Living in Aurora, Town of Aurora, Ontario » Sidewalk

Changing Aurora, Zellers Store Closing, New Resort-Style Condominiums, Safer Intersections

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:06:09 +0000

The Town of Aurora is gearing up for the 150 years celebrations in 2013 and there will be plenty, and there will be plenty of new developments probably ready for 2013 as well. We will be celebrating 150 years of our town but we will be celebrating new beginnings as well.

Target beginnings. Zellers stores are closing down and will be replaced with Target stores. We have one store here in Aurora on Bayview Street. I am kind of surprised that the store lasted that long. Some stores are good when merchandise go on sale and Zellers was one of them – good just for that. Zellers was never my cup of tea, but the ironic thing is that I shopped there.

Zellers Closing Down, Bayview Street, Aurora

Now the store is liquidating everything. I went there couple of times few weeks ago to check out sales and I still think it was a bit too expansive for the liquidating store. But I am sure their pricing is much better by now when closer to the store closing. The drawback is that there will be nothing left to satisfy my purchasing needs.

If I am not mistaken. Until closing the store is operating under Zellers stores – purchasing methods and reward points. However, they are in the hands of liquidators, so theoretically it is not Zellers. That means that the liquidator purchased everything in the store, all the inventory.

Usually at the beginning of liquidation the liquidator will try to make as much profit as possible and once satisfied then the prices become better even for the expensive merchandise. So if you are looking for real deal sales you may want to visit soon or closer to the store closing date.

The store building will remain, but expect a new Target store facade in the 2013.

New Ridgewood II Resort-Style Condominium Behind the Cinaplex Building

Another interesting change here in Aurora will be change to the landscape view, the new Ridgewood II Resort-Style condominium behind the Cineplex Aurora located on the same plaza as Zellers. Not sure how high these will be, but the view behind the movie theater will never be the same. It will be build to last, and the way we build those today, they will last may be forever.

On the side note, on the photo below, one of the buildings behind the new development on John West Way is the Hollandview Trail Retirement Residence, the red building. An interesting opportunity is waiting there for me – and no no no I am not retiring.

A lifestyle coordinator from this retirement residence stumble upon my photo journal blog (this blog you are reading now) and asked me to present my photos and tell stories to seniors. At first I thought – what stories? But then my every post is a story. My presentation is scheduled for mid September, so you will be hearing more about that later.

But before I change the topic. When I went to visit this place just for a quick meeting I was amazed how friendly all the seniors were. At some point they started to gather around at the lobby, main attraction being Matthew. Poor Matthew just kept nodding his head and gently smiling at them and slowly his shyness kicked in and tried to hide behind me.

New Condominiums In Front of Hollandview Retirement Centre, John West Way, Aurora

Lastly, I noticed that last year around the same time many sidewalks were fixed. And this year, just before the school, sidewalks are being fixed again and crossing lines are being painted.

At the St. John’s side road and Yonge Street intersection traffic signal posts are being pushed back further away from the intersection. Probably for safety reasons.

Street Lights Moved Back, St. John’s sideroad, Aurora

And speaking of safety. I followed up on the sidewalk that was promised by the town to be installed on the intersection of St. John’s sideroad and Earl Stewart Drive, just beside the Superstore.

A year passed and nothing happened. I asked for the update and looks like nothing was going to happen again. So I made little squeaky noise and sidewalk design was promised for September. Will keep that on the close watch because of safety concern.

In conclusion, these are some of the changes that will be in store for next year in Aurora, but there will be more – downtown Aurora, Petch log house, Wells Street School conversion to lofts are some. Look out for more on changing Aurora posts.

Who Lives On My Street, A Town Official, A Girlfriend? Job Well Done

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 03:47:32 +0000

Broken or damaged sidewalks make great art, but they also tell a story. One more week and September will be gone. Just few weeks ago there was a great deal of work done on the sidewalks just in time for back to school. Buses were checking their routs a day before the school. Contractors were finishing up sidewalk constructions.

