Is the bike shop crowding the street?

Does the above create congestion on the sidewalk?

This bike shop on Dundas St west, regularly places alot of bikes on the sidewalk way, is it too much of a sidewalk take over or is the character it provides worth it. (A person I was walking with yesterday as I wove  a tot in stroller said the bikes provided some street character)

...to add some prospective here is a image of a street shop in Cario

Junction BIA and Junction Arts Festival participate

The Canada Day Community Picnic takes place at:

High Park, 1:00-4:00pm on Thursday July 1, 2010.

Also find out about this years festival and ongoing BIA activities in the Junction

NOTE the poster says Wednesday when it's really Thursday

3385 Dundas Street West, Martino Bros. Car Wash. closed and being

The Martino Brothers Car Wash at 3385 Dundas Street West has stopped operating and a whole load of ___ and different types of contractors has descended on the building to convert it to what ___ will be a model show room for the upcoming senior's residence.

A senior's  residence at this location is going to greatly change the street ___ with a greater amount of people walking and crossing. This author is wondering if those if they're going need a cross walking because it's directly across from the super market and the mall instead of having the senior citizens walk up to Dundas St west and Runnymede Rd.

Right now with the car wash clinging to the south side and the clothing cleaning plant on the north both sides of Dundas st West become a common pass side walking environment.

This auother hopes that the residence units get  sold  quickly. So this area can become more vibrate with people instead of cars.

see this post for the new buildings details

St Clair Avenue West Streetcar Transit opens again

Thanks to blog readers JJ and RS for bringing this to the blogs attention

[caption id="attachment_6919" align="aligncenter" width="487" caption="The Gunn's Ave loop during reconstruction"][/caption]

Totstock Festival this Sunday June 27 at Sorauren

On Sunday, June 27th, from 2-5pm, Sorauren Park will come alive with song, dance, stories and more.

Brought to you by the totsquad (and lots of volunteer moms and dads, join us!), totstock is a vibrant, noisy, whimsical celebration of family and community.

There will be live music, children’s games and activities, story-telling & puppet shows, great food & a rollicking good time all in support of the Wabash Building Society in particular & the common good in general.

Please consider bringing:

• Your child's bike or trike for the bicycle parade


• A sunhat and a reusable bottle or mug


• A pocketful of toonies (this is a fundraiser after all)

Sponsors

Fiesta Farms is our mainstage sponsor and we are so grateful to Joe and his team for their support (and sunflowers!) Bullfrog Power, Planet Kid, Long & McQuade, Scooter Girl Toys, Another Story Bookstore, Lit Café, Balluchon, Alan Howard Waldorf School, Alternative Grounds, the Roncesvalles BIA, Westside Cycle, Vapur Bottles and Mabels' Bakery – more companies are coming in every day.

Performers

The mainstage is hosted by totstock organizer and record producer Don Kerr from the Rheostatics and Hidden Camera. He's very proud to be introducing:

• THE MONKEY BUNCH - Ultimate kids' indie rock, with bananas
• BELLWOODS TRINITY - Old-time tunes with dancing puppets
• ALISTAIR ANT - Soli and Rob Joy's summertime sing-along
• CHRIS PATTERSON - Arrogant Worm's kid-friendly Small Potatoes
• THE ELWINS - Super-catchy new wave alt-pop trio
• KARYN ELLIS - Sophisticated and silly songstress
• 11 TOES - Local rock and roll new-comers hit the scene
• ABC-DJ TERENCE DICK - toes tapping, hands clapping - no napping

What would Totstock be without some of our city's leading children's authors? Check out who Chris Reed and Natalie Kertes of Small Print Toronto will be hosting at the Story Tent:

For more information visit http://www.littlepaper.com/totstock

Baby Point Gates BIA created

Ward 13 business efforts will be further enhanced by the creation of this BIA, a long and strong effort by some local business owners and local - "feet on the ground" city Councillor Bill Saundercook, who spearheaded the long effort to have this happen in the Jane St and the Annette St area.  The new BIA was formally approved at the June 8-9th meeting of Toronto City Council. Today, on June 23rd, Councillor Saundercook attended the first meeting of the newly established Baby Point Gates BIA Steering cmte.
The Baby Point Gates BIA is the 3rd BIA in Ward 13. The other two BIAs are the Bloor West Village and the Junction BIA.The inaugural meeting of the newly formed Baby Point Gates BIA.

Background material links (hosted here at the blog) Take a look at the timeline to see the long effort.

Proposed Baby Point Gates BIA Process & Timelines

200 Annette Street - hoarding goes up

[caption id="attachment_6903" align="aligncenter" width="473" caption="Wednesday the 23rd of June 2010 "][/caption]

It's happening the hoarding is going up and soon the simple elegance of the church will be gone and replaced by homes. While homes will lessen the street-scape - this developer is retaining enough that the church will still be visible to the mind.

200 Annette Street - details of development

• A 4.57m wide driveway is proposed, 6.0m is required bylaw.


• Parking Spot width of 2.74m is requested, 3.2 is required


• The dormer height on the north side is 10.42m, 10.0m is the maximum allowable height even though the roof of the church is much higher than 10.0m


• The proposed residential gross floor area (GFA) is 583m² which exceeds the allowable amount by over 350m².  The actual church is not getting significantly bigger with the condo conversion but GFA for residential is different than it is for churches.

Other notes:

• To accommodate the driveway and parking area the site plan calls for the removal of 2 mature trees including one large tree on High Park Ave and one at the back of the site.


• New entrance door on the west facade.


• Five new entrance doors on the south facade


• 10 new skylights on the south roof.


• The site plans notes “relocate bus shelter”.  I think this is to improve the unit 1 patio view but I wonder what the TTC is going to say about that.

Text in italics from Martin L of the JRA

I hope a few facts and drawings help clear up some questions about this project.

Martin Lennox JRA co-chair

TORONTO JUNCTION TREMORS

The Junction was hit by a minor earthquake

from the Globe and mail site...

There are reports of unusual ground shaking in various parts of Ontario and Quebec, including Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal. The Toronto newsroom of The Globe and Mail shook just before 1:45 p.m. EDT. The Ottawa newsroom was evacuated at about 1:43 p.m.

Various reports on Twitter suggest the earthquake was felt as far away as Ohio, New York and Michigan. A Globe reporter in Montreal said that city also shook.

The earthquake shook buildings in Ottawa, where the streets are crowded with office workers who evacuated their workplaces.

“We felt the building shake. It was actually it was pretty serious. It was definitely the strongest quake that I ever felt,” said Dennis Choquette, a Globe and Mail online editor based in Ottawa.

The shaking lasted about 15 seconds, Mr. Choquette said.

The severity of the earthquake is not yet known. It is not yet known whether there have been any reports of injuries.

Junction BIA hosts at the Junction Square

Jumpin’ in the Junction



It’s all Julian’s fault. Julian who? Julian Wells. Who is Julian Wells? He’s a seven year old kid from Sunnylea Junior School.  Come on, how can you blame a seven year old  kid for anything? Well it was his idea. What idea? The idea to build a lemonade stand, sell lemonade and give the money to the Toronto Star Fresh Air Fund. They use the money to send deserving kids to summer camp. What’s that got to do with the Junction BIA? Well,  Julian issued a  public challenge  to other people in the City to build lemonade stands and help him raise more money so more kids could go to camp. The Junction BIA loves a challenge. We knew that all our businesses would get behind a great fun idea like Julian’s and we created Jumpin in the Junction.

What is Jumpin in the Junction? It is a great little festival that will go on four Saturdays in a row from Saturday June 26^th to Saturday July 17^th.  It’s being held at the Junction Train Platform (now formally the Junction Square) at Dundas St. West and Pacific Ave. There will be free balloons and clowns and face painting and stuff for kids to jump on. It Starts at 11:00 a.m. and runs till 3:00 p.m.  Wendell Ferguson, the seven time ”Best Guitar Player in Canada”  will perform on the 26^th .Different great acts  will be on stage each week. The great blues harmonica player Danny B performs on July 3^rd and Juno award nominee Peter Cliché plays on July 17^th.    A really fun feature each week is the “Sunflower Seed Spitting Contest”. Five spits for a nickel, a prize for each contestant and every one gets an official certificate to take home and frame.

And of course there’s the best lemonade in the City at twenty five cents a glass.

Even more, one of the Junction BIA members, Jocelyn Short of Jocelyn’s Burgers has stepped up and donated a wheel barrow  full of water melons so we’re selling that too at fifty cents a slice.  The only thing better than the lemonade, water melon and music will be all the smiles and laughter.  So come to the Junction and “let’s get Jumpin” .

We need volunteers for each of: Sat June 26; Sat July 3; Sat July 10th and Sat July 17th.
They can choose a 2 or 4 hour shift as may days as they like.
We need them to: Paint Faces; Good handwriting to fill out Sunflower Seed Spitting Certificates;
Lemonade sellers; Water melon slicers/sellers/ Sun flower seed spitting distance recorders
ETC.
They can Call Moe McGuinty At the BIA office (416) 767-9068 or e-mail :junctionbia2010@gmail.com

Fatima's Cafe & Bistro what?

