Plugged storm drains can’t handle water from melting snow

Now that the cleanup of last Friday’s snowstorm is nearly done, the city can move on the the next problem: Clearing snow from above storm drains.

The massive snowbanks piled up after the 30 centimetres of snow we got on Friday were melting into slushy piles today, as the temperature climbed to six degrees, creating large puddles in low spots.

But the snowbanks are in the curb, and usually on top of storm drains that channel water into the sewer system, where they act as a barrier that prevents the runoff from entering.

The challenge for the city – and also for homeowners – is to clear away the snow above the drains, to prevent the puddles from getting too big and flooding the lows spots along streets.

Hector Moreno, a road operations manager with the city, said its focus on Tuesday will be to clear the snow from sewer grates, but the city can’t get to every drain in the next 24 hours, while the melting continues.

Anyone with a storm grate in the curb near their property would be doing themselves and their neighbours a favour by taking a shovel and clearing the snow from above it, so the runoff can drain into it.

When the thermometer drops later this week, the puddles will freeze and cause problems for drivers and pedestrians, which makes a bit of preventative action now the neighbourly thing to do.

 

         

     

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Highway 401 plows create a wall of snow at off-ramps

It’s hard enough to get around in a snowstorm without having to crash your car through a wall of hard-packed snow to exit the 401.

All this snow has made travel an ordeal over the past 24 hours, whether you’re driving or using public transit.

One of the small mercies is the army of sand/salt trucks and plows that hog their way through the snow so the rest of us can get around. 

But clearing snow from one area can cause big problems in another, like exit ramps from the 401, where plows inadvertently create a barrier that can be a nightmare for drivers trying to get off the highway.

I was driving home late at night on the 401 during the last big snowstorm, right after Christmas, and ended up behind a conga line of plows that moved as a unit, covering all eastbound lanes.

As we inched along, I noticed the tail gunner plow, in the right-hand lane, would swerve further to the right at off-ramps, pushing most of the snow from the inner lanes to the margins of the road.

It heaped a substantial wall of snow across the exit ramp – just like the snowbanks left at the end of laneways when residential streets are plowed – before the plow swung back into the right lane of the 401.

I watched as a car that was not far behind the plows headed for an exit and slowed down, while the driver contemplated the barrier, then sped up and tried to push through it.

The car burrowed into the hard-packed snow but came to a stop and was clearly stuck, while other drivers behind it also stopped, probably because they weren’t sure what to do.

I hoped it wouldn’t happen at Morningside, where I wanted to exit.

Fat chance. The tail gunner plow, which I was right behind when I got to Morningside, left a thick, metre-high pile of snow across all lanes of the eastbound off-ramp.

I didn’t want to tackle it, based on what I’d seen, so I veered back into traffic and kept going, wondering if I’d have to crawl along to Oshawa before I found a ramp not barricaded by snow.

I drove even slower as we approached the next exit, at Meadowvale, to create more distance between me and the plows. Two cars trying to get off got stuck in the snow, but a pickup truck just ahead of me sped up and punched free, allowing me to follow it.

The snow was dense enough to cause damage to a car, if the driver really stepped on the gas but didn't burst through.

And what of the people who got stuck? Did they try to dig out with their bare hands, or wait for a tow truck?

I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m sure it happened again during this storm, with drivers stacking up at the ramps, right after the plows passed by, too afraid to try their luck, while the bolder ones got stuck.

 

   

 

 

     

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

    

Toronto Community Housing spending scandals erode public confidence

If the Toronto Community Housing Corp. is not a “corrupt agency,” as its chief executive insists, then the explanation for an alleged spending scandal can only be incompetence.

Gene Jones is the latest TCHC boss who’s had to explain misuse of tax dollars, after revealing Tuesday that a preliminary audit found improprieties involving repair work, and could include kickbacks and double billing.

Jones was brought in last year to clean up the TCHC after previous investigations found problems including excessive internal spending. So we shouldn’t be surprised when he announces there’s more trouble.

