Dodgeville

It took five weeks and a whole lot more effort and patience than I thought it would, but the recycling bins at 55 Cosburn Ave. were finally in their rightful place—and out of everyone else’s rightful place—this morning. It’s a small victory, but I’ll take it. Maybe next week I’ll start taking on the cars that are always parked and idling along this stretch.

With a garbage-free Cosburn greeting me this morning and the Works Committee making some noise about a major report to be delivered at next Wednesday’s meeting, it’s looking like it could be a great autumn for cyclists.

It’s now week four of my quest for justice in the Cosburn bike lane. In previous weeks, I’d been bounced around in email and on the phone to various departments and units in my effort to deal with the recycling bins in the bike lane in front of 55 Cosburn Ave.

This week, I escalated my issue to the Waste Enforcement Investigations supervisor for the area, having received no responses to two emails and one voice mail the previous week. I spoke to her on Wednesday morning as I stood on the front lawn of 55 Cosburn Ave. Surprisingly, she said that an enforcement officer had spoken to the superintendent about the issue on Monday, two days earlier. She vowed to get another officer out there this week and said that the issue should be resolved for next week. So either the bins will be out of the bike lane next Wednesday or I’ll be making some more early-morning phone calls. The most annoying thing about this entire situation is that I have to wait a week each time to see if anything has happened.

A couple of weeks ago, Shawn Micallef suggested that I call in the Fixer. I’ve thought about it, but I object to the idea that the only way to take care of this is to shine a big media spotlight on it. That said, I may yet do so if the situation drags on much longer. A part of me suspects that the city and the police would have been all over it after the first complaint if the bins were anywhere on the roadway but in the bike lane, and that bugs me even more. It shouldn’t take four weeks to address an issue like this, but I’m semi-confident that I’ll see some results next week.

I hope this meets your expectations for this week, poika.

Sure enough, last week’s request to the superindendent and call to by-law enforcement had no effect: the bike lane in front of 55 Cosburn Ave. was once again turned over to the big plastic bins for garbage day. I called by-law enforcement again this morning and once again got voice mail. I asked for callbacks both times but have yet to get any response. It may be time to ratchet up the pressure.

This is what the bike lane in front of 55 Cosburn Ave. looks like every Wednesday morning. All of the other buildings on the street put their bins on the sidewalk (which is also not allowed, according to section 844-14 of the Toronto Municipal Code), their front lawns, or paved garbage pads beside the sidewalk, but whoever puts the bins out for this apartment building apparently thinks that the solid white line on the road is to keep traffic away from his garbage.

I only started riding this way to work three weeks ago. The first week, I was a little surprised and was willing to give the culprit the benefit of the doubt. Last week, I took pictures. This week, I took action: calls to the City’s right-of-way management and by-law enforcement. I also called the building superintendent from the lobby phone and asked for the bins to be removed from the bike lane. The woman who answered said that she’d tell the super about it, but I suspect that nothing happened.

We’ll see if this scene looks different next Wednesday.