Councillor Josh Matlow in the News

February 20, 2012

The TTC appears to be poised for a shakeup as the city's transit chief is expected to get the axe Tuesday for defying the mayor's transit vision.

One day before the meeting, there are suggestions TTC chief general manager Gary Webster may not be the only one to be fired following city council's recent showdown over transit expansion.

In an interview with theToronto Star, city Coun. Frank Di Giorgio said as many as five senior TTC managers may be fired.

Read more: CP24: Mayor's allies expected to sack TTC chief

February 19, 2012

Michelle Berardinetti is the city councillor for ward 35 Scarborough-Southwest and on Newstalk 1010's The City with Josh Matlow she proposed letting Torontonians settle the transit debate.

Berardinetti says there's an old way of settling debates that doesn't happen very often anymore, "back in the day they used to put a referendum question, at election time, on the ballot, so I think we have to go back to that."

She says the next municipal election would be the time to do it because people will be voting already anyway.  Berardinetti suggests framing the question in a way that includes options for funding subways if that's what people want.

Read more: Newstalk 1010: Scarborough city councillor changing transit debate

February 16, 2012

Preserving Toronto’s past is complicated business. Current example: the planned conversion of a historic church into a condominium, which raises issues about heritage preservation, adaptive reuse, and community intervention. Preserve the full building? Adapt it, with pieces missing? And how much say should neighbours get? Such questions surround the development proposed for 129 St. Clair Avenue West, which was on the agenda of Tuesday’s Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) meeting.

The church in question is the former Deer Park United Church, which served worshippers at the corner of St. Clair and Foxbar Road from 1913 until 2008, when the congregation sold the building due to rising maintenance costs and the loss of heating previously supplied by the neighbouring Imperial Oil Building. The site was designated as a heritage property for being the oldest church in the neighbourhood, its role in the community, and its neo-Gothic design. Following its closure, the building slowly decayed while the site was used for parking.

Read more: Torontoist: The Curious Case of 129 St. Clair Avenue West

January 2012

Height and shadowing concerns loom large south of St. Clair

A 13-storey building proposed at the old CHUM building on Yonge Street, a few blocks south of St. Clair Avenue, is facing strong opposition from locals. The application provides for 214 residential units, four ground floor retail units and 184 parking spaces, at a density of nearly 7.5 times lot coverage. The site is currently zoned for 16 metres (approximately six storeys) and three times lot coverage.

A recent community consultation meeting was attended by more than 100 residents, some of who expressed concerns about height, shadowing and sightlines as well as how it will add to traffic and parking woes in the area, according to Coun. Josh Matlow. He said that the application doesn’t fit in with what residents have envisioned for this stretch of Yonge Street: mid-rise buildings in the six- to eight-storey range.

Read more: Post City: Strong opposition to plans for old CHUM site