old buildings | as I walk Toronto

Archive for the ‘old buildings’ Category

ending on Dufferin

Posted: February 14, 2020 in alleys, history, locations, old buildings
Tags: alley, butterfly, garage doors, Glenholme Ave., Glenholme Variety, graffiti, graffiti faces, heart, houses, ice, lane, love, man, mural, Murals by Marg, Oakwood Ave., Oakwood Collegiate, painted, red heart, Regal Heights, Ross Bonfanti, Sandra Tarantino, snow, spudbomb, stairs, stores, street, streetcar, woman

The general idea yesterday afternoon was to walk Oakwood, southbound from St. Clair. What I didn’t expect when I left my cosy apartment was a strong cold wind, so part of the adventure was dictated by which direction the wind was blowing and how to avoid it (if possible!). If some of these photos look a little blurry, it’s because of the snow that was falling all afternoon.

below: Pizza Pizza on the northwest corner of St. Clair and Oakwood.

below: I hadn’t gone far when I found a lane so of course I had to follow it… Looking back towards Oakwood Collegiate.

below: Old black and white photo of St. Clair Ave from 1911 just after construction of Oakwood Collegiate was complete. Oakwood Avenue is now on the other side of the school in this photo. It is interesting to note that St. Clair had streetcar tracks back in 1911 but was still a dirt road. Apparently the city started building these tracks when the school was open – the St. Clair streetcar line was open in 1913. I found this photo in Living Toronto – follow the link if you want to read more about the history of this school.

below: And that is where I spotted this man with a little red heart…

below: … and across the alley from him was this woman, also with another little red heart. It’s Valentines Day today, how sweet and how appropriate.

below: The hearts just kept on coming. I’d only walked a few minutes and already I had enough for a Valentines Day post! 🙂

below: At the end of the lane I spotted this too…. can you see the LOVE? It looks like it’s written in the middle of the pink and blue graffiti but it’s actually on the metal vent.

below: So much for walking down Oakwood. I circled back to St. Clair West where I saw the Yummi Cafe & Laundromat with it’s hand written sign in the window. Support Our Teachers! These are trying days for education in Ontario as the teachers lock horns with Doug Ford and his Conservatives who speak first and think later.

below: This is middle section of the Royal Heights village mural painted by Murals by Marg in 2019. It is on the side of 1006 St. CLair West (at Appleton Ave).

below: To the right is a small butterfly, child height. Choose to be kind.

below: The left side has a larger butterfly as well as a bright yellow door with a blue umbrella. Let love rain down!

below: Right across the street (on the northeast corner of Appleton & St. Clair) is this mural. I haven’t been able to find out who the artist was.

below: Looking west on St. Clair as you approach Glenholme.

below: A coin laundry as well as Glenholme Variety on the southwest corner of St. Clair and Glenholme.

below: In front of 98 Glenholme is this little sculpture, an old fashioned sewing machine on a pole. It marks the home of Marcello Tarantino Sartoria (tailor).

below: Another alley – the wind back here is not so bad!

below: An old green Chevrolet delivery van with Imperial Upholstering Co written across the side and above the front window in faded letters. Also fading is the text: Manufacturers of Individual Style(?) Furniture

Mural by Ross Bonfanti and Sandra Tarantino with hearts, stars, a flying car and superhero kids.

The alley ended at Dufferin and that is where I headed south.

below: The southwest corner of Dufferin and Davenport

below: A black and white photo from 1912 of the construction of Dufferin Street at Davenport. This photo is originally from the City of Toronto archives but I found it online in an article on the history of Dufferin Street in blogTO.

below: Mary looks down upon us, from a niche in the wall of St. Mary of the Angels church.

below: Remnants of an art project left to weather on a fence around a schoolyard.

below: A smiling happy mural on the side of a dental office on Dufferin Street painted by spudbomb (2017)

below: Just north of Dupont Street, the CPR tracks cross Dufferin.

below: This strange pillar (artwork?) is on the southwest corner of Dufferin and Dupont. It used to be the marker/sign for the stores in the Galleria plaza on that corner. Everything there is under renovation at the moment so instead of tearing down the sign, it was converted into this. Hence, “Love me till I’m me again”.

below: From a different angle – the neighbourhood wins no beauty contest.

