Junction Triangle

Here are a few links to local news items that appeared online in the last few weeks:

• Review of Angel's Cafe, BlogTO, April 21 2011.
• Sporting Goods: Backyard Axe Throwing League, Torontoist, April 25 2011.
• Spotted: Eight Year Old Activism (Graffiti in the Junction Triangle), Torontoist, April 26 2011.

Davenport election news and links (Note: Further election news, links, and discussions are at this link):

• Davenport: Insidetoronto.com's Q and A of the riding's top contenders, The Villager / Inside Toronto, April 14 2011.
• Davenport candidates dish affordable housing and diesel trains, The Villager / Inside Toronto, April 21 2011.
• 2011 Federal Election: Survey of Davenport Candidates, Junctiontriangle.ca, April 22 2011.
• Video: 2011 Davenport Federal Election Candidates at DIGIN, DIGIN Blog, April 23 2011.
• Election vandalism spreads, senior Liberals targeted, Toronto Star, April 24 2011.
• Video: Davenport Federal All-Candidates Meeting, Bloordale Press, April 24 2011.
• Davenport could flip orange after 49 years, Toronto Star, April 25 2011.
• Road map to a potential NDP breakthrough, National Post, April 26 2011.

Excerpt from Blog T.O.:

Angel's Cafe is a little family-run coffee shop in the heart of the Junction Triangle. Angel works as a programmer by day and Matilda is a paralegal. The couple runs the small coffee shop, which is attached to the home they share with their two kids, after they come home from work and keep it open until 10 p.m. I was tired just listening to Matilda describe her day, but she seemed happy and committed to keeping the community hub going.

"When you don't have family here, you have to look to your community. That's why this is so important."

Here are a few links to local news items that appeared online in the last few weeks:

• Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club refocusing energies on serving youth, The Villager / Inside Toronto, February 15, 2011 (Note: Discussions are here).
• $27,500 auto break-in spree nets suspect 75 charges, Toronto Star, February 18, 2011.
• Man faces string of charges in thefts from 60 vehicles, CTV News, February 18, 2011.
• Worst intersections: Georgetown rail corridor, Globe & Mail, February 20, 2011
• The Junction Triangle: A few pointers, EYE Weekly, February 22, 2011.
• Axe throwing league looking for members, The Villager / Inside Toronto, February 26, 2011.
• Ontario sees surge in gaming industry, Toronto Star, March 4, 2011.

According to an article in The Villager:

Dodgeball players in Toronto have banded together in an attempt to set a new Guinness World Record while raising funds for those stricken with HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The brainchild of Bloordale area resident Helder Brum, 20 dodgeball players from across the city are seeking to break the Guinness World Record for the longest game of dodgeball by playing for 36 consecutive hours. They'll attempt to break the current 24-hour record while raising $6,000 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation's A Dare to Remember campaign.

This record-breaking dodgeball game will be held at the Just 4 Fun Sporting Club, at 213 Sterling Rd. (in the former Moloney Electric building) starting on Friday January 7th at 10:00PM. Opening ceremony is at 9:00PM.

Sounds like fun, and for a good cause. Read the Villager article for more information.

Toronto Star Neighbourhood Map, v4.1

There has been a long-standing error on Google Maps where the Junction Triangle has been labeled as "Silverthorn". We've discussed this ad-nauseum many times on this site and during the Fuzzy Boundaries neighbourhood naming project. Several people have submitted corrections to Google, but without any success in getting the name changed. The "Silverthorn" label has even spread into other people's maps because of this error.

BlogTO posted an article today about this neighbourhood naming error, and they discuss how it might actually be an intentional "trap" to catch copyright infringements.

From the BlogTO article:

There's a new book being released tomorrow: Stroll, by Shawn Micallef. You may recognize Shawn's name, as he is an editor for Spacing magazine, a columnist for Eye Weekly, curator of the Murmur public art project (we have some installations nearby in The Junction), and much more. It seems like Shawn is always walking around the city, observing things, and writing about them. So it's quite fitting that his new book is a collection of various walks around Toronto.

