tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53379829049377317272011-06-07T22:05:24.468-07:00Dealing with the issue of public space in TorontoComplexCityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15716101145890921566noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5337982904937731727.post-75340777598977055902006-12-12T11:33:00.000-08:002006-12-12T12:19:49.956-08:00

BY SEAN BAILEYWhen David Burnett thinks of the Oak Ridges Moraine, three things come to mind: Beautiful soil to produce great vegetables, plenty of plants and abundant drinking water.Burnett is the manager of provincial regional policy at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). The authority is funded in part by the city of Toronto and his job is to co-ordinate the nine

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BY LIZ DEWDNEYLaden with 500 posters, a tub of glue and a paintbrush, Jamie Gillis rides his bike across Queen Street. Every so often he stops at a street pole, holds a poster up to it, slathers it with glue, pastes it to the pole and moves on.Though there are people at City Hall who would like to see postering banned, Gillis says it is his right. In fact, he points out, there is a 1993 Supreme

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BY SEAN PEARCEIn the depths of the urban jungle it can be difficult to find a tranquil piece of green space amid the sprawl sometimes, but at one downtown location nature abounds. In the spring and summer green plants flourish, flowers blossom and weary urbanites happily eat their lunches on wooden picnic tables free from the hustle and bustle below. Welcome to 401 Richmond’s rooftop garden.Erin

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BY SEAN BAILEYWhen Peter Hui stands at the corner of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue, he imagines it could be a small part of Hong Kong. He sees the throng of people and Toronto’s oldest and largest Chinatown.“It’s a compact version of a Chinese city,” Hui said.Hui, president of the Toronto Chinese Business Association, says the city of Toronto’s Chinatown visually represents a microcosm of

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BY SEAN PEARCEToronto is constantly evolving as a city and a prime example of this evolution is the Royal Ontario Museum. At the end of construction, the old architecture of the ROM will be melded with a new crystalline structure designed by Daniel Libeskind, who designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin. In the urban jungle our buildings make up most of the public viewing experience and Toronto

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BY D. LAXMIDAS MAKWANAToronto is holding a sidewalk sale and transit shelters, waste receptacles and multi-publication boxes are first up for bidders.The Vibrant Streets project, part of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful City initiative, opened its request for proposals process. The result will determine which service provider will manufacture and maintain new public furniture on the city’s

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BY LIZ DEWDNEYThe green space and parkland in Regent Park is all but gone. According to former resident Tyrone MacLean-Wilson, the old swing sets he used as a child there have long since been torn down.“Playgrounds are an important thing to have,” he says. “The population of Regent Park is mostly children.”Though MacLean-Wilson moved out of the area about two years ago, he still lives nearby and

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BY SEAN PEARCEThe fate of Toronto’s venerable Gardiner Expressway has been the subject of many debates in city council over the last few years. Bold proposals have been presented as to what to do with Toronto’s grey concrete freeway and the engineer behind one of these proposals says that Toronto is finally ready to take the risk and decide.Jose Gutierrez is a civil engineer who is trying to make

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BY D. LAXMIDAS MAKWANAToronto Sun columnist Joe Warmington finds enjoying the finer things helps his creative process: Coffee with friends punctuated with a first-rate cigar in Yonge-Dundas Square.On another occasion Warmington spotted Mayor David Miller mingling with passersby among the granite slabs dotted by water fountains. At that moment he realized the potential for the location to bring

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BY SEAN BAILEYToronto councillor Kyle Rae says, while walking through Yonge-Dundas Square, he finds himself looking up at the ads that surround it.“I find that they add light, colour, movement, sometimes humour,” Rae said. “Unfortunately, some advertising tells us that we think we need. And that’s the part where I just turn off.”He believes the ads are a part of the culture within the city and

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BY SEAN PEARCEMount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto is the tranquil final resting place of many famous Canadians. Amid the tall, ancient trees and quiet marble slabs lie former prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, department store magnate Timothy Eaton and insulin discoverers Frederick Banting and Charles Best just to name a few. Yet, Mount Pleasant Cemetery is not just another graveyard. Its

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BY D. LAXMIDAS MAKWANAWaking up to the sounds of morning rush hour traffic on the Don Valley Parkway isn’t something Lester Labradore expected when he moved from his rent-controlled apartment in Ottawa to find work in Toronto.Today, Labradore sleeps between two waterproof sleeping bags in a tent on the edge of the bustling roadway. He starts his day with a drink and then begins his daily trek to

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BY LIZ DEWDNEYOn a crisp January day a Toronto bike courier was locking her bike up in Toronto’s Kensington Market. While she was doing this she saw a man throw a piece of garbage out his car window. She took offence. After walking over to the slow moving car she opened the door and threw the garbage back in. The man driving the car then got out and threw two large coffees at the courier. A

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BY SEAN BAILEYFor two months in the summer, student workers along a neighbourhood stretch in Toronto work to clean up and help beautify their city. Using a pressure washer and other cleaning materials, they spend from two minutes up to two days working to remove graffiti “tags.”“It depends on the size, it depends upon the surface of the wall, whether it’s porous, non-porous, metal,” said Evonne

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BY D. LAXMIDAS MAKWANADave Meslin isn’t camera shy. He just refuses to be the only person in the picture.For Meslin not a week goes when he isn’t contacted by a reporter asking for an opinion public space, or a photograph portraying him as the leader of one of Toronto’s most popular grassroots organizations.Since founding the Toronto Public Space Committee, in 2001, Meslin has become the de facto

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BY LIZ DEWDNEYIn recent years, with the gentrification of Queen Street pushing ever west, money and business are changing the Parkdale neighbourhood. Some want to see the intersection of Queen Street West and Cowan Street designated as a meeting spot or town square. Cowan Street is a short street about three blocks east of Dufferin Street.Paul Bedford, the former chief planner of Toronto, is a

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