downtown | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘downtown’

city under siege

Posted: January 2, 2015 in general Toronto
Tags: building, closures, CN Tower, condos, cones, construction, cranes, downtown, fence, photos, repair, road closed, roads, signs, site, skyscrapers, Toronto, traffic, trucks

Construction, it’s everywhere.
I’m not sure if it’s my imagination but 2014 seemed to be the year that the city was torn apart in the name of changes, development and/or improvements.

A white hard hat sits on the end of a large wooden spool. Blue gas cylinders are behind it.

on break

How many cranes are in the sky?

downtown cityscape with tall buildings as well as the CN Tower. Lots of construction cranes in the picture.

looking towards the CN Tower from Soho St., just north of Queen West.

Men on a crane working above a hole in the ground where a new condo is being built.

Yet another crane at work, on Adelaide West.

How many kilometres of road have been dug up or blocked off?

Yonge street is closed by a large crane that is parked in the middle of the street.

Yonge north of Davisville one summer day. Removing a crane that was used in condo construction.

Near Eglinton West subway station. Construction of the Eglinton LRT impacts traffic on Eglinton Ave.

Near Eglinton West subway station. Construction of the Eglinton LRT affects traffic on Eglinton Ave.

Cars trying to merge from three lanes to one. Large sign with arrow pointing left. Tall buildings on either side of the street. Yellow leaves on the trees because it is October.

Adelaide St. West

a section of city street is being renovated. The pavement has been removed, construction equipment and vehicles are in the picture. There is a 'road closed' sign.

Another street under repair. York St., looking south towards Queen St. and Richmond St.

How many holes have been dug?

A construction site, hole in the ground, large yellow crane, red dump trunk and a large fence around the site. A church is in the background.

Dufferin and Adelaide

How many orange and black cones adorn our streets?

Black and orange traffic cones along with a yellow fence block traffic from entering a construction site at an intersection where new street car tracks are being laid.

New streetcar tracks at King and Sumach.

How many kilometres of fencing have been erected?

construction site surrounded by both metal fence and blue mesh fence

double fenced

How many years will it take to finish Union Station?

looking west on Front St. towards Union Station. Construction equipment is in the foreground of the photo. The CN tower is in the background.

Looking west on Front St. The renovation and upgrade of Union Station and it’s impact on Front Street has been ongoing for a long time now. Maybe one day it will be finished!

What construction will 2015 bring?

murals in the park

Posted: November 26, 2014 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: basketball, city, CN Tower, colourful, David Crombie Park, downtown, Esplanade, green, hands, heart, horizon, murals, playful, playground, Scadding, sunset, train tracks, urban, waterfall

David Crombie Park runs along the south side of the Esplanade between Lower Jarvis and Berkeley Street.

At the east end is a basketball court and playground. One of the back walls of the basketball court has been repainted with a mural by Shalak, Smoky and J. Periquet.

one end of the wall

the other side of the wall

new faces in the alley

Posted: November 18, 2014 in graffiti and street art
Tags: city, colours, downtown, eyes, faces, frog, girl, Graffiti Alley, hair, Kairo, man, multicoloured, painted, plywood, slaps, stickers, street art, tongue, Toronto, urban, woman

New faces in the alley, or at least they are new to me. Seen yesterday.

A stylized picture of a green, turquoise and red frog face with its tongue stuck out.

and a froggie face too.

blue October skies

Posted: November 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: autumn colours, balconies, CN Tower, condos, downtown, foilage, highrises, leaves, reflections, shadows, skyscrapers, sun, Toronto, trees, urban, washing windows, windows

Since most of the city woke up to snow flurries this morning, I thought I would take a quick look back over the past month. October was a beautiful month with many clear sunny days. The leaves on the trees turned wonderful colours this autumn and the colours lingered for a few weeks.

Blue skies, autumn colours

A man is suspended from the roof of a tall building by a rope. He has a bucket and he is washing windows. The CN Tower is close by and seems to loom in the background.

Washing windows in the shadow of the CN Tower.

Two tall condo buildings. Sun is reflecting off the balconies of the condo in background. In the foreground is a balcony with a large plant. Sun is shining directly on the plant so it looks like it is in a spotlight.

Afternoon on the balcony. Condos on Blue Jays Way.

older row houses in the background along with a tree covered in yellow and gold leaves. A large tree that has already lost its leaves is in the foreground.

Clarence Square

Tall light grey brick apartment building with cirved bluish balconies. On one wall is the large shadow of another building with balconies.

Shadows of building on building, Roehampton Ave.

nuit blanche 1

Posted: October 10, 2014 in events
Tags: aerialists, cameras, downtown, globes, hanging, inflatable, lights, night, nuit blanch, people, photos, Queen St. West, ropes, scream, snbTO, toilet paper, toilet tissue, Toronto, walking through worlds

Nuit Blanche, night of October 4 to morning of October 5

people on a street downtown at night. 3 large orange cranes with many small palm trees in their baskets overhand the street. they are well lit from below.

Queen Street West near John St., 4:30 a.m.

Stacks of inflatable globes of the world form walls and columns that leave paths for people to walk through.

Walking through the worlds, hundreds of inflatable globes. Even at 4:30 a.m. there was a long line to enter this installation.

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A bright yellow box with the sign "scraming booth" sits on a sidewalk. There is a line up of people waiting for their turn to scream.

waiting for the screams

rolls of light green toilet paper are stacked to make short walls as part of an art installation.

tissue in greens and yellows.

rolls of orange and red toilet tissue look like candles

Looking like candles on tall metal candlesticks.

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hanging

fire fighters memorial

Posted: October 9, 2014 in memorials
Tags: boy, downtown, fire fighters, flag, mask, memorial, names, reflection, remembering, sculpture, statue, stone, Toronto

The Ontario Fire Fighters Memorial is near the corner of Queens Park Crescent and Grosvenor Street.

