Dr. Michael Salvatori from the University of St. Michael’s College explained that the Continuing Education program consists of non-degree courses and programs offered in workshops, seminars and lectures were available for everyone, including Bay Cloverhill residents. Continuing education is part of St. Mike’s strategic plan of Education, Community and Sustainability. They will be relaunching community learning courses, to complement existing career progression courses that offer certificates for working professionals. Residents are encouraged to think of general interest topics that are of interest, such as languages for travel, beginner Irish, social media literacy, art and architecture walks and printmaking in the Kelly Library. The courses could be held in person or remotely in evening or weekend sessions. A survey will be sent out shortly for course ideas and feedback. It is expected course offerings will start later this year. Any revenues will go to operating costs for the university. Did you know that Toronto Life rated Bay Cloverhill the 8th best neighbourhood to live in the City in 2023? They conducted a survey with Environics to score neighbourhoods on 10 criteria: housing, community, safety, shopping, diversity, education, health, employment, entertainment and transit. We achieved a perfect score for the shopping, health and entertainment. HGTV used the Toronto Life neighbourhood ranking for 2023 to figure out the best areas for new immigrants to live in the city. The criteria that is more important to new residents included housing, employment, diversity and health. With these changes, Bay Cloverhill moved from 8th to 10th as the best neighbourhood in Toronto. The results are detailed in the attached chart. Social Media activity over the past year was presented. The website www.baycloverhill.com was created in 2015 and updated April 2021. The Facebook group “Bay Cloverhill Community” was created in February 2021. The @baycloverhill X (aka Twitter) account was created in 2015 and become actively used in May 2021. The Instagram account @baycloverhill was started in 2021. Statistics for January 1st to December 31st 2023 (compared to previous year) are in the attached chart. Marilyn T. announced that membership invoices will be sent out to property managers shortly for January renewals. She has just taken over as Treasurer, so the invoices will contain all relevant details. Cathy C. attended the 52 Division Community Police Liaison Committee Town Hall on November 1, 2023. There was an interesting presentation of SafeTO, which is a 10 year community and safety plan. This will be a future guest speaker at one of our general members meetings. The Downtown Yonge BIA, Waterfront BIA and Queen Street West BIA spoke about their projects, including streetscaping and other programs. The new Unit Commander, Superintendent Khan looks forward to working together with the community. Members approved an amendment to Section 4.3 of the Constitution to expand Executive Officer positions to Individual Members and remove the requirement for candidates to have been a Building Representative for six months. The renaming of Yonge Dundas Square to Sankofa Square was discussed. A Recognition Review Advisory Committee selected the new name on December 12th and Councillor Moise made a motion that was approved by City Council on December 14th. Several members of the Yonge Dundas Square Management Board resigned as a result. The funding for the name change is going to come from Section 37 development funds. The vehicle damage to the planters at St. Joseph and Bay was noted. One of the main problems are the missing bollards, which Cathy C. has been trying to get the City to install for the past year. Al R. suggested that the bollards on Emily Stowe could be relocated when the turn lane reconstruction takes place in the next year. The Transportation Department will be asked if changing the bumpouts to widen the street for large trucks would be a viable solution. The St. Joseph streetscaping is one of the selected Toronto Centre participatory budgeting projects, which should minimize future damage. Beth H. reported that the Parks Department said that standard park operating hours are 5:30 am to midnight, so the Breadalbane Park dog off leash areas hours wouldn’t be shortened. Al R. pointed out that some parks have shorter hours, so it may be possible to reduce opening hours to minimize disturbances from barking dogs. Al R. noted that the linear parks east of Yonge has expanded areas. 14 Dundonald has been added to James Canning Park. 15 Charles and 6 Isabella will expand George Hislop Park on Isabella. He will follow up with the Church Wellesley Neighbourhood Association to ensure that the Green P surface lot will be eliminated as planned with the adjacent Charles parking expansion, and added to Norman Jewison Park. Al R. has been trying for the past 5 years to have a streetlight on Charles Street West replaced. It was removed as part of the Shoppers Drug Mart reconstruction and is located on the south side of the street, by the western side of the Shoppers building. There is no street lighting on the north side of Charles Street West. Nenke J. asked when the bus shelter on Bay Street on the north side of St. Joseph, adjacent to Clover Hill Park would be repaired after it was damaged in a motor vehicle accident. Marilyn T. noted it was replaced last week. Al R. noted that dog owners often lift their pets into the community gardens, especially on St. Joseph and Irwin, to defecate. It was decided that Marilyn T. and Christine D. would look into no pet signs that could be installed into the planters. The demolition of 95 St. Joseph has been delayed a year, to early next year. The relocation of the chapel will take 3 months. The developers are working on a site plan resubmission. The proposed demolition of 25 St. Mary has also been delayed due to the economy. There is no revised timeline. Al R. noted that more planning staff have been hired for downtown Toronto planners and should result in a more reasonable planning workload. There has been a drop in pre-application developments all over Toronto. Gregg Lintern retired as Chief Planner and the hiring process for his replacement has not yet started. Jack C. noted that there was a person living in a tent in Clover Hill park. Cathy C. and Christine D. had previously reported this to 311 for action by Streets to Homes. There was also someone in Opera Place Park. Residents are advised to contact 311 to encourage any unhoused individuals to move to a shelter during the inclement weather. The next virtual meeting will be Monday March 18th at 7 pm.
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