Appliance Repair in Lakeshore, CA

Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain says the municipality continues to invest and admits he is discouraged when damage is done to public property.

“Whoever is doing this, you're costing all of the taxpayers big dollars,” Bain said.

Bain says the municipality has incurred over $20,000 of damage in the past couple of years.

“Taken sledgehammers, smashed the basins, smashed the toilets,” Bain said. “Busted the walls down. Got in, broken the water pipes and leave them running.”

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Some washrooms are locked but Bain hopes to have them open soon. In the meantime surveillance cameras and equipment have been installed to catch, what Bain suspects to be, young offenders.

“Now we're looking at $37,000 just to put up the cameras and that goes back on our taxpayers and it's a result of all this damage,” he said.

Lakeshore isn't the only municipality dealing with property damage and vandalism. Essex has been dealing with graffiti and property damage.

“It's very frustrating because we don't want to see this continue,” said Mayor Rick Meloche. “It just doesn't make any sense.”

Meloche says council is trying to come up with solutions, like adding cameras, to fend off those looking to damage property.

“Motion sensed lights is another avenue we may go or just plain out having lights on all the time in those locations that are more dark,” he said.

Meloche also assumes young offenders are to blame and says council is going to encourage their policing partner, the OPP, to connect with the youth diversion program in Windsor.

“Police have options as to what they can do,” he explained. “They can do nothing. They can lay charges or they can use diversion programming and what we're suggesting is we should be using the diversion programming more often.”

Joanna Conrad, executive director of Youth Diversion in Windsor, was diverted as a 16-year-old and says parents, school administrators, community and justice partners all need to be on the same page and work together.

“If a young person is doing something we're going to hold them accountable,” he said. “It's not that we want them to be criminally charged. They're going to be diverted because they need to understand there's consequences to your actions.”

Vandalism at municipal park washrooms in Lakeshore, Ont. (Courtesy: Municipality of Lakeshore)

Regular road closures along Toronto’s waterfront to accommodate cyclists and runners during the COVID-19 pandemic is set to end.

The closure of Lake Shore Boulevard West for ActiveTO has become a lightning rod for debate between cyclists and drivers in Canada’s most populous city.

The closure began in 2020 in response to pandemic lockdowns. The eastbound portion of the six-lane road was shuttered at weekends to allow open access to the waterfront, a space where residents could exercise and social distance at the same time.

Those closures continued during 2021 although less frequently and happened twice in 2022: on May 23 and May 29.

The event has been welcomed by vocal advocates in Toronto’s cycling community in particular, but it has drawn frustration and ire from some, including several city councillors and Toronto Blue Jays’ CEO Mark Shapiro.

On Wednesday, City of Toronto councillors accepted a staff report that recommended limited closures of Lake Shore Boulevard West for ActiveTO. They should be treated as “special events” that are planned and advertised in advance, “rather than operating as regular recurring weekend events.”

“In identifying dates for any future ActiveTO closures on Lake Shore Boulevard West, officials will take into consideration the number and location of planned street events on that weekend, construction impact on parallel corridors, access to adjacent venues and impacts to traffic,” the city said in a statement.

Staff said traffic and congestion in Toronto has returned to between 90 and 95 per cent of its pre-pandemic. Officials also said an “exceptional” number of construction projects was squeezing road space.

Plans to essentially wind down the program frustrated some councillors.

“Probably who we’re not hearing from most are those who are enjoying some of these spaces,” Coun. Mike Layton said. “Let’s not be afraid to be a bit bold here.”

Coun. Brad Bradford also said the program had become a “punching bag for congestion” in Toronto which “has historically been very congested.”

The staff report considered by council said ActiveTO road closures on Lake Shore Boulevard West between Windermere Avenue and Stadium Road had as many as 36,000 daily cyclists and “thousands” of pedestrians in 2020.

It said the number of pedestrians remained constant with or without the closure, but biking was between two and five times higher.

