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.

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?

We met Michael a few months ago when he reached out to us, having read the blog. We learned about the position of TDSB trustee from him and did a short profile of him on the blog. We then thought it fair to reach out to Chris Bolton, his incumbent opponent, and invited him to the debate on October 5th, as well as mentioning to him at the time that we’d be happy to do a profile of him. Bolton did attend the debate, with barely any notice, and didn’t follow up with us about the profile.

What has impressed us about Michael is how he is willing to shake things up and his willingness to explore and use technology to embrace change. Michael got up at the debate and called out Mr. Bolton for distributing his campaign flyers through Maria Pantalone’s (Joe’s sister) school in the area – something Mr. Bolton has apologized for and said was a mistake.

We feel he is dismissive of local concerns. In questions from the local paper, the Gleaner, “Bolton refused to comment directly on any of  Sims’ accusations. ‘It’s not news, it’s been withdrawn, the letter basically says it,” said Bolton. “What we should be concentrating on is … policy.’” The TDSB, of which Mr. Bolton is vice-chair, decided to take no action against him for the breach, and it doesn’t seem clear that Mr Bolton didn’t make that decision himself.

Our experience with Chris, as bloggers and constituents in his ward, mirror the Gleaner’s experience. We had a reader submit a question to us about him and his background, which we passed on to Chris. It was essentially a simple issue that needed clarification but we also received a similar terse reply – with little or no substance, and no follow-up.

It also concerns us that he has full support from another candidate running in the riding, which Sean McCormick has pointed out and asked to end, and that offers significant advantage. There is a large funding difference between a city council candidate and a TDSB candidate. A donation to a candidate for city council comes with up to 75% tax rebate, while a donation to a TDSB candidate offers no rebate.  So, by putting names on signs, thus relieving Mr. Bolton of thousands of dollars of expenses not offered to Mr. Sims, the election is unfairly stacked – not exactly democratic.

But we wouldn’t endorse someone just based on the actions of the incumbent. Michael has been blogging about his experience running and has offered some good ideas. As a software developer (and I run a small software company), he proposed the idea of modernizing parental participation using something similar to bug-tracking software, where people can file issues, and watch to see whether they get resolved. He has also proposed using open source software to reduce some of the expenses in local schools. If you read his blog, he shows a curiosity to look into new ideas for improving the way things are, which we like.

So, even if you don’t have kids in the school board, you want someone who represents the area, and someone who won’t be dismissive of the local concerns. We endorse Michael Sims for TDSB.

One of the reasons people don’t get involved in local politics is they don’t know what’s going on. Karen Sun pointed out in our meeting and discussion, and on stage at the debate, that many of the people that she talked to in the neighbourhood knew that there was something going on with the moratorium on Ossington, but didn’t exactly know what. And, I’d have to admit that I’m still not sure I fully understand how the laws work, because it was my understanding – which was obviously wrong – that the moratorium ended but the new laws they passed back in the spring are now in effect. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case, as Salt Wine Bar fights to find a way to open their already complete and fully ready restaurant.

In the Toronto Sun, Rachel writes for the broader audience, not specifically about the particular issues in the riding, because in the end, most Sun readers don’t care what goes on in Ward 19 – and rightly so on both her and the paper’s part.  She writes about the lack of turnout, which is prevalent no matter which ward you live in in Toronto. Most areas in the city have incumbent councilors which make it even harder to get voters out, because it’s very difficult in City of Toronto voting rules to unseat an incumbent, so most residents just don’t bother to try.

In January of this year I got an email from a local business owner who had received an email from Joe Pantalone telling him about his great work “that will greatly enhance the neighbourhood.  At the Toronto East York Community Council on January 12, 2010, a recommendation was presented to remove the pedestrian crossing at Ossington Ave & Argyle St in order to install traffic control signals at this intersection and I fully expect it to be passed at City Council on January 26, 2010.” This was clearly Joe targeting his marketing for his own purposes. In this case it didn’t work because in fact this business owner didn’t agree with Joe on this, and sent him a strong note back pointing this out. We didn’t get a copy of this note, and Joe’s office definitely knows we write about the neighbourhood. He didn’t want local commentary.