below: The architecture on Dufferin, both houses and stores, is a mishmash of styles (or non-styles!) that have evolved over the years. The next few photos try to give you an idea of the variety. First, at Dufferin & Rosemount

below: Dufferin & Hallam

below: Dufferin & Auburn

below: Standing alone at 1432

below: 1452A and its neighbours

below: An ominous sign – a boarded up house on Dufferin Street. Is change far behind? Just in case, I like to document what’s there because in this city, you turn around and everything’s different. And you think to yourself, “What used to be there?” But you can’t remember because that is how our memories work and isn’t that disconcerting?

from Korean to Italian

Posted: December 1, 2019 in alleys, construction, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings, public art, stores
Tags: Al Runt, alley, astronauts, blood and bandages barber shop, cat, Central tech, cheese tea, construction, crane, development, dragon, fence, garage door, garages, graffiti, hoardings, hole, Honest Eds, houses, Italian movies, Jessica Thalmann, Koreatown, lane, lovebot, Markham St., mural, murals, no fun, owl, posters, redevelopment, signs, Stanislav Jurkovic, stencil, stickers, the blue room, words, workers

I like the camera part but I’m willing to prove the “no fun” part wrong. The other day I went meandering with a friend. We started near Christie station (at a coffee shop of course) with no particular destination in mind. Generally south was the consensus… and with a pinch of playfulness (forget that no fun nonsense!) and a dash of distraction that’s more or less what we did.

below: As you may know, Bloor Street east of Christie is Koreatown with lots of Korean restauants and tea shops.

below: … including cheese tea. This seems to be a new trend, or at least new to me! Apparently it is black or green tea with a foamy topping made from cream cheese, sugar, and whipping cream (or variations thereof). Next time I may indulge.

below: “Imagine your Korea” mural on the side of P.A.T. Central, a large Korean store.

below: A fire breathing dragon and many scared people trying to run away. It’s a pity about the garbage though.

below: By Bathurst street the Korean restaurants have disappeared. Once upon a time (it seems so long ago!) Honest Ed’s dominated the SW corner of Bloor and Bathurst. Now there is just hole there, and a very big hole at that.

below: This picture is just a small part of “Utopic Isles, Neon Nights, a Flowery Future”, which consists of three panels of images by grade 11 and 12 visual arts students from Central Tech high school. They are part of the hoardings around the construction site here.

below: Another section of hoardings feature collages of old pictures of Honest Eds – a project by Jessica Thalmann called “To Dwell is to Leave Traces”

below: To try gluing pictures on hoardings is also to leave traces! Its’ another “no fun” find. All rather cool until you learn that no fun is a branding thingy. Stickers as promos for businesses are now very common, posters like this on, not so much.

below: Construction makes room for the two buildings on Bathurst that refused to sell to the developers. You can still see the ghost sign on one of the buildings – baby carriages repaired

below: Looking west from Bathurst Street across the big hole to the backs of the houses on Markham Street that are empty and boarded up. Some of them will be retained in the new development.

below: A concrete lovebot hides in the corner. He’s missing an arm and has three bricks instead of a leg.

below: Near lovebot is another ghost sign – Coca Cola, sold everywhere (Bathurst Street)

below: This frog has four points on his crown and lips made of plaster. Looks like he’s found a home on top of the garbage pin.

below: ‘Keep hustlin!” Don’t linger and watch out for cars. I was going to make some comment about Toronto becoming increasingly dangerous for pedestrians but I decided that I needed some documentation to back me up. I learned the acronym KSI (killed or seriously injured). Toronto has the research on the KSI stats for 2005-2018 as part of their Vision Zero plan and the results are “mixed”, i.e. the trend isn’t upwards. In fact, I don’t think there is a trend of any sort.

below: [Can we stand two social issues in a row? LOL.] What I didn’t realize was there was a “worldwide “Nobody Pays” call to action on November 29 for fare evasions” (source). Chile in the poster is a reference to Chilean high school students protesting transit fare increases with a series of mass evasions starting on the 7th of October. I don’t recommend burning your Presto card just yet.

below: The very small print at the bottom of the poster gives references to two documents (from 2012 and 2014) that outline the funding of the TTC and where the money comes from.

below: Well it is December after all…..

below: Conversation on a garage door.

below: Sometimes Mother Nature endures. There was no stopping this tree and it seems to have thrived even with the metal of the fence embedded in it.

