Rally and protest in front of the Ministry of Labour building on University Avenue.
April 15 was chosen as the day for rallies and protests across the country in support of a $15/hour minimum wage as well as other changes to labour laws. Changes such as equal pay for equal work and fair scheduling.
#15andfairness | #OntarioWeWant
Within the past week or so, the fences around the new Canary District have come down. Toronto’s newest development is now open to the public so I thought I would check it out.
I started my walk from the streetcar stop at King and Sumach. Walking down Sumach Street I passed the metal fence that separates the school property from the street. This stone building was built in 1887 as Sackville Street School and it has been used as a school ever since. At the moment it is home to Inglenook Community School. The fence with it’s double layer of metal – rusted in the back and shiny in the front – is interesting in the daytime but even more so at night when it is lit with a series of lights located between the layers and near the base of the fence.
When I took the above picture I was standing on the new streetcar tracks that run south from King Street. The tracks are ready and the wires have been installed. Streetcars will begin servicing the route in June as part of route 514. No map or schedule appears on the TTC website yet but apparently this route will run between the Dufferin Gate Loop and the new loop on Cherry Street via King Street
below: Looking north from Eastern Avenue at the new streetcar tracks on Sumach Street.
At Eastern Avenue, Sumach Street becomes Cherry Street. The new Cherry Street YMCA is on the east side of the street. The sidewalk is wide but at the moment the branches of the young trees are at face level and you have to be careful where you walk.
below: The bright red detailing on the YMCA building continues over the entry way. Part of the new residences for George Brown College peak out from behind.
Front Street now has wide sidewalks. None of the businesses have moved into the ground level retail spaces yet but the signs in the windows suggest that a number of cafes, restaurants, and food stores will soon be opening. A couple of public art pieces are also on the sidewalk.
below: ‘Lampposts’ by Tadashi Kawabata
below: Looking up from underneath the artwork.
below: ‘The Water Guardians’ stand over a soft squishy playpad.
It was designed by Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins.
below: There are a lot of little design elements that have been incorporated into the this development including what I think is a bench. With a light underneath?
below: The sidewalk around the trees is made from two colours of brick. The opening for the tree is just the right size to collect garbage. Whether or not these traps get cleaned out remains to be seen.
below: The Canary District is not yet finished as this sign clearly states.
below: The sculpture ‘No Shoes’ by Mark di Suvero is now accessible. The artwork was completed in 1967 and originally installed in High Park. In 2013 it was renovated and moved to Corktown Common.
below: The pavillion at Corktown Commons in the distance.
below: The Bala Pedestrian Underpass, aka the south exit from Corktown Commons, goes under the railway tracks and merges with the Don Landing part of the Lower Don Valley trail. The artwork was designed by Rolande Souliere and is part of the StreetARToronto initiative. A yellow Lovebot and a happy orange monster have been added to the scene too!
below: Nature in the city. Birds of a different feather. On the Don River, just south of Corktown Common a pair of swans is nesting. One of the swans was swimming a short distance away while the other was sitting on the nest. Cars pass by on the Don Valley Parkway unaware of the domestic scene below them.
The eastern end of the Kay Gardner Belt Line Park crosses over Yonge St and the subway just south of Davisville station. It then runs across the north side of Mt. Pleasant cemetery. It comes to an end at Mt. Pleasant Road where the trail merges into the roads that run through the cemetery.
In 2014 students from Greenwood School painted a mural at this location. The mural has three main elements. A train to represent the Belt Line, the name of the community that it is located in (Mt Pleasant Village), and the words ‘use Dominion Coal and Wood’. The last part is because not long ago, on this site, stood the large concrete silos that the Dominion Coal and Wood company used to store coal and wood. The shape of the black background is very similar to the shape of the silos if viewed from above.
below: Mural, with Mt. Pleasant Road above it.
below: Plaque located on the site of the old silos (now in the bushes beside a condo)
transcription of the Heritage Toronto plaque:
“Dominion Coal and Wood
Originally located on Danforth Avenue, the Dominion Coal and Wood Company was founded in 1912 by William H. Smith. In 1929, the company opened a landmark facility on this site. Its nine adjoining concrete silos were designed by E.P. Muntz Engineering Company. Coal and wood were transported here by rail car along the former Belt Line Railway and then sold as heating fuel to local businesses and home owners.
Originally just one among many similar suppliers in the city, Dominion Coal and Wood outlasted most of its competitors. The company expanded into building supplies as coal sales dwindled, but continued to sell coal here until the site was closed in 1999. Although recognized as an increasingly rare type of industrial architecture, the historic silos were demolished in 2001. “
below: The nine silos, about 1972. The photo is from City of Toronto Archives and was found online at JB’s Warehouse (a good source if you are interested in more information at Dominion Coal and Wood)
below: I tried to replicate the above photo, about 42 years later. The Mt. Pleasant streetcars are long gone as is the gas station on the NW corner of Merton and Mt. Pleasant. A corner of the tall white apartment building on the right can be seen peaking from behind newer condo buildings. Of course, the dominant part of the picture is the condo development that was built on the site of the Dominion silos in 2002.
A walk towards Davisville subway station on a grey day.
below: At the corner of Mt Pleasant and Davisville stands the sculpture ‘Wind Bird’ by Sorel Etrog. Etrog (1933-1914) was a Canadian artist, writer and sculptor.
I have passed this little figure many times and today I finally decided to take some pictures of it and make a walk of it. I have always thought that she was a forlorn little creature. With her arms outstretched, empty, reaching for something that never appears. She needs a hug or at least a warm scarf to keep the chill away.
below: After leaving Wind Bird empty handed yet again, I walked west towards Yonge Street. Off the street and amongst some trees I saw this sculpture. It is one that I have never noticed before. A collection of metal pieces is suspended from the top of a lopsided metal frame, more parallelogram than rectangle.
below: On closer inspection, the metal bits are actually flat human forms with their heads in the center and feet flung outwards as if spinning around a central axis. I know enough physics to know that either centrifugal force or centripetal forces (or both) are at play here. But I don’t know enough to know the right answer.
below: Next door are these two metal shapes. There isn’t much to it, is there? What it does have is it’s own little park area and walkway. I didn’t have to get my shoes muddy if I wanted to get closer.
below: There is a path that ran on the west side of the above building, 141 Davisville, to Balliol Street. This tall sculpture stands beside the path. I am not sure who the artist is. Is it a couple embracing? Or a totem pole of abstract forms? Or just something that looked good to the artist’s eye?
below: Next, from across Balliol, this sculpture caught my eye. It is ‘Grand Odalisque’ by Sorel Etrog.
below: I’m rarely satisfied with photos taken of public art in front of buildings. The background is always to cluttered or messy. I played with various angles for ‘Grand Odalisque’ and I found this one. The sculpture is quite phallic now that I look at it.
The phallic nature of the sculpture is possibly ironic . Odalisque has a few meanings and connotations, but all involve women. In fact, ‘La Grande Odalisque’ is a famous painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1814. In French, ‘grande’ is the feminine form of the adjective and ‘grand’ is the masculine. Ingres used ‘grande’ for his female nude and Etrog used ‘grand’ for his sculpture. Is there a connection? Or just my imagination?
below: La Grande Odalisque. You’ll have to visit the Louvre in Paris if you want to see the painting.
The next stop along Davisville was the Al Green Sculpture Garden. Al Green was a builder, a founder of Greenrock Property Management, and in later life a sculptor. It makes sense then that the small garden that bears his name, and is home to some of his sculptures, is between two of Greenrock’s apartment buildings.
below: ‘Leaning Torso’ by Al Green.
below: ‘Embrace’ by Al Green
below: ‘Landing Sculpture’ by Carl Lander (aka Carl Bucher), 1970. They look like little red spaceships hovering in the air, or as the name suggests, coming in for landing. Father and son alien ships come for a visit.
