From summer to fall in the Hill

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With all this talk of “Augtober” and a supposedly cooler-than-normal summer, Richmond Hill has still proven a great place to be this season leaving us with very warm memories, and there’s more to come in the fall.

We’ve seen a variety of live music performed throughout the summer (and it is all free). One of my favourites is the Mill Pond Concert series. I had the pleasure of kicking off the 40th anniversary season in July. We had the pleasure of seeing some great music every Thursday at Mill Pond Park. We also had the Richmond Green Concert series taking place at Richmond Green Park. Though the series concluded on Aug. 28, this concert series has been alive since 1975, and we plan on continuing the tradition — so don’t fret if you missed out this year.

As the days get a little shorter, one way to keep memories of summer alive is through fresh and local food. The Richmond Hill Farmers' Market in the parking lot of the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts kicked off in July, and it has a big hit every since. Market Saturdays will continue throughout September. There is still a lot to do in Richmond Hill this fall, so get out and take advantage of all that our great community has to offer.

As always I have been busy talking to residents about a variety of issues, and I would welcome a call or email from you if you have an issue to discuss. We are all partners in making Richmond Hill an even greater community. David.west @richmondhill.ca or 416-346-3090.

Customer service vital to Thornhill

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I’ve learned in my years as a councillor that it is the small things that count the most. Over the years, I have learnt that although it is exciting and invigorating to plan our major projects — a new downtown at the Vaughan Metro Centre and a new hospital being built beginning next year are just two examples — it is when I can quickly and efficiently solve a problem that a resident is having that I feel that I get the most satisfaction. Of course, it is the close partnership built over the years between me, my staff and the great employees of the our city that is key.

Recently I got a call from a gentleman who, because of his disability, travels on a scooter. He was very concerned, having almost tipped over when attempting to get onto the sidewalk from a roadway. He identified the problem as a gap at the edge of the road. I immediately informed our engineer staff of the situation. Literally within hours, a temporary fix was installed, with a more permanent one being planned.

The other day a very upset resident contacted me — someone had dumped a couch and a mattress on a boulevard near the entrance to her street. She asked what we could do about it. My office connected with our staff and the materials were removed within hours.

People often ask me how I can deal with so many complaints. My response is quite simple: most of what I deal with are not complaints but issues of concern to the people who live in my community. When they call me, they need help. For more info on Ward issues, subscribe to the W5 Update at ward5.vaughan.ca. I can be reached at 905-832-8585, ext. 8349, or by email at [email protected].

Thornhill burglaries on the rise

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The mostly residential neighbourhood of Clark Avenue West and New Westminster Drive has seen 20 total break-ins in the past 10 months, with half of those from this summer alone.

Constable Andy Pattenden with the York Regional Police (YRP) said that the pattern of the break-ins indicates that many of the robberies may be connected.

“There were 18 break-and-enters just on Brickstone Circle,” said Pattenden. “It is over a significant period, but it is a lot of instances … the method in which the thieves got into the houses and the things that they were looking for were all the same.”

Cash, jewellery and electronics were the main targets of the thieves, and most occurred in the early morning hours. Many of the families broken into happened to be on vacation at the time.

Redevelopment of former Newbigging site?

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With the mid-August merging of two longstanding local funeral homes, City of Toronto staff and Toronto City Council are anticipating a new mixed-use development application.

Having operated for more than 130 years, the Humphrey Funeral Home – A.W. Miles Chapel Limited and the 65-year-old Murray E. Newbigging Funeral Home announced the amalgamation of their operations to form Humphrey Funeral Home A.W. Miles – Newbigging Chapel Limited, effective Aug. 15.

Councillor Josh Matlow was able to confirm the Newbigging site at 733 Mt. Pleasant Rd. has been purchased, although he could not divulge to whom. South Eglinton Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association (SERRA) past president Greg Russell said he’s heard of the plans, and although he would be concerned about building height getting too close to 10 storeys and would rather see access to the property is made off of Soudan Avenue instead of Mt. Pleasant, “The spirit of commercial venues should work well with existing businesses,” he said.