Back To School, Bus Practicing Rounds

On our street contractors worked effortlessly to replace two sidewalk sections, long stretches in fact. It was just few days before the Labour weekend that all the heavy work started. I thought that they will not be able to complete the work, but they did. A day before the school started the sidewalk concrete slabs were all dried and ready to step on.

Construction Sidewalk Work

I was very surprised that those pieces, at least two sections at once in two spots were replaced. We have been walking on them all summer long and I have not seen any cracking or difference in height. May be there was something – they were marked bright pink and replaced.

Unfortunately, the construction workers did not manage to cover telephone or cable lines completely. I am sure residents who have those new sidewalks in front of their houses already reported the issue. It may not be an issue now, but later for the sidewalk snowplow.

So we have a joke on our street. In the winter we laughed many times with our neighbors. Some think that the snowplow driver’s girlfriend lives on our street. It makes you think, may be it is true. The snowplow driver always does a wonderful job plowing, spreading sand and driving around at least three times to make sure its all clean.

What I want to know, who really lives on our street? Really.

Cracked Sidewalk on Rush Road

The other day I was walking the streets in our subdivision. We have two, my street and adjacent street. The adjacent street is Rush Road. One thing I can tell you though that no town official lives on that street, or a relative or a girlfriend.

Sidewalk Step, Rush Road

As I was walking I saw a sidewalk cracked right across. How can someone miss that? I don’t know. No pink marking on that slab.

As I was walking further there was another sidewalk slab raised, at least one inch. That cannot be good for the sidewalk snowplow at all. No pink marking on that slab either.

Sidewalk Step, Rush Road

Forgotten, not important, no one to look after, no girlfriend, and no town official resident. Sidewalk remains cracked and no one seems to complain about the high step on one of the sidewalk slabs.

Kidding aside, town’s criteria for determining which sidewalk piece will be replaced is not clear at all, or there is none.

A Sidewalk Will Be Installed In The Future, Safety Concern Almost Resolved

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:47:45 +0000

The results are in for the requested sidewalk I blogged about before in the following published posts: A Practical Mother’s Day Gift To Come, Hopefully and National Access Awareness Week In Aurora, A Sidewalk.

I expressed my concern to the Superstore in Aurora and to the Town of Aurora about the safety of the pedestrians who access the store property, mainly pedestrians such mothers with strollers.

For three years I walked from St. John’s Sideroad and Pinnacle Trail at least once or twice a week along with my son to the the Superstore and accessed the store from the North-West corner. To access the Superstore property I had to either push the stroller against oncoming traffic along the East side of Earl Stewart Drive, or push the stroller on the grass on the same side of the street. In both cases accessing and leaving the Superstore property was difficult and unsafe.

Last Friday I was able to photograph one more case to many others I have seen, a mother with double stroller leaving the Superstore property. In this example, she is actually using side of the road with cars driving beside her in the same direction to get to the lights.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

I was very pleased with the result, the time it took to resolve this matter and how it was handled by the Accessibility Advisor. The Town of Aurora Infrastructure and Environmental Services division has reviewed the concern and recommendations, and determined that a sidewalk can eventually be placed within the Town’s property line. At this point the Works Department is in charge.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

As more residents of Aurora are commuting by public transportation and walking, the safety and ease of pedestrian access to properties must be considered. My general recommendations to the Accessibility Advisory Committee in the letter were as follows to emphasize the importance accessing the property and not just the building itself:

1. Access to retail properties must be designed for pedestrians as well as drivers.
2. Pedestrian access must include people with physical challenges.
3. People with physical challenges must include parents with strollers.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

Unfortunately, the Superstore has a very poor accessibility all around. Both North-West and North-East side especially do not have properly constructed access. The ease and safety on the North-West side will be resolved by the town in the near future. The North-East side of the store already has sidewalk, so technically speaking it is safe. However, the ease to access the store property is not. This may not go well in the future residents on the other side of Bayview Avenue.

