Results tagged “parkdale”

The Edgewater Hotel sign is gone. City officials ordered that the Parkdale landmark be removed on November 3, after nearly three years of working to convince the owner of the building to which it was attached to make necessary repairs. According to a Municipal Licensing and Standards manager, the sign had finally become so derelict that city inspectors deemed it unsafe.

Parkdale was established in the late nineteenth century as a suburban enclave where middle-class families could enjoy parks, the lakeshore, and the new exhibition grounds far from the bustle of the central city. Over the course of the twentieth century, Parkdale became increasingly seen as a slum at the end of a downward spiral. Then, in more recent years, the neighbourhood has been resurrected as a gentrifying urban village. So goes the commonly accepted version of Parkdale's history.

WORDS: Urban Planning lecturer Carolyn Whitzman has written about the hundred and twenty-five years of poor planning in her former neighbourhood of Parkdale. Suburb, Slum, Urban Village: Transformations in Toronto’s Parkdale Neighbourhood, 1875–2002 tells a story of development and city planning gone wrong, and underlines the need to recognize an area’s demographics as standard practice in urban development. The book launches tonight in Roncesvalles Village with a reading from the author and an introduction by poverty activist Michael Shapcott. Another Story Bookshop (315 Roncesvalles Avenue), 5–7 p.m., FREE.

We've just gone through our archives here and it seems like we've managed to reach 2009 without mentioning the Artsy Game Incubator. Hmm. Well, rather than lament our foolishness, let us explain that it's a collaborative game development group for artists and people who want to make games but have no technical skills (or not enough) that uses simple and accessible tools to allow their game concepts to be developed.

In the run-up to our favourite national pastime of electioneering, Torontoist profiled some of the most closely contested ridings in the GTA, looking for the bellwethers and offering snapshots of electoral districts in transition. Today we survey the outcomes of those races.

Photo of Carolyn Bennett by Jerad Gallinger/Torontoist.

Torontoist is officially in election mode. In the run-up to the big day, we'll be profiling some of the most closely contested ridings in the GTA, looking for the bellwethers and offering snapshots of electoral districts in transition.

       

These skiing-related signs appeared yesterday along Macdonnell Avenue in Parkdale, between Queen Street and Garden Avenue. This doesn't seem to be an installation with any purpose or meaning, and there's no particular irony in this residential setting. It's amusing but random. Is there a wider message?

ART: Art enthusiast groups City of Craft and the workroom have organized a kid-friendly crafts fair, happening today in Parkdale. Both the workroom (1340 Queen Street West) and the Good Catch General Store (1556 Queen Street West) are having craft sales, each with fifteen local vendors selling their wares. DIY store Shopgirls Gallery Boutique (1342 Queen Street West) will be having a workshop on making sock monkeys, and you can either donate your sock monkey at the end of the workshop or pay $15 to take it with you (all donations and proceeds go towards Clowns Without Borders). Finally, head over to Yoga Queen to wind down with yoga-themed crafts and yoga games. Various locations in Parkdale, 12 p.m., FREE.

To Corey Glass, Pierre Trudeau's Vietnam-era proclamation that "Canada should be a refuge from militarism" must ring a little hollow in 2008. Two summers ago, the 25-year-old Iraq War veteran left his post with the U.S. Army, resisting re-deployment to the catastrophic five-year occupation. Since August of 2006, Mr. Glass, like others seeking refugee status, has been a resident of Toronto, calling the Parkdale community home. This week, with his bags packed and ready, Glass was "shocked" to learn that his deportation order—due to expire today—was stayed, granting him temporary refuge in Canada.

Summer is a time to get intimate with the gritty streets of our little borough, and this is exactly what industrial design students from OCAD have set out to do in their exhibit TORONTO UNBOUND. Together with the design school and the City of Toronto, OpenCity Projects has put together a creative lab to come up with design ideas for Toronto's neighbourhoods, to help foster communication between the members of that specific community and to make those spaces more accessible for other city dwellers.

Parkdale is most definitely in the house this weekend. On Friday, the Elizabeth Shepherd Quintet will be playing a CD release show at the Gladstone Ballroom. Parkdale (at right) is the follow-up to Shepherd's acclaimed debut Start to Move and is being released by Do Right! Music. John Kong has acquired an eclectic label roster and the label is top notch. They've already promoted Parkdale with a making-of video and a podcast. It's worked too, as the album sounds like a gem. As a bonus, the Footprints DJs and Kong will be spinning after Shepherd's set.

Torontonians are, to say the least, an opinionated bunch. So instead of a simple "Best Of" list to cap 2006 off, the Torontoist staffers have racked their brains about everything (books, songs, restaurants, people, places, stores, newspapers, politicians, musicians, and a lot more) to bring you their choices for the very best and the very worst of our city this past year. It's Torontoist Love/Hate 2006, and you can find a new one every day at noon from December 26th until January 1st.