The new combined funeral operation will take up residence at 1403 Bayview Ave. to make way for the potential development. Matlow said there has not been any redevelopment applications come to council, yet, but added he’s excited to see what visions there may be for the lot and the potential of the first commercial development on the Mt. Pleasant stretch in many years.

“Mt. Pleasant has very much of a village, ma-and-pa design and feel to it,” Matlow said. “I think some new development there would be welcome, but it has to maintain that village feel.”

“While we are encouraged with developers’ interest to build in the community, we want to ensure there is a good fit to streetscape and community and that the community, including the new residents, enjoy the full creative aspect of the new construction,” added Russell. “[We would like developers to] maintain the village aspect while showing the potential for renewal and maintaining the life and spirit of both the residential and business community on Mt. Pleasant.”

Hateful messages hit close to home

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In two separate incidents only days apart, vandals struck in Thornhill with hateful attacks on both the community’s Jewish and Arab communities.

The first incident occurred at the Jaffari Centre, an Islamic community centre and mosque near Bathurst Street and Highway 7. Passersby were shocked to see the phrases “Arab Go Home” and “Fuck Gaza” scrawled across a sidewalk leading to the centre. Days later, the words “Fuck Israel” and a swastika symbol were found spray-painted on a bus stop in the Beverley Glen neighbourhood.

Jaffari spokesperson Shabbir Jaffer said that though the act was disturbing, the community is trying to get back to normal.
“Right after the incident happened, we celebrated Eid, so obviously we tried to put on a brave face,” said Jaffer, who added that he was hopeful that Canadians would remain peaceful despite the current tensions in Gaza. “Everyone fears for what’s happening there, but we want to keep Canada a safe and sensible environment.”

Councillor Howard Shore says that both acts hurt the community deeply and can trigger a sense of fear. “In a predominantly Jewish community, especially with a lot of seniors, seeing a swastika or the words ‘F Israel,’ that’s very heavy stuff.” Shore was appalled by the graffiti at the Jaffari Centre. He said that he has witnessed a great deal of Islamophobia during his time as a councillor, despite Markham’s increasing diversity. “When the subtext is ‘every Muslim is a terrorist,’ you can get away with that kind of crap.”

“In a predominantly Jewish community, seeing a swastika is heavy stuff.”

On Aug. 10, a 19-year-old Toronto man was arrested in connection with the bus stop graffiti as well as similar incidents in 2013 and early 2014. The investigation into the Jaffari Centre graffiti is still ongoing. Constable Andy Pattenden, York Regional Police, said that it can be hard to find a suspect in graffiti cases.

“It’s not like tagging where they’re using a particular technique or logo identifying themselves,” said Pattenden. “They are difficult investigations, but we have increased patrols in the area and we’re doing everything we can.”

Reducing flight noise in our areas

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On Aug. 5, I had the honour of hosting the Honourable Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, to meet with members of the Toronto Aviation Noise Group and other area stakeholders to discuss the impact aircraft noise is having on our residential communities, such as Leaside, Lawrence Park, Hogg’s Hollow and the Don Mills area. A number of items were discussed, including best practices for balancing the demands of travellers and trade with community concerns.

While the discussion focused on flight paths to and from Toronto Pearson International Airport, it also looked at the issue from a national perspective. It considered how all parties — NAV Canada, airports, airlines, Transport Canada and communities — can work together to manage and reduce the impacts of aircraft noise. The minister also noted that she is working with key stakeholders to develop greater transparency in the decision-making process for flight paths.

The discussion also highlighted efforts by the air industry to reduce noise. In doing so, Minister Raitt noted that increased airport traffic has brought important benefits to Canada’s trade and tourism industry, as well as to local citizens.