Pedestrian, North-West Side of the Superstore

It is sad to say that ‘the customer is always right‘ saying not always works. The customer is only right when there is monetary spending on the customer side, but when the vendor is paying to make the customer happy, often there is a communication break up.

To conclude let me share with you this story. I always wanted to share it, and this time fits perfectly in the whole accessibility scenario. Few years ago we had a family of skunks (three of them) on our backyard. The animal services told us that by law they cannot remove them. They recommended to make the access to the property difficult, and they will leave on their own. We did, and they left our property, probably to other property that had an easy access.

Something to think about. I guess.

National Access Awareness Week In Aurora, A Sidewalk Request

Anna Lozyk Romeo — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 05:59:22 +0000

This is a follow up to my previous post A Practical Mother’s Day Gift To Come, Hopefully. Last week on Friday June 3rd I hand delivered my proposal letter to the Superstore located on the corner of St. John’s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue to add the sidewalk. As everyone knows the mail service is on some kind of dispute at this moment so I wasn’t going to let it sit in their storage.

That day I walked the same path. At the store I gave it to one of the ladies at the Customer Service desk. I addressed to the store manager. After all the receipts have the store manager’s name listed for concerns and issues. The accessibility to the property for the pedestrians is my concern. Its been a few days and I hope it was read by now. However, I will give couple of weeks as I am sure I am not the only issue on their list. I shall then follow up if I don’t hear anything in couple of weeks.

Secondly, as I already revealed it is the North-West corner of the Real Canadian Superstore that has a very poor and unsafe accessibility to the property for those who commute by foot, especially parents pushing children in strollers.

Intersection of Earl Stewart Drive and St. John's Sideroad, Aurora

I also took Barry’s recommendations to write to the Town of Aurora Accessibility Advisor to hopefully amend their guidelines. The following is a clip from my cover letter.

‘While I am awaiting their response, I would like to give you an opportunity to review my proposal to Superstore. I believe the Superstore example should justify my recommendation to amend your Accessibility Guidelines to include property access points in addition to building access points and all pedestrians with or without challenges. The three main points that I would like you to consider are:

1. Access to retail properties must be designed for pedestrians as well as drivers.

2. Pedestrian access must include people with physical challenges.

3. People with physical challenges must include parents with strollers.‘

As per Weekly Notice Board from The Banner Tuesday May 31, 2011, page 4, May 29 to June 4 was a National Access Awareness Week that read:

‘The Town of Aurora is proud to acknowledge May 29 to June 4 as National Access Awareness Week in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of equal access and full participation of persons with disabilities in our community.’

Perfect timing for the National Access Awareness Week. We are now ‘driving’ society. We use cars every where. Superstore is a perfect property with a driver access only. There are stairs on the East side of the building, but how good that entrance is for the parents with strollers.

Hopefully the Town’s Accessibility Advisor will take this matter seriously. The letter was deposited to the Large Item Deposit Box. However, I yet to find out that I should have deposited into the Treasury Deposit slot. Well there was a nice man on the parking lot probably someone who is working for the Town of Aurora and he said that he will inform Bill of my large item in the deposit box. It is are really good feeling to know that people care and help you out.

As I am always trying to include photo from the Town of Aurora in my posts. Here is a photo of the street where I am hoping for the sidewalk. Now if you look closely on the far back right side of the photo, behind the big tree with no leaves, you can see some green trees. Well all the trees at the South-East corner of St. John’s Sideroad and Bayview Avenue were cut down last week. I am very disappointed. This corner looked unrecognizable when we drove by, in fact I asked my husband, ‘Where are we?‘.

Darn I also missed the photo opportunity. I had it on my list, but someone was faster than me. Well, my source of the below photo, probably the only photo, is Google Maps, Street View – a very handy tool.

South-East corner of St. John's Sideroad and Bayview Avenue