I know, eh? I imagine that the value of space in the Crossways would increase if they had direct subway access. The businesses in that building would also benefit if people could come right up from the subway and into their stores, rather than having to walk to the intersection and back (or jaywalk). What a difference on windy, rainy, snowy, cold, hot.... days.
Something to de-uglify Dundas West Station would be nice too, especially on the north side of the station which just provides a nice view of dumpsters and idling buses. Some good opportunities for greening and noise-reduction...
My reading of past stories shows that the Crossways has not been very cooperative with the City in terms of providing access to the Subway from the east side. (I am amazed that more people are not run over running across Dundas)I hope that finally with some pressure they will allow a hook up to the TTC and GO. It would be amazing if people could enter an access system on the east side of GO to get all the way to the TTC.
Its is sad that the Giraffe people did not buy another property or two along Bloor so they could have created easier access and helped densify the corner with a cool looking building with lots of new customers for local business an a focus on transit use.
This story says that Ana is part of a group of 6 swing voters on council who are not part of any group (it does suggest that Ana is centre left and mentions that the old City of Toronto voted against Ford). I remain alarmed that the TCHC Auditors Report was hardly read by anybody because it painted a different picture of the Board than Ford did.
I think it is safe to say the statement "Ana has become pretty much entrenched in the Ford camp" is false.
I don't think it makes much sense to be fabricating conspiracy theories over every vote held. This case in particular is so widely misrepresented that it is not reasonable to extrapolate much. The auditor recommended the improvement of financial controls and discipline. The board were not implicated in the report at all. Replacing the board with a single person weakens the governance if anything. The issue council was voting on was how best to govern the organization. Nobody was voting to approve waste. The vote was not a pledge of loyalty to a particular team. And Sue-Ann Levy's headline "GREEDY, PETULANT, SELF-RIGHTEOUS JERKS" says more about the author that anything else.
My interpretation is the first vote shows that Ana was prepared to discuss the issue. The second shows she was not convinced that replacing the board with a single person would address the issues raised by the auditor. Technically this is an accurate assessment. Even if these votes do not reflect your personal preference, they seem reasonable enough.
This should be an interesting study to follow and participate in, as it will potentially have a major impact on the west side of the JT. A few random thoughts that I hope will be addressed:
Better access from Railpath to Bloor GO station. Currently you can only get onto the platform from south end. A gate at the north end of the platform would make alot of sense.
Underground accessible connection between all train platforms, Railpath, and the subway
...or at least some kind of pedestrian access from the east side of the tracks over towards the Subway station
Something to prevent / discourage people using the residential streets as a park'n'ride / kiss'n'ride area. Keep the car traffic away from the side streets.
Bixi stations at Bloor GO and Dundas West subway
Railpath is good north-south bike connection, but what about east-west?
What about development? Makes good sense to increase density around a major node like Bloor / Dundas West.
When you posted the initial forum topic post, it would have showed up right away in the forums list and in the "Active forum topics" bar on the right side of the page, near the bottom. When someone comments on it, that comment will show up in "Recent comments".
Yes...I wish those lists were merged. I want to figure that out sometime.
I wanted to let you all know of a new restaurant that has just opened about 3 weeks ago on Dupont. It is located in the strip mall and is called Sham Shawarma. They sell sharwarma, falafel and the like. Just tried it yesterday and it was great!! Anne at the library recommends it too. Clean environment and a seating area. They have deals on right now for March and April. It is so good to have a decent business in this area to bring in more foot traffic.
ciao,
my name's antonio and wrtite you from italy. I'm searching some pics new and old about Lansdowne boxing gym.
Can you help me?
Thanks a lot
antonio
I also think we should make a distinction between street art v.s. tagging. There are many very talented graffiti artists out there. When they paint a wall you can see good technique in their use of colour and themes being discussed visually. Then you have tagging. Within tagging, there are some good tags and at the same time many tags that merely look like it's done just out of spite or boredom. Random tagging done OVER someone else's mural, to me, slaps of disrespect of another's work. This type of tagging doesn't add to the work but is sprawled on top and looks to me to deface the original work.
There's a difference between adding to the original content of any given graffiti in a positive way and then there is badly executed tags that seem to be done by people with no respect or clue to the art of street graffiti.
This city is totally lacking in street art. In Montreal there are several sculptures and statues in public spaces but in the T.O. there is so many missed opportunities where art can be present. For instance, the entrance to High Park off of Bloor street.