Fatima's Cafe & Bistro a brave restaurant to open a large scale (for the Junction) eating place two blocks out side of the restaurant hub  in the Junction of  Pacific Ave. to Mc Murray ave has been closed for some time now.

judging by the sign on the window the restaurant appears to be in financial distress. This is sad as it was the most vibrant business attracting foot traffic to that end of the Junction business strip.  Many other businesses in and around the corner where Fatima's is are primarily business  services, which do little for life providing foot traffic for the community.

Hope they return.

JBIA flowers

The Junction BIA has placed flowers around the trees along the strip which greatly improved the streetscape.

update : asked the JBIA how many times they will be watering the flowers and it will be three times per week.

Parkdale-High Park Councillor Bill Saundercook's annual Community Environment Day

Parkdale-High Park Councillor Bill Saundercook's annual Community Environment Day takes place this Saturday, June 19 in a new location: Etienne Brule Park, east of the Humber River from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Do your part to create a cleaner, greener and more livable Toronto. Bring used or unwanted household items to the Community Environment Day. Items available for purchase include: backyard composter ($15), green bin ($18), kitchen container ($5), indoor water efficiency kit ($10) and rain barrel ($85).

full article at insidetoronto.com

The Hosting has fixed problems Thursday posts start again later today start

fri

Worldwide Knit in Public in the Junction at Junction Square

The Worldwide Knit in Public effort was a resounding success and so well organized everyone had a pleasantly wonderful time. With the rain and the shift of the day to Sunday the record for the international most knitters was not set.

West End Food Co-op Community Cannery June Workshops

Community Cannery June Workshops



their invite....

You are cordially invited to the June workshops from the Preserving Parkdale Project, a joint community cannery project of the West End Food Co-op and the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre. The first two workshops are:

Preserving Fruit: Friday, June 18th, 5 pm to 8 pm

Preserving and Pickling: Friday, June 25th, 5 pm to 8 pm

The workshops will be held at the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre at 1499 Queen Street West. Please pre-register at www.westendfood.coop or at the WEFC booth at the Sorauren Farmers Market, Monday 3-7.

Registration is $25 for WEFC members, or $30 for non-members. For inquiries, please contact info@westendfood.coop.

Come join us to preserve!

Sally Miller/ WEFC Coordinator

from their site....

The West End Food Co-operative (WEFC) is a nonprofit multi-stakeholder co-operative – with consumer, employee, and producer/supplier members. WEFC is committed to the development of community food culture in Toronto’s West End, and acts as a catalyst for local food security. This is accomplished through coordinating community driven food initiatives, such as the ongoing Sorauren Farmers’ Market, Parkdale community food mapping, and the new Parkdale Processing Project.

I love the Mulock Avenue Residents' Association blog posts

no need for words from me...  their site http://mulockresidents.blogspot.com/

Yes the blog is back on...Fruit and vegetables, fight for street cred in the Junction

Can the Junction ever have have a store such as this. Where the fruit and vegetables are displayed outside, yes I know the Sweet Potato store is doing this somewhat but not to this extend.

Also a retailer that has a good selection of flowers... my wife who is always one to shop in the Junction was just telling me a about a store in Bloor West Village that has a wonderful selection of flowers.

Although the sidewalks are a bit less in width there is room for a greater street retailer presence.

[caption id="attachment_4751" align="aligncenter" width="473" caption="Same store in Bloor west Village using a bit of the BMO banks' front space - way to go BMO!"][/caption]

2nd Annual Junction Yard Sale

Raindate June 19th

2nd Annual Junction Yard Sale

June 12th

8 am-2 pm

Various streets participating

or... please feel free to set up a table in

Vine Parkette to sell your goods

Community Potluck in Vine Parkette at 4 pm onwards

Starbucks to come to 3077 Dundas Street West? The old Handyman Shop, Junction Residents Association.

A commenter on the blog has recently commented that the new building on the South East corner directly across from Crema may be housing a Starbucks store.

While the blog has been unable to confirm this, this author wonders what the general feeling towards this possibility would be in the community?

3109 Dundas St. weird renos?

Two mirrored holes have been cut in the front floor of this building on either side of the front door.

take a sneak up to the 3rd floor of 2968 Dundas St West

....where on the third floor there are two great works of art

this image below is a shot of one of the birds in an installation.

Along St John Rd at the Coffee Time

Mornings, afternoons and evenings this area has the most consistent informal gatherings of people in the Junction. Mostly of men, talking and sometimes playing games. Wonderful.

It's happening elsewhere, can it happen in Ward 13

The new Luna Park opened in Coney Island this weekend, just look at it - this must have been what Sunnyside amusement park would have looked like in the past.

If new York can rebuilt it maybe we should?

Link to History of Sunnyside Midway From Above c. 1949