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.

[pullquote]“We want to be completely accessible and welcoming”—Sarah Bradley, TPL branch head[/pullquote]

The drop-in program runs once a month on Wednesday evenings, and is open to people of all ages and all abilities.

Bradley says she doesn’t mind if people show up with their instrument in an unopened cardboard box (which has happened); those leading the class are happy to help unpack the ukulele, tune it, and launch someone on their musical journey.

“We want to be completely accessible and welcoming,” she says.

Although ukuleles aren’t expensive — they are available for as little as $30 — the library also provides a few for use during the class. Bradley is also keen to spread the word about the new instrument-lending program, which is run out of the Parkdale branch.

Ukuleles are a bit trendy at the moment, so there are several drop-in programs throughout the city, but few are designed to get a budding musician going from zero to strumming in an hour or less, and without cost.

“It’s hard to find places where you can learn for free,” notes Bradley.

The August drop-in was reflective of a typical night. The evening begins as participants — ranging from 8 to 80 — unpack their instruments and get tuning. Once everyone has their instrument tuned, many with the help of library staff, Bradley reviews the basics: how to hold the instrument, how to strum, where to place one’s fingers, and a few standard chords. Then the group progresses to playing songs very quickly, tackling everything from “You are My Sunshine” to “This Land is Your Land” to “The Adams Family”.

Ivy, who uses a branch instrument throughout the session, during which she has picked up the ukulele for the first time, says she came to see what it was all about.

With little or no musical background, she’s thinking of purchasing her own ukulele.

“It’s good for the well-being of a senior to learn an instrument,” says Ivy, adding she will be back.

Siblings Aiden, 12, and Andie, 8, have fun sharing a branch ukulele throughout the drop-in. It’s their first time playing the small stringed instrument, though both play the piano and the recorder.

“It’s a bit challenging, changing hand positions,” says Andie.

Ian, who plays guitar but has only been playing ukulele for about a month, brought his tenor ukulele. Slightly longer than the standard uke, it has a deeper tone that adds a richer sound to the music that results when the budding musicians start to play in sync.

As Bradley leads, she picks like a professional, even though she has only been playing for six months. She started in order to participate in the program, and credits her musical background along with the versatility of the instrument for gaining a familiarity with it so easily.

“The ukulele is one of the most welcoming instruments,” explains Adam Platek, a music teacher at King Edward Jr. and Sr. Public School, who has also held ukulele jams in Seaton Village during the annual Open Tuning festival. “Once you learn three or four chords, you can play hundreds of songs.

“It is diminutive, but very powerful.”

Platek introduces students to the ukulele early, sometimes as early as grades four or five, as it prepares them for learning the guitar in later grades.

“It starts them on their musical road,” he says, “and it’s an instrument that they can carry for the rest of their lives.”

“Kids are drawn to it at a young age,” agrees Bradley, who practises with her 9-year-old nephew on a ukulele she has borrowed from her 12-year-old.

Both she and Platek encourage anyone interested in picking up an instrument to consider the ukulele.

“It’s really affordable, easy to learn, and with very little you can do a lot,” says Platek. “If anyone is interested in learning music at all, the uke is the best instrument to start on.”

The TPL’s Lillian H. Smith branch fall programming schedule is still being organized, but will be posted on the events section of the branch’s website once finalized.

READ MORE:

ARTS: Connecting neighbours through music (May 2016)

NEWS: A haven for children’s literature (September 2015)

FROM THE ARCHIVES: A grand gesture in the age of thrift (September 2015)

Fans celebrate another up-and-down season

PHOTO BY R.S. KONJEK/GLEANER NEWS: Brett van Pelt of the Toronto Maple Leafs delivers a pitch on July 31 during the final game of the regular season.

By R.S. Konjek

Baseball won’t be rushed.

It is a pastime to be sipped and savoured.

The game will outlast all manner of hindrances en route to its conclusion — be it a rainstorm, a tie score, or a lopsided blowout demanding a show of mercy.

With few exceptions, the same nine innings and 27 outs need to go into the books before the game is over. It might take 90 minutes, it might span days, but that’s how it has always been.

That’s why we love it so. Every summer, Toronto Maple Leafs baseball at Christie Pits provides the opportunity to take in a game, or a couple of dozen. For all its rules and requirements, no two ballgames are ever alike.