Lander (1935-2015) was a Swiss artist who lived in Canada for a couple of years in the early 1970s.
below: Another sculpture by Sorel Etrog in the foreground. Behind it is ‘Greenwin’ by Maryon Kantaroff, commissioned in 1973 by Greenwin Developments.
And last, and very definitely least….
below: You tell me. Christmas balls on top of a fence?
below: Once you’ve figured out the whys and the wherefores of the above, you’ll be happy to know that there is another mystery. A bagel? A donut? Squirrel food? Bird food? But also a ring?
These are on the fence that runs between Yonge St and the subway line near Davisville station.
Anyone with a marker and a bit of gumption can leave their mark almost anywhere but most of us don’t. What makes some people write? The stupid and/or juvenile scrawls I can do without but I like encountering words that make me smile or make me think. Below is a small collection that I have seen in the past week. Some are stupid and some are witty, but all are the result of someone’s thoughts and actions.
below: Keep it civil; keep it underground.
below: “MyFace – I vote for a date with you! Currently searching for my 2017 Valentine.”
Brought to you (maybe) by someone called James and seen around Ryerson University.
below: What is more tempting than a blank wall? If a sign requests you not to paint on the wall and you draw on it with marker, have you disobeyed the request?
below: These posters on the wood hoardings have been up for many months now. Someone has written “communist garbage” on one of the posters. I’m not sure of the ideology, but if you believe in the freedom of movement are you really a communist? The Soviet government certainly didn’t allow it.
below: Let’s call this photo ‘Garage Heavy Metal in the Bike Lane’.
I’m not sure if this is a list of good things? or bad things? Or maybe some sort of poetry?
What does Elizabeth May have in common with Lucy DeCoutere? Or the TD CEO with Desmond Cole?
below: “Do not place any materials here”….. just a lot of words instead.
A few words about someone called Sarah.
below: “Drink coca-cola get fat”. Probably not what Coke intended!?
below: “I use stickers because I’m too afraid of getting caught to spray”, wabishabby
It was a nippy morning at Cherry Beach today. The ice has been off Lake Ontario for a while now and the snow that fell this past week has melted. There was only a small clue that winter is still clinging on.
The morning started off grey but it wasn’t long before the sun came out.
below: Cherry Beach lifesaving station in the distance.
(Except for a few airplanes and the shouts of a lacrosse tournament in the distance) the only sounds on the beach were the chirps and tweets of birds and the squawking of seagulls.
The noises increased when food arrived!
There was even a lovebot hanging out at the beach, standing tall at the lifeguard chair.
Sackville Street, just south of Dundas, is right in the midst of the Regent Park renewal project. It is also the site of two murals. First, there is bright and colourful mural which is painted on the side of a new apartment building.
The other mural is a painting by elicser on hoardings around a building under construction.
below: With the ubiquitous Timmie’s cup on the ground.
April showers bring May flowers, or so they say.
BUT, wait just a minute! You know it always snows in Toronto in April. Always.
And this year is no exception.
It’s cold enough that even the poles are wearing scarves.
But why should that stop us? There’s always a silver lining and there’s always lemonade to be made.
In this case, it is the opportunity for one last look at the city in winter (we hope!)
Pillow Fight at Nathan Phillips Square
in celebration of International Pillow Fight Day 2016
#pillowfight | #pillowfighttoronto
Faces in the alley, Graffiti Alley
As March turns into April and winter sort of turns into spring.
below: Looks like someone has already started his spring cleaning.
below: He says, “See you in hell”.
She thinks, “I’m already there. You should try living beside this smelly thing.”
below: Jarus has painted a young man
below: It seems that even Lovebot needs to eat… Not sure about the purple hamburger bun though!
as I walk Toronto 