An investigation began after an anonymous tip, and employees came forward with further information, said Jones, adding he wants to dispel the notion that the TCHC is a corrupt agency.

If all the previous scandals are added to the current problem, it’s hard to come to any conclusion other than corruption or chronic ineptitude.

Reports from city auditor Jeff Griffiths in 2012 concluded that between $4 million and $10 million of the TCHC’s annual procurement budget of $200 million was wasted through a lack of competition.

In one case, a $25 million refurbishment contract was awarded based on an unsolicited proposal.

Similar problems arise at the TCHC every few years, and the response is always the same: No corruption here, folks, and we’ll fix whatever the problem is, so let’s move on.

As far back as the mid-1990s, when it was called the Metro Toronto Housing Authority, an audit found widespread fraud that resulted in a police investigation and a declaration from the provincial housing minister of the day that fraud would not be tolerated.

It sounds a lot like what Jones said on Tuesday.

There’s a culture of playing fast and loose with money at the TCHC, which may be a by-product of allowing such a large agency the nimbleness needed for managers to fix things – and there’s a lot to fix – in a timely way.

But when the same things happen over and over, it is inevitable that public confidence in the institution will erode. And with housing a big ticket item, it terms of the taxpayer dollars needed to fund it, that’s an enormous problem.

Unless Jones is able to turn the ship around, we’ll be hearing about another spending scandal soon enough.

And if a provincial government with a low tolerance for spending on poor people (as in Tories) is elected, public housing in Toronto will be in big trouble.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

Super Bowl ‘gambling party,’ Act II: How much money did the cops blow?

If the mega-bust of the eighth annual Super Bowl ‘gambling’ party was a non-event staged for TV news, what to think of the vast police resources wasted on it?

In my Monday blog, I made the case that when more than 200 York Region Police, some in SWAT gear, swooped down on 2,300 people invited to watch the game at a Markham banquet hall, it was mainly for the benefit of TV cameras.

Only six people among the 2,300 were arrested, the alleged local operators of the online gambling websites that sponsored the party.

Police allege that all kinds of wagering took place at the party, but not one of the 2,300 guests was charged as a found-in at a common gaming house, as is usually the case when they bust a joint where gambling is in progress.

Could it be that there was zero evidence of gambling, since customers of the website would have already made most of their bets from home computers or on their phones, which is not illegal?

In fact, police told everyone they were free to go, without even having their ID checked.

At a Monday news conference to announce details of the bust, police were evasive when asked how much of the $2.5 million in cash seized in the execution of warrants at a total of nine locations was from the party.

The cop providing the information said he didn’t have a breakdown on exactly how much money came from where, but leaned heavily on an “illegal raffle” of a Sea-Doo and a motorcycle, as a source of cash taken from the party.

Surely $2.5 million in raffle tickets weren’t sold, and since when are 200 police deployed to bust a raffle?

I have trouble believing the cop in charge of the news conference didn’t know if the cash came from the homes of the guys they arrested, or from the party. Most of it came from a safe in one of the homes, as it turns out.

As for the police claim that the website operators are in cahoots with bikers, the only proof is that bikers provided security for the party. It may have been a dumb choice, but police will have to go a lot farther to prove that bikers are partners in the websites.

It defies common sense to shut down a party to arrest six guys whom they’ve been tailing, wiretapping and building a case against, when it could have been much more surgical and precise, and far cheaper.

They had to know that since wagering wass done online, and most of it before the game, the party was, uh, just a party, and peaceful, at that.

Couldn’t they have pinched their targets before or after the party, and spared taxpayers the expense of marshalling 200 officers to do what, other than tell everybody it’s time to go home?

There’s way more to this than meets the eye (as in the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.), which we’ll examine later this week.

