Council postpones bike lane debate to Wednesday

Tuesday was a busy day at Toronto City Hall with councillors voting on an array of issues, including a new plan of action for graffiti, the future of the Jarvis Street bike lanes and whether to scrap a local food procurement program.

Just before 8 p.m, council moved to delay the vote on bike lanes until 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. Debate had raged for several hours, with several impassioned councillors taking the floor.

Coun. Mike Layton presented a petition with 2001 signatures, all in support of keeping the bike lanes. Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker, an avid cyclist, argued that removing bike lanes on Jarvis makes cycling less safe. He was later chastised by Speaker Frances Nunziata for the language in his remarks, and his criticism of officials, not policy.

Coun. Josh Matlow, who was initially opposed to the bike lanes, said he now appreciated them as it kept cyclists out of the flow of vehicle traffic.

Those who supported removing the bike lanes included Coun. Mark Grimes. He said he opposed the process that brought in the lanes in the first place, and said bike lanes aren’t an issue that people in the suburbs understand.

Meanwhile, a new graffiti management plan was approved unanimously by councillors after some amendments were made on Tuesday afternoon.

The amendments included:
-that city staff report Jan. 25, 2012, on the cost for a strategy to remove “corporate graffiti” on city sidewalks and properties and a so-called charge-back policy to recover such costs.
-that city staff  report on approaches to expedite graffiti removal from federal, provincial and municipal street-side utilities including any steps necessary for cost recovery.
-that city staff establish a new centralized graffiti function to be responsible for co-ordinating, benchmarking and reporting on all graffiti-related activities to reduce graffiti vandalism.

On Tuesday, Mayor Rob Ford was the only one to vote against six popular community grants programs worth $7.2 million that was recommended by the community development and recreation committee.

Council voted 43 to 1 to approve:
-the 2011 Community Festivals and Special Events program allocations totalling $97,500.00 to 30 organizations.
-the 2011 Access Equity and Human Rights (AEHR) allocations totalling $767,400.00 to 38 organizations.
-the 2011 Community Recreation allocations totalling $593,469.00 to 80 organizations.
-the 2011 Community Safety Investment allocations totalling $665,600.00 to 22 organizations.
-the 2011 Community Service Partnerships (CSP) allocation recommendations totalling $4,658,646.00 for the 78 organizations.
-the 2011 Service Development Investment Program allocations totalling $407,840.00 to 11 organizations. 

Councillors will continue to debate Wednesday whether to green-light a network of downtown bike lanes and remove others following a vote last month by the city’s public works committee.

The committee agreed to adopt the “Mayor’s Bike Plan” – a 100-kilometre network of bike trails connected by lanes on the street – and a system of curbed lanes downtown.

It also recommended removing controversial bike lanes on Jarvis Street installed last July, as well as ones on Pharmacy Avenue and Birchmount Road in Scarborough.

The separated lanes proposed by Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong would be installed on the Bloor Viaduct, Sherbourne and Wellesley streets this year and next. And more would be considered for Richmond, Adelaide, Harbord, and a north-south route connecting Beverley Street to the waterfront.

The committee has also proposed calling off an environmental assessment on a Bloor-Danforth Bikeway.

Council was also considering the city’s buy-local food policy for city-run daycares, shelters and long-term care facilities. But the matter was held over.

The government management committee couldn’t decide on whether to keep the buy local plan. Coun. Doug Ford, who sits on the committee, wants to scrap the plan.

The local food procurement policy was implemented in 2008 under former mayor David Miller in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support local growers. Back then, council agreed to try and reach a 50 per cent “buy local” target.

The city spends about $11 million a year on local food for daycares, shelters and seniors’ homes. Coun. Ford thinks it’s not a policy that makes financial sense right now.