Dupont

Dupont St.

Public Meeting - Dupont St. Underpass Mural

There will be a public meeting regarding the railway underpass mural on the south side of Dupont St. between Campbell and Lansdowne Avenues. You may recall that this is the location of local artist Joel Richardson's mural, which was accidentally removed by the City (more details about that incident can be found here).

Meeting details:

When: Thursday, July 28, 7PM
Where: St. Luigi's school, 2 Ruskin Ave.

The following is a press release from artist Joel Richardson:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CITY MEETING REGARDING JOEL RICHARDSON’S DUPONT STREET MURAL ERASED BY THE CITY

In June the City of Toronto painted over the mural of artist Joel Richardson, a mural the City had commissioned Richardson to paint. After realizing the mistake the city invited Richardson to paint another mural on the same spot.

On July 28th Richardson along with Graffiti writer AMOS, will unveil their new design for the Dupont Street Mural.

The meeting will take place at St. Luigi’s Catholic School, on July 28th, at 7pm. The meeting will be a referendum on Richardson and AMOS’s new mural design.

Richardson and AMOS invite press, artists, and the community to come out and vote, wear a suit and tie to support their new mural plans.

Councilor Ana Bailao will host the meeting.

Bomb Shelter owner and Street Art go to guy ZION will also be in attendance to speak of the importance of art on our streets in a continued campaign to gain recognition of the importance and relevance of Street Art.

Joel Richardson's "Suit Stencil" Mural Removed [Updated]

P1010477
Photo by Martin Reis, in the Junction Triangle photo pool on Flickr.

I mentioned this briefly yesterday: The "Suit Stencil" mural by Joel Richardson in the railway underpass on the south side of Dupont St., between Campbell and Lansdowne Avenues was whitewashed by the City this week.

This is a bizarre twist in Toronto's recently-escalated "War on Graffiti", as Joel worked with the City to install this mural, in addition to his other mural on the north side of the street.

David Rider has an article about this in the Toronto Star. A few key quotes:

Artist Joel Richardson says the city has painted over a popular Dupont St. mural that it paid him $2,000 to create, an apparent misfire in Mayor Rob Ford’s war on graffiti.

A city spokeswoman says the railway underpass wall was returned to drab grey because Richardson’s artwork was unauthorized, uncommissioned, political and may have “referred to (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper.”

The painter and filmmaker kicked off work on the new mural last Sept. 25 with a community party. He had spent at least 30 hours on it, with about another 10 to go, when he learned Monday the city had used grey and white paint to completely blot out the mathematical formula incorporating Morse code symbols and grim-faced businessmen with yellow halos.

Elyse Parker, a director in the city’s transportation services department, said the artwork was erased after a resident complained it was political. City records suggested the older north wall mural was commissioned, but not the one on the south wall, she said.

“This was not approved by the city and we would not endorse any kind of mural with political messaging,” she said. “There was some discussion that the mural referred to Stephen Harper. That’s the suggestion, that’s what it looked like to us.”

Richardson says the mural “had nothing to do with Stephen Harper” — while it is “subversive and anti-freewheeling capitalism” — and his friend Benjamin Blais was the model for the businessman.

Vic Gedris, who runs the Junction Triangle website and led the Jane’s Walk that saw participants question Robertson about his mural, said the city recently painted over graffiti by “Posterchild” in a different, nearby underpass depicting Harper in riot gear.

Just Kid'n Around - Grand Opening Party

www.justkidnaround.ca
1615 Dupont St., between Edwin and Franklin (map)

Local bus services cut, plus TTC fare increase

The TTC is proposing a large list of service cuts, in addition to a fare increase, in this year's budget. Tokens are expected to be $0.10 more expensive, and the cost of monthly Metropasses will increase by $5 to $126, starting February 1st. Oddly enough, the cost increase of Metropasses adds up to $60/year, which is the same as the vehicle registration fee that was just axed. Looks like the "War on Cars" has been shifted to "War on Transit Riders".

