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POLES THE CITY WOULDN'T TOUCH
Derelict TTC posts an eyesore on Weston Rd.
From Toronto Star - February 25, 2003

KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Suri Weinberg-Linsky has a pole — actually, 109 poles — she'd like to shove somewhere.

The owner of Squibb's Stationers on Weston Rd. has been fighting the TTC, Toronto Hydro and the city itself since 1996 for the removal or refurbishment of decaying poles along her street.

"I really wish somebody would take responsibility, because they really are an eyesore," says Weinberg-Linsky, a member of the area's Business Improvement Association.

"We've got these poles nobody wants to take care of. They won't take them down, they won't paint them for us, so we're betwixt and between. We keep going back and forth between departments and not getting a comprehensive answer. ... They don't have the money, or they don't have the time, or they don't have the inclination to do the project."

This stretch of Weston Rd. has the neighbourhood feel of Queen St. E. or Bloor St. W., but none of the trendy stores or wealth. There's a pole every few metres, whether for hydro wires, light signals, parking signs or parking meters.

"There's too many poles out there," says Councillor Frances Nunziata, who has taken up the cause. "It's like a forest."

What irks residents are the 109 poles, between St. Clair Ave. W. and Highway 401, that belong to the TTC, which doesn't want or use them. They are used by Toronto Hydro, which hasn't maintained them because it doesn't own them.

The poles, once needed for the TTC's old electric buses, look shabby, and they're right beside new light standards installed to beautify the streetscape.

Weston is a 200-year-old village that has fallen on hard times within the city, but it's pulling itself together with a summer farmer's market, street festivals, community police stations and other initiatives.

Beautification of Weston Rd. is a priority for neighbourhood businesses. Weinberg-Linsky believes taking the poles down would open up the streetscape.

"We want to make sure our neighbourhood stays a neighbourhood, and that we don't keep getting the short shrift."

When she was mayor of York, Nunziata lobbied for the poles to be torn down. Now, as councillor for York South-Weston, she continues to battle her own city hall.

"If it belonged to a private business or a private owner, the city would order them to remove them or do something with them," says Nunziata. "This is city property and we can't get the city to do it."

There are 1,749 redundant TTC poles in the city, left standing when electric buses were phased out in 1996, says Gary Webster, general manager of operations.
The 109 in Weston are a particular issue because they cut through the heart of a business district. The TTC left them standing as a favour to Toronto Hydro and the city, as convenient places to attach wires and light signals, says Webster.

"From our perspective, because we have no need of them, we don't want to incur any costs, like maintenance," he says. "We approached the city and Hydro a number of years ago and said, `We don't need these things. We'd like you guys to take over ownership of them because presumably you need them, because they've got all your stuff on them.'

"They haven't formally come back to us and said, yes, they would do that."
Nunziata and the TTC didn't push too hard to resolve the issue in post-amalgamation Toronto, figuring there were bigger issues to deal with.

But it's getting on seven years now, and Nunziata says enough is enough. She asked for action at a TTC board meeting last week. What she got was a deferment for another month, with the hope that staff at the agencies could work out a plan.
Dave Kaufman, general manager of transportation for the city, says his staff would "fast-track" Weston and determine in six to eight weeks which poles were needed, which could come down and what could be done to make remaining ones prettier.

"It all boils down to ownership, liability and responsibility, and we're still trying to sort all that out," he says. "There's no issue, it's just a matter of grinding through all the work that's required to make the best decision."

Toronto Hydro spokesperson Mark Burton said crews will check which poles should stay. "If it's feasible from a business-case point of view, Toronto Hydro would assume ownership of those poles, in which case we'd make them look pretty, or we would put in a new pole."

Nunziata would like to see all parties working under deadline.

"The city should take responsibility to try to improve the area. It's not private property, it's the city's property," Nunziata says. "That's the part that I find really frustrating.... We shouldn't be disputing anything. Just get it done."