By Annemarie Brissenden
It’s hard to feel sad when playing a ukulele.
“Everyone feels good when they play the music,” laughs Sarah Bradley, a branch head librarian with the Toronto Public Library (TPL). She and her colleagues have been running a ukulele program at the Lillian H. Smith branch at College Street and Spadina Avenue that is proving surprisingly popular.
Tags: Annex · Arts · General · Life
Upkeep, or lack thereof, marks the return of our popular Grading our Greenspace feature. Published in two parts, we visit parks in our coverage area and review them based on cleanliness, amenities, and atmosphere. Our round-up reflects a mixed bag: some parks continued to be great, while others seem to have dipped further into mediocrity. Unkempt parks, with uncut grass, poorly maintained amenities, and dying flowerbeds, are a major complaint among park users, something that shouldn’t be difficult to address. With greenspace at a premium in our neighbourhoods, our parks have become more important than ever. What our reviews demonstrate is that parks, when well maintained, are thriving community hubs. We’ll publish our second part in the July edition and look forward to your comments, whether they be on parks or on our reviews. All reviews and photography were done by Geremy Bordonaro and Emily Rea.
By Geremy Bordonaro
Imagine that you have been stuck in a hotel room. You were thrown from the comforts of your own home and now find yourself in an unfamiliar land. Nothing looks the same. No one speaks the same language. All you have is you and your family crammed into a small hotel room without utilities.
Tags: Annex · News · People · Life
PHOTO BY GEREMY BORDONARO: Phase two of Christie Pits park’s revitalization continues as old playground equipment is removed from a fenced-in area. In the first phase, completed last fall, paths were replaced, lookouts were installed, and safety enhancements added.
By Geremy Bordonaro
By Terri Chu
Having a kid is expensive, anybody can tell you that. What nobody told me though was how expensive raising a child can be when you try to stay low on environmental impact. Cloth diapers are a huge capital outlay and I’m not convinced they are used long enough to break even against disposables. Using a diapering service costs around $25 per week while disposables are about $0.30 each, which even at 10 per day comes in at $21.
Tags: Annex · Columns · Life · Opinion
“I’ve come to the conclusion that the overriding factor in municipalities getting nice things is sheer willpower.”
By Terri Chu
Every time someone mentions a great municipal infrastructure project on the other side of the pond (usually in a really progressive nation like Germany or Sweden), I mutter some lame excuse as to the reason why Canadians can’t have equally nice things.
Ewa feeds the birds in front of Bathurst Station. The retiree, who wishes she could still work, occupies her time by caring for the pigeons and squirrels.
MICHAEL CHACHURA/GLEANER NEWS
By Michael Chachura
In the parkette in front of Bathurst Station an elderly lady sits feeding the pigeons and the squirrels.