In closing, Minister Raitt expressed our government’s commitment to continue working to find solutions to noise problems, while allowing the air industry to offer Canadians the air services they need. I look forward to continuing these discussions.

It is an honour and privilege to serve the people of Don Valley West, and I hope to continue bringing their concerns to the attention of my honourable colleagues.

Table Talk: Joanne Kates reviews The Carbon Bar, Queen East’s BBQ palace

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lindsaylow

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3:28 pm

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When I want to think I’m cool, and if I’m hungry (which I usually am), I go to one of the (few) trendy restaurants where they understand that their bread is buttered just as well by aging gastronomes like me as it is by skinny young hipsters in four-inch heels.

It’s no accident that The Carbon Bar has some DNA (and investment) from Franco Prevedello, for Franco was the guy who taught several generations of Toronto waitstaff (at Centro et al) to treat every customer like royalty. It’s also brought to us by the owners of Nota Bene. At first glance The Carbon Bar could be just another cool southern BBQ house, with the loud music, the dim light, the brisket, the southern fried and the ribs.

But wait: They take reservations! And honour them! The seats are upholstered, and they have backs! The music isn’t too loud to talk. And OMG, the hot chicks at the podium smile at you. (I wonder who taught them to do that.) And offer to take your coat. The room is triple-height (an old Franco trick) and très glam. In fact drop-dead gorgeous in a casual warehouse retro way.

This is all very civilized.

Until you inhale the chicken skin app, which is kissin’ cousin to smack. This is a wooden rack of paper-thin chicken skins, which have been cooked till they’re so crisp they shatter in the mouth, into tiny shards of greasy heaven. Dip in the sweet chili vinegar sauce and repent tomorrow. There are other apps, but none this seductive.

This is a meat palace but they show some respect for veg and fish. Big fat scallops come graced with seasonal veg and little dots of brisket foam. Really! Octopus and lobster gumbo is a Creole delight, huge fat octopus tentacles tenderized into submission with sweet lobster flesh, atop spicy sausage and big chewy kernels of hominy corn in tomato-based chili-kicked stew. They sit perfectly cooked halibut in a light leek and clam chowder with potato foam on top a clever deconstruction of clam chowder.

But the real lovin’ here is for the pit. They slow-roast ribs and brisket over wood with no sauce to distract from the meat. The brisket melts like butter and tastes like nirvana, the ribs are meaty and pink with a hint of smoke and char on the outside. Side that with the best southern fried chicken in town and you have their pit master platter, $27 per person for a big fat slice of heaven.

The Carbon Bar / 99 Queen St. E. / $100 Dinner for two

Joanne Kates trained at the Ecole Cordon Bleu de Cuisine in Paris. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Maclean’s and Chatelaine.

Table Talk: Joanne Kates reviews Fat Pasha

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9:56 am

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Middle Eastern food has supplanted tacos as Toronto’s flavour du jour. Ezra’s Pound morphed into a hummuseria, the Khabouth/Harji duo opened Byblos, and now we have Fat Pasha from Anthony Rose (ex-Drake Hotel exec chef, owner of Rose and Sons and Big Crow). This happened because the Indian Rice Factory closed, and Mr. Rose was offered the lease at a rate he couldn’t refuse.

It’s a sweet space. Cool filament lights in varied shapes, a big mural with three hookahs. Communal tables. Cool double-sided bar. Nice patio. The staff, though harried by the restaurant’s instant popularity (good luck getting a table) are friendly and helpful.

But this is no Byblos. Fat Pasha is fun and flavourful, but it lacks the elegance of place or palate that Byblos exemplifies. This is Middle Eastern Bubby food. The latkes, while not quite as crisp as we like in my family, are inventive: They’re topped with pastrami salmon (tastes smoked) wrapped in a circlet around smoked whitefish, and lightly pickled egg with a dollop of sour cream. An entertaining reconstruction of the roots food I grew up on at my Bubby’s table.