But where was the local involvement? Where was the consultation? And where was the news that this was going on? All these get no press because there is no press to cover it, or at least that’s what we’re led to believe. How do locals find out what’s going on in their community? There are a few scattered old-media print publications we do receive now and then at our doorstep, including the Gleaner, although most things that come on newsprint on our doorstep are full of ads and they end up where the Yellow Pages goes – in the blue bin.

That’s where we come in, and people like us – and there are other folks like us. Maybe not many, and maybe some don’t do quite the job we do, but they are out there. And with very little work and almost no money (this blog costs us ~$50 a year in hosting costs, and we enjoy walking the area and writing) democracy can take hold. We leave our comments open and let people put in their 2¢, as long as it’s inclusive and respectful. We also have a Facebook page where people can place their comments, and let us and other people in the neighbourhood know what’s going on.

The new candidate for Ward 19 should make it a priority to set up and importantly to promote an online place, whether it be a Facebook page, or some other platform where people can find out what’s going on in their area – whether as local as the street, or the Ward. We can’t leave it up to the Toronto Star or the Sun (and face it, local flyers don’t work any more), because those papers aren’t going to cover the issues in this area the same way a local blogger or platform can get people involved.

If people in the neighbourhood know what’s going on, whether it’s a new stoplight, a new zoning restriction, speedbumps, or even are aware that there are complaints about local businesses, maybe they will get involved and take more action locally. Perhaps the local businesses will react quicker to meet the demands of their neighbours (and potential customers) rather than receiving a citation from city hall. But most importantly, citizens will get involved and vote.

So get involved locally. Know your candidates and the issues – we’ve posted all the links of the sites on the sidebar of the blog until elections day. Vote on election day! and if there’s something going on in the Ossington area that you like or don’t like, comment on the blog, write to us and let us know, or start your own blog and start making changes in the area. This is what democracy is, and it’s enabled by technology.

We’ve got some more people coming than mentioned on the first post. We also have Ted Footman, profiled yesterday, Karlene Nation, and Ross Bruto (no website) in the house, in addition to Jim Likourezos, Mike Layton, Karen Sun and Sean McCormick.

I attended the Friends of Trinity Bellwoods debate to learn how these things are done, and decided that we would allow the candidates longer to talk on various issues, hopefully getting more detailed answers.

We are going to start the evening off with a few words from the two Toronto District School Board candidates, Michael Sims and Chris Bolton, so everyone can learn a bit about the position, and each of the candidate’s platform.

Then we’re going to move to the main event where each candidate will have a two minute intro. We’ll be doing these in a random order. We’ll start with a question about the Ossington moratorium, and then move on to questions from the audience. We’ll be limiting the answers to 45 seconds.

Then we’ll have two minutes each for closing remarks, and hopefully enjoy a drink with the candidates after, where you can talk to them about the issues one on one.

We’re excited about this group of young and enthusiastic candidates who are going to change the ward for the better. Come out and hear what they have to say!

But his experience is much broader than that. Ted is also an architect, and with that brings a much broader understanding of city issues. Being an architect gives a candidate a solid understanding of city aesthetics and heritage as well as, importantly, regulations.

Ted grew up in Brampton, after being born in Scotland, and moved downtown to study history and architecture at the University of Toronto.

Frustrated with the direction of the neighbourhood, and always having an itch to run, Ted joined the race later than most of the other candidates, but he has made up for his late start with his quirky approach, as well as his large network of supporters in the neighbourhood from his restaurant background.

One of the main planks in his platform in running for council is to encourage the small businesses in the neighbourhood to grow, as well as to connect with local residents, and be the caretakers of the neighbourhood. As a small businessman himself he was subject to many of the regulations he is looking to change – including expensive fees on sandwich boards. Read more of his platform here.

Ted’s got a very open and direct style which may ruffle some feathers, but Ward 19 needs some change, and Ted’s in it to push for change.

Come to the Ossington Village debate at the Garrison Tuesday night and see Ted in action, as well as all the other local candidates. It should be a good night.