below: The omnipotent metal fence strikes again. This time flamingos in love and an Al Runt mural are in danger.

below: Continuation of the mural by Al Runt around the corner of the building

below: This mural has suffered a different fate, that of the creeping billboard posters. As much fun as “procaffeinating” is fun to read about, I’ve seen more than enough of them around the city. I’m not sure that it was someone’s sense of humour that resulted in Holt Renfrew posters being displayed beside those for Pathways to Education that play on poverty and lack of education.

below: But…. [one day I will do a post where only the words in the photos do the talking. There are some great stories out there]

below: I especially like this one, Just Keep Going.

below: A white horse in an alley

below: As well as two little astronauts.

below: Blood and bandages barber shop. Wonderful name!

When you walk across College Street in this area you can’t help but notice that you’re in Little Italy.

below: As we walked westward along College Street, we saw three of these blue areas painted on the NW corners (of Roxton, Ossington & Dovercourt)

These are the Blue Room, by Stanislav Jurkovic and they were supported by the College Promenade BIA. From the website: “Similar to a 3 dimensional ‘green screen’ in film production, the space becomes stage and canvas.” It has also won a Toronto Urban Design Award. Some photos that people have taken of these spaces can be seen on instagram by searching on #blueroomcollege (although the same photos are fed to the Blue Room website that I linked to in the first sentence).

below: In the entrance way to a store that sells a lot of things including DVD’s in Little Italy. The 4 moschettieri – the 4 muskateers! A film from 1962 with Georges Riviere as d’Artagnan (the wonder of Google!). At the bottom of the photo is the name Salvatore Samperi; I am not sure which film it is for but Samperi (1943-2009) was an Italian film director & writer. I find it intriguing that these old posters are still on this wall, torn and discoloured as they are.

below: Same store. Italian movies on DVD’s for sale. ‘Maruzzella’ (in English, ‘The Mermaid of Naples’) came out in 1956. If you are an aficionado of old Italian movies, be quick, as I think this store is having a going out of business sale.

I’ll leave you with an image that I found online, a full copy of the poster that is partially covered up above – for the R rated film Malicious/Malizia in 1973. (photo source) That’s 40+ years ago. You see, when you start wandering you start finding all kinds of strange and fascinating things – no fun? indeed not.

(mostly) queen east and shuter in november

Posted: November 6, 2019 in construction, landmarks, locations, old buildings
Tags: Amedae Spice Market, brick, bus shelter, Church St., construction, cube house, development, fire, houses, magician, mural, Queen Street East, Shuter St., St. Michaels Cathedral, stores, variety store, windows

November came in with a gust of grey and dampness. So when the sun breaks through for a while it’s time to grab a coat and a camera and get walking even if it wasn’t you planned to do that day.

below: The cube house at the bottom of Sumach Street is still with us. It was for sale early in 2017. At that time, March 2017, BlogTO published an article about this building that starts with this description: “Based on Dutch architect Piet Blom’s complex of Cubic Houses in Rotterdam, the UniTri structure dates back to 1996”. It was sold in May 2018 for almost three million dollars.

below: No idea is original. Seen under Richmond/Adelaide Streets.

below: This guy holding his hands in front of him and wearing a red wizard cap still adorns the corner of the Magic Building on Sumach. He’s just one of a number of wizards you’ll find there.

below: This was the scene of a large fire back in April 2018. Three buildings were damaged with the one in the middle being beyond repair. It is now gone. It’s been a long, slow recovery.

below: Another building gone. This one by choice.

below: Colourful porch details.

below: A photo to document this part of Queen Street East because whether it’s in 2 years or 20, there will be changes.

below: A row of old brick houses at 79 through 85 Shuter Street where a fire has recently destroyed some of the the upper levels and roofs.

below: The buildings are empty and boarded up. This is the southeast corner of Shuter & Mutual.

below: There is a development proposal notice on the buildings. The proposed plan saves the old houses and shows a tall glass building built behind and above them.

below: That’s a big drill!

below: Shuter Street at Church.

below: Looking north on Church Street towards the new buildings that are part of Ryerson University’s expansion.

below: Steeple, St. Michaels Cathedral

below: Looking west on Dundas towards Victoria Street and Yonge Dundas Square. The cylinder structure is part of the CityTV building. The outer layer is wire mesh.

just north of Queen West

Posted: October 30, 2019 in graffiti and street art, old buildings
Tags: alley, Elicser, faces, gems, glare, graffiti, lane, neds, Phillip Saunders, sketchrat, street art, Tacim Collective, tbonez, text, uber5000, urban ninja squadron

There is an alley that runs behind the north side of Queen Street West, just west of Spadina.

