Joe Astrella

Joe is a long-time resident of the community who moved into his home on Grandravine Drive in May 1967. As of this interview in 2012, Joe and his wife live in their home on Grandravine and Joe continues to volunteer in his community.

Tell me about when you moved into the area.

We moved into the area in May 1967. I moved from Lawrence and Keele. That was my first home we bought over here. I was born in Italy and I was eighteen years old when I came over here – 55 years ago on the 17^th of February. I lived at Lawrence and Keele for eight years then moved here.

Originally when I came from Italy, I lived on Oakwood and St. Clair temporarily until we bought the house then the trend was to move north to the North West spot in this Jane and Finch area or Keele and Finch, whatever you want to call it. It was a desirable area. I was working for a company making windows and I saw this area being developed. While I was supervising the work over here, I got attracted to this area here. This used to be a forest which eventually (you know there was a park over here – still over here) and eventually it’s been developed. This was the best area of the time.

Finch Avenue was maybe paved but Keele Street from Wilson up to Sheppard wasn’t paved. Woodbridge was just starting up. I was an old village which construction took over and eventually it is built to what it is now in Vaughan.

When I bought this house, I was in my late twenties. We had the first born and then my wife was expecting the second one, our daughter Dina. We had my parents with us and the bungalow we had become small. We wanted to build a little bigger family and eventually we had three children. Two of my children were born here and Rocky was born at North Western Hospital which was near the first home we had. The reason we moved over here, this is a back split – five bedrooms and made with an in-law suite and that was the reason, we had more space.

At that time, I was a foreman in a window company and we supplied windows for this area. Most houses of this area were built by Greenwin and there were other contractors who took over like the El Doratos. But the main one was built by Greenwin Construction.

What was the community like when you came here?

Most of the neighbours that were here, they are still here with a few changes in time due to the fact that some passed away and so on. I liked a mixed community. I like to live with different ethnic groups of people and that’s been always my desire. It’s not that common in the Italian community but common with me because I wanted, being young, I wanted to connect with other people. Although I had a very active work life, I was leaving early morning and coming back here late but the area was so quiet being that Grandravine was a closed street at Ollerton. It was a very good quiet atmosphere over here. The people, they were very receptive to coming over here and it’s been always - we’re still talking to each other. There are people of Jewish descent, there are Europeans like German, Italian, and Austrian, someone from Antigonish (my next door neighbour) the other side was a Canadian family – an air force pilot.

Jane and Finch at one time that I can remember, it was developing in a major way with all those buildings over there. There were just placed over there, one next to the other one. They even had insufficient parking space but anyway, this was where the problem starts. There was no community activity or recreation and so on and it became a little bit of a ghetto for some communities and the problem started then. There were street gangs and things like that and people, they stayed in their own little group and that’s when the problem starts. I remember there was one time where this was the City of North York and that the band aid solution to the problem was that the municipality opened a hot line and if you see anything wrong, you just call from anywhere. But that wasn’t the solution to the problem. The other thing that they’d done, on the other side over here, the road was closed but on the other side of the Black Creek, they built those town homes (Yorkwoods) just like one standing one on top of the other one for low-income people. Things like that, they were built by a builder – Frank Rodaro and from day one it’s been a problem. There have been fights and set a fire in the garage, things like that. This is the problem. It came by making it all one kind. The other thing I have always been against in any community, you want to build affordable homes but make sure whoever gets it, owns it…you know what I mean? Once you own the property, the responsibility is different. You don’t treat it like it is something that has been given to you and you do what you want with it. That’s my philosophy. That’s the only thing I see as a revival to this area that eventually, the buildings and townhouses, they are over forty-five years old, they are going to be knocked down and made into affordable properties and that’s how the whole area is going to change. That’s my vision. I don’t know how other people see it. If I’m wrong, you correct me but, I think if you make the people responsible, it’s not you give them the fish, you give them the fishing line and let them go and get it. That’s the way I see it. I been, I think a reasonable business man all my life, and the only way I can see to get to people to integrate in an area and do constructive work is by making them participate in a direct way in their life and ownership is what makes you responsible, you know. I still have hope. You can see what happened in the area like Regent Park. There is always hope that things can be revitalized. Jane and Finch, the thing that I like are when our representatives, they call it the University Heights. I like that because that gives them – you know everything that happens even if it happens at Sheppard and Jane – is always Jane and Finch. If it happens at Keele and Finch, it’s still Jane and Finch. You know what I mean - and it doesn’t give any justice to the area. People are there and if there is a problem, they can always be re-educated, you know.

