

Chris Fox, CP24.com





The city is increasing the overnight police presence in Yonge-Dundas Square and several other “hotspots” as part of a wider effort to respond to “ongoing community concerns” in the eastern part of the downtown core, Mayor John Tory says.

In a news release issued on Wednesday morning, Tory outlined 10 initiatives that the city is taking in response to concerns from residents near “hotspot neighbourhoods like Yonge-Dundas, Sherbourne and Dundas, Cabbagetown, St. Jamestown and Regent Park.

One of the initiatives involves a Toronto police plan to assign one additional detective and three additional uniformed officers to the downtown east neighbourhood during the overnight hours this summer.

The moves comes amid a rash of gun violence, including the fatal shooting of an 19-year-old man in Yonge-Dundas Square last week.

“Toronto is a safe city and a clean city but that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems we need to address,” Tory said in the press release. “It is my job as mayor to bring everyone at city hall and local stakeholders together to come up with a plan to work quickly and fix these problems.”

The 10-step plan announced on Wednesday comes in the wake of several meetings involving city staff, police and various stakeholders, including representatives from Ryerson University and the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area.

The plan includes a commitment for increased outreach to the homeless by Toronto Public Health and Streets to Homes staff, as well as the hiring of six park ambassadors that would work alongside outreach workers in offering services and supports to homeless individuals.

The plan also calls for an increase in the frequency of cleaning in laneways and parks in the eastern part of the downtown.

“This is a vibrant neighbourhood where families live but it is also an area with large vulnerable populations and a concentration of social services. We must ensure proper resources are in place to deal with the needs of this diverse and growing population,” Ward 27 Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam said in the press release. “While these are immediate actions to address the situation at hand, we will also be working together on a year-long plan to address the situation permanently.”

According to a spokesperson for the mayor's office, the initiatives will be paid for through exisiting budgets for 2018.

The full list of initiatives, which the city says that it began rolling out over the weekend, is as follows: