If last week’s eviction notice was the beginning of the end for Occupy Toronto’s scrappy camp in St. James Park, today’s ruling by Justice David Brown of the Ontario Superior Court is something like the middle of the end. As Torontoist reports, Brown concluded that the city was well within its rights to turf protesters. “The Charter does not permit the protesters to take over public space without asking, exclude the rest of the public from enjoying their traditional use of that space, and then contend that they are under no obligation to leave.” (Councillor Doug Ford, ever gracious in victory, was heard quipping to reporters that “Woodstock Toronto is all over.”) This ruling puts the ball back in the city’s court—although Rob Ford has already indicated he wants the occupiers to leave “as soon as possible” and city manager Joe Pennachetti has said he hopes everyone will be out, voluntarily, by midnight, there’s currently no official deadline for when they need to clear the park. It seems there’s just no appetite for a repeat of last year’s G20 debacle friendly tête-à-tête between protesters and police. Read the entire story [Torontoist] »
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Mayor Rob Ford and his pals on the executive committee recently approved a policy for naming rights in the city, one that will have the government seeking corporate cash from those that want their brands stamped on a city asset. But if you’re worried that tomorrow you’ll be boarding the Go Train at Pizza Pizza Station, don’t be—there are provisions in place to protect significant sites like Union Station and city hall. (Of course, opponents still worry that this will lead to an influx of advertising in public space.) Regardless of the merit of the policy, it’s certainly indicative of this administration’s approach to generating revenue: think lower taxes (ideally, non-existent taxes) and more corporate involvement. And, of course, corporate involvement isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Now Magazine reports that even the usual lefty suspects on council didn’t reject the proposal outright. But we thought Toronto had a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Read the entire article [Now Magazine] »
Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday has heard from people—both local residents and people who work in the area (oh my!)—who want Occupy Toronto protesters booted out of St. James Park. Of course, Holyday isn’t exactly a downtown councillor, and the protest isn’t even close to taking place in his ward. Meanwhile, the Toronto Sun’s editorial board is also calling for protesters to leave the park, and warning readers that “Aboriginal militants” (um, what?) are involved in the occupation. Now, what’s remarkable about all this (aside from the blatant racism) is that the Sun offers its unwavering support to Mayor Rob Ford in his quest for cuts, but then suddenly become defenders of public space as soon as it’s—ahem—occupied by a group with whom they disagree. Read the entire story [Toronto Sun] »
Dear Urban Diplomat: Can we reclaim our soccer pitch without looking like jerks?
(Image: Buffa)
Dear Urban Diplomat,
I play a casual game of pickup soccer with a bunch of other late-30s dads on weekends at Bickford Park. For the last few weeks, a crew of beer gut–less university students has asked to get in on the game. It’s a public space, so we felt compelled to say yes, but we quickly realized they’re showboaters. They hog the ball, aggressively slide-check and perform obnoxious goal celebrations. We don’t want to play with them anymore, but they keep showing up. How can we reclaim our pitch without looking like jerks or, worse, middle-aged wusses?
—Kicked Around, KOREATOWN
Pro-toplessness advocacy organization marches through Toronto streets half-naked and believes in aliens
Does not apply to alien-related gatherings in parks (Image: Grant Hollingworth)
Last week, the city denied a permit to the group GoTopless, which had planned an event at Ashbridges Bay Park on Sunday to mark National Go Topless Day, where women are encouraged to be—you guessed it—topless. So instead, the organization decided to take to the streets in protest, marching through the city sans shirts. We thought the city seemed a touch prudish by rejecting the group’s original overture, but apparently women must be “properly attired” in parks and other public spaces, despite the 1996 Ontario Court of Appeal verdict that gave women the right to not wear tops as they please.
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50 Reasons To Love Toronto: No. 13, Sherbourne Common is changing the waterfront
(Image: Hudson Hayden)
For years, Toronto’s eastern waterfront has been a bit like Amy Winehouse—full of potential but deeply troubled and rife with toxins. Sherbourne Common, which will open this summer at the foot of Lower Sherbourne Street, is a promising sign that we can finally stop complaining and start enjoying the waterfront. The new public space is still surrounded by the grim relics of the city’s industrial past—factories, parking lots, the Gardiner—but things are changing fast. Sherbourne Common is only the first development in a community that will replace the grit with office towers, apartment buildings and a third George Brown campus. Designed by Vancouver architecture firm PFS, the park has a babbling brook, wild grasses and maple, oak and beech trees. It’s also functional. Underneath the verdant plains (and the zinc-clad pavilion that looks like it crashed down from outer space) are the neighbourhood’s stormwater collection and treatment facilities, which purify pollutant-filled waste water before sending it back into Lake Ontario. Water is dramatically pumped nine metres into the air by three concrete fountains, falls into the park’s brook, and runs under a series of bridges and into a marsh-like biofilter before flowing into the lake. It’s an ingenious blend of utility and beauty, and an inspiration for the rest of the city’s rough edges.
Nuit Blanche exhibit will allow spectators to control CN Tower light show
The lights on the tower will change with every new text (Image: Rupert Taylor-Price)
The nightly CN Tower LED display has garnered mixed reactions since it began in 2007—some even compared it to a sci-fi Christmas tree. Perhaps that’s why “E-TOWER,” one of this year’s Nuit Blanche exhibits, is giving power to the people, literally, by allowing spectators to control the light display via text messages.
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Guerrilla activists hack 85 Toronto billboards, replacing ads with art
A hacked sign at Queen Street East and Jarvis Street (Image: Gary Campbell)
Four months after Banksy’s stop in Toronto, another group of guerrilla art activists has taken to the streets—only this time, the evidence isn’t hard to find. A group of anti-establishment art pundits known as the Toronto Street Advertising Takeover (TOSAT) is on a mission to replace illegal billboards in Toronto with art they’ve collected from around the world. This past Sunday, the movement’s founder, Jordan Seiler, led 15 activists around the city to remove ads from 41 Pattison Outdoor pillars and replace them with 85 pieces of art.
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What do former mayoral candidates do with their free time? Just ask Giorgio Mammoliti about his giant pole
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Giorgio Mammoliti has been quiet since his departure from the mayoral race, which is a shame: we’ll never forget his wacky YouTube videos teaching people how to pronounce his name, or his noble stand against retailers who wanted to stay open on Christmas. The good news is that Mammoliti hasn’t been sitting on his hands. No, his hands have been busy laying the groundwork for Toronto’s—nay, North America’s—largest flag pole. The pole erection has already been approved by the Emery Village BIA, and the city’s executive votes on Monday, according to the Globe and Mail.
Toronto’s newest beach opens, David Miller suggests skinny dipping
After waiting for years for anything to happen on our derelict, post-industrial waterfront, it seems like something opens every couple months. Today’s ribbon cutting: Canada’s Sugar Beach, a new park across from the still-active (and pungent) Redpath sugar refinery, and the first section of the Water’s Edge Promenade to the east.
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The Q&A: Babak the Builder
Babak Eslahjou, the architect who wants to be mayor, heads Core, one of Toronto’s most prestigious design firms. He knows how to draft a city, but can he run one?
(Image: Adam Rankin)
You came to Toronto with your parents in 1982, after the Iranian Islamic Revolution. What were your first impressions of the city? It was very welcoming, especially around Yonge and Finch, where the Iranian community is concentrated. The stores there sell better barbari flatbread and tabriz cheese than you find in Tehran.
Do you live in that area now? No, but I still shop there when I have a craving for Iranian delicacies. I redesigned a small house at Bathurst and St. Clair, where I live with my wife, Mojan, and two kids. It’s very open, with lots of windows.
Did you always want to be an architect? My father and all his friends were architects with good practices. I thought they were pretty cool dudes. I was never going to be anything else. Read the rest of this entry »
Tobacco timeline: with candy cigarettes now banned, we look back at Canada’s anti-smoking history
June 2000: graphic warnings become mandatory on Canadian cigarette packs (Image: tom stovall)
Fruit-flavoured and candy cigarettes and cigars were pulled from shelves across Canada yesterday as part of the government’s efforts to crack down on tobacco use among young people. Besides eliminating all hope for a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup–flavoured cigarillo, the ban has made it illegal for retailers to sell certain tobacco products flavoured with vanilla, banana, cherry or anything else the government deems too juvenile (menthols are apparently just fine, as they are as unappealing to kids as they are to everyone else). We thought the occasion warranted a trip down memory lane to reminisce about the government’s previous steps to keep us cancer-free. Here, some important dates in Canada’s ever-increasing battle against tobacco.
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Today in Toronto: G20, Pride, Toronto Jazz Festival
G20: The summit we’ve all been waiting for (and dreading) has begun. Follow our coverage >>
Pride: Expanding to take over ever more of the downtown core, the 30th anniversary edition of the city’s gay destination–meets–tourist trap now covers 22 blocks and features eight stages of music and art. Find out more >>
Toronto Jazz Festival: Now in its 24th year, Toronto’s main jazz festival covers much of the musical spectrum and much of the city, from concert venues and public spaces to neighbourhood bars and restaurants. Find out more >>
ASM Dance Company: The contemporary company As the Spirit Moves prepares to do battle in Warfare, which stars 10 dancers and three musicians exploring the physical, emotional and spiritual cost of conflict. Find out more >>
Today in Toronto: Authors at Harbourfront Centre
Authors at Harbourfront Centre: Architectural experts Margaret and Phil Goodfellow and Shawn Micallef present different views of built Toronto. Find out more >>
The Lost Station
After stalling for years amid corruption charges, lawsuits and bureaucratic bungling, the overhaul of Union Station is finally happening. But the plan we got funnels GO riders into an underground mall, leaving the iconic building’s Great Hall empty and missing the chance to transform the daily commute into a thing of true beauty. Inside a $640-million mistake
Running on empty: some 65 million people pass through Union Station in a year. The majority never set foot in the Great Hall (Image: Scott Connaroe)
At five o’clock every weeknight, the homeward-bound commuters surge out of the subway station at Union and into GO Transit’s underground domain. Women and men, all wearing a similar expression of pressured anxiety, bolt across the open-air moat and pick up speed as they push through the heavy doors of the GO concourse. As soon as their feet hit the lower concourse’s 1970s tile floor, they begin to move in a stiff-legged rush that doesn’t want to admit to being a run. They look for seats beneath the grooved ceilings that are the undersides of the staircases and access pathways to the trains. The installation of these elevated pathways, to refit the station for commuter transit 30 years ago, has turned the waiting area into a space of rathole aggressiveness. Commuters talk on their cellphones, surrounded by garish logos promising sugar and caffeine. At a signal from the monitors, the passengers move forward in unison to board their trains with a purposeful, glazed-eye enervation, like cult members who retain their devotion to the faith in spite of having lost their enthusiasm for its rituals.
Union Station, once the emblem of an ambitious city, has become a commuter hub, serving 200,000 passengers every weekday. Some 65 million people pass through the station in a year, a figure that is expected to double by 2020. But the decline of long-distance train travel has left the upper level, where VIA Rail is based, underused. Proposals to renovate the station have come and gone with such monotonous regularity that it’s hard to believe a $640-million overhaul, which started in January and is scheduled to be completed in 2015, is actually happening. Read the rest of this entry »
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