Happy 50th birthday, dear SERRA

The South Eglinton Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association had the happiest of birthday celebrations on April 23 when more than 100 people showed up for its 50th annual general meeting at Manor Road United Church. After the cake, the keynote speeches and orders of business were done, the association could boast 137 members, 41 of them new.

“It was the best meeting we’ve had in years,” president Geoffrey Jones said afterward. “We had a completely full hall, lots of enthusiasm, and everyone seemed to care.”

Only 57 turned out for last year’s AGM, and SERRA had only 62 members.

Jones said he isn’t surprised by the sudden increase in membership, since “a fundamental transformation” is being seen in the neighbourhood now, just as it was 50 years ago when a line of new apartment buildings began to appear along Davisville Avenue.

“Now we’re seeing the same sort of thing we had 50 years ago — a fundamental transformation with all these big towers going up at Yonge-Eglinton,” he said.

Topics of discussion at this year’s meeting included not just new towers, but the preponderance of tall homes being constructed in nearby neighbourhoods, and the working groups SERRA is organizing to address both.

“I think back in the 1970s, people figured they were more in control of what’s happening in development,” Jones said. “Nowadays, people may figure that they’re less in control.”

But SERRA, he said, “can change things.”