I wanted to start this site as a place to share ideas and tips for Keeping Bloorcourt Beautiful during what could turn out to be a long strike by City workers. Regardless of where you stand on the issue, I hope we can all agree that we love and respect our neighbourhood too much to turn our gorgeous streets, awesome parks and thriving businesses into public dumping grounds.
We don't have to be held hostage by this crisis. We don't have to let apathy and an "everyone-else-is-doing-it-so-why-can't-I?" attitude take over. We don't have to call our city councillors, we don't have to spend any money. We can just do it ourselves, for the love of our village.
Who benefits from a filthy Bloorcourt?
The City and the Union, who use mounting anger over the state of our streets to pressure each other.
Who is harmed?
We are, of course! Who wants bees, flies, rats and stink for a neighbour? Not me!
What can we do?
Plenty!
- Double-bag the garbage you have now and try to keep it off the side of the road
- Try to cut down on your garbage output as much as you can:
Shop at the bulk store to cut down on packaging
Recycle everything you can
Rinse anything you're going to put outside to keep down the smell
Use a composter if you have one and let your neighbours use yours if they don't have one - Take your garbage to an approved dump site if you have a car or truck, take your neighbour's while you're at it
- Don't shove the city bins full of trash - they're just going to sit there stinking in the heat!
- If you see loose trash on the ground, pick it up
- Report dumping to the City: 416-338-0338 and if you see a dump on your street, move it yourself
These things don't cost much other than time and effort, but who said a garbage strike is supposed to be easy?
We have a chance to show the City, the Union and everyone in Toronto that one neighbourhood has the heart and the spirit to remain clean and civilized for as long as it takes.
If you support Keeping Bloorcourt Beautiful, please spread the word!! Forward this link and put a sign in your window that says "I'M KEEPING BLOORCOURT BEAUTIFUL". Please leave comments with any suggestions you may have to keep this going!
If you really want to help, I need people to translate our signs into Spanish, Portuguese and Ethiopian/Eritrean dialects.
Neighbours, we can do this!
