A mystery Good Samaritan has filled in potholes on a Toronto laneway that went unmaintained for years because it is apparently owned by a dead man.
The alley, which runs between Kensington Community School and a row of homes on Bellevue Avenue, is wriddled with potholes, many of them several inches deep. Sometime this week, gravel was laid over some of the holes, but residents who spoke with CTVNews.ca weren’t sure who was responsible for the temporary fix.
“It’s very mysterious,” resident Christine Nielsen told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. She and her husband bought their home in 1996. The laneway has been potholed and unkempt ever since. “Every drive down the alley is an axle-busting adventure,” she said.
Over the years, residents have tried to get the city to pave the laneway, which is also used by families walking to the Kensington Community School, which backs onto the alley. Nielsen said they have contacted the city multiple times over the years. Her husband received a letter in 2010, saying the alley actually belongs to someone who died more than a century ago.
The lane “is not public. It is private,” the letter read. “According to Land Registry Office records, it has been owned by R.B. Denison since 1861.”
An online article about Robert Brittain Denison on the Kensington Market Historical Society website says that Robert Brittain Denison died in 1900, adding that “he was no longer a landowner” when he died, and the “Kensington area was built up almost solidly from College to Dundas.”
Residents aren’t sure about the laneway’s pavement history, but they are sure about one thing: “It’s kind of a zoo back there,” said 17-year resident Steven Baum. “I don’t think it’s safe.”
Baum said he tried reaching out to the ward’s previous city councillor to have the narrow laneway designated a fire route so cars couldn’t park there, but his efforts were unsuccessful. The laneway remains a potholed and busy thoroughfare for parents, residents and anyone looking for a free parking spot.
Another resident, who wished not to be named for fear of stirring up disputes, said they often can’t even pull into their garage. But the potholes are a greater concern for the resident, who said parents of young schoolchildren should be wary of walking through.
“I’ve seen little ones tripping and falling in the laneway,” she told CTVNews.ca, adding that the neighbours once offered to contribute money to a pool to get the pavement fixed. Some of them have reached out to the Toronto District School Board for help too.
In an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca, spokesperson Ryan Bird said the laneway is not TBSB property.
“We believe it to be a private laneway,” he wrote. “My understanding is that the councillor is looking to have the city expropriate the laneway.”
CTVNews.ca has reached out to Councillor Joe Cressy’s office for comment.
