This
email has been posted with the permission of the author.
From:
Carol Frilegh
To: stclairwestea@toronto.ca
Cc: Joe Mihevc ; Helen Mclellan ; tony@mystclair.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 9:15 AM
Subject: Re: City of Toronto: Get involved
Public Meeting April 13, 2004 Holy Rosary Parish Hall
Comments:
As
I left the meeting and walked to my home on St. Clair West, I
prayed, "Please don't "futurize" St. Clair Avenue
West.
It
should not be isolated and homogenized. Structural improvements
will go a long way in making it more viable.
Replace
existing concrete and tracks. Make glass shelters deeper to protect
against bad weather.
St.
Clair West has a very unique quality, and the neighborhoods change
and contrast along it's route. Some of the options for study seemed
really irrelevant to the problems, far fetched and extreme, costly
and saddled with new sets of problems when the existing ones can
be addressed
with new pavement and new track.
There
is nothing in Toronto and many other cities to rival our Corso
Italiano. it is vital because it is conducive to pedestrians.
Imagine a World Cup Victory celebration there with a Berlin Wall
in the middle of the thoroughfare.
I
dislike Spadina Avenue with it's dedicated transit line. The shops
that line the street seem obscured and alienated by the transit
line. Trying to make turns in a motor vehicle is frightening.
I
do my best to avoid any sort of travel there but enjoy Queen Street
West with it's authentic uninhibited ambience and conventional
streetcar line and go there often. St. Clair could be and in some
cases--is similar. So is College Street. Character, charisma,
even shabby chic!
I
have lived on St. Clair West for 23 years and watched TTC service
decline, but not greatly. I no longer get streetcar schedules
on the phone have had to repeatedly urge stop gap pavement repairs.
However, I still find the service fairly reliable and I greatly
prefer streetcars to buses. I always enjoy my most frequent ride
from Walmer to The Yonge St. Subway station and usually opt for
TTC instead of the car for travelling to central downtown. The
streetcar runs right under my window and i don't mind it after
all these years.
Traffic
between Bathurst and Yonge is only bad at rush hour.
Existing advance green traffic lights and left hand turn lanes
are fine with me such as at Deer Park and westbound at Spadina
Road. Turning north eastbound at Spadina and St. Clair has caused
a number of accidents though.
*Non
TTC issues also need to be addressed-- cleaning up the sidewalks,
trash and some of the shabbier areas. The Nordheimer ravine south
of the St. Clair West subways station and across from Loblaws
is a mess. Transients live behind the subway station but are not
solely responsible for the enormous amount of trash in the ravine.
Motorists
are thoughtless about respecting the pedestrian crosswalk at Tweedsmuir
and St. Clair and there is a fault in the complicated nature of
the crosswalk. I suggested that flashing red lights be activated
there instead of yellow.
Best regards,
Carol
Frilegh
Editor's
note : The facts and opinions expressed in the above email are
those of the author and do not represent the views of MyStClair.com.
Our interest remains to act as a conduit for information regarding
matters relating to neighbourhoods along St Clair Ave W and the
Ridge. Anyone wishing to comment is encouraged to do so.
editor@mystclair.com