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

    

     

 

 

      

 

 

  

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

Police bust of Super Bowl ‘gambling’ party is theatre of the absurd

 Boy, it’s a good thing our police were on the ball and shut down that terrible Super Bowl ‘gambling’ party in Markham last night

Here’s something the police won’t tell you, but I will: It was nothing more than ham-handed, Keystone Cops theatrics, to create the illusion that sports betting is a terrible crime that must be stamped out.

Know why? To set the stage for the casino pimps at the Ontario Lottery Corp. to tell us that it must legitimize online gambling by becoming the bookie, instead of the local guys running the gaming websites.

Police held a news conference Monday morning to announce details of the bust – six people arrested and $2.5 million in cash – yeah, cash! – seized, while search warrants were executed at a total of nine locations.

The cops said about 2,300 people were inside the Markham banquet hall when about 200 officers, including some wearing tactical takedown gear, arrived during the second quarter of the game.

But only six – yeah, six! – were taken into custody.

I know lots of people who were there (The Fixer gets around), one of whom told me that police used a bullhorn to announce that they were shutting down the party and everyone would have to leave.

They requested an orderly dispersal of the crowd through an exit where officers with photos of the six guys they were looking for scanned the faces of the people leaving, and filmed them.

Every one of the 2,300, with the exception of the six wanted for running the sports betting sites, weren’t charged with anything and free to leave, without even having to identify themselves.

If they were all contributing to organized crime, as the police claimed at their new conference, why the free ride?

And why were 200 officers needed? Couldn’t they have busted these guys before or after the party, at some other location?

As for the $2.5 million seized, if you didn’t listen closely, you’d think they grabbed it at the party.

Not one penny of that dough came from the party. It was all seized at the other locations were search warrants were executed. Anyone at the party who wanted to make a bet were using their phones to wager on their online accounts.

Most of them were eating when the police swooped down.

No, this was a bogus bust orchestrated for TV news, to sell chumps on the idea that a heinous criminal enterprise was being shut down.

We will soon hear that the best and only way to truly eradicate illegal gambling is for the province to become the online bookie, through the OLG.

More to come. Lots more. My contempt for the government gambling pimps know no bounds.

    

 

 

 

 

  

 

    

     

 

 

      

 

 

  

 

 

    

 

 

SeeClickFix a powerful engine for community engagement

The commotion over lettering on the subway platform wall at the Dufferin TTC station is the best evidence I’ve seen that SeeClickFix is a winner.

My Wednesday column was about an unevenly spaced ‘N’ in the word ‘Dufferin,’ on the tiled wall of the westbound subway platform, reported on SeeClickFix by a reader with compelling reasons for fixing it, including invasion by cannibalistic humanoids.

It sparked a huge outpouring of comments from people who surf SeeClickFix, which we’ve been offering since last summer as another way for readers to report problems in need of fixing, along with our regular online reporting form.

SeeClickFix is used in communities across North America and offers features that allow citizens to be more involved in the process after a problem is reported, including typing in comments on issues posted by others, even in other cities.

Most reports have no third-party comments posted to them, while a few comments might show up on the odd one. But there’s never been anything like the response to the wonky N on Toronto’s SeeClickFix.

It has so far prompted 36 reader comments, an indication that the offbeat description of the potential for harm from the unevenly spaced letter captured their imagination.

Readers who cruise SeeClickFix are more aware of what’s going in their community and more likely to at least take part in a dialogue about it, adding their voice to the call for a cure, or to leave it alone, as some readers said about the N.

Some people comment on a lot of issues, just like the posts to stories on thestar.com, while others are from readers who take an interest in a particular problem, but it’s a marvelous tool to for engagement.

And for me, it provides more and better leads on the stuff that makes columns, especially when something as small as a letter in a word takes on a life of its own.

        

Maybe feral cat colonies are not the cat’s meow

 I have a soft spot for cats and people who care for feral cats, but it may be a misplaced love.

A story yesterday on thestar.com says learned scientists have concluded that cats, which are natural predators of birds and small mammals, are much deadlier than we think.