Other councillors believe it is time to end the road closure, citing congestion among other factors.

“Being bold is not listening to the cycling lobby (but instead) listening to those families that don’t come to city hall, yet are having to sit for 13 extra minutes in traffic just to get downtown because they want to take their family to a baseball game,” Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong said.

When Lake Shore Boulevard West was closed for ActiveTO on May 23, staff said that travel times along the Gardiner Expressway between Highway 427 and York Street increased from 14.5 minutes to 33.6 minutes.

“A number of businesses and stakeholders in the area have raised concerns about the impact on patrons and residents in accessing local properties and public spaces as a result of the May 23rd and 29th ActiveTO closures,” city officials said.

Barbara Gray, Toronto’s general manager of transportation services, said the May 29 Lake Shore closure resulted in “the most” complaints the program had ever received — estimating they were in the “hundreds.”

Councillors voted to accept the staff recommendation of making closures on Lake Shore Boulevard West as a “special event” and explore adding additional active transportation infrastructure in the area in an upcoming master plan.

Other ActiveTO road closures on Bayview Avenue in the Rosedale area and Meadoway in Scarborough will continue.

Toronto Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro has written an open letter to city council requesting that the frequent closures of Lake Shore Boulevard be scrapped.

The city has been regularly closing a portion of the roadway to vehicular traffic since the summer of 2020 as part of its ActiveTO program.

The closures, which also take place along several other roadways, were initially introduced as a means to give people more space for recreational activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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But they proved so popular that the city opted to keep the program in place, even as the risk posed by the pandemic lessened and public health advice evolved to place less of an emphasis on physical distancing when outdoors.

In a letter sent to the city clerk’s office earlier this week, Shapiro said that he recognizes that “ActiveTO played a crucial role in encouraging people to get outside and moving again, at a time when entertainment options were limited.”

But he said that the closure of Lakeshore Boulevard West this spring has “drastically impacted” the ability of Jays fans to access Rogers Centre and will likely only get worse heading into the summer when “baseball is a main attraction in the city.”

“Many of our fans travel to Rogers Centre from outside of the GTA and taking public transit is not an option. Out-of-town fans are often not aware of ActiveTO and do not know to allocate extra travel time. On the days when ActiveTO has been in effect on Lake Shore, our local fans have experienced significant transit delays because traffic is grinded to a halt on all downtown routes,” he said.

“As a sports organization, we support folks getting outside and being active, but Toronto has many options and routes to use, whereas our fans do not."

City council is expected to discuss the fate of the ActiveTO program during a meeting on June 15.

Speaking with CP24 earlier this week, Mayor John Tory conceded that “there’s no question” the closures have had a “bigger adverse impact on traffic” so far in 2022 compared to previous years.

He said that he would like to see the program continued but perhaps not in its current form.

“All I can say is we are very carefully examining all of those results, data, and actual real evidence as opposed to stories. We will be coming out with something that takes into account all of those considerations,” he said.

Data collected by the City of Toronto in 2021 suggested travel times on the Gardiner Expressway and the Queensway double or even triple on ActiveTO days versus “conditions with no ActiveTO closure and provincial lockdown measures in place.”

City data, however, has also shown a significant uptick in cyclists and pedestrian volumes along ActiveTO routes when the closures are in effect. In the case of Lakeshore Boulevard West, the data points to a more than threefold increase in pedestrians and cyclists when the roadway is closed to vehicular traffic.

Today, the City of Toronto announced upcoming road closures and restrictions in effect for the May 28 to 29 weekend.

ActiveTO will take place again this weekend along sections of Lake Shore Boulevard West, Bayview Avenue and The Meadoway.

