Politics, campaigns, election and rumours

Rumour mill includes falsehood I’m working for candidate
Someone spreads lie I’m on communication team for Dhanani
By Kris Scheuer

As a journalist for a dozen years including nine focused on politics, I am accustomed to interviewing politicians about rumours.
But I am not used to political rumours about me.
Yesterday, I got an email from  Satinder Sahota who’s working on Jon Burnside‘s election campaign in local race in Don Valley West Ward 26.
She’d heard I was a communications person for Ward 26 candidate Mohamed Dhanani’s campaign and wanted to know if this was true.
Of course it’s 100 percent false and I emailed and called her right away to say so.
I have never worked or volunteered on anyone’s political campaign, ever. And certainly would not do so at the same time as being employed as a political reporter who is interviewing candidates during the current 2010 election race.

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Forest Hill Village parking lot expands

Thelma and Spadina parking site gets additional spots
The site was once approved for controversial development
By Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier March 25)

Thelma & Spadina Green P parking lot will be expanded. Town Crier file photo.

It may have take 12 years, but more parking spots are coming to the heart of Forest Hill Village.
And all without a new development.
The Toronto Parking Authority got council permission to spend over $1 million to add an additional 11 spaces to the  43-space surface lot at the corner of Thelma Avenue and Spadina Road.
This would require purchasing the property at 457 Spadina Road from Sharon and Fred Green for $898,000 plus another $255,000 for construction and associated costs.
The $1.15 million price tag would come from the Parking Authority’s revenues and the money would be recovered through future parking fees. If approved, the expansion would result in a total of 54 surface spaces at the lot.
“It’s a good opportunity,” said Lorne Persiko, vice president of real estate and development for the authority. “We are expanding the lot. We will do significant greening. It will be good for the area and they (residents) don’t have to deal with a development.”
He is referring to the storied history of this site that dates back at least a dozen years.