But Bubby never roasted cauliflower. Who knew that cauliflower could be so sweet if you brown it deeply? Adding pomegranate seeds, fried haloumi cheese and a chimicurrhi-like sauce just gilds that scrumptious lily. Another Pasha veg delight is the daily salad platter (called salatim), a clever compendium of vegetable delights: Lightly creamed beets, barely pickled cucumbers, red cabbage slaw with caraway, smoked eggplant cubes, spiced carrots and iconoclastic tabbouleh made with big crunchy wheat berries for mellow and rapini for bitter.

Middle Eastern food is of course veg-intensive, so no surprise that they also do a grand fattoush platter of lightly pickled onions, kale, chopped olives, grilled haloumi, radish and pita. And couscous never had it so good. It’s smooth from butter, hot from harissa and garnished with apricots, figs, dates, prunes, charred onions and olives.

Meat fares less well at the house of the Pasha. We find precious little lamb in the lamb shoulder dish for $15. Nice hummus under the lamb, but we wanted lamb. And pastrami shawarma is gristly meat with no discernible pastrami spicing. Good fixin’s like pickled onion and grilled potato.

The Pasha has one great dessert: Milk and honey pudding is a lighter-than-air creamy confection topped with crunchy crumble of whatever fruit is in season that week. The crunch and the cream go together like Brad and Angelina and are about that pretty too. This pudding will keep the Pasha well padded.

FAT PASHA, 414 Dupont St., $70 Dinner for two

Joanne Kates trained at the Ecole Cordon Bleu de Cuisine in Paris. She has written articles for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Maclean’s and Chatelaine.

One gutsy journey

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In late November 2002, Forest Hill resident Raquel Feldberg began to cry.

While she lay helpless in an emergency hospital bed, debilitated by the clawing agony of the ulcerative colitis she had just been diagnosed with, it was the worry in her husband Alan’s eyes that sent tears rolling.

It was a time of confusion, fear and frustration, when all she wanted to do was celebrate the couple’s second child, who was just months old at the time. The diagnosis began a painful 11-year journey of medication, unsuccessful surgeries and unfathomable stress for the family. Fortunately, after more than a decade, great strides forward in research have been made to help Raquel Feldberg and thousands of other Canadians suffering from the strains of inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s and colitis.

“I know how bad this is [ulcerative colitis]. I feel now I need to help,” Raquel said. “I’m on a mission to help. It’s very hard to talk about the disease, and some people simply don’t have the strength, so I feel I should.”

For most of the past decade she had struggled with fatigue and medication side effects but “managed well enough.” In late 2011 her disease became dire and unmanageable with medication alone. It meant a series of serious surgeries, one to remove her colon outright and one that was an unsuccessful J-pouch operation (a surgically constructed internal reservoir) that eventually led to complications of infection and gangrene. For the better part of two years she was in and out of hospital, but all the while, helped fundraise for Crohn’s and Colitis Canada (CCC) and used her skill as an artist to provide items for the organization’s charitable auctions. In early 2013 she had successful J-pouch surgery and, while recovering in her hospital bed, used her cellphone to begin a personal fundraising campaign for CCC’s annual Gutsy Walk. Just five and a half weeks out of that surgery, she walked in the event and was awarded as Toronto’s top CCC fundraiser and one of the top 10 in Canada. She continues on and took part in this year’s Gutsy Walk, held earlier in June, and she and her team, This Bag Ain’t Prada, were again among the top 10 fundraisers in the country.

Masters in the art of heart

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There are a lot of important moving cogs required to keep the wheels turning at a major hospital like Sunnybrook.

Although they carry no scalpel nor even a medical degree during their rounds of miles of Sunnybrook hallways, Stan and Daphne Tully have been breathing vibrant life and hope there for more than 60 years combined.