The next few photos are of street art that isn’t new (and it may appear in earlier blog posts). There are usually cars parked here and today most of the parking spots were empty.

below: An older elicser mural

below: Uber5000 painting (and his iconic yellow bird) – the man, the bird, and the surveillance cameras.

below: This house has been empty for a long time. The doors and windows are now covered with plywood, providing a canvas for some graffiti and a surface for a few paste-ups.

below: Urban ninja squadron is on the phone. Tacim Collective (from Milan Italy) is also represented here as is Paris BKC (Brass Knuckles Crew), and sketchrat.

below: There used to be a collection of these “blueprint” pieces (maybe four of them?). This is the last remaining one.

below: The lane ends in a mess at a chainlink fence that surrounds a vacant lot on Spadina.

below: Hidden away just beyond the fence is a face by Phillip Saunders.

Port Lands update

Posted: September 6, 2019 in construction, landmarks, locations, old buildings
Tags: abandoned buildings, cement trucks, Cherry Street, Commissioners Street, construction, demolition, DOn River, Don ROadway, flood protection, Keating channel, Lake Ontario, Port Lands, skyline, T and T, Toronto Harbour, Villiers Street

Work on the Port Land redevelopment continues. The area is changing fast enough that I thought another visit would be a good idea.

below: Cherry Lifeguard Station, calm and peaceful in the early morning. On a weekday in September all is quiet here.

below: A new red lifeguard chair sits on a freshly raked beach. In the distance, a tug pushes a barge out of the harbour and onto Lake Ontario.

below: A family of Canada geese rest on the embankment of the Keating Channel. The white concrete supports of the Gardiner Expressway are reflected in the water.

below: Looking west along the Keating Channel. The Don River empties to the bottom right, just out of the picture. At the moment, the Keating Channel is the only route to Lake Ontario but this is about to change.

below: The Cherry Street bridge, a lift bridge, was broken in the open position for about a month at the end of the summer. It was fixed in time for Labour Day weekend so it is down now (can it go back up? It will soon be demolished so maybe that doesn’t matter)

below: From above, the Keating Channel is in the foreground and it is here that construction on a new Cherry Street bridge is just beginning. This is west of the present bridge because Cherry Street is going to be straightened as it passes under the Gardiner. There is another small channel behind the Keating Channel but it ends at the T&T store… for now. Cherry Beach and Lake Ontario are in the background.

below: Reflections of the T&T sign. Soon this store will be gone. The path of one of the new waterways for the Don River goes right through the middle of their property to join with the channel that is already there (picture above).

below: Villiers Street, looking west from the Don Roadway. The new path of the Don River is going to make an island of this part of the Port Lands as it runs parallel to, and immediately west of, the Don Roadway.

below: Villiers Street is actually two streets running parallel, both of which have two-way traffic. This is left over from the days when the railway ran down the middle of the street.

below: Remaining fragments of railway track can be found all over the Port Lands. This is Villiers Street at the Don Roadway. The Gardiner Expressway is in the background.

below: Old gas pump on Villiers.

below: The northwest corner of Commissioners and the Don Roadway. The green mound is the beginnings of the flood protection work there. Flood protection means work on the re-routing of the mouth of the Don River.

below: Looking west on Commissioners Street from east of the Don Roadway (at the traffic lights). This is one of several large hydro structures that run from the Portlands Energy Centre (a natural gas burning electrical plant). Hydro infrastructure changes are part of the Port Lands redevelopment.

below: Work on the south side of Commissioners.

