Cutting grass or shoveling snow: What would you prefer?

One of the most frequent comments I received as a councillor was: “I cut my lawn and maintain my property…why should I have to cut the grass on the boulevard in front of my house? It belongs to the city.”That boulevard is there to make life easier for you. In the early years on North York Council, whenever it snowed heavily I had a strong urge to hide under the bed and not go to work. That’s because I knew I would get at least 30 telephone calls that went something like this:“I spent two hours shovelling my *@#% driveway yesterday and last night your &%#@+ snow plough came along and filled it up again. It froze and I can’t get to work this morning.”The pile of snow that obstructs your driveway is known as a “windrow.” Until I was elected to office I didn’t know the meaning of the word “windrow” let alone that I had to find a way to deal with them.In the 1980s North York invented the “snow rid.” It was a gate at the end of the plough, a sort of a short blade or scoop that the operator lowered when he came to one side of a driveway and raised it after he had pushed the windrow to the other side.Streets downtown don’t have a grassy boulevard -the sidewalks are built to the curb. The city doesn’t even plough the streets downtown. Suburban areas, on the other hand, have boulevards as a place to store ploughed snow. In North York, not only are the streets ploughed but so are the sidewalks.For downtown residents, there is a bylaw that requires every homeowner to shovel their sidewalk clear within 12 hours after a snowfall or face a fine of $125. There is no bylaw that requires North York residents to cut the grass on the boulevard. Most people, because they care about the appearance of their neighbourhoods, do it by unwritten convention. More importantly, if we didn’t have the boulevards the City couldn’t provide the great snow clearing services that they do.When amalgamation arrived in 1998, those of us from North York knew that we would have the fight of our lives to keep both sidewalk ploughing and driveway opening. Downtown councillors were chomping at the bit to save money by cutting these services. Why not? Their residents didn’t get them. Same went for Scarborough and Etobicoke councillors who were only too happy to make the budget cuts. Neither of these municipalities had them. We knew that the only way to keep them was to spread these, what some called “cadillac” services, to Scarborough and Etobicoke. Once established, we knew that their councillors would never vote to take them away.When my neighbour moved to Downsview from downtown he spent his first winter shovelling the sidewalk in front of his house until he learned that he didn’t have to. So next time, when you are out there cutting the grass on the city boulevard, think about how lucky you are. You could be shovelling snow instead.

Families were Falling for the Festivities at Pumpkin Fest

The leaves are changing colours, the air is getting colder, and people are beginning to bundle up, but that didn’t stop them from heading down to the annual Pumpkin Fest at Downsview Park on thanksgiving weekend.The atmosphere was lively, with a large pumpkin patch, fun rides, an exotic animal petting zoo, and more bouncy castles and food trucks than you could dream of. There were families visiting for the first time as well as some who could not resist coming back for another round.Rajeev Nigom’s family was having an excellent time, especially during pumpkin bowling. Nigom believes that events such as Pumpkin Fest are great for family moments and a healthy way to get kids outside and having fun.The Fawad family was also having a wonderful time at the festival, with son Hammad claiming that it was “awesome, there were so many activities to do!” Daughter Linta said “going climbing and boxing” was so much fun.Guests were also able to meet and pet an exotic kangaroo named Jasmine. Natalie Cheng from Hands On Exotics spoke about Jasmine and the other pets that they carry, such as lemurs and snakes. The organization hopes to teach children about conservation, so festivals like Pumpkin Fest are a great way for children and families to overcome their fears of certain species, or to just have fun meeting new ones.Combined with all of the exciting things to do, Pumpkin Fest’s success can be measured by the many smiling faces around every corner.By: Rhiannon Moller-Trotter and Giovanna Loureiro

Special Halloween Spooky Story: Route 36

Anya shivered and hugged her jacket collar tight around her neck. The cold October air was sending waves of goose bumps all over her body. Having just finished a twelve-hour shift at the hospital, she wanted to get off her feet as soon as possible.Where was the bus anyway? She looked as far West as she could on Finch, hoping to spot the blue TTC headlights in the distance, but her vision was blocked by a thick wall of fog.She started to think maybe she should start the long walk home, when she heard someone speaking to her, “are you getting on Miss?”Startled out of her thoughts, she looked up to see a bus had pulled up in front of her with its doors wide open. Funny, she had not heard the bus approaching, yet there it stood a few feet away. Anya would have given it some more thought had it been any other night, but tonight she was cold and craved warmth more than anything else.The bus driver was a tall woman dressed in an impeccably tailored tuxedo, with the scariest zombie costume Anya had ever seen. Sores stood out against her grey dead skin accompanied by dry blood stains across her forehead, hands and cheeks. She was practically bald except for a few errant wisps of brown hair around her ears. Her gums were black and gooey which Anya guessed was probably molasses smeared on for effect.As she paid her fare and made her way to her seat, she noticed there was no one else on board the musty smelling bus; which was strange because it was only 8:45 pm. She chose a seat close to the front of the bus so that she could let the driver know when to let her off.“I love your costume! If I didn’t know any better I would say your costume is real,” Anya complimented the bus driver. “I’m Anya.”The bus driver gave her a tight controlled smile and said, “I’m Zola. Thanks for the compliment.” Zola had committed to her costume all the way; she even spoke in a creepy warbled voice.“Are you going to a work party tonight?” Anya inquired. “I wish that could be me right now, but I’m exhausted.”“Something like that” Zola responded while staring straight ahead. Clearly she did not want to be bothered.Anya sat back in her seat and tried looking out the windows to see if her stop was coming up soon…weird…she couldn’t see anything because of the fog. How could Zola navigate in this weather?“Excuse me, Zola. Do you know where we are?” Anya asked.  “I have to get off at Jane and Finch, and I’m pretty sure we might have passed it by now.”“We passed it a long time ago” Zola drawled in her hoarse dead voice. “Only one more stop on this bus” she continued, still staring straight ahead without looking at Anya.Something was wrong. Anya was not sure what exactly, but she needed to get off this bus pronto!“You can let me off here. Thanks.” Anya tried to sound authoritative, but she could hear the tremble in her voice as she spoke.Suddenly, Zola stood up and started walking slowly and crookedly towards her. Anya recoiled to the back of the bus and tried desperately to open the windows, but they would not budge. Just as she was about to try breaking the closest window, she felt a cold dead hand on her shoulder.This time Zola was staring directly at her, with the black goo from her gums dripping down her mouth as she said, “What’s the matter Anya? I thought you wanted to party tonight.”Anya felt her knees buckle and saw the dancing spots of black in front of her eyes. She remembered feeling unusually cold as she slipped into oblivion.