{"id":27630,"date":"2019-02-25T10:48:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T15:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=27630"},"modified":"2019-02-25T10:48:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T15:48:33","slug":"toronto-city-hall-struggling-with-snow-and-8-years-of-austerity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/local\/gta\/toronto-city-hall-struggling-with-snow-and-8-years-of-austerity\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto city hall struggling with snow \u2014 and 8 years of austerity"},"content":{"rendered":"
For the city of Toronto, the hits just seem to keep coming.<\/p>\n
Rents are somehow getting even higher. The city’s budget isn’t balanced. The transit system needs a future\u00a0investment equivalent to the GDP of a small country. Premier Doug Ford is trying to take the city’s stuff, even as local politicians tell him to please stop doing that.<\/p>\n
And then: it snowed.<\/p>\n
Torontonians can forgive their municipal government for being cash-strapped. They get that housing is unaffordable, but it’s also old news. And they understand that the city’s relations with Ford’s government will be challenging.<\/p>\n
But snow? Toronto’s government should at least be able to handle to snow, shouldn’t it?<\/p>\n
This winter’s blast of snow and ice has put a major strain on municipal services. After a storm in January left roads messy, residents lodged more than 5,000 complaints with the city’s 311 service. People weren’t happy.<\/p>\n
The reaction prompted Mayor John Tory to call for a review of the city’s snow clearing operations.<\/p>\n
The city’s struggles to keep the roads clear also brought renewed focus to the city’s policy when it comes to sidewalk snow removal. Most local streets in the suburbs of North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough get the sidewalk plow service. Local streets in the Toronto and East York area do not.<\/p>\n
It’s an inequality that has a lot of residents in the downtown area frustrated, especially after a series of icy storms turned sidewalks into skating rinks.<\/p>\n
The city’s bylaws require homeowners in areas without sidewalk plowing to keep their sidewalks clear, but enforcement is lax and late.<\/p>\n
In a recent presentation to the city’s budget committee, the Harbord Village Residents’ Association reported that residents were told bylaw inspectors would investigate their complaints about uncleared sidewalks sometime within the next three weeks.<\/p>\n
And the city’s approach to sidewalk clearing in the part of the city with the highest levels of pedestrian volumes isn’t just frustrating \u2014 it’s also dangerous and expensive.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Timothy Leroux told CBC Radio’s\u00a0Metro Morning<\/em> that he’s seen an increase in the number of slip-and-fall injuries this winter. The city reports that liability claims resulting from winter slips and falls amount to about $6.7 million each year.<\/p>\n