Meeting on 1631 Queen St. E. proposal slated
Volume 50 No. 7
BEACHMETRO.COM
June 1, 2021
AN ONLINE community consultation meeting on plans for a mixed-income, mixed-use development on Queen Street East just east of Coxwell Avenue will take place on Thursday, June 10. It will be the second community meeting on the proposal by Housing Now for the city-owned site at 1631 Queen St. E., east of Coxwell Avenue and west of Eastern Avenue, on the south side. Approved by Toronto City
Council, the development is part the city’s Housing Now initiative aimed at increasing the supply of new affordable rental housing within mixed-income, mixed-use, and transit-oriented communities. The first community meeting on the proposal late last year revealed plans for the site included a 17-storey building facing Eastern Avenue. That prompted a furious debate within the Beach commu-
nity regarding the Queen Street East Urban Design Guidelines which had established a six-storey height limit in the area. People wishing to attend the meeting on June 10 are asked to visit https://createto.ca/housingnow/housing/1631-queenstreet-east/ for information on how to do so. The online meeting is slated to take place between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. and can be attended virtually or by phone.
Police, city working to keep Woodbine Beach area safe By Alan Shackleton
A LARGE police presence in the Woodbine Beach area last Saturday night helped prevent a repeat of what had been a chaotic and dangerous situation in the area the weekend before. Police and other City of Toronto departments had been preparing last week to avoid the behaviour that took place in and around the area over the Victoria Day long weekend. The long weekend saw huge crowds of young people gathered in the area, with fireworks being set off into the early morning hours and beyond, fires set, loud music, bad behaviour, illegal drinking, and massive amounts of litter left behind. Both Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford and police officials said last week they would be increasing both enforcement and their presence for the night of Saturday, May 29. Residents in the neighbourhood to the north of Woodbine Beach Park were particularly upset with the situation on the Victoria Day long weekend, and were urging police and the city to make sure it did not happen again. “There were hundreds of kids working their way through the neighbourhood,” said one resident of the long weekend situation. “They were having fights with fireworks and shooting them at each other. There were all kinds of problems from parking to puking to garbage.” Cindy Cass is with the Neighbourhood Watch in the area and also runs a Facebook page for residents of the community which she calls Pleasantville. She said she heard a flood of complaints last week from angry residents. In a statement sent to Beach Metro News on Sunday, May 30, she said the situation was much better last weekend. “Immediately after expressing concerns over more social media announcements of beach raves, action was then taken immediately. Brad Bradford and the police have been working diligently within our community to temporarily address the challenges,” she said.
“Their effort resulted in a much quieter and safer weekend.” Many of the problems on the long weekend were linked to an event organized on social media called Andrew’s Kickback. Police told Beach Metro News last week that the crowds they faced on the long weekend presented them with a number of challenges. “Over the (long) weekend officers responded to extremely large crowds in the Woodbine Beach area,” police said last week. “Due to the hostility and size of the crowds, officers had to use their discretion at the time and take into account the safety of themselves, those in attendance and the wider public. Public safety is always their priority and officers managed the crowds and dispersed them. Police will continue to investigate both incidents and identify those involved.” Police said on May 24 they encountered large crowds setting off fireworks, and that one person was taken to hospital after being hit by a firework and another person was treated for a leg injury for the same reason. Garbage was also set on fire, police said. Bradford said police estimated there were between 5,000 to 10,000 at the beach on the past long weekend, and keeping people safe was police’s priority. “There were reports of fireworks being launched at buildings and into crowds of people,” he said. “At that point, police were focused on responding to this as a public safety issue and controlling the crowds more so than complaints about noise and litter.” A similar Andrew’s Kickback was also being promoted for May 29 on social media. “We’re absolutely responding to the events of last weekend. Much of this week’s work has been focused on coming up with a plan to respond to the events that are being shared on social media,” said Bradford on Friday, May 28.. Similar preparation by police and the city is expected to continue through the rest of the spring and summer in anticipation of what will be large crowds at Woodbine Beach in the future and on the Canada Day holiday.
PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
Peter Wood, wife Youtaz, and children Zachary and Siena are helping to let people know about ALS Awareness Month this June.
ALS Awareness Month has special meaning for family in the Beach By Alan Shackleton
THE DECLARATION of June 2 as Lou Gehrig Day will have special meaning to a Beach family living with the realities of ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). June is ALS Awareness Month and Major League Baseball is marking it with a league-wide declaration on June 2 of Lou Gehrig Day in remembrance of the legendary New York Yankees player of the 1920s who had ALS. Beach resident Peter Wood was diagnosed with ALS in 2015. Today he is fully paralyzed and non-verbal. However, Wood is completely
aware of everything going on around him and is able to communicate by typing messages through eye-blink technology. “ALS is a horrible terminal illness without treatment or cure. The cruelest disease,” he wrote in an email interview with Beach Metro News in late May in advance of ALS Awareness Month this June. “It takes away your abilities over time. But your mind is perfect. Your eyes and ears too – so you are stuck witnessing every minute detail of your decline powerlessly.” Wood has deep family connections to the Beach, having lived on Kingswood Road until the age of four when his parents moved to Markham. Both sets of his grand-
parents lived in the Beach, with one of his grandmothers having moved here more than 100 years ago. He and his wife Youtaz moved to the area in 2009, and now live near Southwood Drive and Kingston Road with their children Zachary, 14, and Siena, 9. Wood’s brother and cousins also live in the Beach. Wood said his physical abilities started declining after he was diagnosed with ALS, and his family have experienced that process with him. “I first lost my strength in my left arm. Then the right arm. Eventually, I couldn’t walk,” he wrote. “Then my voice and swallowing Continued on Page 2