Stan, 89, and Daphne, 91, are long-retired veterans: she of the British navy and he of the air force. They came to Canada in the mid-1950s and settled in the North York area of Toronto in the early 1970s, when Daphne began to teach herself how to paint. A friend of the couple was a volunteer at Sunnybrook and wondered if the retired couple might want to fill their days helping in the facility as well. Now, for Daphne, some 34 years later and Stan, almost 30 years later, the two can’t imagine life without their volunteer duties.

“I’m going to volunteer there for as long as I can. It is because of this [volunteering] that we are as well and happy as we are,” Daphne said.

“It’s a glorious reason to be getting out of the bed and going in the morning,” Stan added.

Their nearly three decades of impact is practically written on the walls there. Daphne’s late-blooming talent as an artist was natural, and she began a series of art-based fundraisers and programs to assist recovering patients at Sunnybrook.

Immobilized patients would receive personalized painted ceiling tiles, and she crafted large paintings to be sold at charity auctions. She has also created more than 400 cards and postcards featuring her art for the hospital gift shops and auctions.

“I see that as my legacy and something I’m very proud to leave behind,” she said. “We’ve made so many great connections with the patients through the art.”

Meanwhile, Stan, who had a triple bypass surgery in recent years, now spends the bulk of his volunteer time in the hospital’s Heartpal program, meeting with patients facing similar surgeries as a calming force and as a show of inspiration of a long, healthy, happy life after heart surgery.

A different kind of prom

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Elise Kayfetz has always had a passion for working with the elderly. In 2010 Kayfetz, a gerontologist, created the Yellow Rose Project to connect millennials and generation Xers with the last group of Holocaust survivors. Now, the Yellow Rose Project has just hosted its fifth annual seniors’ prom, which saw more than 450 Holocaust survivors in attendance.

The prom, which was hosted on June 18 at the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation near Bathurst Street and Clark Avenue, was a great way for survivors to connect not only with each other, but with young people who could help pass on their stories. All participants are given yellow roses.

“It started off as just a senior prom,” said Kayfetz. “Then one survivor said, ‘I used to be designated with a yellow star, and now I have a yellow rose.’”

The event helps to not only teach younger generations about the Holocaust and those affected by it, but to also preserve the stories for years to come. “We’re able to do it right now because the survivors are still here,” said Kayfetz. “We naturally foster relationships between survivors and younger adults. They’re like adopted grandparents at this point. When they pass on, they have a strong group of people who are here and who will remember them.”

Not only has the response from the survivors warmed her heart, but the young volunteers have been inspiring to Kayfetz. “I think not enough credit has been given to the volunteers,” she said. “No one gets paid, no one is an employee, not even myself. It’s very rare that an event is being put on by young professionals who want to make the time to give back.”

The event featured traditional and contemporary music, the Jewish Men’s Choir and a comedy performance. Kayfetz hopes to soon extend the event to Israel, and there are also talks of hosting one in New York.

“Every year I promise to stop, take a deep breath and look around the room and see that we’ve put that many survivors in one room with young people to gather around and celebrate,” she said. “Everyone is in that room wearing a yellow rose and not a yellow star. This is a lesson to us that we’re going to celebrate life and we’re going to get rid of hate.

Battle of Bathurst continues on

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A hotly contested development proposal at Bathurst and Ner Israel Drive has had the Thornhill Woods community voicing disapproval for months — and Coun. Sandra Yeung Racco is trying to keep everything calm. The Jaffari Centre has applied to construct two 17-storey towers along with an Islamic community centre. Locals have criticized the density, and they are now concerned about the Vaughan Glen Hospital, a heritage site on the lot.

“Jaffari … has continued to demonstrate a complete lack of commitment to the preservation of this site,” said an online petition by the Preserve Thornhill Woods Community Association.

Yeung Racco is optimistic that the issue can be tackled with a working group. “The group will be a good starting point to discuss the preservation of the building,” said Yeung Racco.