Security seize bikes

By Eyeopener Staff

If your bike went missing from the Quad last Friday, it probably wasn’t stolen by thieves — it was taken by Ryerson security.

As security officers watched, a maintenance employee used a blowtorch to cut the locks off five bikes parked against the railings off the centre steps from the Quad at East Kerr Hall around 11 a.m. The bikes were ordered removed by Ian Hamilton, Ryerson’s director of campus planning and facilities.

Hamilton said bikes are only allowed in the Quad if they’re locked to the bike racks underneath the archways. “This is the centre-piece of campus,” Hamilton said. “We want to keep it looking as beautiful as possible.”

He said there are new signs warning students any bikes locked elsewhere will be removed.

However, on a visit to the Quad two hours after the bikes were removed, the only signs visible were four tiny, old notices on the iron gates underneath the archways between Gould Street and the Quad. There were no new signs posted at the Gerrard Street archway or near any of the doors leading to Kerr Hall.

But and hour later — shortly after Hamilton’s interview with The Eyeopener, and several hours after the bikes were seized — a Ryerson maintenance employee put up new warning signs close to where the bikes were removed.

Hamilton says he started enforcing the rule in the Quad Oct. 1 because of a tree planting in memory of recently deceased dean of business Stan Heath and the Ryerson Powwow. “We want the Quad to look as best as it can for these very serious events,” he said.

Although Hamilton said the five bikes removed were abandoned, one was reclaimed from the security desk in Jorgenson Hall, within two hours of being removed, said Ryerson security supervisor Chris Beninger. Only two bikes remained in the lost and found Tuesday.

Hamilton says he will consider reimbursing students to replace locks destroyed or repair damage caused to bikes by the removal. Students who wish to make a claim for compensation should contact Hamilton at the office of campus planning and facilities on the 11th floor or Jorgenson Hall.