I believe Italians were largely the first homeowners in the area – is that true?

I don’t know but there were many. Not only were they the builders but they made here, their residence. They built here and they stayed here. Eventually and later on they moved to Woodbridge in Vaughan but originally, they were here. There was many of them that were in the building trade, in the plumbing or electrical supply but they were here. They were custom built to their liking and for the time, they were very futuristic you know. The houses still look beautiful today. So they give that kind of flavour of difference.

At the time when I moved over here, I was in management for other companies. I was always at work. After I sold my company, I was in business for about twenty years. I started my own company in my forties after working over twenty years for other people and I learned. The other thing that I did that turned to be positive, I went for thirteen years to night school and I learned things about business and about trades. At the beginning when I come here from Italy, I had no specific trade but I took all kinds of courses and technical courses and so on and eventually when I had my business, everything helped me. Besides, the skill that I learned with companies was by working in management. When I went into business, I was later in my years, I was successful from year one because of the experience I acquired. The rest, at one point in my life when I was in business, I had a heart attack and that put the slow down and I really concentrated on getting out of my business and retiring on the advice of my doctor. He said one is a warning, another one is game over. But then, since I retired, I was always involved in the community.

As a matter of fact, you see the Church at St. Wilfred? I was on the committee with my neighbours, a Canadian from Nova Scotia and we were involved in getting the church built. I was on many committees - the building committee, the parish council and things like that. I figure that the area needed a church because the only place where you could go to worship was in the school like Elia and C.W. Jefferies and so on in the gym. To me, that was disgraceful. The community needs a place, not that I’m the guy who wanted the church badly but the community needed it from many events like christenings, weddings and funerals and things like that. The community needed an institution so I made sure that I participated. St. Wilfred’s was one of the first Catholic Churches built here.

Tell me about Humber River Regional Hospital.

They were building it after I moved here. I was working for a company that supplied the windows and I was checking on the progress of the work and everything else. The company that built it was Ellis Don which is a reputable company. This hospital I seen being built, it was built the proper way, regardless what people say. It was built the old way with poured cement and everything – built solid with blocks and bricks and re-enforced concrete. I don’t see why the hospital that’s over forty years old has to be scrapped when it was built with one thing in mind. You can verify that if you get into the elevators, they still have the sign of ten floors for future expansion which never took place and so something was supposed to happen about ten years ago – expand the hospital and everything was approved. We had the open house meeting in about 1998 at Jefferies and the architects were showing the proposed plans with the artist concept and everything was good. Then our local politicians, they sponsor that then all of a sudden, after they printed beautiful brochures with the cost of $3,000 to $4,000, beautiful and they shared them around and then all of a sudden, it blew out of the dark. If it isn’t politics, I didn’t know what it was. If it isn’t politics, you tell me what it is. I don’t like to get into it because at my age, I couldn’t care less about politics anymore. The only thing I do care about is the community. The hospital assisted me well when I had my heart attack. I had it right in the hospital and the reason I’m still alive is because they acted promptly and I had a few write ups in the magazine, the one with the Humber River Regional Hospital Foundation. So, you know, plus over the years, I participated in a large fundraising to the business companies. If you recall at the time, there was the late Al Palladini and we organized pasta nights, fundraising for the MRI machine in the year 2000 and we raised 2.2 million dollars and the machine is still there. For a while, it was put to rest because politics say that the building is not adequate for this high technology but they are still using it today. So how come, and being that I was doing the same thing that I was in my other home (Keele and Lawrence), I saw the destiny of the North Western Hospital after they made the expansion, I think it’s called the West Wing, and they equipped it with the state of the art technology of the time which is still there, covered up, then they went and the Provincial government closed it down. I have seen many hospitals suffer. When I lived over here and the other hospital was built – the Branson Hospital was the place where I had help for my parents and children and at the time was run by the Seventh Day Adventist. The hospital was the best that we had in the area. All of a sudden, that was going and to me, what really bothers me is the society that builds something then closes it up.

The community has participated in a big way – funding the hospital. At the time that I know, the hospital had 25 – 30 million in the bank and if it’s a paying public hospital and it’s active and functioning, why destroy it? They are building a new hospital near Canada’s Wonderland near Major McKenzie. Its approved and they have funds, they have collected in access of 110 million or something like that, the site has already retained and as far as I can see, it’s a go and the one over here, it’s a go here to and if they leave our little hospital alone, just the way it is cause I see, once I see the loan has been taken off, like the other hospital, it doesn’t take much to clean up what already exists which is already built and paid for. It takes very little maintenance to rehabilitate, if you look at some painting, updates and so on.

The people, they go where they are used to, okay? I go there every time I have something, regardless of the way the hospital has been painted - that is overcrowded, long wait list and so on; it’s no true at all. When I go there I get what I need done because the staff attend to me and they know me for years and believe it or not, we have the best doctors over here close to retirement but there is a lot of valid good doctors that I don’t think you are going to find right away in a new hospital because it’s going to take time. I’m seventy-three years old now. By the time it’s built, by the time the hospital is sufficient to what it should be, we’re looking at a decade which in my life time it means a lot. There are a lot of people that depend on it in this area and I know and as President of the Grandravine Homeowners Association for eighteen years, I’m the one who put a big support to the hospital. We funded this hospital through the years and I don‘t see why, downtown, they can have hospitals that are seventy to one hundred years old and they been made to the state of the art. I don’t see why this hospital here, being that is going to reduced use to the immediate community over here, I don’t see why this hospital can’t be efficient because they have a good urology department, they have a good orthopaedic department, they have a good lot of things plus, I had on the fourth floor assistance with my heart condition over there, like nobody ever did. I don’t think I would have had better service downtown.

There are lots of issues today. What were the issues back then?

When the problem started to rise after they opened the road, over 35 years ago (when they built Northwood Community Centre), the first issue we had over here was we organized a neighbourhood watch and as far as I can see, regardless of what the area has been described as over here, thank God we never had any break-ins or anything like that or nobody assaulted or killed in the immediate homes as has happened on the street on the corner of Sentinel and Grandravine. They assaulted a woman or something like that and stole her purse and stuff like that but over here, per say, we are as safe as we can be anywhere in Toronto because of our neighbourhood quality that we stick together and we are all watchful of each other.

The area problems were poor planning; it was concentrating people in one area, throwing them there and leaving them. They waking up slowly and you can see when you come down what they have created whether the police force, now it’s a little bit better – look of the Driftwood area, they put some gardens there, they have some get-togethers, they do BBQ’s over there as a community and so on and the police participate in the events and but this is after many crimes, you know what I mean? If you look at it, they tried to make it look a lot better; they put trees and so on. The only thing that I regret are politicians – they over looked the situation, including the one we had with Mel Lastman. He came up with a Band-Aid solution to the problem by putting in a hot-line that you can call at any time. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was when they give permits to congest the area that way, that’s their problem – that you don’t just choke an area and then expect a miracle you know what’s going to happen, you see you put in a lower type of community within an established community but you got to do it in a proper way and its fine. I’m not prejudice about anybody. I had people of all ethnic groups working for me and I got along with everyone. I do get along with everybody and I don’t reject anybody so nobody rejects me. I mean, you know, I got along fine with everybody.

What else has the Grandravine Ratepayer Association done?

Over here, you remember the traffic was disgraceful, you know. The people they just go running down the street and we had three or four years of work you know to establish and reduce the traffic speed that is now. I came with the solution that they could put speed humps, not speed bumps but humps which they have in other communities. Speed bumps is very sharp and speed humps has a centre with bricks or interlock bricks and more than anything else it’s a warning, you know and makes you aware of the things like that and the speed. The other thing I pushed for, you remember they had these speed zones – local (I don’t know what it’s called it’s been so long) but if you have that, the fines they are great. You know what I mean, they are almost double. Community speed zones, they came up with them. It was an expensive idea but doing a lot of work here. They spent about $250,000 to $260,000 where they could have done with speed humps for a fraction of the cost, you know. Politicians are always, they have always had their own way. The other thing too, the thing that I regret is that when we were under the city of North York, things they were managed a lot better and Jane and Finch would have done a lot better under North York. The City of Toronto got shoved down our throats by the ex-government, Mike Harris and his government. Over here, we had the referendum and people, they voted no but then they just shoved it down our throat and that’s the reality of where we are now. We are in an ugly, dirty, mis-served city – period.

I’ll tell you, that when it was supposed to become the City of Toronto, the mega city, if you recall, Mel Lastman went to rebuild Grandravine Arena, he rebuilt this road, he made some minor excess pads to the park where there has been a person killed by an accident there and so on. He built the library theatre over here; he gave the money over here. There was three – four million they were spending just before they went to the rest of the city. It would have been squandered down anyways. He even paved the road over here.

I go back to the time when there was Bob Yuill over here, remember? He was the city councillor. Fred Young was the MPP for the NDP and a good man. He used to walk the street on foot all the time and he used to say hi to all his supporters and see if they had any issues and things like that. The riding was changed during Mike Harris time and Maria Augimeri was the councillor and then Peter LiPreti was the councillor here in this area. Maria Augimeri was representing this ward over here before the riding was changed. I not only supported her but she did work on little projects we had at the time.

