416-993-4953 32 Grenville Street M4Y 1A3 CPRGreaves@gmail.com Home

Canderel’s Attitude Towards Pedestrians

I live at 32 Grenville Street which houses one of Canderel’s many construction sites in this city. Building began in this street around August 2012 (9-21 Grenville Street) and has continued since then.

As pedestrian I object to construction companies such as Canderel blocking my now-limited access to places where I can walk.

Although Canderel is in the area only five days a week, and then only for eight hours each day, residents live here, and need to walk at all hours of the day and night. You may not be aware that this part of the city never sleeps.

In this and the following photographs I draw your attention to Canderel’s practice of blocking what limited space is available for pedestrians by negligent use of swinging chain-link gates.

The photograph above shows a gate that has been swung open partway across the limited pedestrian space available to us.

At 07:55 weekday mornings crowds of people try to negotiate this narrow space, narrowed further by Canderel’s gate. I walk this part of Yonge Street at this hour and have watched pedestrians walking on the vehicular side of the concrete barriers because of the bottled-up crowds in the walkway.

Our sidewalk has been commandeered for construction trucks.

You will note that no trucks are present in the bay.

Why is the gate swung wide open, blocking pedestrian access?

In the photo above a pedestrian is forced to walk in the southbound vehicle lanes.

Note that this gate of Canderel’s is, once again, swung open.

Note that no truck is in, departing from, or entering the bay.

Canderel appears to believe that it has permission to commandeer not only the sidewalk, but also the limited walkway space left open to vulnerable pedestrians.

In this photo a small “bobcat” loader is ferrying pallets of material. This is merely another vehicular hazard we learn to cope with.

But note too the Canderel gate, swung wide enough to accommodate the entry of three little loaders side by side.

Are Canderel’s contractors such poor drivers that they need about twice the width of a semi-trailer rig to ferry materials?

If Canderel’s drivers are so poor in driving skills, should local pedestrians be worried about sharing the roadway with the Canderel drivers?

I believe this is a follow-on shot of an earlier image, taken to show that there is not a semi-trailer rig in sight, not at the entry-point from Grenville (where I stand to take the photo), not within the bay, and not outside the southern end of the bay.

Indeed no truck in sight all the way to College Street.

Why, then, does Canderel leave these gates not only wide open, but open so as to further restrict the passage of pedestrians?

Can a construction company like Canderel really be that selfish?

To add to the hazards of restricted passage, we have smaller delivery trucks that park and block our view of the traffic barreling along Grenville Street. With Canderel’s deliveries, Grenville Street is reduced to a single-lane of traffic.

And at 07:56 on a weekday morning, everyone is barreling in an effort to get to the office before the coffee runs cold.

The lady in the beige duffle coat is still scampering after her effort to cross Grenville Street. It looks to me as if she is going to compete with Canderel’s delivery vehicles that use St. Luke’s Lane.

The white car will trail the lady in the beige duffle coat down the narrow lane.

A clearer view of Granville street.

Canderel’s gate is swung across our path, which runs from the enclosed walkway back to the sidewalk on the south side of Grenville Street.

Why does Canderel block our path with hazards?

Same time, same place, showing that a traffic pylon and a sturdy metal pole, all in the name of Canderel’s construction, serve to block and inhibit pedestrian access.

And lest you think that the gate needs to be swung so far open to admit a truck ... there is nary a sign of anything entering, in, or exiting this bay.

Why is Canderel so selfish and unthinking about residents of this street?

The next day around two o’clock after noon:

Grenville Street, south side.

Some Canderel employee has decided that Canderel construction work is more important than pedestrian access to what used to be the street but is now a protected walkway.

It would not be more pleasant were there a truck using the entrance to the bay. It would be just as aggravating.

But it would be explicable.

As it is I cannot see why Canderel has to block our pedestrian access, and with so little care for residents of the street these past few years.

I am a healthy walker, but Canderel is making unnecessary problems in the street on which I live.

