Howard Moscoe not seeking re-election

Veteran city councillors will withdraw Sept 1
Moscoe endorsing candidate Josh Colle
Kris Scheuer
(Written Aug. 31 for Town Crier.)

Councillor Howard Moscoe is calling it quits after 31 years in politics. Photo by Francis Crescia/Town Crier file.

It’s official. Veteran Councillor Howard Moscoe is withdrawing from the Ward 15 race.
“It’s true,” he told the Town Crier this afternoon. “I decided a few weeks ago.”
He sent out a newsletter to his community today announcing his retirement.
“It’s not that I don’t love the job,” said Moscoe. “I’ve been in public office for 31 years.”
Moscoe has represented at least some section of Eglinton-Lawrence’s Ward 15 that entire time.
Currently there are six candidates (Moscoe, Rob Davis, Ron Singer,William Reitsma, Giuseppe Pede and Josh Colle) registered in Ward 15. Moscoe said that he will be formally withdrawing Sept. 1.

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Cullen Simpson ward 14 candidate

Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier Aug. 26.)

Ward 14 council candidate Cullen Simpson waited years to follow his passion of politics. Photo courtesy of the candidate.

He’s running for council in ward 14, but Cullen Simpson says it took him 15 years to make the political leap.
Simspon studied business and politics and said his connections in government and in Parkdale encouraged him to run for years, but the timing was never right — until now.
Now his daughters are in university and he’s at the stage in his career that frees up time to make the switch to politics, he said.
“You need to commit yourself 100 percent to the job of being a councillor,” said Simpson, who’s worked in the office equipment supply business for 30 years.
The decision to run has him overjoyed.
“I couldn’t feel the ground,” he said of registering on Aug. 18.

Sellors, Matlow, Molls campaign

Ward 22 candidates campaign spending priorities
Kris Scheuer
(Written Aug. 23 for Town Crier)

Ward 22 candidate Chris Sellors.

In the competitive St. Paul’s Ward 22 race, candidates seek any advantage they can gain over their opponents.
As of Aug. 23, candidate Chris Sellors was the only hopeful planning to open a campaign office. His storefront office opened Sept. 1 in a prime spot on Yonge Street at Belsize Drive.
Sellors said he started scanning empty stores in late March, but the first call he made was for a space at 1973 Yonge Street. The spot needed fixing up and was empty because it’s part of an eight-storey redevelopment project.
It’s here where Sellors plans to hold team meetings, and provide campaign literature, he said. It’s also a place where voters can access him.
“I was swift enough to look for a campaign office when everyone else was sleeping,” Sellors said Aug. 20.

Rob Ford’s election platform vision

Mayoral hopeful shares his ideas for running Toronto
Ford’s thoughts on transit, taxes, controversies, consensus-building
Kris Scheuer
(Written Aug. 24/10 for Town Crier.)

Mayoral candidate Rob Ford at an Aug. 24 Town Crier editorial board meeting. Photo by Francis Crescia/Town Crier.

Faced with a packed room full of Town Crier and cultural media reporters, mayoral candidate Rob Ford was peppered with questions about whether he’d welcome newcomers to Toronto.
“The official plan says we need another million people in the GTA or Toronto. We can’t even take care of the 2.5-2.7 million people we have in the city now,” he told the Town Crier editorial board this afternoon.
He said wait times in hospitals are too long, there are 70,000 people on the city’s affordable housing list and the homeless population is increasing.
“We don’t have the right to say you can’t move to Toronto,” he said. “Of course not. But in a perfect world, what I’d like to do is get us from the red into the black, have a surplus, reduce our debt, have our finances under control then I’d say great let’s welcome more people.”

Fixing illegal parking in North Toronto

Many illegal front yard parking pads in old York
Councillor Moscoe tackles issue head on with pilot project
Kris Scheuer
(Written Aug. 20 for Town Crier.)

A North Toronto councillor are cracking down on homeowners with illegal front yard parking pads, even if it means losing votes in the upcoming municipal election.
Within just a few blocks of each other in ward 15, there are at least least 100 illegal front yard parking pads mixed in with 95 legal spots in Ward 15.
Local councillor Howard Moscoe has been hearing complaints for years about illegal parking pads.
“A lot of people in my ward resent the fact they have to pay for a legal pad and are paying an annual fee around $100,” Moscoe said. “And their neighbours, who have illegal pads, don’t pay.