During this Jane's Walk, we will be viewing a pretty wide range of art: Everything from commercial signs and city-sanctioned murals to illegal graffiti, tagging, and other street art. One of the purposes of the walk is to have moving, open discussion about all aspects of what are viewing. I imagine we might get some pretty divergent opinions on some of the artwork, especially the illegal stuff.
I'd love to hear peoples' opinions about our local street art before the walk too. Good, bad, ugly, indifferent?
The timing is interesting too, with recently ramped-up crackdowns on graffiti in Toronto. Who knows for sure, but our local landscape might even change significantly before this walk even happens.
Here are some recent links to other discussions about this graffiti crackdown in Toronto:
Hi. I am just wandering if someone picked up any kittens/cats around Perth & Wallace. I was feeding a few cats there but have disappeared and I am hoping that Toronto Cat rescue has them so I don't have to worry about someone do them some harm. One was an orange cat medium hair. 2 tabby and one with longer hair. there was also a black & white one. If someone can confirm that Toronto animal rescue has them that would be great!!
I worked with my family and one other neighbour to do the lane between Symington and Campbell on the south part. We also had low interest. I hope someone can step up to do the lane between Rankin and Campbell south of Wallace. It is disgusting. There is part of a television, lots of dog poop and at one point there was about 50 dvd's thrown all over the place. We will also be doing the community garden at Symington and Rankin and will need volunteers for weeding and planting come spring. There are only a handful of people involved at this stage and the lot is 210 feet long. A substantial amount of space to have to weed. We try to get out most Sunday mornings at about 10:00 am and would appreciate the help.
Good for you Craig! We attempted to organize something along Perth last year, and got very little response. Basically us, a brand new neighbour to the south (they actually hadn't even moved in yet) and another to the north. I was disappointed! But we did pick up a considerable amount of garbage. We'll be out there again this year, but I'm not going to put my organizing hat on this time.
I am not involved in the B&G club one way or the other, but I have read some of the posts on her purely out of curiosity.
Ms. Payne, with due respect, my personal observation and opinion is that you should not be posting on behalf of the B&G club on this or any other board. Your posts are extremely unprofessional in tone given you are attempting to speak as the spokesperson of a local organization affiliated with a national, charitable organization. I would respectfully suggest that the the B&G communicate transparently with its public through "official" channels and official spokesperson, rather than a casual commentary on a message board. Your attempts to impart information and reply to the other posters come across as personal and sarcastic. It's a public relations nightmare for the B&G club organization, which I'm sure is not your intention given you volunteer your time there. Best of luck with the club.
We organised a great clean up on and around Edwin Avenue - and I know there were other crews around the neightbourhood that had a very good turnout as well.
Last year we roganised things that each street cleanup was organised by a crew captain of sorts - who is interested in doing this again for their street.
I had a total of 14 bags last year with all the help we had - who else wants to be a part of it? Lots of fun, and a great way to meet neighbours and make a positive, communitiy contribution. Reply here if interested...
I think the opening footage was pretty dramatic. I couldn't tell quite what was happening but the electromagnet and crane seemed to be tearing the rail from its moorings Almost exciting for sure. Thanks fot the peek into life on the industrial front.
I'm Vic Gedris. By using quotes around "Vic" are you trying to accuse me of a fake name? I'm the guy who runs this website, the moderator, etc. If you have any questions or concerns about how this website is run, feel free to contact me directly, or phone me.
For what it's worth, I've been trying to stay out of this whole controversy as I have absolutely nothing to do with the club, so I'm not sure why you're attacking me here more than a month after I posted that last message. Basically all I said is that there were some unanswered questions, which after all this time are STILL unanswered.
I'm glad that some details of this whole controversy are slowly coming out, and I hope it all comes to a positive conclusion. But everyone, please lay off of the attacks on other people.
Also, the B&G Club in the past has had a positive relationship with this website. Maybe Justin hasn't posted here directly, but he's been in contact and has passed on news items, photos, etc. Example.... Other B&G Club members, board members, etc. have been in touch over the years too. But now that this whole thing has blown up, suddenly it's "shoot the messenger" time.
I'm not interested in fighting with anyone, and I'd be happy to keep posting news from any local neighbourhood organization.
There are young trees along there but I agree since McDonalds moved in that parking lot has become a dump.
I know, eh? I imagine that the value of space in the Crossways would increase if they had direct subway access. The businesses in that building would also benefit if people could come right up from the subway and into their stores, rather than having to walk to the intersection and back (or jaywalk). What a difference on windy, rainy, snowy, cold, hot.... days.