ActiveTO will take place on Bayview Avenue, from Rosedale Valley Road to Lawren Harris Square; River Street, between Bayview Avenue and Spruce Street; and The Meadoway, from Brimley Road to Scarborough Golf Club Road, from 7 a.m., Saturday, May 28 until 7 p.m., Sunday, May 29. ActiveTO will also take place on Lake Shore Boulevard West (eastbound lanes only) between Windermere Avenue and Stadium Road on May 29, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Heart & Stroke will hold a warmup for the virtual Manulife Heart & Stroke Ride for Heart along the Lake Shore Boulevard West ActiveTO closure on May 29. The event aims to raise awareness about heart disease and stroke. Heart & Stroke street teams will be on site on May 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

ActiveTO routes are open to pedestrians and people cycling and closed to vehicles. Residents planning to use ActiveTO routes are asked to access them by bike or as a pedestrian, as there is no available on-site parking and limited nearby parking.

Roads within High Park will also be closed to vehicles during the weekend. Limited street parking is available on Bloor Street. More information about access to High Park is available on the City’s High Park webpage.

Road users should look for Bike Share Toronto stations, as well as seasonal valet stations that are staffed with Mobile Community Ambassadors who have extra bikes and docking points. Residents can download the PBSC app or visit a station to get started. More information is available through Bike Share Toronto’s interactive map .

Toronto’s more than 1,500 parks and 11,000 hectares of ravine spaces are also open for fresh air and exercise every day, including weekends. Maps and details for walking, cycling and hiking paths and trails in Toronto are available on the City’s Walking, Hiking and Cycling webpage.

More information about ActiveTO is available at Toronto.ca/ActiveTO.

Other road closures and restrictions

The annual Gumball 3000 car rally and events will kick off in Toronto this weekend, which will also result in vehicle traffic closures on Bay Street, from Davenport Road to Bloor Street West, from 6 a.m., Friday, May 27 to 2 p.m., May 28; on Yonge Street, from Dundas Street to Shuter Street, from 5 to 11:59 p.m., May 27; on Yonge Street, from Gerrard Street to Queen Street, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., May 28; and on Dundas Street West, from Victoria Street to Bay Street, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., May 28.

Yonge Street, between Front Street East and Lake Shore Boulevard, and the westbound Gardiner Expressway off-ramp to Yonge-Bay-York Streets are still closed to vehicle traffic for ongoing emergency work that is addressing a substantial flow of ground water under the intersection of Yonge Street and The Esplanade. Crews are working around the clock to repair the issue and will have the roadway reopened as soon as possible.

Residents should also be advised of the following road restrictions due to critical City-led infrastructure work that may impact travel throughout the weekend:

Those who need to drive in the general vicinity of road closures should stay alert, consider alternate routes and allow extra time to get to and from their destinations. A complete list of road closures and restrictions is available at Toronto.ca/RoadRestrictions.

Residents and visitors are encouraged to take public transit as a greener, faster and more affordable way of getting around the city. TTC customers can subscribe to eAlerts at TTC.ca or follow @TTCnotices on Twitter to receive information about service interruptions.

Toronto is home to more than 2.9 million people whose diversity and experiences make this great city Canada’s leading economic engine and one of the world’s most diverse and livable cities. As the fourth largest city in North America, Toronto is a global leader in technology, finance, film, music, culture and innovation, and consistently places at the top of international rankings due to investments championed by its government, residents and businesses. For more information visit the City’s website or follow us on Twitter , Instagram or Facebook .

Toronto is scaling down ActiveTO closures on Lake Shore Boulevard West this summer as it aims to limit gridlock and issues accessing businesses along the waterfront.

On Wednesday, city council accepted the recommendation of city staff to limit the number of ActiveTO closures on the major arterial road.

Instead of recurring weekend closures, they will be "limited special events," the city said.

Future ActiveTO closures on Lake Shore Boulevard West will be based on several factors, including the number and location of planned street events in the city on a given weekend.

"Staff will also consider coordinating with other event organizers, such as was done this year with the Heart and Stroke Foundation," the city added.