The promise of seeing something unexpected keeps bringing us back.

Fans can sprawl out on the Pits’ generous slopes and soak in the sun, or find a cosy spot under a tree. The club’s diehard followers — the Christie Crazies — cluster tightly around the infield to cheer on the home nine.

The close proximity of fans and players allows for a friendly familiarity between the two groups, as they while away the summer in each other’s company.

If the clock is not the enemy in baseball, then it’s the calendar.

The Maple Leafs’ 2016 season provided plenty of ups and downs, and the regular season came to an end on July 31 when the Leafs hosted the Barrie Baycats.

The Barrie team is a curious clowder of cats. Almost half of the club’s roster is made up of former Leafs. Some players were traded there, some sought more playing time up north, but most of them remain local to Toronto. Whenever these two teams meet, it’s as if there are two home teams on the field and the rivalry is intense.

In recent seasons the Baycats have done well against their former team. Barrie eliminated Toronto in last year’s IBL semi-finals, but not before both sides battled to a seventh and deciding game in the series.

The final day of this regular season saw the latest chapter in this rivalry unfold.

Stakes were high.

The Leafs had an opportunity to clinch fourth place and home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

On an individual level, catcher Justin Marra was chasing the league’s home run title.

Marra entered the day tied for the league lead with a player from the Kitchener Panthers. A newcomer to the club, Marra thrilled the Pits this summer with a swashbuckling, all-or-nothing approach at the plate. His ferocious swings reminded observers of Reggie Jackson, a home run basher of a different era.

Pow! In his first turn at the plate, Marra hit his 16th home run of the season. That gave him the edge in the home run chase.

The Leafs and Baycats battled all afternoon, exchanging the lead four times before Barrie concluded the affair with a barrage of ninth inning home runs to steal a 9-6 victory.

The Leafs finished in 5th place in the league standings. In the home run race, Marra’s edge did not last long. His Kitchener rival ended up hitting two on the final day to win the crown.

With the regular season ended, it’s time for the playoffs. In the first round, beginning in early August, the Leafs’ opponents will be the Brantford Red Sox. This matchup is a repeat of last year’s first round, which the Leafs won.

The Leafs have got the bats and they have demonstrated that all season. Their 54 home runs were second in the league, and the team’s .307 batting average bested that of Brantford.

Hopes are high that the local boys will go on another run deep into the month, giving all of us Leaf watchers many more chances to enjoy baseball at the Pits. Once it’s over, there will be nothing left but to count the long, cold days until spring.

The Maple Leafs’ playoff schedule will be posted on the club’s website. As always, admission to Leafs games at Christie Pits is free. As always, admission to Leafs games at Christie Pits is free.

READ MORE:

SPORTS: Christie comebacks and walk-offs (July 2016)

SPORTS: Leafs ahead 3-1 after first four games of the season (June 2016)

SPORTS: The bats are back at Christie Pits (May 2016)

NEWS: Second phase of park revitalization to begin (May 2016)

NEWS: Christie Pits renewal set to begin (July 2015)

PHOTO BY GEREMY BORDONARO/GLEANER NEWS: The June 23 unveiling of Nick Sweetman’s mural on the east wall of 442 Bloor St. W. coincided with the proclamation that Toronto is now the first official Bee City in Canada. Commissioned by Burt’s Bees, Sweetman’s mural — which features the female metallic green sweat bee responsible for a large amount of pollination — is intended to demonstrate the bee’s importance, and how we, on earth, says the artist, “are the single house on the block” with only one earth to keep healthy.

READ MORE:

ARTS: Bringing art to the people (April 2016)

NEWS: Untapped potential: Animating our local laneways (February 2016)

NEWS: Incubating micro-retail: Laneways untapped realm of urban design (December 2015)

ARTS: Graffiti artist Erica Balon creates mural on Bloor Street West (July 2015)

NEWS: A new side to graffiti: SPUD counters war on graffiti with gallery exhibit (April 2012)

Rogers family donates $5 million to Hot Docs

By Annemarie Brissenden

Ninety years after John Grierson — who would go on to become the first commissioner of the National Film Board of Canada — coined the term documentary, Toronto’s burgeoning narrative feature industry has secured a permanent home.