Something to de-uglify Dundas West Station would be nice too, especially on the north side of the station which just provides a nice view of dumpsters and idling buses. Some good opportunities for greening and noise-reduction...
-Vic
My reading of past stories shows that the Crossways has not been very cooperative with the City in terms of providing access to the Subway from the east side. (I am amazed that more people are not run over running across Dundas)I hope that finally with some pressure they will allow a hook up to the TTC and GO. It would be amazing if people could enter an access system on the east side of GO to get all the way to the TTC.
Its is sad that the Giraffe people did not buy another property or two along Bloor so they could have created easier access and helped densify the corner with a cool looking building with lots of new customers for local business an a focus on transit use.
Well put Warren. There is also a story here:
http://spacingtoronto.ca/2011/03/14/lorinc-the-gang-of-six-swing-votes/
This story says that Ana is part of a group of 6 swing voters on council who are not part of any group (it does suggest that Ana is centre left and mentions that the old City of Toronto voted against Ford). I remain alarmed that the TCHC Auditors Report was hardly read by anybody because it painted a different picture of the Board than Ford did.
For what it is worth, it looks like Ana voted against the motion to remove the board members.
http://www.insidetoronto.com/news/cityhall/article/965348--tchc-board-wi...
I think it is safe to say the statement "Ana has become pretty much entrenched in the Ford camp" is false.
I don't think it makes much sense to be fabricating conspiracy theories over every vote held. This case in particular is so widely misrepresented that it is not reasonable to extrapolate much. The auditor recommended the improvement of financial controls and discipline. The board were not implicated in the report at all. Replacing the board with a single person weakens the governance if anything. The issue council was voting on was how best to govern the organization. Nobody was voting to approve waste. The vote was not a pledge of loyalty to a particular team. And Sue-Ann Levy's headline "GREEDY, PETULANT, SELF-RIGHTEOUS JERKS" says more about the author that anything else.
My interpretation is the first vote shows that Ana was prepared to discuss the issue. The second shows she was not convinced that replacing the board with a single person would address the issues raised by the auditor. Technically this is an accurate assessment. Even if these votes do not reflect your personal preference, they seem reasonable enough.
This should be an interesting study to follow and participate in, as it will potentially have a major impact on the west side of the JT. A few random thoughts that I hope will be addressed:
A few people have mentioned to me that this place is really good. I definitely want to check it out sometime soon.
Living in Ottawa, shawarma was always within sight, so I'm happy to have more options close to home again. :)
Hi Ken,
When you posted the initial forum topic post, it would have showed up right away in the forums list and in the "Active forum topics" bar on the right side of the page, near the bottom. When someone comments on it, that comment will show up in "Recent comments".
Yes...I wish those lists were merged. I want to figure that out sometime.
I wanted to let you all know of a new restaurant that has just opened about 3 weeks ago on Dupont. It is located in the strip mall and is called Sham Shawarma. They sell sharwarma, falafel and the like. Just tried it yesterday and it was great!! Anne at the library recommends it too. Clean environment and a seating area. They have deals on right now for March and April. It is so good to have a decent business in this area to bring in more foot traffic.
ciao,
my name's antonio and wrtite you from italy. I'm searching some pics new and old about Lansdowne boxing gym.
Can you help me?
Thanks a lot
antonio
I also think we should make a distinction between street art v.s. tagging. There are many very talented graffiti artists out there. When they paint a wall you can see good technique in their use of colour and themes being discussed visually. Then you have tagging. Within tagging, there are some good tags and at the same time many tags that merely look like it's done just out of spite or boredom. Random tagging done OVER someone else's mural, to me, slaps of disrespect of another's work. This type of tagging doesn't add to the work but is sprawled on top and looks to me to deface the original work.
There's a difference between adding to the original content of any given graffiti in a positive way and then there is badly executed tags that seem to be done by people with no respect or clue to the art of street graffiti.
My two cents. :)
... after I post that suddenly I see my posting... ?
Is there a built in delay?
It seems even non-objectionable content is being censored.
(I had posted about Ana Bailao's voting performance at city council)
I removed an anonymous comment that included a personal attack on the original poster.
Reminder to read this site's Code of Conduct.
This city is totally lacking in street art. In Montreal there are several sculptures and statues in public spaces but in the T.O. there is so many missed opportunities where art can be present. For instance, the entrance to High Park off of Bloor street.
