The Star identified several “Wards to Watch” in a 47-ward election. Now that new legislation has made it a 25-ward election, we have determined all of the wards are worth watching. This is one in a series of articles. The election is Oct. 22. Advance voting begins Oct. 10.

On a Woodycrest Ave. doorstep, Joanna Cotton pledges her vote to Councillor Mary Fragedakis, adding: “I don’t like what happened, we shouldn’t have to choose,” between Fragedakis and Paula Fletcher — friends and council allies now competing to represent the new Toronto-Danforth ward.

To the south, on the other side of the Danforth, Carol Ann Graham pauses her walk to Jimmie Simpson playground to tell Fletcher: “This shouldn’t be an issue — we shouldn’t have 25 wards this election and be put in this position — but you’ve done a great job for this area.”

And over to the east in a Pape Ave. coffee shop Lanrick Bennett Jr. — one of eight other challengers for the seat — is hoping that enough voters in neighbourhoods including the Pocket, East York, Little India and Leslieville want change that they will create a path to victory for a new candidate.

“There is the mindset of letting the two incumbents bash each other and I move up the middle,” says the school parent council co-chair and creator of the #IdeasforWard30 Twitter and Facebook groups.

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When Premier Doug Ford forced a cut of Toronto council from a planned 47 seats to 25, he set up a series of battles between incumbents, some of whom are happy to fight.

But Fletcher, who has represented Ward 30 from Danforth south to Lake Ontario since 2003, and Fragedakis, leading Ward 29 from Danforth north to the Don Valley Parkway since 2010, are NDP members and progressive council votes who consoled Danforth shooting victims together.

“We’re not fighting each other,” Fletcher says while door-knocking on Booth Ave. near Queen St. E. and Logan Ave. in her current ward.

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Fragedakis says the rivalry is “not comfortable for anyone.” But to have a chance at winning both must cross Danforth and try to convert the other’s supporters, plus those in an eastern slice currently represented by retiring Beach Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon.

Fragedakis plays up her experience as the only female progressive councillor on the TTC board, and her role in helping get new two-hour timed transfers and improvements to local service.

Fletcher talks about her work as a champion of Toronto’s film industry — studios and film workers are abundant in the ward’s south end — and protection of the Port Lands, a complicated file involving multiple agreements and $1.2 billion in flood protection being shared by three levels of government.

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Cotton, whose lovely Woodycrest Ave. home is set to be expropriated for the planned downtown relief subway line she supports, cites crowded subway trains and neighbourhood issues including aggravations caused by some Danforth bars.

“I worry that there isn’t going to be enough ‘bandwidth’ to deal with all the issues in the new ward,” she says. “We want councillors who are visionary but also dealing with the day-to-day stuff. I’m sorry to see we’re going to lose good councillors.”

Graham, taking daughter Faye, 2, to the park, notes infill development along Queen St. E. will bring new residents and put pressure on schools and city services, including transit that is sometimes so heavily used that she walked to work rather than suffer on a packed streetcar.

Both incumbents won commanding victories in 2010, with Fletcher earning about half the votes in her ward and Fragedakis, who grew up in Greektown, taking 59 per cent in her race.

Bennett says he originally jumped into the 47-ward race against Fletcher because he felt the area needed more resident engagement on issues such as the former Unilever plant site.

“It would always be the same 20 or 30 people and it got me thinking how do we get buy-in from everyone, not just nerds,” he says. “And I also started riding with my 9-year-old daughter to school and she was worried about getting hit, so I started researching bike lane infrastructure and how we can get bike lanes that are more than just paint.”

Another rookie candidate, Chris Budo, has a strong sign presence in the new ward. The 22-year-old Ryerson University candidate is walking it with his father, a retired dry-cleaner.

“Ever since I was a young child I’ve thought about running for office, and my parents said be the change you want to see in the world and I don’t see change coming from the two incumbents on the cost of living, public safety and road safety,” he said.

A recent ward debate at Centennial College’s Story Arts Centre saw candidate Ryan Lindsay also talk about improving civic engagement, while being fiscally responsible. He argued that Doug Ford is winning the public relations war so the new city council has to meet that challenge.

“If Doug Ford comes in with his terrible ideas we need to lean into the punch with our better ideas,” said Lindsay, a University of Toronto senior development officer who says Toronto has seen “increasing violence, fiscal mismanagement and insufficient infrastructure.”

Dixon Chan, a Hong Kong-born small business owner running on a platform of expanding the Open Door program to boost affordable housing, transit expansion and protected bike lanes, told the debate the incumbents’ “many years” are no match for the life experience he would bring to the job.

Also running are: Marisol D’Andrea, Lawrence Lychowyd, Chris Marinakis and Alexander Pena.

David Rider is the Star’s City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider