notes here
There’s a new provincial park in Toronto!
… but sadly it’s just a vacant lot
The city has owned the land for a few years and has already torn down the LCBO that used to be here. The plan is to build supportive housing for those in need. So far nothing else has happened – has the project stalled?
“We are in a housing crisis.
Parkdale needs permanent supportive housing.
Three years ago in December 2019, the City of Toronto purchased 11 Brock (this site) from the Province, with a purpose to redevelop it as affordable rental homes for some of Toronto’s most vulnerable people.
In December 2022, Municipal Councillor Gord Perks’s office shared that it will be funded by the Rapid Housing Initiative, a Federal program. But bids for a non-profit haven’t started and plans aren’t yet made. Why? NP Remind Councillor Gord Perks, Federal MP Arif Virani, and each other that we remember the human right to housing.”
11 Brock Avenue LCBO
1891-2016
Construction of this edifice began in 1889 to celebrate the annexation of the Village of Parkdale into the City of Toronto. Originally a “Barber Shoppe and Purveyor of Fine Elixirs”, it was the finest destination for the procurement of alcoholic spirits and haircuts. The Shoppe fell on hard times in 1916 with the advent of prohibition and the reduction in haircuts due to the famous poorly times Toronto head lice outbreak. Ostensibly becoming Toronto’s foremost storage facility, bootlegged moonshine was sold in a hidden speakeasy carved into a 125 cubic meter block of ice. Attracting patrons from across the city for both alcohol and ice alike, this enterprise allowed the neighbourhood to prosper and directly led to the construction of Sunnyside Beach and Amusement Park. Not coincidentally, 1927 brought the first electric household refrigerator into the market, the end of prohibition in Ontario, and the creation of the LCBO. 11 Brock became one of the first 18 LCBO stores that opened on June 1, 1927.
Getting there: 11 Brock Avenue, just north of Queen St. East
Accommodation: none (or bring your own sleeping bag)
Food & Drink: Check out Sam James bakery right across the street from the park entrance (if there was one).
as I walk Toronto 
This is amazing and funny