If you can’t make it out fill out the survey on this City Service Review website here.

the back patio at Union Restaurant.

Teo was out serving the best hamburgers and sausages I think I have tasted in a while, with some great condiments. Mike Layton, our Ward 19 counselor,  stopped by and chatted with Teo, explaining that these are the kind of local places that we need in the neighbourhood.

Right now, but current bylaws, Union cannot open their patio to the public, so they will need to go to the Committee of Adjustment. During these hearings, letters of support from locals can be helpful.

Teo’s goal for Union is to be a refuge for both farmers and patrons, and he has wanted a patio since he began his journey to ownership. The idea for the patio is that it would serve a maximum of 24 people, and also house his composting area as well as a charcoal barbeque. Produce from local farmers will also be showcased along the wall. It will close at 11pm, so as not to disturb local neighbours.

He is asking for letters of support so if you can email him at chefteo@gmail.com a letter noting your support, he can then use that at the committee meeting.

According to municipal documents, Joe Pantalone requested an investigation into the intersection in 2009 and said investigation took place (which is probably quite out-of-date considering the pace of change on the street) in that same year. There was a public meeting about the stoplight, which for some reason was held in East York, so it was unlikely to attract the attendance of neighbourhood residents, the very people most impacted by this decision.

According to the municipal documents, the lights cost the city $130,000. One assumes that there was some safety concerns about the intersection that led to the initial discussion, which is hard for city Councillors to turn down. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be the case. The report pointed out that

for the three-year period ending July 31, 2009 …six collisions had occurred at the intersection of Ossington Avenue and Argyle Street. Of the six collisions, none involved a pedestrian, and one was considered potentially preventable by the installation  of traffic control signals.

But the report issued by the city raises some valid concerns about the lights at the intersection including:

• Possible Increased congestion and delay to traffic on Ossington Avenue is possible;
• Increased traffic volume on Argyle Street;
• Parking must be prohibited at all times within 30.5 metres of the intersection resulting in a loss of about six parking spaces on Ossington Avenue and three parking spaces on Argyle Street;
• Increased wait times for pedestrians crossing Ossington Avenue.

This all seems, to us, like a lot of negatives for not a whole lot of positives. There was a crossing guard at the intersection during school hours, who seems to have been removed, or at least have shorter hours these days. Only one accident (out of only 6) could have been prevented by this light which will cause more pedestrian wait times and more traffic. All this to address a 3 year old request from a now obsolete politician.

Dani Elwell, of Jaiden’s Petals, likes the new stoplight. Her daughter is often crossing Argyle and Ossington and she has always been nervous about cars that don’t pay attention to the cross-walk. The new light, she says, will help to create a bit of humanity at the intersection.

According to current councillor Mike Layton, the lights will remain green for those on Ossington until requested or actuated by a car or pedestrian request on Argyle.

What do you think about the new lights? Good? Bad?

This year there are over 170 free walking tours planned for the GTA, and we are exploring those within walking distance of us. The titles alone demonstrate the diversity of the topics and should spark your interest!

Sunday May 8, 11AM-12:30PM: Trinity Bellwoods Park is featured in a walk titled, “How to Make a Great City Park.” Dave Harvey, the Executive Director of Park People, will talk about design and all the other ingredients that make a great park such an important part of city life.

From 12-1:30PM on Sunday, The Walls are Alive with the Sounds Of Mad People is a theatrical walk through CAMH with The Friendly Spike Theatre Band.

Sunday May 8, 2-3PM: From the south end of the park,  join “The Hipster’s Guide to Ossington,” through that street’s cafes, art galleries and vintage stores to “study the hipster in its natural habitat.”

Also on Sunday, from 4-5:30PM, learn more about “Dundas West: Behind the Scene” with a tour of the street that begins at Dovercourt and Dundas.

Sunday, 6-7:30PM: HiMY SYeD will lead from Bloor and Ossington south through Garrison Creek and Shaw Street on a tour called “Dark Age Ahead: The Wizard of Ossington Jane’s Walk.”

On Saturday, May 7 from 3-4PM, and a little further afield, our local city councilor Mike Layton is hosting the first ever Jane’s Walk of Liberty Village.

What you can expect in Toronto this weekend is a lot of variety and a lot of groups of people walking around. When you join them, wear some comfortable shoes and prepare for any kind of weather. It’s May in Toronto after all!

In last night’s meeting, Mike covered a lot of topics. He gave us an update on the budget dealings at city hall, and some of our esteemed mayor’s other plans. As news readers know, transit is a hot topic in Toronto these days, and that will likely be the focus of Mike’s next community meeting.

Besides his own updates, Mike allowed the 15 or so attendees to discuss their concerns and issues. There were representatives from parks, business improvement groups, resident’s associations and Live Green Toronto.

No one directly from Ossington was there (besides me), but there was a rep from the Do West BIA, the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods Park, and the Trinity Bellwoods Community Association, so definitely local interest groups. We consider Trinity Bellwoods our local park, and we’re not the only ones. Every year more people use the park, and I learned they do not have a great budget, evidenced by the one part-time parks employee who does all the maintenance all summer long. So remember that next time you stop there for a picnic with friends, and clean up after yourself, please.

Other issues include the very long-term work that’s been done with the streetcars on Dundas. This construction is going to start up again very soon, and as of this Monday, April 4, we will once again see buses replacing the streetcars both east and west bound in our portion of Dundas.

One of the purposes of this meeting was to connect like-minded groups and allow them to network, share information and help each other with shared experience. So, the parks people connected, and the BIA people shared info. Good idea, and I think it worked.

