In an occasional series, the Star delves into 311 data to see what our concerns say about the city. In this fourth instalment, we look at the number one complaint in Toronto: potholes. In a land not far away, next to a castle on a hill, lies a “republic” with a whimsical approach to dealing with the city.Last summer a massive hole that sat unfixed for months on a side street just west of Avenue Rd., steps from Casa Loma, was transformed into an impromptu community garden. “One of the kids who lived on Poplar Plains Cres. just for a lark threw some tomato seeds into the pothole, and low and behold they started to grow,” recalls Republic of Rathnelly neighbourhood historian Pym Buitenhuis.“Because the hole was there for so long they evolved into fully grown plants and there were hundreds of tomatoes on them.”Rathnelly, with boundaries of Avenue Rd., Poplar Plains Cres., Poplar Plains Rd. and the CP Rail tracks, lies in Ward 12 (Toronto — St. Paul’s), which made 1,613 requests to the city’s non-emergency 311 hotline about potholes in 2018.Read more: The Fixer: It’s been a tolerable winter for potholes — so farToronto is known for dead raccoons and potholes. The city’s 311 nerve centre knows this reputation is well-earnedIs this Scarborough area the noisiest neighbourhood in Toronto?In a construction-plagued city of aging infrastructure, potholes are a constant scourge almost everywhere. Potholes were the number one complaint to 311 in 2018 with almost 20,000 service requests. Ward 8 (Eglinton—Lawrence) nudged Ward 12 out of top spot for the most pothole 311 complaints at 1,657; and Ward 11 (University—Rosedale) rounded out the top three at 1,214.Potholes can come with a big price tag for drivers when they cause damage to cars, and they’re a danger for cyclists, leading them to fall or swerve into traffic. But they’re also costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollar ...
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