Don,
I welcome your reply.

Web interactions can often mislead. I didn’t complain about change. I observed it. There is a difference.

But since you’ve asked, I’ve been around here for a fair bit of time — 20 years. I’ve seen lots of changes, some good, some bad. Except for the peixaria, I don’t think there are any tomatoes left on Ossington — and I’m not sure they have any either. I did see peppers and oranges today, however. I miss the tomatoes. I miss the butcher shop turned into a restaurant. I miss the cheap haircutting places too. I miss the furniture store, forced to move so the City could put in a parking lot on Dundas, next to the CIBC.

There are changes I like, for example, the wonderful infill commercial building that now houses BMO on Dundas; it was a derelict lot before that. I like the cleanup of the Levack Block, but wish they had restored the stained glassed windows. I like the rebuild at 131 Ossington, formerly a warehouse and a graffiti target that once featured in an insurance industry ad: “meet the next owners of your car,” with a couple of skulking hipsters nearby.

Obviously good/bad change is in the eye of the beholder. In my posts, I have made observations, sometimes asked for clarifications or attempted to provide corrections, but made little in the way of argument for or against change, except this one: new development should respect the existing, low-rise, character of the neighbourhood. The proposed development is out of scale with the neighbourhood.

Is it really too much to ask a developer to respect the desires of the community, rather than demanding a bylaw change to impose his will?

And, yes, it would be nice to see tomatoes back on Ossington again. 😉

Respectfully,

Scot.

Actually, rsblythe, not a reach at all. Someone asked for tomatoes, and of all the possible responses, such as “there are plenty of places to get a tomato on Dundas, all within walking distance” your immediate reaction was to complain about change. That’s my point, and your reply didn’t even refute it. Then, in your other posts, you complained AGAIN about the changing neighborhood. But right, you are all for change. You just can’t give any examples of any change you want or like, following the standard of your organization.

I realize you probably thought I wouldn’t reply, it’s just, like a lot of members of the community who are fine with growth in the neighborhood, I have lots of other things to do besides trolling message boards and commenting. How many comments do you alone have here? 6? 7?

Posting this on behalf of Jessica Wilson from OCA (who oddly is unable to post her comments):

First, I offer the following challenge to Anonymous Accuser. We have the contact information for almost everyone who signed the petition. I am happy to sit in a room with Anonymous Accuser and contact our signatories and confirm that they did in fact mean to sign a petition to Keep Ossington Lowrise. This might be useful anyway, for fundraising purposes!

Second, our flyers, the petition forms, and the membership Powerpack (in both English and Portuguese—thanks, Anita!) are available on the OCA website. It’s easy to confirm that there were no secretly subversive messages in the flyers that many Ossington businesses put in their windows—after the first couple of blatantly negative flyers (109OZ with a circle and bar through it), we decided to focus on more neutral efforts just to inform people that there had been a mid-rise condo application and to let them know when the Public meetings on the proposal would be; these are the ‘Let’s talk about Ossington’ and the ‘What is Ossington?’ flyers, which we tried to make neutral for purposes of encouraging EVERYONE to come to the public meetings—not just opponents.

Oh no, someone has discovered the OCA’s evil plot to destroy our neighborhood!

Anonymous Accuser says that everyone they’ve talked to who signed up for the petition “were told they
were signing up for a mailing list to receive info about developments at
the 109OZ project. Same with businesses who were asked to post their
notices. […]  The way they collected signatures makes any of their
own measures of support sketchy.”

The OCA flyers and petition sheets are available on our website:
http://smartgrowthforossington.blogspot.ca/2012/05/flyer-archive.html

I’ll discuss the petition procedure first, but first I want to level a challenge to Anonymous Accuser, or anyone else who claims that these petition signatures were obtained in a “sketchy” way.  Our petition sheets have contact info for the petition signatories.  Here’s my challenge: let’s go hang out in a room and go through those 2100 names, one by one, and contact the signatory, and ask them if they were misled into signing the petition, or if they in fact want to Keep Ossington Low-rise.  This might actually be useful—I could ask them for money to donate to our cause when both the City and the OCA have to fight the proposal at the OMB.

Here’s how I collected many hundreds of signatures.  I used a folder with a ‘Keep Ossington Lowrise’ flyer taped to the front; I stood in the street for hours on end, asking people ‘Would you like to sign a petition to Keep Ossington Lowrise?’.  Many people would be walking quickly by, trying to Avoid the Petitioner, but upon hearing my question would spin around and enthusiastically say “Yes, I would!”.  I would then tell them that if they wanted to join the Ossington Community Association, then they should check the last box.  We would often have conversations about how detrimental it would be to the character and feel of the Strip for an 82ft hight 9-storefront wide mid-rise condo with a single (likely chain) retail space to be plunked into the centre of the quirky, low-rise, main-street character, destination district Ossington Strip.

