Morning Brew: office towers killing birds, billboards on the Gardiner, elderly couple struck by truck, TTC executive fired, police board refuses to make cuts
Two highly-reflective, 17-storey office towers at highway 401 & McCowan are a death trap, killing hundreds of passing birds each year (including White-throated Sparrows, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Nashville Warblers, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Dark-eye Juncos, etc.). The problem has caught the attention of environmental groups Ontario Nature and Ecojustice, who are taking the building’s managers to task under the Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Turning off lights at night, and hanging decoys in the windows only partly solve the problem, and it’s unlikely that replacing all of the glass on the building is going to a solution easily achieved.
Driver safety on the Gardiner Expressway is being pitted against the rights of businesses to erect billboards for advertising. In advance of new, stricter billboard laws, a flood of applications for new approvals is being observed, many requesting the rights to put up large, flashy, digital, illuminated signs between highway 427 and Royal York Road. I suppose it won’t be a huge safety concern during rush hours (given that cars are barely moving in that area during those times), but being distracted by giant screens while traveling at high speeds is far from ideal.
An elderly couple were struck by a truck on Yonge Street near Maitland (south of Wellesley) yesterday, required extraction from under the vehicle, and are in critical condition. Every day in Toronto, several pedestrians are involved in collisions with motor vehicles, but this year continues to be far worse that usual in terms of the number of fatalities that have resulted. This particular incident has prompted those familiar with the area to question the relatively great distance between two controlled crossings.