What did the community do to celebrate?

What did the community do? I’ll tell you. There was a Centennial (1975) over here and they put barricades on this street and the streets were open with tables serving food, playing music, celebrating the centennial. The residents organized everything and everybody set up a table and everybody was welcome with coffee, sandwiches and music. There have always been celebrations here and at Downsview Park - Canada Day and so on. The new plans on Downsview Park are going to have another 25 – 30,000 people – lots of construction. Going back to the hospital, the new location is going to be a bad spot and there is going to be a lot of hidden expenses like the widening of the road. They are also going to widen the highway 401 bridge, I went to some of the meetings.

Consequently, if they widen the bridge, they’re going to widen the road, they’re going to make access both from Wilson and Keele and have this and that, as far as I can see. In structure wise, this is a lot better spot where we are. If you really look at it we have three old age homes, we have three or four hotels, a police station, we have access in and out of Hwy. 400 and consequently through 401. As far as I’m concerned, for the community, it is a better spot over here than what they’re going to have to create in the new place. Not only that, I don’t know if people have experienced the rush hour of Keele and Wilson over there, people over there, they say to get to Bathurst and Wilson, it takes three quarters of an hour in the morning. Can you imagine when you get all the extra load from the hospital? Over here, we have three medical buildings and there is very valid doctors and valid experience in there. I don’t know how you can replace that. I mean, in the state of the art, they talk about this high quality building that is infection proof and things like that, robotizing - I don’t know what they’re going to do. Over here, for what it is, they don’t have a full cardiac unit, they have an ICU and things like that and then they can always transfer you to another hospital. But over there, from what I understand, they won’t even have that. What is the state of the art about what?

Tell me about your fondest memories?

From when I moved here, there was lots of youth. As we aged, there have been a lot of retirees but slowly there are always a lot of families coming, like my next door neighbour who came over here some twenty years ago with little children and now they are adults. There are other repeats of things like that so there is youth eventually coming into the area which is okay. It was extremely peaceful and everything else. It had all the facilities that we needed before. We had over here a bakery, you remember Nino D’Versa on Keele Street. We had the Ferlisi Brothers, an Italian food store and that was a novelty. There was an IGA store at Sheppard which is gone. A lot of things have been closed over here. That quick run between Sheppard and Steeles hasn’t been a good one and is even proven today. They built many of those little shopping malls across from the hospital but they are not active. This is a running situation and when people are on the run, they don’t bother to stop, they just keep going to the big department stores and there has been many turn over, you know of companies even where the funeral home is now. Before, there were three or four restaurants. Keele Street is a runway. Jane Street, on the side towards Norfinch, there is a lot of places that could be busier due to the fact, but can you imagine when they move the hospital out of there, when they talk about Jane Finch revival, they’re talking about survival then. If it’s going to survive or not and that’s the only reason that I say, it’s there and what’s there, it provides jobs. Those hotels, they give jobs to cleaning persons, to attendants, and its work. Now, you take away the hospital, right across from the hospital, next to the medical building, there is an old age home in front of it, there is the other one, Leisure World. There are old people and they need immediate attention. How closer to that can you be? I mean, vision for state of the art things, it fine, but let’s live with the reality that lets make do with what we have. I think for me to go from here, to Wilson and Keele and have the same type of response, I think it’s going to take a long time. You can go there any time during the day or the night. You can go to the ER, yes, they treat you case by case and if your case is not severe, you wait but if your case is urgent, they look after you right away.

So, what is the big problem? The only problem is over-population, over-frequency of people using the facility. Now, you know what kind of buffer this is going to be by the time the new hospital is established? At least we have something that works leave it and when they say we should concentrate on geriatrics, you should leave the hospital alone, the way it is because it’s working. We have terrific department heads over there okay. In the Ortho department, there is one second to none, in the urology department; there is one doctor who is second to none. I know the people and I mean what better can you get. Remember for the dialysis and stuff like that, money was collected and everything else, I mean, why throw away hard earned money. I experienced what happened at the North Western Hospital which is still under the umbrella but it’s nothing else but a walk-in clinic. Now do you need such a big place for a walk-in clinic? You can put two homes together. You got the same thing. You know, you leave it to our politicians, and they complain, we get taxed three – four times in the course of the year and why, why when things are there, compared to the other areas, compared to like the United States, we have nothing to complain about. So if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!