Junction Triangle

Dupont Bridge gets painted with Railpath lettering

Although the "unofficial" Railpath Opening Parade happened just over one month ago, work still continues on some of the Railpath's final touches.

Recently, the Dupont and Bloor bridges were painted orange, and new "West Toronto Railpath" lettering was added. The wooden bridge decking is now complete, and the railings are installed. If you go past the bridges at night, you will also notice that there is a strip of white LED lighting above the lettering.

Kevin Putnam caught some of the work in action in this series of photos.

We Want Clean Air

There are 7 days left for the public to submit their comments directly to Metrolinx about how they feel about plans for dirty diesel trains and to promote electric trains now. The Deadline is July 30.

Little Lungs

Email update regarding the opening of Campbell park for garbage from Adam Giambrone:

"Dear Residents,

I am writing to inform you that the City of Toronto will be opening a temporary garbage drop-off site at Campbell Park in our community, effective tomorrow, July 16th, 2009.

This past Saturday, the Friends of the West Toronto Railpath organized an opening celebration / parade, in honour of the Railpath's completion this year. Although there is still some work to be done on the path, with an "official" opening happening probably around September of this year, the path is mostly ready for everyone to enjoy.

Have a look below for some photos from the opening parade. A complete gallery of photos taken on this day can be found here, as well as some discussion of the event on the I Bike TO website.

Gathering: Cyclists, walkers, and other neighbours gathered at the Wallace Ave. entrance to the soon-to-be-finished West Toronto Railpath. The "parade" was a celebration of the path's completion this year, and was part of the City of Toronto's "Bike Month" festivities.

On June 6th 2009, local restaurant Yasi's Place hosted their annual outdoor "bike-in" movie night. This event takes place as part of the City of Toronto's Bike Month, bringing out local residents and cyclists from all over the city to watch outdoor films at the corner of Wallace and Campbell.

Local cycling movie collector Martin Reis emceed the evening, introducing a selection of fun short films, followed by a kid-friendly feature-length movie. Yasi's Place provided free popcorn, plus other movie concession snacks (candy, ice cream, drinks, etc.) delivered right to the seats!

It was a great night out. Can't wait until next year.

Beverley Coburn, a personal trainer who runs Active Age Fitness, has been leading "Monday Night Runs" (and walks) in our area since earlier this year. Every week, these runs always lead to new places within a few kilometres of the Dupont and Lansdowne starting point.

These free events are a great way to get some exercise, explore our local neighbourhoods, and meet new people. Give it a try sometime.

The upcoming run will actually focus on the South Junction Triangle neighbourhood area. Here's is the announcement email sent by Beverley:

Subject: South Junction Triangle Trek on June 8th - Monday Night's Run or Walk

Hello Neighbours,

Meet 6:30 p.m at the Chelsea Lofts, 1375 Dupont Street (SE corner of Lansdowne and Dupont) for an easy-paced run or walk. Come alone or bring a friend!

The following email came from Stephanie Ford from councillor Cesar Palacio's office, regarding a meeting about the pile driving noise from the West Toronto Diamond grade separation project:

Dear Residents:
Just wanted to let you know that there is a community meeting on Wednesday June 3rd at 6:30 pm at Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre to discuss the pile driver issue.
Will you please let your network know of this meeting?
Thanks and best wishes,
Stephanie for Councillor Palacio
416 338 - 5241

The Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre is located at 1900 Davenport Road, between Perth Ave. and Symington Ave. (map).

Jack Lakey, writer of the Toronto Star's "Fixer" column reported today on a dangerous pair of sewer grates on Dupont St., north side between Edwin Ave. and Osler Ave. (map).

"Pietro Taleporos emailed us photos of a sunken storm-sewer grate on the north side of Dupont, just west of Edwin Ave., with a utility cover next to it that caught the wheel of his 14-year-old son's bicycle and sent him sprawling."

Also, according to the article, "a small cone and a much larger, orange-and-black traffic pylon were placed over the rough patch", although this was definitely not the case when I rode by at about 8:40 this morning.

You can view the original article on The Star's website here.

This is definitely a dangerous situation for any cyclist who does not see this chewed up section of road in time to ride around it. Let's hope the City fixes this soon.

This section of Dupont St., between Dundas and Lansdowne, is also scheduled to have bicycle lanes installed, possibly sometime this summer. This will connect to the Annette St. bike lanes, and the West Toronto Rail Path. It will be even more critical to have this fixed before then, as the bicycle traffic will likely increase, while cyclists will be directed to ride right through the roughed-up curbside pavement.

A version of this article has been cross-posted to I Bike T.O.

The next round of Open House meetings for Metrolinx's Georgetown South Service Expansion project has been announced. Here are the details of our local meeting:

When: Tuesday, June 9, 2009, 3:00pm – 8:00pm
Where: The Lithuanian House, Hall B, 1573 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON (map).