Election vision for Toronto

(Column Written for Town Crier Aug. 19)

What kind of city do you want?
At debates, this is a favourite question for mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson.
John Tory, who earlier this month announced he’s not running for mayor, told me many important issues facing this city aren’t being debated in this election. I agree.
Sure some candidates are talking about cutting taxes, the streetcars vs. subways, or how to plan and design prettier buildings, etc.
These are important issues to many of us. But Toronto is a complex, multi-faceted city with many interconnected issues that can either make us or break us.

Donna Braniff Ward 31 candidate

By Kris Scheuer
(Published in the Town Crier Aug. 16)

Donna Braniff Ward 31 candidate. Photo by Kris Scheuer/Town Crier.

If elected, Ward 31 council candidate Donna Braniff would focus on safety and opportunities for youth.
She helps run an eight-week Toastmasters’ youth leadership program where young people can come in weekly for individual help on speech writing and chairmanship skills.
But her big focus is on making each community safer based on its specific needs.
“We need to focus on community safety. This is a concern of every individual in this area,” she said. “Every individual has the right to walk the streets without fear.”
Braniff wants to see more community cops, with police walking the beat and getting to know residents and business people.
“In some areas they have increased crime,” she said. “We have to look at why they have increased (problems) and deal with it on a community by community basis.”

Chris Sellors’ campaign office

Ward 22 candidate plans to open site Sept 1
Office located in land owned by developer with proposal before council
Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier Aug. 20)

Chris Sellors getting ready to open his campaign office at 1973 Yonge St on site that's part of a current redevelopment application. Photo by Kris Scheuer/Town Crier.

Ward 22 council candidate Chris Sellors plans to open a campaign office Sept. 1 in space owned by a developer with an application currently making the rounds at city hall.
The office is located in an empty storefront at 1973 Yonge Street and is owned by Kilbarry Holdings Ltd, which has applied to build an eight-storey condo tower at Yonge Street and Belsize Drive.
The application’s in the final stages and could be approved at the last council meeting before Oct. 25 election. Should council fail to make a decision on the redevelopment next week, it would be up to the next elected council to rule on it.
Initially, Sellors told the Town Crier he wouldn’t move into the space unless the redevelopment was approved at the Aug. 25-26 council meeting. But two days later he had changed his mind citing lack of major residential opposition to the project.

Pet store ban on cat and dog sales

A new proposal to make it illegal to sell these pets in stores
This issue will be debated by the city in new year
Kris Scheuer
(Written Aug. 13 for Town Crier.)

Dean Maher with his poodle Betty. Photo courtesy of Dean Maher.

If Dean Maher has his way, people won’t be asking, ‘How much is that doggy in window?’
The Ward 20 council candidate wants the city to ban the sale of cats and dogs from all Toronto pet stores. The issue is up for debate at city hall.

“The overall goal is to reduce unwanted pets,” Maher said Aug. 10.
Many unwanted animals end up in shelters and in some cases, if their health is particularly bad, they are euthanized.
In 2009, the Toronto Humane Society had 4,701 cats and 1,382 dogs and a total of 394 were euthanized, according to information Maher obtained from the organization.

Scarboro Beach Amusement Park

Heritage homes on site of former amusement park
Some of the houses are up for sale facing Kew Beach
Kris Scheuer
(Written for Town Crier Aug. 12.)

Scarboro Beach Amusement Park in 1907. Photo courtesy of The Beach in Pictures 1793-1932.

A dozen heritage properties on Wineva Ave and Hubbard Blvd were built where Scarboro Beach Amusement Park once stood. It was a destination spot for Torontonians in the early part of the 20^th century.
Harry and Mabell Dorsey paid the Sisters of St. Joseph $165,000 in 1906 for the land between Leuty and Maclean avenues and opened the $600,000 theme park in 1907.
This is where the young and old came to see “waltzing horses, comic bears and the first genuine monkey circus ever in Toronto,” according to The Beach in Pictures 1793-1932 by Mary Campbell and Barbara Myrvold.