Using results from local surveys and pilot studies, they found that unnamed stray and feral cats kill a median of 2.4 billion birds annually in the U.S., along with 12.3 billion mammals a year, most of them native animals like shrews, chipmunks and voles, rather than introduced pests such as Norway rats.

The estimated kill rates are two to four times higher than previously believed, making cats one of the single greatest human-linked threats to wildlife.

It’s shocking for someone like me, whose house is ruled by three cats (courtesy of a wife who can’t say no and would have another if I’d go along with it), but not all that surprising.

The senior member of our cat family, 16-year-old Ethel, wouldn’t raise an eyebrow at a bird now, but there was a time when she was so deadly at stalking that we put a bell on her collar, which reduced her effectiveness only slightly.

She’d hop up on the kitchen window sill with a bird clenched in her teeth, eager to show us her prize.

When we first moved into out house, turtle doves inhabited the two big spruce trees in our yard, until Ethel got them.

Our youngest cat, Tuna, was adopted as a tiny stray at our cottage on the Crow River, where she, her mother and brother were living on handouts and whatever chipmunks they could catch.

They nearly wiped out our plentiful chipmunk community; even after the cats were well-fed, they’d hunt them for sport.

I’ve written many Fixer columns about feral cat colonies at Bluffers Park and behind a truck service centre on Evans Ave., which often prompted comments from readers who said they should be euthanized, citing the birds and wildlife they kill.

I thought they were mean, crotchety cat-haters - and there are plenty of them out there – but when I square the scientists’ findings with my own observations, it’s hard not to conclude that cats are a factor in the decline of the bird and small mammal population.

It makes me wonder what they'd do if they were 10 times bigger than people.

 

 

   

 

Ford verdict would have cleaned me out

 Good thing nobody took me up on my offer to bet that Mayor Rob Ford’s appeal of a court order kicking him out of office would be denied.

I’d be tapped out today, if people had lined up to wager on Ford, as I urged them to in my Jan. 22 blog.

In my bookmaking wisdom, I had Ford a 99-1 dog to win his appeal of the order by Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland, figuring the learned judge knew his business when he punted the mayor last November.

My reasoning was based mainly on the length of time it took Hackland to reach his  verdict – more than two months – when it was thought after the hearing into the complaint against Ford that it would be about four weeks.

I figured he must have examined the issues so thoroughly that he would only impose the ultimate penalty if he was certain his decision was bulletproof and would not be overturned on appeal.

Ironically, he rejected the same argument – that city council had no authority to order Ford to repay $3,150 in donations he solicited for his football foundation – that was accepted by the three-judge appeal panel and used to overturn his order.

A friend at city hall who talksto the Ford Bros. told me they also considered it a foregone conclusion that the appeal would lose, and were as surprised as anyone when it went the mayor’s way.

Had gambling websites taken bets on it, I would have been tempted to chunk it in with both hands, and taken an icy bath.

But I guess luck was on my side; despite offering my personal email address for anyone wanting to back Ford, not one brave soul stepped up.

I think it’s because even the most loyal of his supporters thought his goose was cooked, or at least weren’t willing to wager on the outcome.

And that’s okay with me, on two scores: I didn’t lose a dime, despite a reckless certainty about the result, and I am happy Ford kept his job.

City hall would be so tedious without him.

Ford is a 99-1 longshot to keep his job

I’m taking bets that Mayor Rob Ford’s appeal of a judge’s ruling to kick him out of office will be denied. Step right up and put ‘yer money down.

The decision of the three-judge Divisional Court appeal panel is due any day now, with his future as mayor hanging in the balance.

Ford is appealing the ruling of Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland that he violated the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act by voting at city council on an issue in which he had a pecuniary interest: To pay back $3,150 he raised from lobbyists for his football foundation, solicited on mayor’s office letterhead.

Had he abstained from the vote, which he won 22-12, he wouldn’t be in this pickle, but that’s another story.