ActiveTO was implemented in 2020 and closes select roadways on certain weekends in an effort to give pedestrians and cyclists more room to distance amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We have made huge progress reopening Toronto and that progress is going to continue. City staff are working to accommodate and balance, as much as possible, all the major events across the city that are now back," Mayor John Tory said in a statement.

"ActiveTO was a great pandemic program and city staff will work to make sure the program continues where and when it is possible."

In a report released today, Toronto’s Transportation Services says it reviewed new traffic data and is recommending against regular recurring weekend closures on Lake Shore Boulevard West.

Staff say ActiveTO should instead only continue on the street sparingly and should be “planned and well-advertised” in advance.

“In identifying dates for any future ActiveTO closures on LSBW, staff will take into consideration the number and location of planned street events on that weekend, construction impacts on parallel corridors, access to adjacent venues and impacts to traffic,” Barbara Gray, Transportation Services general manager, wrote in the report.

There are 10 street events planned on Lake Shore Boulevard West this year, compared to zero in 2020 and one in 2021.

The report added that staff considered condensing lanes on Lake Shore Boulevard West to accommodate ActiveTO road closures this year but said existing pedestrian volumes “do not require the implementation of temporary design changes.”

Many residents have argued the value of ActiveTO road closures given the relatively small number of people taking advantage of the car-free roadways.

Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro has also called for the Lake Shore closure to be scrapped, submitting an open letter to city council in which he argues that it is making it impossible for baseball fans to get to the Rogers Centre for weekend games.

However, Toronto Catholic District School Board Trustee Norm Di Pasquale sent a letter to Shapiro in response to his comments and says he's "shocked" that the team is not in support of the program which encourages exercising outdoors.

"Here we have what is essentially an athletic organization advocating against the health and well-being of Torontonians who use ActiveTO and they use them in big, big numbers," he told CP24 on Wednesday.

"You can advocate for better public transportation but don't advocate against downtown Toronto families' physical and mental health."

Today’s report detailed new data collected from the only two ActiveTO closures on Lake Shore West Boulevard so far this year on May 23 and 29.

On May 23, staff say more than four times the number of cyclists and 25 per cent more pedestrians were observed on the road, Martin Goodman Trail and nearby boardwalk compared to the average number observed on the two previous days of that long weekend.

The report also noted concerns raised from businesses about the impact of patrons being able to access their services during the most recent ActiveTO closures.

Impacted businesses identified in the report include the Sunnyside Paddling Club, Sunnyside Park, Ontario Place, Exhibition Place and Hotel X.

“After the May 29th LSBW closure, and for the first time since the program began in 2020, staff received hundreds of complaints requesting that the closures end and that the road be re-opened to motor vehicles citing frustration with traffic delays and lack of access to the aforementioned locations,” the report stated.

Mayor John Tory says the city’s goal is to achieve a balance between providing road space for summer events and preventing an excessive amount of gridlock.

“We're achieving the balance as best we can, as between those who have to get around, which we understand, neighborhoods that are concerned about traffic in their own areas when we close some of these streets and on the other hand, having a kind of a liveable, fun city where people can have the experience of riding on the streets or strolling or walking” he told CP24 Wednesday morning before the report was released.

Tory has previously said that the program will likely not be eliminated entirely.

Toronto lawyer and cycling advocate David Shellnut argues that ActiveTO should remain along Lake Shore Boulevard West to allow residents to enjoy the city’s waterfront.

“In 2020, we know that each weekend tens, tens of thousands of cyclists and pedestrians were down there using this space. It's right next to our beautiful waterfront, lots of businesses. It's the kind of area that should be promoted for active public use, rather than like a four-to-eight lane highway,” he told CP24.

Shellnut added that the road closures provide a safe space for cyclists who he says have been facing increasing collisions on city streets.

“We (cyclists) are getting hit in great numbers out there. It's discouraging people from cycling. It's causing a lot of costs in our health- care and policing systems. We got to really address this.”

City council is expected to vote on the recommendation today.