I am in the unique position…

I am in the unique position of both living and working in this community most of my life. I live in the home I grew up in, and happen to own The Geat Apparel Co. in Jane Park Plaza. A business that I have operated for 36 years. Needless to say this gives me a unique insight into the community. The traffic on Jane St. , Alliance Ave, Rockcliffe Blvd., Weston Road and Rogers road has increased exponentially. The area zoned commercial industrial in the 1950’s, when it was known as The Borough of York, is today a community with inner city problems and the zoning should reflect this change. As a child attending Rockcliffe School, we would run track on the streets around the schools parimiter and at the end of the route jump across black creek, and run across the schools parking run into the gym to compleate the exercise. The creak was ‘clean’, no alegy, maintained without plant growth in the cracks of the concreate slabs, and adequate to handel the water flow. Today just as with the streets, this is not the case. Allowing St. Helens to build on contaminated soil is putting a mistake an top of an existing mistake, one that the community will have to live with for decades to come, because city planners are not recognizing the zoning is outdated. The area needs a consolidated effort from all levels of government. It is an overlooked patch of the city that has not kept up with the demographic needs of it’s current day inhabitants. Every day I witness people using pocket change to pay for small necessities, afraid to break $20 because it is the last money until the next pay period. New Canadians without the support of family in the country. Struggling!! Yes jobs but not a meet packing plant are needed here.

[Original Comment ID: 214667]