Finally, Mike pointed out that it is very likely council will soon revoke the harmonized bylaws. He expects it to happen in two weeks. This means a lot of work for council to start over with zoning rules, but, on the positive side, the laws could hopefully make a lot more sense!

For your chance to learn more about council and what’s going on in the community, and to have your say, definitely stay posted for the June town hall meeting. We’ll let you know.

It’s a chance for local residents to voice their concerns and give their thoughts on how budgets within Ward 19 are allocated.

We believe it’s important for residents to know what’s going on in their neighbourhood, and this is a great chance to ask Mike Layton about

his plans for the Ward going forward. He is new to the role, so now is the chance to express your opinion.

If you can’t make it and you still want to have your say send an email to Mike Layton here.

For a look at the details of the current budget check out the city site here.

These are the 10 most popular posts by site traffic over 2010.

1. Beau Lieu Bistro is now open. – This is one of the unsung stars of Ossington. A low-key French bistro, with really nice food, a good ambiance, and a staff that cares. So we are happy that, at least on our blog, they are getting the attention they deserve

2. Dinner at Salt Wine Bar. – Before this place had a license they were operating on catering certificates. We went over and tried the food and were very impressed. Soon after  we ate there they were closed for almost two months. Reader were curious on what to expect when they finally got a chance to taste the food.

3. Ward 19 Candidate’s Debate. – When we announced that we were going to have a candidate’s debate, it was a new thing for us. The debate itself was a lot of fun and there were a lot of folks that ended up watching the UStream video from this post from the night itself. Michael Sims rocked the night and shook some people up.

4. Goed Eton Gets off to a Rolling Start. – One of the quirky, but delicious places that opened on the street is Goed Eten – where the proprietor, Johan, has been putting together a menu of poutine, local fed sausage burgers and other gourmet food. This post we put up right when he open and was still working out the kinks.

5 Salt Wine Bar Looks Open. – Salt Wine Bar gets another place on our top 10 list from our post on Aug 7th when we learned it had opened – albeit without a license.

6 Karen Sun shows good knowledge of Ward 19. – We did a number of candidate profiles over the course of the election cycle, but the big hit on our site was the profile of Karen Sun. Although she didn’t beat out Mike Layton, she was the site favourite in terms of page hits.

7. Call Joe Pantalone, Open Salt Wine Bar. – Again, Salt Wine Bar hits our top 10 list – the frustration with Joe Pantalone’s decision to put a moratorium on the restaurants on the street encouraged others to check out our post.

8. Jess’s Dead Sexy bad ass, mother Fxxxing, pulled-pork Sandwich. – What can we say? The best pulled pork sandwich on Ossington, or maybe in Toronto, is in an unexpected place, The Painted Lady.

9. The Evolution of Dundas off Ossington. - This year because of the moratorium, as well as other factors, the Dundas strip to the east and west of Ossington became popular with places like Churchill, Camp 4, Red Light,  The Port, Enoteca Sociale and more. This post looked at some of the newer places that emerged.

10. Havana Cultura Starts Today. – Our 10th place post is about a festival that took place in August celebrating Cuban Culture. We have a number of places on the strip as well as just off that joined in the festivities with Cuban food and music.

There was, however, some great debate and discussion during the race, in our debate at the Garrison, as well as the other debates in the ward. Karen Sun, who didn’t come with the family support, and Sean McCormick, who challenged from the right, as well as Jim Likourezos, Karlene Nation, Ted Footman, Ross Bruto, George Sawision all challenged for the seat on council. And some great arguments were heard, and hopefully Mike will take some of those to city council to keep a progressive movement alive in the city and to keep the Ossington area alive and growing.

We congratulate Mike on the victory, and wish him the best of success in the new position. As we’ve posted before, it’s important that he keep the local issues close at hand, and communicate with his constituents in a way that his predecessor failed in his waning years. In numerous discussions tonight with his supporters at his event, as well as in the other events, locals we talked to liked him but felt that it was important he become his own candidate at city council and move from campaign mode to community mode. We agree.

When we met Mike in person he was genuine, and very caring about the community. He wanted to listen and open channels with both people and businesses, so problems, especially those along Ossington, could be solved. He brings with him some experience in the foodservice industry, as well as an understanding of cultivating an entertainment and lively culture – something his father brought to the downtown core many years ago. These are the traits we hope he brings with him to council.

It was a good night in the ward despite many disagreeing with what happened in the mayoral race. We wandered along College visiting Ted Footman’s event at Bar Italia; Revival, where Joe Pantalone passed the family torch to Mike; and then to meet Karen Sun at Brass Taps, where her supporters congratulated her on a hard fought battle against a competitor with far greater resources. (then for some food at Lakeview!) We hoped to make it to Sean and Karlene’s events, but ran out of steam, but look forward to catching up.

Here are some pictures of the night:

So? When can we go to Salt Wine Bar, legally? Mike?

A few good people were following the debate on twitter and provided up-to-the-minute commentary on what was going on:

There was also an article today in Parent Central on Michael Sims’ discussion of Maria Pantalone, sister of Joe Pantalone, and a current local school principal who recently was charged with assault and in the past found guilty of throwing feces at a student, and her  distribution of Chris Bolton’s campaign literature through her school. Michael Sims made quite a stir. (Quite shocking stuff, and amazing that it only makes Parent Central in the Star)

There was also coverage and an endorsement by a local blog “All Fired Up in the Big Smoke”

We’ll keep an eye out for more coverage, but in the meantime check out the pictures from the night. If you want to check them out on Facebook, we’ve posted them there also.