PHOTO BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANE NEWS: Uno Prii designed 666 Spadina Ave., which is listed on the city’s inventory of Heritage Properties. The property owner wants to add an 11-storey building and eight stacked townhouses on the site.
By Brian Burchell
Tags: General
PHOTO BY SUMMER REID/GLEANER NEWS: The city’s first road mural was installed late last month on Baldwin Street in Kensington Market. Part of the StreetARToronto Road Mural program, the mural is the result of a collaboration between artists and the Kensington Market BIA. The mural was painted using latex paint, which is made to withstand weather elements and foot traffic for six to nine months. The City of Toronto launched the pilot project after a proposal to legalize road murals did not pass Toronto City Council. Four additional murals will be installed throughout the city under the project by the end of October.
—Summer Reid/Gleaner News
PHOTO BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS FILE PHOTO: City of Toronto senior planner Barry Brooks said that one aim of the Bloor Corridor/Annex Block Study is to “protect the significant view of the historical building (above) at 1 Spadina Cres. We are trying not to distract from the spire of that building.”
PHOTO BY SUMMER REID/GLEANER NEWS: The Bloor Street pilot bike lane project was launched on Aug. 12.
The Annex’s cycling community celebrated the unveiling of the Bloor Street pilot bike lane project on Aug. 12.
The Toronto Police Service’s recent crackdown on 45 pot dispensaries, many of which are just steps from the Annex, signals the City of Toronto’s frustration with the federal government’s lack of progress on the decriminalization of marijuana, as well as the need for a framework regulating the production, distribution, and sale of the green bud. Although a Liberal campaign promise to amend the decriminalization of pot is expected to be realized in 2017, entrepreneurs have already begun to establish a thriving retail market.
“This is a major greening initiative for the neighbourhood”—Jonathan Da Silva, Bloor-Annex BIA
By Annemarie Brissenden
Bloor Street West is about to get a whole lot greener, and it’s all thanks to the trees.
Tags: General
“This will be a relief to the neighbourhood”—Sue Dexter, HVRA
By Annemarie Brissenden
After one last weekend-long blowout, the doors of the Brunswick House closed for good, leaving the neighbourhood eagerly anticipating the site’s next, presumably quieter and more agreeable, incarnation.
The City of Toronto’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation department is considering two layouts for the renewed Huron Street Playground. The first option (above) includes welcoming park entrances, a southest corner activated by destination play equipment, and the removal of the existing fence. In the second option (below), a perimeter path surrounding the play equipment will provide a circuit for racing or running. The existing fence will remain, complemented by the addition of new welcoming entrance options. Images courtesy of Forest and Field Landscape Architect and the City of Toronto.
The Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) has unveiled a new web application to track all the building developments in the areas on and north of Bloor Street.
Supervised drug injection sites are on their way to Toronto if local councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) gets his way. The rookie member of city council finds himself on many civic bodies, but at the Toronto Board of Health, he is the elected chair. Cressy announced the initiative in late March after the board directed the Medical Officer of Health to conduct community consultations for several supervised injection sites. This could lead to the federal government’s endorsement of the proposal; that is, making it legal for injection drug users to come into a controlled site with their own privately procured drug, get some guidance and a clean needle, and under the watchful supervision of a nurse, inject themselves.
Tags: Annex · Editorial · Opinion
Tags: Annex · Editorial · General · Opinion
Re “Bike lane plan up for debate” (January 2016): As someone who has actively chased better Bloor Street biking for over a decade, I should be very happy that bike safety changes may finally occur, but I’m not fully pleased.