I have not stopped to imagine what life here is like for people with walking-frames, people in wheelchairs, parents with toddlers, or older couples making their way between Women’s College Hospital and the College Subway Station.

I have spoken at least twice to a Canderel “Stop/Go” flagman about these gates. In what I take to be typical Canderel attitude he dismissed my comment.

Hence this photo-essay.

On November 30th I emailed a letter to three executives at Canderel, and the same day received a reply from one of them:-

Mr. Greaves,

Thank you for reaching out to us with your concerns.  Reliance Construction is a third party construction manager who we have retained to manage all facets of construction for this project.  I will certainly pass your comments along to them, but I assure you that all activities on site are in accordance with approvals granted to us/them by the City of Toronto.  Should you wish to discuss any of these items in further detail, please feel free to come to our office and meet with our Senior Director of Construction Neil Vohrah.

Sincerely,

Ben Rogowski

Executive Vice-President | Premier vice-président

What to make of this? On the surface it sounds like “Nothing to do with us”, but the name CANDEREL is plastered over the gateways to the project..

So let’s get in touch with Reliance Construction.

Failing that I will have to resort to my local councilor who is notorious for failing to reply to messages.

Wednesday, December 06, 2017

Almost a week later the on-site crew seem to have heard from somebody and decided to adopt a belligerent attitude.

Thursday, December 07, 2017

Same thing this morning.

The condo construction companies think that they own the town.

This work crew is now actively blocking much of the access to the restricted walkway.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Well today I found a contact at Reliance Construction Group. Bryan Kaplan. I dialed the number 514-631-7999 and managed to stave off the switchboard inquisition by mentioning Ben Rogowaki of Canderel, so there’s one positive outcome.

Bryan heard me out and agreed to receive an email, which I sent off around 130p.m.

Things were no better this (Tuesday) morning. The exit from the sheep-run to Yonge Street is blocked. Those aren’t workers being busy on the other side of the gate. Those are walkers aiming for the McDonalds’s on the north-East corner of Grenville and Yonge.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, The Workers have stashed heavy rolls of supplies against the western end of the sheep race so that the gate cannot be closed, cannot be swung back to clear the pedestrian walkway.

Why do Canderel and Reliance Construction feel so smug about blocking the streets and sidewalks?

What is doubly-galling is that most of the construction sites display signs saying (and here I paraphrase) “Trucks entering and leaving the site MUST be accompanied by a FlagMan”.

That suggests that there is a Real Live Human there while the truck is passing through the gateway.

Would it be so difficult for the Real Live Human to swing the gate out of the path of pedestrians when a truck is not negotiating the site entrance or exit?

Monday, December 25, 2017

Searched my stocking through and through; turned it inside out. Nope! No email reply from Bryan Kaplan at Reliance Construction Group.

What next? The good news is that the job site is quiet this morning.

Thursday, January 04, 2018

Hello Bryan.

I spoke with you this morning by phone.

Here is the link to my web page,

http://www.chrisgreaves.com/Tripping/WalkingToronto/Canderel/Canderel_20171129.htm

Since I emailed Ben Rogowski at Canderel the situation seems to have gotten worse. This morning I noticed that not only are the gates wide open, but heavy material is stowed against them so that the gates can not be closed. I have some new photos which I will post on this web page.

It is as if the Reliance Construction site crew have been told to keep the walkways clear and are now doing their utmost to make things worse, like petulant children.

Please let me know who I can contact at Reliance Constructionto get some action on this matter.

I find it abhorrent that pedestrians are become second-class citizens in their own streets.

Sincerely

Chris Greaves

Well, it was Tuesday, December 12, 2017 when I spoke to Bryan Kaplan at Reliance Construction Group, and I’ve not heard back from him. I requested one or more contact names and emails at Reliance Construction Group who might address my comments.

I know that construction sites close down of the Christmas break and probably so too do the offices.

Still and all, one week is more than long enough to reply to an email.

So Reliance Construction Group doesn’t care too much about pedestrians.

Where to go next?

