Vaughan staffer, councillor poles apart on Cityview Boulevard

Yorkregion.com
May 5, 2015
By Tim Kelly

Anyone walking along Cityview Boulevard these days would think they were seeing things.

Yes, there are two stoplight poles right in the middle of the sidewalk. Say what?

It may sound like something out of the engineers who can’t plan straight, but a Vaughan city staffer says it all makes perfect sense.

Jack Graziosi, Vaughan's director of capital delivery and asset management, said the light poles could not be put anywhere else but where they’ve been installed.

Graziosi said buried infrastructure on each side of the sidewalk - including watermain pipes - made it impossible to locate the light poles on either side of the sidewalk.

The city also has not yet assumed the sidewalk and is still “co-ordinating” with the developer to finish the work where the poles are located, said Graziosi.

Informed of Graziosi’s explanation, Regional Councillor Gino Rosati, who visited the site on Tuesday afternoon, called it “weird."

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said, adding he wasn’t satisfied with the ways things are.

“That explanation (by Graziosi) is just not enough. I’m going to call the Commissioner, Paul Jankowski," he said.

Graziosi said the work will probably be finished at some point this month.

"It looks awkward right now, let me finish doing the work and then you can judge me,” he said.

For those with a disability, such as Vaughan resident Randy McNeil, who is wheelchair-bound, having the poles in the middle of the sidewalk is a serious problem.

He said even a delay of a month or more is not acceptable.

“I think they’ve overlooked what they’re preaching about accessibility by putting traffic light poles in the middle of a sidewalk. It’s just rude. They should have known better than to block a sidewalk,” said McNeil.