Farewell from Birch Cliff News

By Hedy Korbee

Today marks the tenth anniversary of Birch Cliff News. A time to look back, move ahead, and begin a new chapter.

It’s hard to believe that a full decade has passed since June 14, 2012, when I hit “publish” on the website’s first story — a multimedia piece on the history of Birch Cliff.

It also seems like a fitting time to announce, with mixed emotions, that Birch Cliff News has come to the end of the road.

In the last two years, I’ve retired from the paid workforce and am now spending more time at the cottage than I am in Birch Cliff.  My deep connection to the community that I’ve called home for 29 years is changing.

As this chapter closes, I wanted to take a moment to say goodbye and reflect back on some of our local stories over the last ten years.

Thunder Woman Healing Lodge meeting at Birchmount Community Centre. June 12, 2018. Photo: John Smee/Bluffs Monitor.

An informed community is a stronger community

Birch Cliff News was a labour of love born out of my firm belief that an informed community is a stronger community. 

In the changing news ecosystem, I could see the need for professional hyperlocal journalism that was informative, verifiable, free of bias, and avoided sensationalism.

I wanted to create an online resource where Birch Cliff residents could share reliable stories and have a conversation about things that are unique to our neighbourhood and make it a special place to live.

I am proud of the fact that Birch Cliff News has remained a non-profit, volunteer-driven website written by the community for the community.  

As I look back on the last ten years and re-read the 500 stories that have been published on the website, what emerges is a clear picture of a community in transition.

Before and after photos of 1552-1572 Kingston Road.

A neighbourhood in transition

In June 2012, Birch Cliff News launched with feature pieces and softer stories about events such as the Birch Cliff Public School Fun Fair, the Birchmount Collegiate prom and Canada Day.

That all changed on July 14, 2012, when southwest Scarborough was hit by a torrential storm that overwhelmed the sewers and flooded the basements of almost 400 homes with rain water and sewage.

Birch Cliff News published more than 30 stories about the impact of the flooding, including pieces about the clean-up, personal stories, public meetings and explanations from Toronto Water.  

The answer at the time was that it was a one-in-100-year storm. In hindsight, the storm was more like the canary in the coal mine since, as so many have experienced, Toronto now floods on a regular basis.

Eight years later, it was announced that more than 100 streets in Birch Cliff, Cliffside and Cliffcrest have been targeted for $300 million in recommended infrastructure upgrades by the City of Toronto

Kingston Road construction. April 2014

Revitalization

The need for infrastructure improvements and revitalization became top stories for Birch Cliff News.

When the website was launched, Kingston Road, the main thoroughfare in our community, was riddled with potholes, businesses had difficulty staying afloat and almost nobody paid more than $ 1 million for a house.

Who could forget the two years of construction in 2013/2014 when the heart of Birch Cliff was torn up to replace the watermain, build new sanitary and storm sewers, remove ancient railway tracks, resurface Kingston Road, add streetscaping features, replace the sidewalks and then replace them again when they crumbled?

It was disheartening at the time to cover stories about business owners who bet on Birch Cliff but ultimately closed shop:  Rosemary and Thyme, Nice Nook, Rustico, M & J’s Eastside Deli, SPICE, Price Saver Fruit and Vegetable Market, D.O.T Furniture, and TD Canada Trust.

But the dream that Birch Cliff could have a vibrant, walkable, main street never died and before too long we saw business successes such as The Birchcliff, Luxe Home Decor, The Kingston Social (now City Cottage Market), Corbin Catering and Foods, Kennedy Catering, Little Bugs Nursery, and Dollarama.

Birch Cliff News reflected the community’s determination to shop locally and that was never more important than during the first Covid lockdown.

The Manderley at Kingston Road and Manderley Drive. Rendering: Nova Ridge Corporation.

Then came the developers

Before too long, condo developers began seeing the potential in our corner of southwest Scarborough.

This was the kind of rejuvenation envisioned in the Kingston Road Revitalization Study. 

But then developers realized that if you built tall enough, the upper-level units would have a view of Lake Ontario.  The condo applications started coming fast and furious, with most developers wanting to build taller than the prescribed zoning.

