Wednesday's prayer requests - Thorncliffe cross-walk

The Toronto Star ran an article on Thorncliffe's busy cross-walk yesterday - here. While the issue itself is no shock to those of us who live here, notice the people who are more frequently crossing the street and what this tells you about the community and it's future.

Few places in Toronto are more densely populated than Thorncliffe Park, where dozens of highrise apartment buildings line Thorncliffe Park Blvd.

A focal point for residents is the Jenner Jean-Marie Community Centre, at 48 Thorncliffe Park Dr., which also has a branch of the Toronto Public Library in it. People are coming and going all the time.

To get back and forth across the street, there's a pedestrian crosswalk right in front of the community centre's main entrance that slows traffic on the heavily travelled street enough to allow people to safely get to the other side.

Helena Guan, who lives in the area, emailed to say the flashing yellow lights above the crosswalk – which are supposed to switch on when a pedestrian pushes the activation button on the posts at either end – have been on the blink for a month or so....

We watched for about 20 minutes yesterday and counted upwards of 100 people using the crosswalk – mostly kids and women pushing strollers – while many others ignored it and crossed wherever it was handy