As part of the City’s Ten-Year Cycling Network Plan, there will be changes on Beaty Avenue and Dowling Avenue in mid-late September. One-way traffic directions will be reversed on both streets. Permit parking on Beaty Avenue between Queen Street West and King Street West will be permanently on the west side. Shared lane markings (sharrows) will be installed on both streets to clearly identify where cyclists should ride in regular traffic lanes and to remind drivers to share the road.

This new cycling router will provide a safe connection between Sorauren Avenue and the Waterfront Trail and create a gateway to green-space for the Parkdale neighbourhood.

The City of Toronto is working on the design details for extending the West Toronto Railpath multi-use trail South, from Dundas Street West and Sterling Road to Abell Street and Sudbury Street, offering Parkdalians and others another active transportation/ movement option.

Learn more about the progress of this project, discuss and provide feedback on design elements of the trail, view information material and speak to the project team. To find out more click HERE or contact Maogosha Pyjor at 416-338-2850, westrailpath@toronto.ca.

Date: Thursday, September 13^th, 2018
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Place: 1140 Bloor St. West at Dufferin (New Horizons Tower, Auditorium)

Exhibition Place is 192 acres of City-owned lakeside land, whose historical mandate was for public parks and exhibition grounds, and Ontario Place comprises another 155 acres of Province-owned lakeside land and water. Toronto, desperate for public green space, could sure take advantage of these already-owned lands.

But recently, under-the-radar initiatives have been operating to put these public lands in private hands.

In 2006, most of Exhibition Place was converted from ‘Parks and Open Space’ lands to ‘Regeneration’ lands, encouraging private development and allowing leases of longer than 21 years.

And in 2010, a memorandum of agreement between the City and the Exhibition Place Board of Governors directed the Board to ‘maximize revenue from all sources’; and similarly for Ontario Place.

A community group—the West Side Community Council, comprising ten community associations—has launched a public education and advocacy campaign to call on local government to act immediately to stop the effective privatization of these lands, and rather direct resources to fulfilling the potential of these lands as public and community parkland assets.

Find out more at www.EXcluded.ca, a website dedicated to raising awareness about this issue.

The campaign will be launching at the Princes’ Gates on August 17th at 10am.

Having an energy efficient home is not only better for the environment, but it can save you thousands of dollars in heating costs. The city of Toronto has incentives you can use to improve the efficiency of your home.

Your home could be losing more heat than you think.

Use the interactive heat map to find out how much heat your home is losing. Find out more information on steps you can take to lessen your heat loss at http://www.greenparkdale.org/cool-down/  for more information.

Greenest City is having TWO workshops in the next month:

Date: Monday, August 20^th, 2018
Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Place: 228 Roncesvalles Ave, (High Park Library auditorium)

Parkdale’s Biggest Treasure Trove – The Annual COWANATION Street Sale!

Cowan Ave. closes off to traffic at 9 am – 4 pm, or thereabouts, so people can stroll the sidewalks and avenue for this annual street sale of goods – used, new, antique, household, yard and whatchamacallits. Sunday, June 3rd is the rain date. You will find Parkdale has as a whole has picked up on the spirit of Cowanation with residents on Dunn, Springhurst and Spencer setting up yard sales as well. Come one, Come all!

The Roncesvalles-Macdonell Residents’ Association (RMRA) is sponsoring a meeting for residents to hear from City planners and laneway experts about this approach to additional neighbourhood housing – Laneway Suites. Toronto City Council will be voting in early June to possibly allow as-of-right secondary or Laneway Suites in Toronto. Let our Councillor and City staff know your thoughts on this topic.

Laneway Suites can provide:
• new rental housing opportunities
• ageing in place for seniors
• multi-generational family living