Today, Torontoist features an interview with Shawn Micallef about Stroll. Our neighbourhood and the recent Fuzzy Boundaries naming project are mentioned:

Is Toronto particularly susceptible to that over-familiarization with the places that we spend our time because of the way that neighbourhoods here have such strong identities? They’re often quite small, too. It seems that every kilometre on Bloor, for example, the street signs tell you that you’re in a different village.

We do tend towards a kind of neighbourhood parochialism. Which is good. It’s good to have all of the services that you need nearby and to not need to commute across the city or in from the suburbs to get the things that you need.

In Toronto, we have these archetypal, wonderful neighbourhoods like the Annex, Little Italy, Kensington Market: these spaces of exceptional urbanism. Sometimes, though, the most interesting places are the neighbourhoods without a name, the in-between places. A neighbourhood in Toronto recently decided to give themselves the name Junction Triangle. It’s like they’re saying, "We’re not in-between anymore. Now we’re here." There’s still an in-between somewhere, but it got a little smaller.

West Toronto Railpath: The bridge over Bloor Street, Jane's Walk 2010

Today's Globe & Mail has an article about the possible future extension of the West Toronto Railpath.

A few quotes from the article:

A completed trail “would be amazing,” said Daniel Egan, manager of the city’s cycling infrastructure and programs. “What’s in place now doesn’t really go anywhere, but you can get a sense of what’s possible. ... You don’t need much imagination to understand how important it could be.”

But the completion of the trail into downtown is likely several years off, and still faces significant design and construction hurdles.

But if it is to become more than just a recreational trail, and open up a new commuting route for cyclists, the southern portion of the trail down to King and Strachan needs to be completed. That depends on whether room can be carved out alongside the rail corridor that is being expanded to provide more frequent GO train service and a rail link to the airport.

Metrolinx, the government agency planning the GO expansion, says it will try to make room for the railpath alongside its tracks. The city is willing to pick up the tab for construction costs, and will accommodate the trail on adjacent land or streets in the sections where it can’t be accommodated on rail land. And the grassroots group Friends of West Toronto Railpath, which pushed for years to get the path under way, is lobbying hard and helping with the design of the extended path.

The Toronto Star is reporting:

In a major victory for Toronto’s Junction community, Metrolinx has agreed to drop its appeal of a decision that limits the amount of noise it can make in the west-end neighbourhood.

The decision not to appeal ends months of tension around the nerve-jangling noise and vibration of pile-driving on the rail crossing known as the Toronto West Diamond near Dundas St. W. and Dupont.

In December, the CTA ordered GO to limit work hours and use quieter methods at the rail crossing. GO had already implemented quieter technology and shrouds over the pile drivers to try to reduce the noise.

Although this will delay the West Toronto Diamond grade separation project a little, it will provide the residents of the area around the diamond with some much-needed peace and quiet after the many months of pile-driving they have had to put up with.

Read the complete article over at The Star's website.

The Toronto Star released their online Neighbourhood Map, version 4.1 on May 21, 2009.

This is an update to earlier version which left our neighbourhood nameless.

An interesting point about the map itself is that The Star uses a Google map as a data source, and you can see in the underlying Google map that this neighbourhood is incorrectly labeled as "Silverthorn", which is actually a neighbourhood north of us in the Eglinton and Keele area.

The Fuzzy Boundaries neighbourhood naming process is now complete. The winner was announced this morning on CBC Radio's Metro Morning show, and the following media advisory was sent out:

Media Advisory

West Toronto Neighbourhood Votes to Keep Junction Triangle Name

Residents Embrace Past Moniker After Year-long Process

Who: Residents of the West Toronto neighbourhood north of Roncesvalles and east of The Junction and Fuzzy Boundaries, a group of residents spearheading a naming project for the area.

What: Residents have voted to keep the neighbourhood name Junction Triangle in the second and final round of voting for an area name. Junction Triangle won a plurality of the 674 votes cast, almost double the closest contenders Perth Park and Black Oak Triangle. The name Junction Triangle was first used in the 1970s by residents fighting pollution caused by local industries, but it had largely fallen out of use. During the two-week voting period, 83 percent of voters agreed to support the winning name no matter the outcome.