Many other members of the OCA—around twenty—went around door to door throughout the Ossington neighborhood, ranging from Queen to Dundas, from Crawford to Dovercourt.  We covered much, if not most of the area.  The membership “Power Pack” that we handed out is also available on the website:
http://ossingtoncommunity.wordpress.com/powerpack-2012/

Note that we had both English and Portuguese versions (thanks, Anita!).  Door-to-door petitioners were given two sheets: one the petition form
with a box for joining the OCA, and one a separate OCA sign-up sheet for
people who preferred not to sign the petition for whatever reason.

Again, we have contact info for nearly everyone who signed the petition, and I challenge anyone who says these signatures were sketchily obtained to back up their accusation by sitting in a room with me and contacting the signatories.

As for the flyers that we asked businesses to post: we started with a more negative flyer, that had 109OZ in a circle with a line through it.  Some businesses were posting these, but after talking with Michael at the Communist Daughter, we realized that we should endorse a more neutral stance.  Our main aim was to get people talking—and most importantly, to inform people about the upcoming Public meetings on 109OZ.  That’s what our ‘Let’s talk about Ossington’ poster was aimed at doing.  Many local businesses posted this flyer in their window—and why not?  You can read the poster yourself on the website… what’s to misrepresent?  A brilliant young member of our community made this great video documenting 36 businesses that posted this or the previous flyer:

Our latest flyer, ‘What is Ossington?’ again was directed at informing people of an upcoming public meeting.  Lobbying businesses was too time-consuming, so we just put them on telephone poles, etc.  What on earth is wrong with any of this?

If I recall there were two lists: One for the petition and you had the option to subscribe to the mailing list. If you didn’t want to sign the petition,  you had the option to go on the mailings on a separate list.  That was very clear in my opinion.  There was lots of information provided and one did not have to sign the petition and could sign the online petition.   This was pretty clear!

Strangled the trees? Are you serious?? You should be more concerned with the bikes locked up on the trees and the lack of bike stands. 

If people are agree on the development why don’t they show up at the meetings?  Reserve can easily get these people out and agree…after all they somehow convince my elderly dad who barely speaks english to “agree” to the Motif.  Spend the time and go door to door and get everyone’s opinion.  I’m not happy with what is going “literally” in my backyard and the only people who care seem to be OCA and the affected residents. 

You mention for your neighbours to get out and enjoy the hood.  I support some of the local businesses others I do not as they don’t fit my lifestyle.  That doesn’t make me love the neighbourhood any less. 

Oh and the good neighbourly thing to do is to ignore our neighbours…. seriously that is what has been happening the last 30 years.  I think what is happening is great for the community.  It has people talking, neighbours debating and chatting.  I have never met so many people and REALLY REALLY GREAT PEOPLE.  Some of you agree with what is going on and some of you don’t ….BUT we are all talking about it and their this community has become alive from within.

Let’s get two things straight. Almost every person who I’ve spoken too (more than 18!) who signed their petition says that they were told they were signing up for a mailing list to receive info about developments at the 109OZ project. Same with businesses who were asked to post their notices. Granted, small business people should read posters before they put them up in their windows but, then again, small business people are busy actually running their businesses and contributing to our community rather than spending the ample free time they have between teaching philosophy classes about how to manipulate debate spreading their self serving propaganda. The way they collected signatures makes any of their own measures of support sketchy.

This is the second time I’ve posted something online throughout the consultation process. The first time was on the Ossington Community-Killing Association’s original blog. I was annoyed that the group (two whole people at that point! Look how much they’ve grown!!!) had strangled the trees along Argyle with their posters wrapped in packing tape and wondered how a group professing to love our neighbourhood could be so un-eco-friendly to it. That comment was never posted which was their prerogative but also proves they have no interest in any actual debate on the 109OZ matter unlike the good folks here at the Ossington Village blog.

So why are we wasting our time engaging with people who represent the smallest sliver of our community and aren’t actually interested in listening to their neighbours? And what is motivating this rag tag group to take on a project that seems entirely reasonable to everyone else? Do they have their own political aspirations and see a cause like this as an opportunity to bang some pots and pans and make a name for themselves? Not likely. I think they’re bored and enjoy seeing how they can draw out and twist this debate. The good, neighbourly thing for the rest of us to do would be to ignore them. Not because we don’t believe healthy debate about how Ossington evolves is important for its smart growth but because the Ossington Community Killing Association has already taken more than its fair share of discussion time to rip our neighbourhood apart.

I’ll end this comment with a message for my awesome neighbours: If you really love this neighbourhood, get out and experience its shops, galleries, restaurants, cafes, bars, parks and community events as much as possible. The saddest thing I heard after the first public meeting on 109OZ was from a business owner who commented that he was amazed by how many people showed up to it but wondered why he’d never seen a single person in that packed gymnasium visit his business?

The Studys are completed by the Councillor Mike Layton and are meant to be fair and take everyone’s opinion.  Its too bad you feel like your voice was not heard.  I talked to you at one of the meetings and heard you speak and put in a few points and even talk to the press.  You also had a chance to hand in your ideas via the questionnaire, don’t know why you think they were not noted.