Soon Commissioners Street will be closed between the Don Roadway and Cherry Street. All of the buildings there will be demolished. At the moment, most of them are empty.

below: Old abandoned buildings on Commissioners

below: United Rentals on Commissioners Street, now empty. Soon gone.

below: Chained and locked.

below: North side of Commissioners, east of the Don Roadway. You can see the Gardiner Expressway and the old Lever Brothers factory.

below: South end of the Don Roadway.

below: Looking west towards downtown from the Don Roadway

below: Back in July the demolition of the GFL (Green For life) buildings was well underway.

below: This is the GFL recycling transfer station during the demolition process. At the same time, the shoreline was being reconfigured and “naturalized”. The trees in the water in the foreground have since died but this is part of the plan – they are to become part of a new fish and wildlife habitat.

below: Access to the northwestern part of the Port Lands has been very limited. Cherry Street and the T&T parking lot are as far as you can go … if you obey all the signs. (photo from July)

below: September

below: The sea gulls have the parking lot to themselves, between Lafarge and the lake at the west end of the Port Lands. There are no plans (that I can find) to remove or relocate Lafarge.

below: If you stand looking at the view above, and then turn around, you get the image below. Polson Pier view of the Toronto skyline.

below: Map of the area. As you can see, I have only covered a small part of the Port Lands. There is so much more to explore!

east on the 506

Posted: August 6, 2019 in graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings, people
Tags: 506, Blue Fire, Broadview, Carlaw underpass, cars, convenience store, flowers, food mart, Gerrard St., hello kirsten, Jenny's, Julian Palma, Kirsten McCrea, painting, people, street art, street scenes, streets, TTC, variety store, Victoria Day

506 is the number of the Carlton streetcar which runs from High Park in the west to Main Street subway station in the east. The older cars still run on this route and one advantage of these older streetcars is that they have windows that open. This makes it easy to take pictures while travelling; yesterday I went eastward from Yonge as far as Coxwell, sometimes on the streetcar and sometimes on foot.

below: Pointing the camera out the window, D & J Mart Convenience store at the corner of Gerrard & Sackville.

below: A new curvy building rises up on the corner of Carlton and Church. The older building on the left with the R U on the top is the old Maple Leaf Gardens, now part of Ryerson University as well as a large Loblaws.

below: People, striped hoardings, and closed sidewalks.

below: Waiting outside Jenny’s at the corner of Parliament and Gerrard where the streetcar makes another turn.

below: Another convenience store on a corner on Gerrard. This time there is also a construction site in the picture! Are there more construction sites than variety stores or vice versa in this city?

below: Looking south on Broadview at Gerrard.

below: The 506 streetcar passes through Chinatown East (the area around Broadview & Gerrard) where many of the old houses are also businesses.

below: The southeast corner of Broadview and Gerrard now has an A & W restaurant which seems like an intruder in an otherwise Chinese/Asian section of town.

below: At the intersection of Gerrard and Carlaw, where the railway passes over the roads, the walls have been freshly painted. The north wall is a series of abstract shapes and colours like this.

below: The new painting incorporates the older art that was there. In the center of the newly painted rectangles are two grey shapes, these are originals. They are part of a 1996 installation by Dereck Revington called ‘Blue Fire’. There is still a plaque that describes these aluminum pieces as “a constellation of five paired aluminum fragments etched with traces of a poem by Robin Blaser and suspended from the entrances to the underpass”. Strange grey shapes (flames?) on dirty white concrete. Regardless of what you think of the concept, the reality is that it was drab.

below: Lead artist Kirsten McCrea (also known as Hello Kirsten) and her assistants, Victoria Day & Julian Palma, have certainly brightened up the space! The south wall is a series of frames pictures of hands holding flowers. As seen from across the street ….

below: … and from close up

below: And lastly, the end support wall of the overpass where the flowers and the stylized shapes come together.

below: Store signs near Pape including the bilingual Italy Hair Design – but not in Italian!

below: With remnants of the past such as string of pennants faded to grey….

below: … or an old street sign still attached to the building.

below: After Greenwood, the 506 streetcar passes through Little India before it turns north on Coxwell.

below: In the late afternoon and evening, Little India is much more lively. Many shops sell food on the street – roasted corn on the cob (a pile is ready to cook on the green table here) as well as south Asian foods. To the right of the corn is a bundle of sugar cane.