Spacing has a good summary of the proposed service cuts. TTC service cuts local to the Junction Triangle include:

  • Route 26 Dupont – No service after 10:00 p.m., every day.
  • Route 127 Davenport – No service after 10:00 p.m., Sundays and holidays.

Both of these routes currently have service until well after 1am.

If you care about maintaining services in this city, especially after our new mayor promised many times to not make any cuts, it might be a good time to send a note to the following elected officials:

Dupont St. and Railpath Closures, December 15 and 17-19 2010

The following notice was sent out by Metrolinx to inform the community of upcoming road closures on Dupont St. between Osler and Dundas (under the tracks), and along the West Toronto Railpath above Dupont St. You can download the original PDF of this notice here.

GEORGETOWN SOUTH PROJECT

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE

The Georgetown South (GTS) Project will provide infrastructure improvements to meet existing GO Transit ridership demand and future growth. It will also accommodate the new Air Rail Link service between Union Station and Pearson International Airport.

Dupont Street Bridge

Road Closures: December 15 (Overnight) and 17-19

Project Description
The Dupont Street bridge currently has five tracks. As part of the GTS Project, a new bridge span will be installed between the existing GO tracks and the West Toronto Rail Path bridge to accommodate one additional track. The work will involve modifying the existing concrete abutments, constructing a new steel pier, and installing the new steel beam span.

Suit Stencil Day at Dupont/Campbell Mural

Local mural artist Joel Richardson is completing his second neighbourhood mural on the south side of Dupont St., east of Campbell Ave. There will be an unveiling party on Saturday. Details are from the event page on Facebook:

Time: Saturday, September 25 · 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: Dupont and Campbell, on the street, south side across from my other mural

More Info: Come out and be a part of the documentation, I have painted the whole mural, both sides in a suit and tie, come out and create a spectacle of suits and ties as i make my mathematical artistic statement on modern finance... All ages welcome, a shirt and tie a huge plus! Bring a camera and help to document the event.

Junction Triangle Municipal Election Issues Forum: Summary and Photos

Candidates' flyersCandidates' flyers

On Thursday, August 26th 2010, Boo' Radley's on Dupont St. hosted the Junction Triangle Municipal Election Issues Forum. This was a somewhat different take on an All Candidates meeting: Instead of a slate of candidates up on a stage talking down to an audience, this event encouraged candidates and voters to mingle amongst each other, having one-on-one conversations.

Six out of the ten registered candidates attended: Ana Bailao, Kevin Beaulieu, Doug Carroll, Nha Le, Joe MacDonald, and Hema Vyas. I didn't count, but I would roughly guess that about sixty residents came out.

I personally think the event went extremely well. Speaking with other neighbours at the event, it seemed there was a consensus that the event was worthwhile, and that voters had a good chance to learn more about the candidates. Thanks to the organizers, the Junction Triangle Rail Committee, and the gracious hosts Mike and Shelley from Boo Radley's.

Read on for a few more comments and photos. Also, be sure to check Tomasz Bugajski's article on BlogTO:
Drinks with the candidates for Ward 18

2010 Community Cleanup

2010 Community Cleanup

Railpath cleanup. Photo by Kevin Putnam, 2010-04-24.

2010 Community Cleanup

2010 Community Cleanup

Railpath cleanup. Photo by Kevin Putnam, 2010-04-24.

Then and Now: Dupont St. and Perth Ave.

Are you interested in old photos of our neighbourhood, and watching how this area has changed over time? Well, then keep an eye on this website, as I will be posting a collection of "Then and Now" photos. Most of the historical photos will be from the City of Toronto Archives, and current photos taken by me (Vic Gedris). Many of these were previously on display at the Perth-Dupont branch of the Toronto Public Library as part of the Fuzzy Boundaries project.

Do you have any old photos of this neighbourhood? Please feel free to get in touch if you're willing to share them!

We'll start off this series comparing a photos of the north-west corner of Dupont St. and Perth Ave., taken on October 23 1958 with a modern version taken on March 28 2009.

THEN:
Dupont and Perth, October 23 1958: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 100, Item 86Dupont and Perth, October 23 1958: City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 200, Series 372, Subseries 100, Item 86

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