You can track the change in attitude towards development in Birch Cliff by simply reading the headlines:

• Condos Coming to the Bluffs
• Kingston Road Condo Craze
• New condos place Birch Cliff at a crossroads
• New Ten-Storey Condo will Displace Tenants
• Robust Opposition At Condo Meeting
• Birch Cliff Fights at Ontario Land Tribunal

The flurry of development led to the rejuvenation of the Birch Cliff Village Community Residents Association. It was a signal that the spirit of local activism that started in Birch Cliff in the late 1950s is still alive and well.

The Birchmount Bluffs Neighborhood Centre, Taylor Memorial Library, and the Bluffs Monitor are all wildly successful initiatives that started at the grassroots level.

Sometimes, the Birch Cliff community was united by hardship and sadness, like the 2013 fire at 1457 Kingston Rd., the ice storm later that same year, the tragic hit and run accident that killed a Birch Cliff mother, and a very rare local murder.

Wayne’s Warriors. July 2013.

Heartwarming stories

But the news business isn’t all doom and gloom. There were countless heartwarming stories that we covered such as Scarborough’s own Wayne Simmonds bringing his NHL friends to Birch Cliff, to the delight of children and adults alike.

Many stories were written over the last ten years as birch tree murals sprouted up all over the community thanks to the vision of Mural Routes and the now-retired “mural lady” Karin Eaton.

The spirit of sharing has always been alive and well at Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre as they transitioned their holiday support program to Share 365.  BBNC supports 250 families (700+ individuals) with things such as free fresh food, hygiene and cleaning products, and subsidized nursery school.

It’s been encouraging to see Birchcliff Bluffs United Church, already renowned for its food bank, open a drop-in centre for drop-in space for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth as well as seniors.

And when Birch Cliff Public School celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016, several hundred graduates returned for a reunion that many will never forget.

Birch Cliff Ambulance. April 9, 1941

Rich community history

Personally, some of my favourite stories were about the rich history of Birch Cliff and I hope you found them as illuminating as I did.

The first official landowner in Scarborough was Captain William Mayne, who was granted a plot of land in Birch Cliff in 1796.   Mayne was a former aide and companion to Elizabeth Simcoe, wife of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada.

In a story titled “From Farmland to Suburbia”, Birch Cliff News described the way that housing developments were established in the early 1900s, giving readers an idea of when their houses were built and what they might have cost.

Elizabeth and Bruce Plain, who moved to Birch Cliff in the 1940s wrote a wonderful story in 1996 for Scarborough’s Bicentennial about the days when homes cost $5,000, were heated by coal and a typical phone number was Oxford 1-9830.

It was inspiring to learn about the extraordinary fundraising efforts of Birch Cliff Public School during World War II under the guidance of the original principal Mrs. Ellen Reece.  The campaign culminated with students presenting an ambulance to the Canadian Armed forces on April 9, 1941.

There was also the remarkable backstory about the original Taylor Memorial Library building, a private home that was gifted to the community in 1962 by Fred Taylor “for the purpose of a library and no other.”

I could go on and on. If you’re interested in learning more about the history of Birch Cliff, head to the website and click on the “Community History” tab at the top of the page.

The need to preserve history is the primary reason why I’m keeping the website active even though there will be no new content going forward.

Many thanks to everyone

I would like to take this moment to thank the supporters of Birch Cliff News and express my deep gratitude to the many contributors who wrote stories over the last ten years. 

Thank you to Earl Abalajon, Persis Abraham, Ashley Ashbee, Brian Ashton, Ron Baldwin, Tyler Bloomfield, Stephanie Burke, Daniel Caudle, Frank Crisafi, Linda Curley, Greg Dennis, Chelsey DeVito, Morgan Gallagher, Penny Harbin, Hannah Korbee, Sean Mallen, Marian Martin, Brett McGarry, Regina McKenzie, Melissa Mercer, Christina Mulherin, Matt Owczarz, Donna Sevilla, Jane Smart, Marielle Torrefranca, and Albert Williams, 

Special thanks to John Smee, publisher of the Bluffs Monitor and photographer extraordinaire, who became a close collaborator over the years as we traded photos and editorial content.  Thanks to real estate agent Mike McCann, who spent four years writing a regular housing feature for the website.  Thanks as well to journalist Ian Harvey, who regularly pitched story ideas and covered them himself.  I’m also grateful to Jackie Spicer of The Ink Tank for creating the original logo, tagline, and digital banner, as well as for her writing.

Finally, thanks to everyone for reading and supporting Birch Cliff News.

It’s been an honour to tell your stories.

Hedy Korbee