Fixing Rexdale

Where The Sidewalk Ends? (Where The Sidewalk Never Began)

8 Taber Road is the address of the main office of the Rexdale Community Health Centre. RCHC has two satellite offices located close by on Dixon Road & Panorama Court, but this is where a lot of important medical services are offered. The Ontario program that provides dental care for low-income seniors has been an important cornerstone of this neighbourhood office the last few years.

Let us focus a little more on seniors. The RCHC offers exercise & computer classes to seniors 55 & over. There is also an ESL program, there are art classes – think of what any office could do for its surrounding community, and this is what the RCHC provides exceptionally well.

I measure respect for our seniors based on how we serve them. A healthy neighbourhood provides at least the minimum of decency in the care for its elders.

There is one thing that is not offered from the RCHC (which is not their responsibility, but the municipality’s charge, so the RCHC is not to be held at fault)

What you will not find is a sidewalk. There is no sidewalk on the northern side of Taber Road, where the community centre is located.

There are steps that lead to the front door & a ramp if someone is using a mobility aid, but there is no safe way to access them from the street.

This side of Taber Road is the gateway to an industrial neighbourhood. No residences but plenty of automotive repair yards & related industries.

Yes, there is a sidewalk across the street but if we are discussing a senior’s hub, I do not appreciate the idea of one of our elders having to cross a road that has many vehicles using it as a shortcut to get from Rexdale to Kipling. A lot of the individuals who use the RCHC are dealing with long-term, chronic illness & the weather is uncooperative for at least six months of the year. Asking them to be fleet of foot is a tall, unnecessary order.

The Kipling 45 bus, travelling southbound, stops at the northern corner of Rexdale & Taber. There is no sidewalk that extends towards the RCHC from the bus stop.

You have no safe way to the RCHC on foot.

There is room for the development of a sidewalk, A gravel, unpaved surface that is tilted downwards toward the centre exists as part of the road (& it is quite icy during the winter & plows usually deposit snow upon it)

The city of Toronto could decide tomorrow that this stretch from the Kipling 45 stop to 8 Taber Road requires a sidewalk and with a snap of its fingers, in little time, we would have a safe access point for our elders.

And one of those decision makers – Councilor Vincent Crisanti, Representing Ward 1 of Northern Etobicoke, has his office, across the street, from the Kipling 45 stop for Taber Road.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, removing the word ‘road’ and replacing it with ‘sidewalk’ the sidewalk that is never fully repaired (or does not exist) is a measure of access denied.

At the moment of publication time, Councilor Crisanti has not responded to my inquiry about this concern, but again, it is built into our nature in this neighbourhood, to wait.

rahim@viciousminuteshour.com