Kensington Market declared national historic site [National Post]: Kensington Market, that neighbourhood that has survived for 80 years as a good place to buy inexpensive produce, gained federal recognition yesterday as a “place of national historic significance to Canada.”
CHRISTOPHER HUME: Feds and province are no longer the villains [Toronto Star]: Be careful what you wish for; it might come true. Mayor David Miller and city councillors are about to find out just how true these words are thanks to the new City of Toronto Act. Though the legislation won’t be tabled until early next year, already our political bosses have discovered that with enhanced power goes enhanced stress. The act gives the city unprecedented power to restructure its system of governance and to impose certain taxes.Until now, of course, the villain has usually been the province, or the federal government. That hasn’t changed — both Ottawa and Queen’s Park remain huge obstacles not only to Toronto but to the progress of Canada itself — but from now on, the city will be seen as the author of its own misfortunes.
JOHN BARBER: Cleaning council agenda ‘clutter’ merely another form of offloading [Globe and Mail]: The mighty municipal ship of state is slipping out of dry dock next week all tuned and polished, refitted with streamlined new procedural rules, enhanced powers and a reinvigorated command. For the first time in its shaky history it also has a navigational chart plotted with a firm course for the coming four-year cruise, consisting of a printed booklet listing all of Mayor David Miller’s many election promises: the instantly sacred Blue-and-Yellow Book, to which all in the hall are expected to adhere over the next four years.
ANTHONY REINHART: Concrete plans for a greener city [Globe and Mail]: The trouble with taking time to aim, Gil Penalosa has learned, is that it can give you too many excuses not to shoot at all. With a knack for firing quickly and still hitting his targets, Mr. Penalosa, a former parks commissioner for Bogota, Colombia, might be forgiven for chafing at Canada’s more ponderous culture of civic decision-making. To illustrate, the 49-year-old Oakville man — who leads a dual life as a globe-trotting evangelist for better public walking and cycling facilities, and as a salaried adviser to the City of Mississauga on how to make itself more people-friendly — has only to tell the story of how he landed his old job in Bogota, population seven million, in 1994.
St. Clair: our new midtown highway [National Post]: When the Streetcars for Toronto Committee convinced our civic leaders to retain the city’s streetcar system in November, 1972, we who formed that group were filled with pride and optimism. It was a citizen-inspired vote in favour of modern, clean and neighbourhood-friendly transit. Today, sadly, I must say that I’m ashamed by what is happening to our streetcar system, especially on St. Clair Avenue West. The dedicated streetcar right-of-way project is a mess that will satisfy no one and falls far short of its potential. The concept is valid and even overdue, but the design now under construction between Yonge Street and Vaughan Road — to be extended west to Keele Street — is symptomatic of myopia, Toronto-centrism and a refusal to learn from experience in other cities.
Please clean TTC washrooms [National Post]: Dear Mr. Moscoe, I am a Thornhill resident and TTC commuter. On behalf of bathroom-using women from all over the GTA, I am now going to give you an earful about the TTC washrooms.
Jackson confirmed in Vaughan mayoral recount [Toronto Star]: Residents of the City of Vaughan officially have a new mayor today. Linda Jackson signed the Declaration of Office and was declared the victor of the hard-fought battle for the city’s top job yesterday, nearly three weeks after she first won the mayor’s seat. Her second, official victory comes after a machine vote recount confirmed she polled ahead of incumbent mayor Michael Di Biase in the municipal election, by 94 votes. “I’m jubilant two times over,” Jackson said after her win was announced. She called the recount a “challenge to the democratic electoral process” and urged staff members to “focus all of our energy towards the challenges” that lie ahead.
ROYSON JAMES: Vaughan can start healing with recount [Toronto Star]: The people of Vaughan should be glad to see the rear end of their ex-mayor Michael Di Biase, as sore a loser as one can find in this post-election season. If the populace was split on election night — and it was, by the ballot score of 28,396 to 28,306 in favour of challenger and now mayor Linda Jackson — they should be no more. Di Biase has removed all doubt about his unsuitability to govern this aspiring municipality, the self-styled City Above Toronto.Losing is always difficult. Losing at politics may be tougher for some. But we expect more of our leaders. One only has to look at Mulmur Township near Orangeville where mayoral challenger Paul Mills lost by one vote after a recount and took it in stride. Di Biase knows no such restraint.
photo by Sam Javanrouh
4 comments
I had a professor in first year, Carlos Teixeira, was a huge supporter of designating Kensington as a historical site.
Does anyone know the specifics of this, how it impacts landowner’s ability to renovate, or tear buildings down? What are the boundaries of this historical “park”?
I have made a few phone calls but no one has returned them yet.
Such a federal designation would likely have minimal impact on renovation/demolition; that would be up to the municipality to enforce–besides, this would likely work more along the more fluid lines of a “cultural heritage landscape”, such as is being proposed for Ward’s Island. (At least, that’s my sensible face-value assumption.)
National Historic Site status means nothing in terms of development control. As Adam indicates, it would be up to the city to designate Kensington Market as a Heritage Conservation District under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act before there would be any legal restrictions on property owners beyond the existing zoning by-law etc. The feds have no jurisdiction in this case. Getting NHS designation doesn’t even guarantee getting a plaque.