TEENS GONE WILD? CHOP DOWN TREES

'Green' City Pulls Out The Chainsaw To Deal With Loitering In
Park

It seems those blooming tree-hugging hypocrites who purport to be
running Toronto (into the ground) have quietly reduced 19 healthy,
mature Austrian pines and ash trees to ugly, sentry-like stumps in
Mossgrove Park, located in the tony York Mills Rd. and Leslie St.
area.

This latest City Hall chainsaw massacre occurred on April 15, one
week before Earth Day. The deed was sanctioned by the city's tree
police and ward councillor Cliff Jenkins, who claims it was done to
improve "community safety" at a park where teens have been loitering,
dealing drugs and conducting other "undesirable activities" for years.

"This is a community safety issue ... it's not a tree issue," Jenkins
told me late last week, noting 30 replacement trees, as yet
unspecified, will be planted in the park.

By contrast, on April 29 Coun. Mike Del Grande failed to get the
two-thirds vote required from council to reconsider the case of a
Grandville Ave. couple who've been told they can't take down an
invasive Norway Maple infiltrating their tiny home -- unless they
cough up $10,526, which includes the value of the offending tree.

In fact, before the vote, the pompous Tree Emperor Joe Pantalone
shouted to his colleagues to register "No." (Jenkins, to his credit,
supported the couple.)

While this kind of twisted logic has made it clear -- at least to me
- -- that Toronto's draconian private tree bylaw is being applied
inconsistently and on a most selective basis, I dare say the safety
excuse is the best I've heard to date for clear-cutting an entire
stand of healthy trees.

I can't wait for what's next. Perhaps some of those trees in downtown
parks under which homeless folk tend to catch a few winks should be
taken down, too, for being a safety hazard.

Jenkins says a park safety audit conducted exactly a year ago by
Const. Kelly Downie of 33 Division -- and supported by about 25 local
residents at a community meeting -- cited the number one reason for
the drug dealing as the lack of "sight lines" from York Mills Rd.
into Mossgrove Park.

Downie couldn't be reached for comment. Nevertheless her audit
proposed removing the artificial hill bordering the south end of the
park and the trees on it -- to allow residents and other traffic
passing by on York Mills Rd. to see directly into the park.

As Downie also noted in her audit, the direct view would prevent
"undesirables" from loitering and make it easier for the "community
to observe and contact the police."

I asked Jenkins -- if there is such a drug problem -- why the police
simply don't get out of their cars and patrol the park either on foot
or by bicycle, as Chief Bill Blair promised they'd be doing on a more
regular basis three years ago.

"They are doing increased patrols," he said, but couldn't say how
often the police are in there on foot or by bike.

The audit also indicates the lighting in the park is poor, but the
recommendations only mention installing one light standard on one
pathway.

Local resident, and candidate for council in the last election, Tony
Dickins, who's been aware of the rowdy teen problem for years but
knew nothing of any community meetings, says the solution taken is
"bizarre to say the least," especially from officials who keep
espousing "greening the city" to fight climate change.

STEP UP PATROLS

"Interesting concept ... cut down on crime by cutting down trees," he
said, noting that if police patrols were stepped up, that would
likely deter the kids from hanging out in the park.

Another area resident, Simone Gabbay, founder of Don Mills Friends,
called the city's solution "very simplistic."

She said she's not only "disappointed" the city wouldn't take better
care to preserve trees that are removing pollution, but their
solution is far from "teen-friendly" -- in other words, it doesn't
address the problem that the teens have nothing better to do and
nowhere else to go.

"In an area where there's so much affluence, this is most palatable
solution they could come up with?" she asked.

Palatable or not, I asked Jenkins whether the tree takedown has in
fact worked to reduce the drug dealing in the park. He said the hill
isn't entirely removed yet, but when it's done he said he's sure the
environment will improve.

I pressed further as to whether drug dealing is ongoing.

"I believe there still is," he said.