Renovations are underway at several Toronto schools to create much-needed space for students. In two neighbourhoods, this means the construction of entirely new buildings.
George Webster Elementary School in East York is being replaced. The new building, with a price tag of approximately $21.1 million, is slated to open in September. A new building for Avondale Public School and Avondale Alternative Elementary School is scheduled to open in January 2018. This project, in North York, will cost an estimated $19.8 million.
But while some teachers, parents, and students wait for new school buildings, others are wishing for much-needed repairs to be complete. And unlike the two construction projects, there’s no end date in sight for these.
Public transit is an important conduit. It serves an essential need in an urban economy: mobility.
But public transit is also an important public space. It is a place where we encounter a lot of people we don’t know, who are from different parts of the city, different backgrounds, travelling for different purposes, and engaging the city in different ways.
These encounters play an important role in the city. Let me explain why.
Toronto’s first major snowfall of the year usually results in collisions on city streets and highways. But icy sidewalks have also been an ongoing problem—and a recent study shows the effects they have on both pedestrians and local hospitals.
According to a report released by Toronto Public Health in October [PDF], between 2006 and 2015, nearly 30,000 people went to the emergency room after falling on ice or snow, and 2,800 were hospitalized.
These slips and falls cost the city about $6.7 million per year in liability claims, and cost the provincial healthcare system almost $4 million annually. Between 2006 and 2015, there were 2,300 claims against the city due to slips and falls on snowy and icy sidewalks.
Dr. David MacKinnon is the deputy chief of the emergency department at St. Michael’s Hospital. During the winter, he sees patients who have broken their ankle or wrist in a fall on a sidewalk that wasn’t cleared or salted properly.
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