These few kilometres on a streetcar route have opened a small but fairly typical cross section of the city starting with the newer, taller, shinier center. There’s quite a bit of multiculturalism, some history, and some colourful new art. It’s a story that plays out all over the city in many similar yet different forms. Familiar but unique.

below: Searching for a story? 😇

There’s always something

Posted: May 29, 2019 in general Toronto, old buildings, people
Tags: buildings, College Park, Confederation Life building, Dundas Square, Dundas Street, fountain, Fran's, frog, mural, park, people, sculpture, Senator restaurant, signs, street, Victoria Street, water

Something new or something different.
And for sure, something’s changed.

below: Too cool for school. Dundas Square.

below: The north east corner of Victoria and Lombard (looking north on Victoria).

below: This building is on the north west corner of Victoria and Richmond. It is the Confederation Life building, constructed in 1892. According to Wikipedia, afire gutted the top floor of the building and destroyed the roof in June 1981 but the rest of the structure remained intact.

below: A 1912 picture of the Confederation Life Building. Photo source

below: Fran’s restaurant at the corner of Victoria and Shuter – a Toronto institution.

below: And just a bit farther north on Victoria is the Senator which is even older than Fran’s. That’s a lot of food!

below: Signs on Victoria Street including a marvelous old Green P Parking sign.

below: Protest poster with a message for Prime Minister Trudeau. Will you compensate us for the mercury crisis?

below: Breaking my habit of not photographing people sleeping on the streets – it was the large green frog pillow that made me chuckle and reach for my camera.

below: And speaking of frogs, a group of them have appeared at College Park. A group of frogs is called an army… but if these are actually toads then a group of toads is a knot. Hmm…. frogs prefer water while toads live on land. There are also differences in their eggs, tongues and teeth but the most noticeable difference is in their eyes. Frogs have round eyes that bulge out. Toads eyes are more oval and don’t bulge. Conclusion – these are frogs searching for water.

below: Looking north on Yonge street towards Alexander. The very tall building is at Yonge & Bloor.

below: More Yonge Street. Another juxtaposition of old and new; the opportunities for this kind of image are becoming commonplace. Also, I could probably take pictures on Yonge every day and still miss some of the changes.

below: Plaid, paw prints, and pink

below: One is happier than the others.

below: Dundas Street, just west of University Ave., looking towards Simcoe and St. Patrick streets.

below: North side of Dundas street, just west of Bay.

below: Who doesn’t like bacon? I prefer mine a bit crispier.

“Days go running and hiding
The weeks are going slippy and sliding
Years leave quicker every time they come”
from “When We Were Young” by Passenger

East Bayside

Posted: May 17, 2019 in construction, old buildings, waterfront
Tags: chairs, condos, construction, development, film, lights, LRT, offices, pink umbrellas, sand, sugar beach

The other evening I was going to try some evening photography along the waterfront starting around Sugar Beach. As I walked down Lower Jarvis, this view caught my attention – looking west along Lakeshore Blvd. It’s a view that has been changing very rapidly. I counted at least seven cranes as I stood there waiting for some of the traffic to clear.

below: Sugar Beach. Unfortunately a film crew was already here so I didn’t stick around.

below: One of the buildings to the east of Sugar Beach is a new George Brown College building.

below: Film crew trucks ready to be loaded back up

The strip of green that you see on the right side of the above photo is part of Sherbourne Common (at the foot of Lower Sherbourne Street). From here east to Parliament is now being developed as East Bayside and is a continuation of the now completed development from Jarvis (Sugar Beach) to Sherbourne. East Bayside is bounded by Queens Quay and Lake Ontario as well as Sherbourne and Parliament. 1800 residences are planned in this space.

below: Some of the condos are under construction. Same old same old; yawn. They may look a little more interesting from a distance, but at street level they are hopelessly banal. If you want to buy a condo here, there are only a few left in the two buildings known as Aqualina and Aquabella. In the latter, only 3 are available, starting at a two bedroom suite for 2.8 million. Five million dollars will get you a three bedroom penthouse with two terraces but if you want to pay an additional 1 1/2 million you get 4,000 square feet on two floors (3 bedrooms and 2 terraces as well).

below: At least the “linear park” and waterfront path is being continued eastward along Lake Ontario.

below: Work is also underway on Queens Quay East. As a frame of reference, the tall building behind the billboard is in the Distillery District. Lakeshore Blvd and the Gardiner run behind the buildings with the blue trim.

What hasn’t yet been started is construction of two office buildings that will front on Queens Quay, called T3 Bayside. They are going to be made of wood which should be interesting.