Monday, January 15, 2018

Things are no better. Major construction appears to be finished, but the gate is still swung open so as to obstruct passage to the real sidewalk. For what it’s worth, swinging the gate this wide forces pedestrians into the stream of frustrated car drivers on Grenville Street.

Why is the gate swung so far open?

Can it be to rant access to a truck?

I don’t think so. This truck is heading down St Nicholas lane, and is probably going to park in the lane for unloading, which will cause frustration at this end as drivers turn down the lane, realize it is blocked, reverse out and cause consternation among the drivers trying to follow them down the lane.

If the truck has just completed deliveries at the building site and reverses out of the swung gate, then the gate can be swung closed.

It’s dead simple.

Too simple for Candarel/Reliance I guess.

Thursday January 18th 2018

I have pretty well given up taking photos when the pedestrian passage is baulked.

This shot shows an extra hazard in the early morning. Headlight beams from parked cars make visibility poor. We are walking into a chain-link, thin material, obstruction, blinded by the lights.

Things are not much better in the opposite direction.

Note that the gate is swung wide. No trucks are evident. It is swung this wide to admit workers, human beings. Why does the gate need to be swung this wide, unless it is sheer cussedness on the part of Candarel/Reliance?

Things are not improved. On 22nd February the gate blocks pedestrian access on Yonge Street. The flag man is lurking around; that’s his yellow-jacketed back you can see. There was no truck in the loading bay, no sign of a truck approaching the loading bay.

In my more petulant moments I rather feel like handcuffing the flagman to the gate.

In my calmer moments I reason that the sign mandating a flagmen be present every time a truck enters or exist the bay, implies that the moment a truck exists, the gate could be cleared for pedestrians, and the gate could be left cleared until the moment a truck begins its entry.

A flagman is supposed to be present at all times.

I sometimes wonder if the McDonalds isn’t sited too close to this construction site.

Saturday April 14th 2018

This was our snowy weekend.

I walk back home with my newspapers around 9am Saturday Morning.

The site access gate pretty well completely blocks the western end of the sheltered way.

My hip is sore; I am old, so I push the gate open enough for me to walk through without clambering over the little pile of ice-covered snow.

As I reach the sidewalk on the south side of Grenville Street I hear the gate being dragged back a foot or two. Just enough to continue blocking the pathway.

There were no deliveries or trucks around this gate at the time, as I am sure the Candarel/Reliance site logs will show.

Unless Candarel/Reliance are also in the business of falsifying logs and site reports.

Candarel/Reliance have such a petty and arrogant attitude towards residents.

Tuesday April 17th 2018

This is just the most Local (to my place of living) example of the Construction Industry’s dis-regard for Residents.

We had a bit of snow – not critical to people on foot, but a bit of a pain in the axle to folks in wheelchairs, or using walkers.

The passage-way is not closed. Just sufficiently Tortuous to make it Difficult for people on foot, using Walkers, or in Wheelchairs.

Monday July 16th 2018

What better way to staff a gate than have a guy lean on it while watching someone at work.

The pallet has been dropped so that the gate cannot be swung shut/ The extra workers are just so much more biomass to add to the obstruction.

Friday July 20th 2018

Nothing changes.

The gate almost blocks the pathway for pedestrian access. The non-worker completes the job of blocking the pathway.

Friday, August 03, 2018

Another day. Another blocked walkway.

Thursday, August 16, 2013

Another day. Another blocked walkway.

Another day. Another blocked walkway.

Note how completely the gate is swung out.

Note that there are no trucks in evidence, no flagman, and consequently, logically, no need at all for this gate to be open.

You might think “Let the wheelchair users use the opposite sidewalk”, but access to that sidewalk is dangerous because the intersevtion of Grenville and Yonge is reduced to one lane, both on Grenville, and on Yonge southbound, and that makes for very impatient drivers at peak hour.

And that means danger for pedestrians and wheelchair users. I speak from experience.

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416-993-4953 CPRGreaves@gmail.com

Toronto, Saturday, September 15, 2018 1:27 PM

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