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The following articles are from roncesvallesvillage.ca BIA site
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It's underway! Toronto's Roncesvalles is under reconstruction. Roncesvalles Renewed is a group of residents, business owners, politicians, city planners, and transportation officials working together.
Our key priority is to ensure that plans include the condition necessary for trees to flourish. We are also working to create better sidewalks, beautiful public spaces. And please buy and dine locally while the street is being torn up, to show your support for a great street and help our businesses get through the Dig.
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Dig This! Reconstruction News and Updates
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Nov
21
Written by:
Joshua Tusin
11/21/2009 8:40 PM
Roncesvalles Renewed met on November 12th so that area residents could present ideas and discuss options for the new Roncesvalles Avenue. With the detailed design process rapidly coming to a close this is one of the last best opportunities to push the city on key street elements. Figuring out which items are the priorities was, indeed, the focus of the meeting.
Thanks to Mark Ellwood's excellent organization of the group we divided twice into small groups to discuss various components of the street design, such as the bumpouts, trees, street furniture and so on.
What emerged was perhaps predictable, yet also illuminating. Trees remained a priority of the group, but not always in the ways they historically have been. Similarly, a real concern for the type of street lighting emerged as a priority, something that hasn't received a lot of attention from the group previously.
As usual, John Bowker produced an excellent summary of the meeting, identifying four key points that emerged as leading priorities or concerns of neighbourhood residents. Those points include:
- real displeasure with the tree coffins that line our street now
- seeing a shared public space, not space for the TTC's exclusive use
- a self-explaining street, that makes intuitive sense for all users
- preservation of pedestrian space
Now neighbourhood leaders are passing along suggestions to the City, via Councillor Gord Perks, in an ongoing effort to ensure that the new Roncesvalles is as great a street as it deserves to be. As always, if you have any ideas, questions or want to get in touch, contact us by email, info [at] roncesvallesrenewed [dot] org.
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2 comment(s) so far...
Re: Neighbourhood Residents Identify Streetscape Design Priorities
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the meeting on November 12th.
One concern that I have (and am wondering if it has surfaced anywhere in community discussions) is the issue of wheelchair accessibility on Roncesvalles. Other than a handful of businesses who have chosen to provide ramps, and the city provided curb cuts (which allow wheelchair users to leave/mount a sidewalk), our lovely street is virtually inaccessible. Has there been any discussion around how to facilitate/enforce wheelchair accessibility among local merchants, as a priority in the development of our street?
The arrival of the new streetcars will no doubt help this, given that wheelchair users will finally have a way to get around Roncesvalles via TTC. However, if bike lanes are placed between the sidewalk and mounting zone for the streetcar, this renders the streetcars (once again), inaccessible. I am a cyclist myself, and am not advocating for the removal of bike lanes. My hope is obviously that the needs of as many people as possible will be met, and to make sure that the concerns of all citizens are at very least represented; these are mine. Does anyone else share these concerns/know of any plans to address them? Is there another meeting that will be held in the near future?
Thanks!
By elizabeth on
11/27/2009 2:56 AM
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Re: Neighbourhood Residents Identify Streetscape Design Priorities
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make the meeting on November 12th.
One concern that I have (and am wondering if it has surfaced anywhere in community discussions) is the issue of wheelchair accessibility on Roncesvalles. Other than a handful of businesses who have chosen to provide ramps, and the city provided curb cuts (which allow wheelchair users to leave/mount a sidewalk), our lovely street is virtually inaccessible. Has there been any discussion around how to facilitate/enforce wheelchair accessibility among local merchants, as a priority in the development of our street?
The arrival of the new streetcars will no doubt help this, given that wheelchair users will finally have a way to get around Roncesvalles via TTC. However, if bike lanes are placed between the sidewalk and mounting zone for the streetcar, this renders the streetcars (once again), inaccessible. I am a cyclist myself, and am not advocating for the removal of bike lanes. My hope is obviously that the needs of as many people as possible will be met, and to make sure that the concerns of all citizens are at very least represented; these are mine. Does anyone else share these concerns/know of any plans to address them? Is there another meeting that will be held in the near future?
Thanks!
By elizabeth on
11/27/2009 3:01 AM
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Discover more about Roncesvalles Renewed friends and members; and share stories with the fans of this one-of-a-kind main street.
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