Gleaner

Serving Toronto's most liveable community with the Annex Gleaner

CHATTER: Victory’s Nick is the anti-gouger (Apr. 2020)

May 1st, 2020 · 1 Comment

Victory Cafe owner Nick Ndreka warms the hearth to make it ready for pizza. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS

Victory Cafe at 440 Bloor St. W. is open for take-out and is offering gourmet pizza, prepared in a wood fire oven, at roughly 40% off the usual price ($10.95). Owner Nick Ndreka declared: “this is an emergency and people need a break!”

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Tags: Annex · News

LIFE: Two wheels keep on turning (April 15, 2020)

April 16th, 2020 · Comments Off on LIFE: Two wheels keep on turning (April 15, 2020)

Robert Bateman poses outside his Bathurst St. shop. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS

Bike repair shops take “essential” classification seriously

By Brian Burchell

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Tags: Annex · News

EDITORIAL: Fictions, falsehoods and a crisis in leadership (Feb. 2020)

February 27th, 2020 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: Fictions, falsehoods and a crisis in leadership (Feb. 2020)

On February 21, members of all four Ontario Teacher’s Unions walked off the job leaving 2 million students out of school and leaving parents scrambling for childcare. Meanwhile, the Ontario government has been trying to sell citizens a story about striking teachers: that they are fat cats led by union boss “thugs” looking to gouge us of tax dollars. The premier likes to paint himself as a hero out to save us all, rescuing the province in a time of crisis, but the only crisis the electorate can buy into at this point is a crisis in leadership – his leadership.

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Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Fear of high buildings groundless (Feb. 2020)

February 27th, 2020 · 1 Comment

Tall structures can curb urban sprawl

Designed by IBI Group, the Theory Condo building is projected to rise 30 storeys and will house 243 condo units. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS

In May 2020, the Annex Gleaner celebrates 25 years of publishing. In celebration, we are republishing highlights of our past; this feature, Fear of High Buildings Groundless by city-building columnist Alfred Holden, is from May 2001. As thirteen developments are going up in the Annex area it appears Holden’s views were prophetic. 

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Tags: Annex · Columns · History

DEVELOPINGS: Annex area developments loom (Jan. 2020)

January 31st, 2020 · 1 Comment

Emerging from the dust will be much greater density

The Annex is by no means exempt from the building boom that sees the City of Toronto with more cranes in the sky than any other North American municipality.

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Tags: Annex · News · Life

NEWS: Aroma suddenly shuttered (Jan. 2020)

January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on NEWS: Aroma suddenly shuttered (Jan. 2020)

Closure leaves customers shocked

Locally loved, this Aroma Espresso Bar location (the first in Canada) was locked out by the landlord, unable to meet its rent obligations. Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

By Brian Burchell

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Tags: Annex · News

FOCUS: Marked with granite (Jan. 2020)

January 31st, 2020 · 1 Comment

Creating a spot to gather

Artist Robert Cram spots as Sanscon Construction employees carefully place the first granite bench at the Robert Street Parkette. NEILAND BRISSENDEN/BLOOR ANNEX BIA

Originally published in October of 2016 in anticipation of the granite installations in the Bloor Street Parkettes.

By Geremy Bordonaro

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Tags: Annex · Life

NEWS: OCAD students design bike rings (Dec. 2019)

December 9th, 2019 · Comments Off on NEWS: OCAD students design bike rings (Dec. 2019)

Traditional and contemporary pieces win competition

OCAD student Che Huang kneels next to his winning bike ring design for Bloor Annex BIA parkettes. KHYRSTEN MIERAS/GLEANER NEWS

By Khyrsten Mieras

New bike racks are being added to the Annex’s urban landscape after OCAD announced the winners of its design contest in mid-November.

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Tags: Annex · News

CHATTER: Park gets a haircut (Nov. 2019)

December 9th, 2019 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Park gets a haircut (Nov. 2019)

Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

After two Gleaner stories amplifying community concerns over the city’s neglect of Paul Martel Park (on Madison north of Bloor), city staff gave the green space a major clean-up and its long promised new sign. Residents are hopeful that park staff bring the planting beds back to life in the spring.

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Tags: Annex · News

EDITORIAL: Don Cherry’s deeply revealing words (Nov. 2019)

December 9th, 2019 · 1 Comment

Don Cherry made it easy for Rogers’s-owned Sportsnet to fire him on Nov. 11. His attack on newcomers for not wearing symbols of allegiance (the poppy) advances a very non-Canadian agenda that is entirely contrary to the values that our soldiers and allies fought for over several wars.  It’s not so much that times have changed and Cherry’s views have failed to evolve, but that we believe Cherry is advancing views that were never very Canadian. The fact that he was fired on Remembrance Day is the real tribute to those troops.

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Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion

CHATTER: Brodie barred from 104 Harbord (Oct. 2019)

October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Brodie barred from 104 Harbord (Oct. 2019)

In July, the Gleaner reported that once again the illegal pot dispensary operating out of 104 Harbord Street just west of Spadina had been raided by police. Jeff Brodie who claimed to be a legal residential tenant of the premises was evicted because the building was being used as an illegal cannabis store. Police erected concrete barriers to the storefront making access for any purpose impossible.

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Tags: Annex · News

CHATTER: Police Scholarship Awarded (Oct. 2019

October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Police Scholarship Awarded (Oct. 2019

Courtesy Toronto Police Service

Monica Maitland, who was a student at Central Toronto Academy, has won this year’s safety scholarship from Toronto Police 14 Division. Pictured above from left is Staff Sgt. Tam Bui, Monica Maitland, and Brian Burchell, Scholarship Chair (and publisher of this newspaper). Monica overcame significant family hardships but still managed to make her community a safer more welcoming place. One of the many things she has done is to organize gift bags of essentials for homeless people in her neighbourhood. She approached corporate stores to make donations for these essentials. Thanks to the scholarship, Monica is now enrolled at Seneca College where she intends to study Behavioral Psychology.

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Tags: Annex · News

EDITORIAL: The hidden cost of Conservative climate plans (Oct. 2019)

October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: The hidden cost of Conservative climate plans (Oct. 2019)

As they look to win votes in Ontario, federal Liberal candidates point to Doug Ford as a sort of warning about the dangers of casting a vote in favour of the Conservative Party of Canada. It seems even the Conservatives are buying into this narrative, as party leader Andrew Scheer brought Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to Ontario to give his campaign a boost this month. The distraction does little to veil the similarity between Conservative leaders, particularly when it comes to their climate plans. 

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Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion