Board Present: Gus Sinclair, Sandra DeAthe, Gord Brown, Jane Auster, Maria Perin, Susan Pfeiffer, Richard Longley, Richard Gilbert, Tim Grant, Margaret Beare, David Booz

Sue Dexter and Michael Heydon attended Croft St. meeting until 8:50 p.m.

Regrets: Stuart Schoenfeld

Guests: Dave Hammill, Jim McFedries, both are officers from 14 Division. Attended the meeting until 7:45 p.m.


1. Chair's Welcome The meeting commenced at 7:05 p.m. The guests from 14 Division were introduced.

2. Police Address: The officers were at the meeting to discuss the level of crime in our neighbourhood; this concern was as a result of the recent muggings and request for assault statistics in our neighbourhood made at the last board meeting.

Harbord Village is considered a quiet area overall compared to the rest of the Division. A chart was presented with the crime statistics from January to March, comparing HV with the Divisional totals from 2006 and 2005. The biggest concerns in our area are business break-ins, where thousands of dollars property damage can be done to steal a couple of hundred dollars of goods. Businesses on Harbord and Bloor West are the hardest hit; particularly active times are December and January when the prisons are emptied for Christmas. A lot of crime is fuelled by crack and compounded by psychiatric disorders. There are more robberies around Central Tech. Graffiti is a temporary teenage activity, murals a better deterrent than clear walls.

Some of the reasons we are a low crime rate area:

• Mostly residential, and mostly houses
• Clear sight lines
• People are at home
• Neighbourhood watch

Noise in clubs and other problems with clubs - councillors have tried to deal with this issue, but the by-laws seem not to have teeth, and the Alcohol & Gaming Commission doesn't shut these places down. Restaurants are starting to evolve into night clubs, and Kensington market is transforming into a hot spot.

Metal roll-overs on business windows, while a good insurance incentive, suggest fear of break-ins and can become a self-fulfilling prophecy because they give a "look" to the street. There are different products available that provide window security; of particular interest is a product described at smashandgrab.com.

The officers invited HVRA to send a rep from the board to attend the Community Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), which meets the last Tuesday of every month from 6:30 to 9:00 at the Harbourfront Community Centre. The committee discusses local problems and strategies for solving them. ACTION: The board will get a rep to attend these meetings.

The City is also addressing kids' needs by looking at programs and facilities for teens, and the police have community officers involved in the programs.

The officers left at 7:45 p.m.

3. Approval of Agenda The agenda was approved

4. Approval of Minutes Richard Longley moved and Jane Auster seconded the approval of the minutes of February 21, 2006. Carried.

5. Committee Reports
a. Environment Tim Grant

• i. Trees The City has tentatively agreed to planting cherry tress (paid for by the Japanese consulate) on the Bathurst St. frontage at the NW corner of Central Tech. They will be planted sometime next month, and Tim found neighbours who will water the trees during the summer.

The commemorative tree Jorg Bentz requested is going in Margaret Fairley park.

The possibility of a tree inventory for the community was discussed, along the lines of the inventory done in the Annex. This would involve raising money.

• ii. Graffiti We are trying to get the co-operation of Neil Wright of the BIA in our graffiti program. There will be a higher profile graffiti eradication event in June, and we would like the BIA involved. Action: Gus will call Neil Wright to get his support. Apparently those businesses in Bloor West Village where graffiti was removed are doing more business than before. Action: Jane Auster will see if she can get these stats.

Interjected announcements, and agenda item number 8.

April 1st Environment Day - at Central Tech
April 8th Martin Silva's compost day at M. Fairley Park
Agenda item #8 - April 22nd is our HV Spring Clean up and yes, we will co-ordinate with Martin Silva's Environment Day (this is also Earth Day)

b. Membership Maria Perin
Maria now has the membership lists. Co-ordinating the mailing of the renewals is the first task. Richard Gilbert will produce the file for the membership labels.


c. Community Liaison Sue Dexter
No report

d. College St. update Gord Brown
Positions were marked out for Ucan old-style bins, consistent with the principles of College St. reno; they will be in place within the next couple of weeks

Gord had a meeting with Silva and the Division of Transportation Services about the right-of-way. Silva will talk to the businesses to resolve this, and has some good ideas, such as waiving patio fee for '06, getting beer companies to sponsor railings; and the City buy furniture and rent it to businesses. Looking optimistic.

e. Zoning Jane Auster
329 Lippincott update - this is going to happen with small modifications; the neighbours are happy

f. Communications Jane Auster
Action: Jane and Gus will update the Gleaner about our Spring meeting.

Spring Newsletter (This is agenda item #7)
All material for the Spring Newsletter has to be to Jane by April 15th latest in order to have the newsletter ready for delivery at the end of the first week in May. Jane assigned tasks for contributions to the newsletter.


6. Spring Meeting Planning (May 16th)
There was considerable discussion about the theme for our Spring Meeting. One suggestion was to tell the residents what our successes have been and to ask people what this board could be doing as our next project.

Richard Gilbert moved that we adopt this as our theme for the Spring Meeting 2006 and that Gord and Tim figure out how to implement this at the meeting and report back to the April board meeting. Seconded by Jane Auster and carried.

A best practices Energy theme was proposed, and is flagged for the Fall AGM.


9. Business Arising
Handled during the police visit.


10. Other Business

a. Fundraising dinners Tim Grant
Tim asked the board to support fundraising potluck dinners for Afghani women and girls by allowing him to invite his neighbours on HVRA letterhead. These dinners are organized by the group Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CWWA). The board felt that this activity was outside our mandate and the group disconnected from the HVRA that represents our neighbourhood, and therefore chose not to accede to Tim's request. We wished him well in this project.

b. Budget at Spring Meeting Gord Brown
Gord asked the board members to think about what we want to spend money on, as this will be voted on at the Spring Meeting, as well as the idea of a "rainy day" fund.


c. Fire Safety Richard Longley
Richard suggested that there should be information on fire safety in the Spring Newsletter. There will be information on the after-fire progress and the notes from the AGM on the speakers from the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

We need about $200 for printing for the Restorer's manual. Action: Richard L. will get the costs, and we will vote by email to speed up the process.


d. Inventory of the South Sue Dexter
Action: Sue, Michael, Tim, and Gus will organize volunteers by email and get it done.

The meeting adjourned at 9:05 p.m. Next meeting April 18, 2006, same time, same place.