Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but it may also cause heartburn when the object of affection has been missing for years.

Anyone who travels by bus or streetcar around here appreciates the benefits of waiting for their ride in a transit shelter, especially as the weather grows cold and foul. And it surely will.

It won’t be long before the autumn rain takes on an icy tinge and chills to the bone those caught in it. If they’re TTC riders, you can bet they’ll wish they had a shelter to escape the weather.

Those who catch the bus at the windswept intersection of Eglinton Avenue and Renforth Drive — just a stone’s throw from Pearson airport — for many years were blessed with shelters on two of the four corners.

But they were removed more than two years ago to make way for construction and have yet to be restored, to the anguish of bus riders left exposed to the elements.

Helena Catucci emailed to say “we used to have bus shelters on both sides of this intersection,” until the work began. “The construction finished a long time ago but the shelters were never replaced.

“We have a junior school on this very corner (Mother Cabrini Catholic School) and a huge high school (Michael Power) two blocks away.

“Are these kids and the citizens of this area going to freeze to death this winter because the city did not make a move to provide/replace the much needed shelters?”

I went there and found concrete pads on two corners, formerly occupied by the missing shelters. The local terrain is wide-open, allowing a sharp wind to slash at its victims.

A Google Street View image from November of 2016 shows the shelter on the southwest corner. But it’s missing from the next Google image, taken in May of 2017.

STATUS: “City permits staff are investigating the site and will report on whether the shelter can be reinstalled at the location,” said a note from Antonia Markos, a city permits manager. It looks to me like it should be an easy decision.

UPDATE: A recent column was about two tumbledown protection fences, surrounding trees on the north side of Ellesmere Road, just west of Bellamy Road. The city has since said that the protection zones, which are on the boulevard — city property — were put up by an adjacent property owner due to planned construction (which apparently didn’t happen). So I asked if the city had the power or will to compel the property owner to do something about the dilapidated fencing. “Staff will reach out to the property owner and request they maintain the fence to a more appropriate standard,” said Eric Holmes, a spokesperson for transportation services. “In most cases, the property owner addresses the concern soon after.” He added that the city could also fix or remove it, if the property owner doesn’t, and tack the costs onto the property tax bill.

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