‘It’s just hair,’ says St. John student By Lara O’Keefe
Volume 46 No. 19
December 13, 2016
WHEN ELINA Anker found out she had cancer, she didn’t react with sadness or fear. Instead, she named her tumour “Juan.” As in, Juan be gone. This remarkable humour and optimism in the face of a scary diagnosis are just two of the traits that make the Grade 8 “class clown” arguably one of the most beloved students at St. John Catholic School. Cooper Tallis, who has been friends with Anker since they were in junior kindergarten explained that “she’s such a big part of this school. She’s part of school council. She’s big in like, every single sports
team. She’s just a big chunk in this school… she’s really funny, like the Grade 8 class clown.” In order to show Anker how much she means to them and support her during her time of need, the St. John students decided to hold an event to raise money for her family as well as for SickKids Hospital where she is currently being treated for diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Before Anker was diagnosed, Tallis said students suspected something was wrong “because every afternoon we would see her in pain, like, head on her desk. And then she didn’t come into school one day.” Continued on Page 4
PHOTO: LARA O’KEEFE
Christmas on Kingston Road From left, Derek Arnold, Beth Bolton, and Karen Harris were part of a number of performers who serenaded the crowd with Christmas music at Kingston Road United Church, December 10, just one of several neighbourhood events celebrating the holiday season.
City asks residents to consider laneway housing By Lara O’Keefe
A NUMBER of East End adults got their hands dirty – literally – at a recent city-led community consultation on laneway houses. The nearly 70 attendees were building miniature laneway houses out of clay to spark discussion about what types of laneway houses – if any, at all – folks would like to see in the city. “We want to learn about the possibility of laneway suites in the city. You can ask hard questions, build weird things out of clay – we’re here to learn together,” said Jo Flatt, Senior Project Manager at Evergreen Cityworks, one of the companies working with the city on the community consultations. “We want to understand your thoughts and your concerns and the opportunities that you see. And then we want to start thinking about the design of the laneway suites if we go forward.” Toronto is a city of many laneways – 2,433 to be exact – and
PHOTO: LARA O’KEEFE
A community consultation on laneway suites was hands on.
through a series of city-wide consultations, the city is exploring whether some of those laneways should eventually be lined with small houses. Ward 32 councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon, in participation with ward 18 councillor Ana Bailao, Evergreen Cityworks and Lanescape – two companies that work to
improve the design, beautification and landscape of Toronto – hosted a community consultation on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at S.H. Armstrong Community Centre to discuss the possibility of allowing laneway suites in ward 32. Laneway housing – small oneor two-storey homes that are detached from a primary residence
and face onto a laneway – is not a new concept – Ottawa, Vancouver and Regina have permitted hundreds of laneway houses to be built. But the idea had not been strongly considered by the city of Toronto until recently. With a shortage of affordable housing for both renters and homebuyers and a decline in overall space in the city, these small-scale housing options have come to the surface as a way to build affordable housing and address density concerns without changing the character of the neighbourhood. “It’s time we reclaim them and figure out what we want to do with them,” said McMahon at the consultation. “Fire, emergency services, and our police are very keen on activating our laneways. There’s a laneway project group that has been doing all kinds of fun things in laneways with murals and activities. But we need to figure out how and if this can happen in Toronto and that’s why we are reaching out to you.”
In the case of Toronto, there are plenty of laneways for potential housing with the Pembina Institute stating “there are 250 kilometres of laneways in Toronto, which provide many opportunities for new developments that blend into existing neighbourhoods.” According to a report by the Pembina Institute, because laneway housing is built to fit with preexisting structures, the codes and requirements are often quite strict. In Vancouver, for example, the houses are limited to family or rental use only and can only be a maximum of one-and-a-half storeys high, and anywhere between 500 to 900 square feet. Similar restrictions would likely be put in place in Toronto. By-laws in Toronto would also require that waste collection and emergency vehicles have access to routes that are at least six metres wide. Continued on Page 2