"Street art is a necessary means of expression for all ages & an essential dialogue between public & private space. And it always will be."
During this Jane's Walk, we will be viewing a pretty wide range of art: Everything from commercial signs and city-sanctioned murals to illegal graffiti, tagging, and other street art. One of the purposes of the walk is to have moving, open discussion about all aspects of what are viewing. I imagine we might get some pretty divergent opinions on some of the artwork, especially the illegal stuff.
I'd love to hear peoples' opinions about our local street art before the walk too. Good, bad, ugly, indifferent?
The timing is interesting too, with recently ramped-up crackdowns on graffiti in Toronto. Who knows for sure, but our local landscape might even change significantly before this walk even happens.
Here are some recent links to other discussions about this graffiti crackdown in Toronto:
What are your thoughts?
Hi. I am just wandering if someone picked up any kittens/cats around Perth & Wallace. I was feeding a few cats there but have disappeared and I am hoping that Toronto Cat rescue has them so I don't have to worry about someone do them some harm. One was an orange cat medium hair. 2 tabby and one with longer hair. there was also a black & white one. If someone can confirm that Toronto animal rescue has them that would be great!!
I worked with my family and one other neighbour to do the lane between Symington and Campbell on the south part. We also had low interest. I hope someone can step up to do the lane between Rankin and Campbell south of Wallace. It is disgusting. There is part of a television, lots of dog poop and at one point there was about 50 dvd's thrown all over the place. We will also be doing the community garden at Symington and Rankin and will need volunteers for weeding and planting come spring. There are only a handful of people involved at this stage and the lot is 210 feet long. A substantial amount of space to have to weed. We try to get out most Sunday mornings at about 10:00 am and would appreciate the help.
Good for you Craig! We attempted to organize something along Perth last year, and got very little response. Basically us, a brand new neighbour to the south (they actually hadn't even moved in yet) and another to the north. I was disappointed! But we did pick up a considerable amount of garbage. We'll be out there again this year, but I'm not going to put my organizing hat on this time.
I apologize - the first sentence should have read on "here" rather than on "her. Kind regards.
I am not involved in the B&G club one way or the other, but I have read some of the posts on her purely out of curiosity.
Ms. Payne, with due respect, my personal observation and opinion is that you should not be posting on behalf of the B&G club on this or any other board. Your posts are extremely unprofessional in tone given you are attempting to speak as the spokesperson of a local organization affiliated with a national, charitable organization. I would respectfully suggest that the the B&G communicate transparently with its public through "official" channels and official spokesperson, rather than a casual commentary on a message board. Your attempts to impart information and reply to the other posters come across as personal and sarcastic. It's a public relations nightmare for the B&G club organization, which I'm sure is not your intention given you volunteer your time there. Best of luck with the club.
We organised a great clean up on and around Edwin Avenue - and I know there were other crews around the neightbourhood that had a very good turnout as well.
Last year we roganised things that each street cleanup was organised by a crew captain of sorts - who is interested in doing this again for their street.
I had a total of 14 bags last year with all the help we had - who else wants to be a part of it? Lots of fun, and a great way to meet neighbours and make a positive, communitiy contribution. Reply here if interested...
- Craig
I think the opening footage was pretty dramatic. I couldn't tell quite what was happening but the electromagnet and crane seemed to be tearing the rail from its moorings Almost exciting for sure. Thanks fot the peek into life on the industrial front.
Vivian,
I'm Vic Gedris. By using quotes around "Vic" are you trying to accuse me of a fake name? I'm the guy who runs this website, the moderator, etc. If you have any questions or concerns about how this website is run, feel free to contact me directly, or phone me.
For what it's worth, I've been trying to stay out of this whole controversy as I have absolutely nothing to do with the club, so I'm not sure why you're attacking me here more than a month after I posted that last message. Basically all I said is that there were some unanswered questions, which after all this time are STILL unanswered.
I'm glad that some details of this whole controversy are slowly coming out, and I hope it all comes to a positive conclusion. But everyone, please lay off of the attacks on other people.
Also, the B&G Club in the past has had a positive relationship with this website. Maybe Justin hasn't posted here directly, but he's been in contact and has passed on news items, photos, etc. Example.... Other B&G Club members, board members, etc. have been in touch over the years too. But now that this whole thing has blown up, suddenly it's "shoot the messenger" time.
I'm not interested in fighting with anyone, and I'd be happy to keep posting news from any local neighbourhood organization.
Cheers,
Vic