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welcome to uncommon ™
winter confidence Volume 52 No. 21
BEACHMETRO.COM
January 23, 2024
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Winter Welcome for 2024 at Kew Gardens
Winter Stations 2024 set for Woodbine Beach and Queen Street East WINTER STATIONS has an- Woodbine Beach. The installations nounced the nine art installations will remain on display until the end that will be part of its 10th annual of March. “Over the past 10 years of Winexhibition this year in the Beach. ter Stations, we’ve created incredSeven of this year’s installations ible works of are new art that have and six moved people of them in incredibly will be meaningful displayed ways dura l o n g ing a season Woodbine that can feel Beach. The gloomy othother new erwise,” said installaRAW Design tion joins architect Datwo othkota Waresers that Tani in a are comnews release ing back announcing from 2023 IMAGE: SUBMITTED to help cel- NIMBUS is one of the six new art instal- Winter Staebrate the lations to be displayed on Woodbine tions 2024. Beach as part of Winter Stations 2024. 10th anni“We hope versary; and they will be displayed that the impact of bringing bright along Queen Street East at Wood- and joyful stations to Toronto’s east bine Park, Kew Gardens park and end continues to resonate.” Ivan Forest Gardens park. Winter Stations began in 2015 as The official opening ceremony a way to highlight the beauty of the for Winter Stations will be on Fam- Eastern Beaches and make them a ily Day (Monday, Feb. 19) along Continued on Page 2
Beaches-East York MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon and Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith hosted a Winter Welcome skating party and New Year’s Levee event at the Kew Gardens rink on Saturday, Jan. 20. Photo above, McMahon (front row centre in red sweater) is joined on the ice by Marietta, Ron, Ewan, Noor, Selena and Maisie. Photo at left, Erskine-Smith (centre) chats with residents Elizabeth and Digby Cook at the event.
City budget town halls to be hosted by local councillors By Amarachi Amadike, Journalism Initiative Reporter
Local
AS THE City of Toronto looks for ways to close the $1.776 billion opening budget pressure it faces in 2024, city staff are proposing a 10.5 per cent property tax increase. The hike comprises a nine per cent residential property tax as well as an additional 1.5 per cent increase to the city building levy for services and affordable housing. “Toronto is facing an unprecedented financial shortfall which, if left unaddressed, compromises our ability to deliver the services residents rely on,” Toronto-Dan-
PHOTOS: ALAN SHACKLETON
forth Councillor Paula Fletcher told Beach Metro Community News. “Mayor Chow’s New Deal with the province was an important first step in addressing the long-term financial sustainability of Toronto.” Although this year’s opening budget pressures has been described as “unprecedented” by officials, this isn’t in fact the largest opening pressures Toronto’s budget has faced in recent times. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Toronto experienced opening pressures between $1.9 billion and $2.3 billion. However, the difference is that in Continued on Page 21
Toboggan ban at East Lynn Park and other city hills has residents furious By Amarachi Amadike, Journalism Initiative Reporter
Local
LOCAL RESIDENTS are making their feelings clear as signs prohibiting tobogganing at East Lynn Park have already been knocked down just days after the ban was implemented by the City of Toronto.
This doesn’t surprise BeachesEast York Councillor Brad Bradford who told Beach Metro Community News that he believes his constituents will still choose to go sledding at the park “regardless of what the city says or does”. “This is the kind of thing that makes people frustrated and upset about the City of Toronto,” said
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Bradford. “For years – decades – families have been tobogganing in this park in my community. I even bring my own daughter here.” According to the City of Toronto’s tobogganing inspection program, 45 parks are unsafe for the popular winter activity. In the case of East Lynn Park, which is located Continued on Page 21