Sheppard West

Toll Roads may not be an optimal solution, but with Toronto willing to maintain the lowest property taxes in the are while cementing its reputation as a world class city, alternate sources of financing have to be found.

The province is launching a review of OMB. For many communities, it is too late, but could such a review ever achieve its goals?

The story of police understaffing has been somehow dominating the headlines for quite a while. Although there are far more police per capita in Toronto than in London for instance, Toronto police officers are reportedly so “demoralized” that they took a symbolic vote against Chief Mark Saunders.

The major news of the week is the closing of a housing project at Jane and Finch.

Amalgamation happened against people's will and not only in Toronto, but also in Montreal. Its promise of cost savings did not materialize.

It was our current Police Chief who, as the lead author of a secret internal 2012 report, exonarated the Force of racism in carding.

Having represented our neighbourhood at the OMB, we continue to monitor developments on the urban planning front..

As expected, the Spadina subway extension is late and over budget - business as usual in the amalgamated Toronto.

John Tory is the new Mayor of Toronto; Doug Ford and Olivia Chow, were on 2nd and 3rd spot respectively in terms of number of votes. In Ward 9 (York Central), Maria Augimeri was re-elected by a larger margin than in the previous election.

Although seldom talked about, Toronto Police practice of carding is considered abusive mostly by the black community and, sadly, considered justify mainly by people in the white majority. It is perhaps for this reason that the newly minted Toronto Police Chief has vowed to keep it, despite belonging himself to the "black" minority.

The Toronto Star, under the signature of Laurie Monsebraaten, social justice reporter , publishes a longer article on the needs of this neighbourhood as well as interviews with a number of citizens.

The pressure to increase property taxes seems to be increasing in Toronto. That outcome is strongly resented by most members of our community.