development

YQNA Concerned About Local Projects

by YQNA
Our city planner Al Rezoski is overwhelmed with projects and still takes time to inform YQNA and ask our opinions. Yet, even an outsider can tell that the City’s Planning Department is in jeopardy.

More than 200 large buildings are in the planning stages downtown and 39,000 homes – mostly condos – are in the pipeline. To shape and guide these developments, the downtown Planning Department has three planners and a temporary chief planner in place of Ted Tyndal, who is on sick leave. Three planning jobs are open, but even when they are eventually filled the department is a shadow of its former self.

YQNA’s Planning and Development Committee has grave concerns about the many building projects in our area. The new co-chairs, James Russell and Bob Rasmussen, wrote a letter to Mayor David Miller with copies to all City Councillors, pleading with them to restore funding to the Planning Department to usher in the biggest building boom in Toronto’s history. We await their replies.

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developmentmeeting

NEW PLAN FOR COMMUNITY

by YQNA

The Queen’s Quay Harbourfront Business Improvement Area (QQHBIA) held a meeting on September 13th at Harbourfront Centre to launch its ‘Strategy for the Transformation of Queen’s Quay.’

The meeting was attended by twelve planning students in their final year at Ryerson University and their Associate Director and Professor, Mitchell Kosny, MRCP, Phd. Also attending were representatives from Harbourfront, the QQHBIA, Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, York Quay Neighbourhood Association, and Waterfront Action. Local business representatives included Ms. Chinyere Eni, Branch Manager of the Royal Bank of Canada, located in the Queen’s Quay Terminal Building and Kevin Currie, of Wheel Excitement. Our HarbourSide resident, Braz Menezes, who conceived the project, also chaired the meeting.

At the meeting the students were given a list of priorities and then asked to prepare a strategy for the economic and physical transformation of Queen’s Quay over the next few years. There will be a mid-session review of the student’s work near the end of October. They will present their final report in December of this year.

While the Ryerson students are working on their strategy for our neighbourhood, five University of Toronto students will be looking at the impact that condo tower congestion has on our lives, both physically and socially.

Thanks to Braz, and the QQHBIA, Ryerson University and the University of Toronto for helping to get their project off the ground. We are all looking forward to receiving the student’s final presentation.

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crashIsland Airport

Q400 Crashes Again

by YQNA

As you may know by now, another Q400 plane crash landed in Europe, this time in Copenhagen airport (for full story click here). That’s SAS’s third crash in 7 weeks! SAS has now decided (according to Jyllands Posten, a reliable daily) to get rid of all it’s Q400 planes. Quotes from the paper:

” Patience and confidence have disappeared after a dreadful year for SAS. As a result, none of SAS’s passengers will ever fly in a Q400 plane again,” said SAS’s chief operating officer Mats Jansson.
It is already clear that the decision to replace 27 Q400 planes will cost SAS millions and will negatively affect the company’s economy.
“We have had problems with this plane for a long time and have suffered three crash landings. Consequently we must get rid of the plane entirely,” continued Jansson.
SAS will buy or rent new planes to replace the grounded Q400 planes.
SAS will attempt to get Bombardier to take back the planes.
“Lease agreements on the planes expire in 2010 and 2012. SAS will not lease these planes out to others. We will attempt to get Bombardier to take back the planes. They can then decide if they will lease them to others or what they want to do with them,” said John Dueholm, vice president of SAS.
That’s it for now …. I think the big story here is that 27 planes might be returned to Bombardier. What’ll happen to them? The Danish story suggests that these planes will continue to fly somewhere, leased to unsuspecting or cash-strapped companies. Are we connecting the dots to the local scene?
Ulla
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Harbourfront Centre

Pet Discovery Centre Coming to Harbourfront

by YQNA

The vacant building on Queens Quay West that formerly housed the Bamboo will soon become a Pet Community and Discovery Centre. The building is owned by the City and managed by Harbourfront Centre. They have been looking for a suitable tenant for several years.

At a reception on September 11th in the York Quay Centre, Bill Boyle, Harbourfront Centre’s CEO, introduced spokespeople representing the Nestle-Purina Corporation. They announced their plans and enthusiasm to have an opportunity to “give back to the community”.

As the new tenants of this space, Nestle-Purina shared their plans to develop an animal hall of fame and to plan activities to help individuals and families learn more about how to care for and have fun with their pets. They asked people attending the reception to offer any ideas they might have and promised that they will welcome community input to their planning process.

Watch for signs of change as they begin to do extensive renovations to the building in the near future.

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garage salerosario marchese

Sun and fun garage sale!

by YQNA


YQNA had a successful Garage Sale at the Radisson Hotel on Sunday, September 23rd, 2007. An energetic group of members on Queens Quay pulled it all together. They filled the empty store front with donations from condos in our area; they promoted the event and brought in plenty of customers; and they got volunteers working for four days.

The sun was shining on YQNA in more ways than one, because we raised $1,500. As an added bonus, we had a lot of fun working together and meeting new people in the neighbourhood. We’ll keep most of the proceeds for YQNA projects, but a generous donation of $500 went to the scholarship fund for underprivileged youth, sponsored by our friends at Toronto Police 52 Division.

Local businesses gave generously, especially prizes for the raffle. Our MPP Rosario Marchese dropped by to visit and to pick the winners. Many thanks to the following businesses for donating these raffle prizes:

Toula Restaurant at Westin Harbour Castle Hotel: Dinner for two ($200 value)
Pier 4 Restaurant: $70 gift certificate
Il Fornello: $50 gift certificate
Swiss Chalet: 6 vouchers for 1/4 chicken dinners ($45 value)
Shoppers Drug Mart: bag of items including cosmetics, skin care, and 15% off coupon valid till Dec. 31 (over $100 value)
Pharmasave: L’Oreal Skin Treatment $50+ value
Second Cup: 2 bags of specialty teas, tea canisters, teacups, and Belgian chocolates (each bag $80+ value)
Sobey’s: $30 in gift certificates
David Hillis Salon: Salon packages:
1. Colour with Hanna, Cut and Blow dry with Sangeeta, Make-up with Kimberly – $125 value
2. Cut with Rose and Manicure with Ildiko – $82 value
3. Cut and Blow dry with Melissa – $55 value
Harbourfront Centre, signed novels:
Mr. Potter by Jamaica Kincaid
Step Across This Line by Salman Rushdie
You Can’t Read This by Val Ross
Voyageur by Robert Twigger
In Bad Taste? by Dr. Massimo Francesco Marcone
The Stowaway by Robert Hough
4. Power Plant: 2 family passes
5.HarbourKIDS passes: voucher for 4 passes to Luminarium, $20 value
6. Wheel Excitement: child’s cycling helmet and accessories

A huge thank you to the Radisson Admiral Hotel for the generous donation of space and furnishings for this event, and for their continued hospitality at our bi-monthly meetings.

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