There has been a lot of talk for the past 12 to 14 years about extending streetcar service along this route. So far a lot of planning and a lot of talk but that’s it. An LRT right of way running along the south side of the street has been approved but the East Bayfront LRT project, (aka Waterfront LRT) has stalled because of the usual political shenanigans and financial hiccups. A major part of the delay has been the question of how to link an East Bayfront LRT to Union station. The present tunnel is barely sufficient for the streetcars that use it now. Just recently (April 2019) the city released a report on how to address this issue. I haven’t read it all yet (it’s 40 pages long) but the gist of it is that the city is considering two options – 1. rebuilding the tunnel or 2. building an automated people moving system of some sort and leave all streetcars out of the tunnel.

below: There is a small trench down the center of the street.

Any ideas what’s being planned for the north side of Queens Quay?

below: Queens Quay turns towards Parliament Street. The blue building is a Sidewalk Labs information centre. The land that Sidewalk Labs wants to develop, Quayside, is close by – south of Lakeshore and east of Parliament. It also includes the little strip of land between Queens Quay and Lakeshore, i.e. that answers my question above about what happens on the north side of Queens Quay. There was some rumour (plan?) about Sidewalk Labs being involved in development of some of the Portlands but is that still on? As to what their plans are or where they are at now, I have no idea. That’s probably another blog post!

a day of action and morning light

Posted: March 29, 2019 in events, locations, old buildings, transportation
Tags: buildings, construction, crane, fire trucks, glass, light, OPSEU, people, reflections, street, streetcar, subway, sun, TTC, Yonge

The other day I heard rumours of a subway protest – i.e. a protest over the potential uploading of the responsibility for the TTC from the city to the province. On the 27th of March there was a “day of action” at 40 subway stations during the morning rush, starting at 7:30 a.m.

below: Walking toward Eglinton subway station with the sun shining from behind me. Golden glass.

I couldn’t find anyone at Eglinton station (was I too early?) but there were 4 people handing out leaflets inside Bloor station. I also saw this guy with an OPSEU flag by Wellesley station.

So much for the idea of a blog post about this day of action. But it was a beautiful morning so I enjoyed the walk down Yonge street. I don’t often walk here that early and I was surprised how quiet it was. The light was also interesting.

below: A mix of old and new architecture, looking south towards the old St. Charles tavern clock tower that is being incorporated into a new development.

below: Near Yonge & Bloor. Preservation of an old building… and very big crane.

below: Looking north from Dundas under a watchful eye.

below: Looking north from Queen Street. The Eaton Centre is on the left in the foreground. Play the game of ‘name that building’ or ‘I remember when’.

below: This was the largest group of “protesters” that I saw. It was more of an information session than a protest, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

below: People headed to work as I started home.

Moccasin redevelopment

Posted: March 18, 2019 in construction, locations, old buildings
Tags: apartments, brick, concrete, demolition, Don Mills, empty, Mocassin Trail, North York, redevelopment, residential, snow, trees, windows

Exploring new places often leads to interesting finds. I’m not sure if you think demolition/redevelopment sites are interesting, but I came across this one when I went to Moccasin Trail (next blog, scroll up).

An empty building. The grey hoardings completely block the view of whatever is inside.

I tried walking the perimeter, but there is no access or viewpoint. There are actually two buildings. Apparently one of the buildings was damaged by fire (arson) in 2008. The buildings have been empty since 2011.

The old sign still stands beside the fence. It is faded enough that I can’t read it, even with some manipulation in photoshop. The building in the background is also part of the redevelopment plan.

The year on the development proposal sign is 2013. It also states that three buildings will replace the ones being torn down, one of 10 storeys and two of 4 storeys. That was six years ago. In March 2017 a plan was approved by city council for an 8 storey condo and a 4 storey rental replacement building.

When I saw the state of the building above, I started taking some pictures. I thought the building was empty. But then I heard music coming from one apartment. Then a woman came out on to a balcony to hang up a blanket.

Two years ago, back in March of 2017, 12 of the 34 units were occupied. I am not sure how many people are living there now. When it was first built, it was probably quite nice – very suburban, very Don Mills. Now the building is in very poor condition but I’m sure that’s because the landlord is waiting to be able to demolish the building.

City of Toronto report on this site (May 2017)

as I walk Toronto

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