Hackland applied the only penalty prescribed in the Act, removal from office, but described it as a “blunt instrument,” which it surely is.

Ford’s lawyers have appealed on several grounds, including that council had no authority to order him to pay back the money. But for the most part, they’re the same arguments made to Hackland before his decision last November.

After the hearing in early September into a complaint made against Ford, Hackland was expected to take up to four weeks to issue his verdict. Instead, it was more than two months.

That’s why I’m willing to bet Ford won’t be getting his job back.

Hackland took a lot longer than most people figured, and you have to ask why. I think he went around the horn, up down and seven ways from Sunday, making sure his decision was unassailable.

What else could he have been doing?

If Hackland, who has a reputation as an excellent judge, had the slightest doubt that the ruling would be overturned on appeal, I doubt he would have imposed so drastic a penalty.

He has no skin in the Toronto politics game. What does he care if Ford is mayor?

Hackland’s only interest is in squaring the facts with the law, which allowed some small wiggle room to which he did not defer, because he didn’t think it applied.

Ford Nation is hoping for a miracle from the court, and I will not be disappointed (except as a bookmaker) if the appeal is upheld. I’d much rather he finish his term.

But I think Hackland is convinced his ruling is bulletproof, so as a gambler, I am betting on his legal acumen, rather than with my heart.

Which is why I am willing to take the action of people who want to bet with theirs.

Anyone who wants to put up their dough can email me at jlakey@thestar.ca. 

    

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

         

 

   

   

 

  

 

   

  

 

 

Winning two hockey tournament titles, two hours apart, is a rare feat

Playing on two championship teams in one day at the same hockey tournament makes my boy one in 1,300.

The Toronto Penguins club, which has 16 teams in the GTHL, held its annual Winter Classic hockey tournament this past weekend, with 77 teams at the A and AA levels in it from Ontario and New York state.

My boy Jackson plays defence for the Penguins minor bantam (born in 1999) AA squad, which is tearing up the GTHL’s east division this season, with 22 wins, one loss and three ties so far. They’ve beaten every one of the other 14 teams in their division with speed, skill and scoring.

He’s also a frequent call-up player to the Penguins bantam (born in 1998) A team, which plays rock ‘em, sock ‘em hockey and is in the middle of the pack in their division.

Jackson, who’s bigger and stronger than most kids his age, likes to mix it up with the older boys and can handle the action.

All the Penguin teams were in the tournament and played in at least three games in about 36 hours, and a fourth on Sunday, if they reached the final.

Our AA team was heavily favored and did not disappoint, beating their arch-rivals, North Toronto, 4-0 for the gold medal, in a game that ended at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The bantam A team was playing for the gold in their group an hour later at the Westwood arena and were missing two players – one for a suspension and another with a broken wrist – which opened up a spot for a call-up player.

Jackson, who’d just finished his game, was asked if he could help out. He loves to play and hates to say no, so he kept his sweaty equipment on and walked down the hall to the bantam dressing room for round two.

They were beaten for a goal early and down 3-0 to the NobleKing Knights, from Nobleton, in the second period. The Knights were all over them and it was looking grim.

All of a sudden, wham, bam! Two quick goals and the Penguins were back in it.

They started taking the game to the Knights, potted another in the third and went into overtime tied 3-3, before winning it on a beautiful, two-on-one passing play.

For the second time in two hours, Jackson lined up to receive a championship medal.

It made me wonder how many other kids, if any, had won all the marbles twice in the same tournament, so I went to the team office at Westwood and asked the organizers if they were aware of a similar situation.

They said there was a small chance that a kid may have played for two teams on a call-up basis in the tournament, but they were sure that nobody else played for two that both won their group. In fact they’d never heard of anything like it.

With an average roster size of 17 players, about 1,300 kids played in the tournament, but only one got two gold medals.

For a hockey dad, you couldn’t ask for more.