A short wall of black rock has the names of fallen firefighters carved in it. In the background is the statue of the firefighter and young boy.

The names of fallen fire fighters are engraved on black stone.

AIDS walk

Posted: September 14, 2014 in events
Tags: #aidswalkto, AIDS, awareness, carnations, downtown, HIV, in memory, MCGP, Miss Teen Canada, people, posters, red, red ribbons, remembering, SIDA, sign, walk, walkathon, walkers, Yonge St.

AIDS Walk, 13 September

Beginning at Yonge Dundas Square…..

Getting dressed and ready to walk.

Making posters to carry in the walk.

….. north up Yonge Street…..

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. A Sikh man wearing a red turban is holding up a poster about treating and defeating AIDS.

Test. Treat. Defeat.

The walk made its way to the AIDS Memorial in Barbara Hall Park on Monteith Street (near Church and Wellesley).
Here, each walker was given a red carnation to leave at the memorial.

A group of people is winding its way through a park in which there are short concrete pillars. Each pillar has plaques on it with the names of the people from Toronto who have died of AIDS. Red carnations have been placed by the plaques O

Winding their way past the names of those from Toronto who lost their lives to AIDS.

The memorial was opened late in 1992 and dedicated during Pride Week in 1993.
There are about 2700 names now engraved on the plaques. New names are added once a year.

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. A group of volunteers is cheering on those who have walked so far. They are standing on the sidewalk.

Enthusiastic volunteers cheer on the walkers.

people at the AIDS walk in Toronto. Miss Teen Canada winners, seven of them, are walking as a group. They have stopped to have their photo taken.

A cheerful Team Miss Canada Globe stopped for me for a few moments.

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Money raised in the walk goes to support act (AIDS Committee Toronto).

A small group of people is holding a banner in the walk. The banner says Scotiabank AIDS Walk, in support of ACT . A C T is AIDS committee Toronto.

The lead group in the walk.

Link to the official Toronto AIDS walk website

always in the way

Posted: September 2, 2014 in general Toronto
Tags: church, city, CN Tower, downtown, graffiti, Music Garden, photos, sculpture, skyline, skyscrapers, Toronto

If you can’t beat them, join them.

No matter where I went this summer, I seemed to always find the CN Tower lurking in the background.
It photobombs a lot of pictures! 🙂

A bright red tugboat is tied up in the foreground. Many glass windows of many condos are in the photo. The top of the CN tower is peaking up over the top of the condos on Toronto's waterfront.

The M.R. Kane, a bright red tugboat sits tied up at the waterfront near the foot of Spadina Ave. The CN Tower stands tall above the condos the line Queens Quay West.

An SUV and a red truck are parked in a parking lot. On the left side of the picture are two walls that are covered with graffiti. The CN Tower is above one of those walls.

behind graffiti walls in a parking lot on College Street

Black eyed Susan flowers in the foreground, some taller buildings including the CN tower in the background. There is also a tall thin sculpture (decorated pole?) in the picture

Trying to hide behind the sculpture in the Music Garden, waterfront

The pink wall of faces is a fountain and it is on the left side of the photo. People at the ex and the CN Tower are also in the photo.

…. and at the Ex too!

The CN Tower and the Toronto skyline as seen from the east part of downtown Toronto.

Where Eastern Ave. joins Richmond Street East before they cross the Don River.

Part of a bright red metal sculpture is in the foreground. The CN tower is in the background (the top part of it anyhow)

Lurking under sculptures….

Part of the stone church, St. Andrews Presbyterian, dominates the photo. Part of a tree, the edge of a skyscraper and the CN Tower are on the right side of the photo.

Peeking out from behind St. Andrews Presbyterian Church on King St. at Simcoe.

a section of Yonge Street

Posted: September 1, 2014 in locations
Tags: adult, arches, bar burrito, Blugod, books, brick, city, condoms, convenience, cuban cigars, Darvish Persian, doors, downtown, Elliots bookstore, flag, heritage, historic, lucky sister, mansard roof, massage, mobilicity, ndj books, north bound leather, pedestrians, Pinky Nails, Pizzaiolo, spas, storefronts, stores, street, tattoos, three storey, Tokyo Grill, Toronto, urban, windows, Yonge

Toronto is undergoing a massive amount of redevelopment these days. When I walk around this city I see older buildings that I often wonder about – are they going to still be around in 2 years? 5 years?
….that is what happened yesterday when I was on Yonge St. between Bloor and College. I took a few pictures, just in case these buildings disappear in the near future.

row of three storey buildings on Yonge St. Brick buildings with storefronts on the ground floor.

Looking south (and a bit west) from just below Bloor Street.

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At the intersection of Yonge & Wellesley.

We’ll see what happens in the next few years!

downtown glass

Posted: August 30, 2014 in locations
Tags: blue sky, downtown, glass, King St., reflections, Roy Thomson Hall, Simcoe St., St. Andrews church, streetcar, sunshine, Toronto, TTC, urban, windows

Reflections I noticed as I walked up Simcoe and across King this afternoon.

Reflections in the building across the street, some women are walking by with their bicycles, a street car is just coming into view.

I often see tourists stopped here to take photos. I decided that it was my turn today. The CN Tower is also reflected in this building, along with St. Andrews Church.

More downtown reflections of tall buildings.

Curved window beside the entrance to St. Andrews subway station.

Two small trees in the foreground. Some tall buildings reflected in the windows of another building are behind the trees.

Roy Thomson Hall just sneaks into the lower left corner of the picture.

Reflections of streetlights in a window, lots of horizontal blue bars are in the windows too.

My selfie for the day!

as I walk Toronto

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