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Gholizadeh, who is also co-chair of advocacy group Safe Parkside, heard what happened to the camera from a friend on Sunday.

When he checked it out, he said he saw that someone appeared to have taken down the pole the camera was sitting on. 

“Someone had come with a saw ... and had cut the speed camera down at the base,” said Gholizadeh. “Someone put a lot of time and effort into vandalizing that camera.”

Though vandals had hit the Parkside camera previously, it has since been made permanent, making it much tougher to damage than other photo radar locations.

In an email, the city told the Star that it’s up to the device’s vendor to fix the camera, and that the city couldn’t say when the Parkside camera would be restored. 

One of the 75 speed cameras the city has set up in community safety zones across Toronto, the photo radar camera located south of Algonquin Avenue has been a perennial money spinner since it was installed in April 2022.

According to data from the City of Toronto, a total of 63,633 tickets have been issued by the camera between the time it went up to September 2024 (which is the most recent data available).

The Parkside camera once ticketed more drivers than any other automated speed camera in the city, but in recent months, that total has fallen.

In September 2023, Parkside caught 2,696 drivers speeding. In September this year, that number fell to 1,886. This summer, the average number of drivers tickets fell below 2,000, compared with as many as 3,500 during the summer of 2023.

Gholizadeh and his family have lived on Parkside Drive for the past 10 years, and as a father to two kids, “it’s just incredibly uncomfortable,” he said, about the speeding on his street, which is residential on the east side with High Park on the west.

“I worry about the safety of my neighbours, I worry about the safety of my friends.”

The speed camera on Parkside Drive was installed in the months following a chain-reaction multi-vehicle collision in 2021 that left two seniors, Valdemar and Fatima Avila, dead.

“It was our worst nightmare come to life,” said Gholizadeh of the fatal collision. “We knew it was going to happen. The city knew this was going to happen.”

Though the speed limit has since been lowered from 50 km/h to 40, the street’s wide lanes, narrow sidewalks and few traffic lights make it prime for speeding, said Gholizadeh. 

“People drive based on road conditions and the road conditions on Parkside encourage them to drive fast,” he said.

Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park) agrees, calling Parkside Drive one of “the most dangerous streets” in the city.

“It’s designed almost like a highway, but it’s a highway that runs between people’s homes and a city park, which is just ... it’s a crazy way to do things,” he told the Star.

Perks said he’s been working for years to get “interim” safety measures in place, such as lowering the speed limit and getting the speed camera, but “the real safety measure,” is going to be the reconfiguration of Parkside Drive, he said. 

Last week, city council voted to endorse a road safety project that could see protected bike lanes, improved safety at major intersections, designated turning lanes, and new and upgraded TTC stops come to Parkside Drive.

Improvements in driver speed prove that “little moves” like installing speed cameras do help, said Perks. “But it’s street design that gets you real safety on a street like Parkside.”