Late last month, Hot Docs received a $5-million gift from the Rogers Foundation, enabling the organization to purchase the historic Bloor Street theatre and rename it the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. The donation also includes $1 million for the establishment of the Hot Docs Ted Rogers fund, which will provide production grants for feature-length documentaries to Canadian filmmakers.

[pullquote]“We need documentary films to share stories”—Martha Rogers, chair, Rogers Foundation[/pullquote]

“Having a home is an important step in an organization’s evolution and growth,” said Chris McDonald, president of Hot Docs, the only independent cinema in the world dedicated to documentaries and host of the international film festival of the same name.

Or as Martha Rogers, chair of the Rogers Foundation, said, “This allows Hot Docs to own the building and protect the future. It’s a cultural asset for this city.”

It’s also a way to honour Ted Rogers, who was one of the original sponsors of Hot Docs.

“We’re just a little in love with documentary film,” admitted the foundation chair.

And she’s not the only one.

According to McDonald, Toronto has the third largest cinema-going audience in the world, and is home to more film festivals than anywhere else.

“Canadians by nature of our national character are really good at [documentaries],” said documentarian Jennifer Baichwal, director of Watermark and Manufacturing Landscapes. “We don’t have an agenda to push, and are served by looking at things from different angles, not just the dominant perspective.”

That multi-dimensional perspective is one that appealed to Tiffany Hsiung, first as a viewer, and then as a producer.

Hot Docs ignited her love for documentaries, and Hsiung recently made her filmmaking debut at this year’s festival, where she was the runner-up audience favourite for The Apology. The film, seven years in the making, follows three grandmothers in their fight for justice after the Japanese Imperial Army made them sex slaves during the Second World War.

For Hsiung, these are the kinds of important stories best served by feature-length documentaries.

“I learned about these ‘comfort women’ and was meeting these female survivors from across Asia,” she said, “but no one knew what I was talking about and that enraged me. That sparked the need to be able to tell the story.”

“We need documentary films to share stories,” said Rogers. “It’s one of the most important mediums we have out there.”

McDonald — who pointed out that documentary is an inclusive medium that suits everything from serious stories about human rights to very personal narratives to subjects as silly as a competitive endurance tickling organization — said that in documentaries “we learn more about each other, ourselves, and we also learn more about the world”.

“We are incredibly lucky to have two world-class festivals in our city,” said Baichwal. “It brings the world to us, and it allows us to showcase Canadian filmmakers to the world.”

Just as important as the purchase of the cinema — “a huge boon to the filmmaking community and an incredible vote of confidence for the documentary community” — is the creation of the production fund, added the filmmaker.

“Being a documentarian is not a cushy or lucrative job; even though we are as established as we are ever going to be, it is still a dicey situation for making a living,” explained Baichwal. Providing a production fund — which adds to the support that the organization has always given to filmmakers at critical stages — “fills out the support Hot Docs gives to the community”.

That community spirit is something the organizers take very seriously, whether it is the filmmakers they support or the neighbourhood they call home.

“The cinema is very much the heart and soul of the Annex and the community. It could have been redeveloped into condos, but it survived for a reason: there is a great community all around it,” said McDonald. “We’re going to be friendly and responsible neighbours.”

Other than putting up a new marquee and making some small changes to the front, McDonald said he doesn’t anticipate making any major changes to the building.

“Our goal is to continue running a great cinema and a great community cinema.”

READ MORE:

ARTS: Making her mark (July 2016)

Phase two additions include a new stage area

By Geremy Bordonaro

After a long wait, Margaret Fairley Park is set to undergo its second, and final, stage of revitalization this summer. Construction is expected to begin in the middle of July and finish this autumn.

The park’s space will be expanded, the wading pool will be improved, two play structures and a new stage area for fall fairs added, as well as more trees, plants, and seating. During phase 1 — completed in August of 2013 — old structures and a utility building were demolished, the current play structures installed, and new wooden furniture added.

[pullquote]“It’s really important as a community gathering place as there are not a lot of parks in Harbord Village”—Amy Furness, community volunteer[/pullquote]

“At the time that the revitalization began it was just a somewhat neglected, fairly ordinary park. It had play structures that were nearing the end of their lifetime,” said Amy Furness, a community volunteer who sat on the redesign committee and who remembers a time when the space was not in good condition. “There was very little opportunity for more creative play and very little room for nature in the park.”

Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) said that he welcomes the upgrades but still sees room for improvement when it comes to the area’s parks.

“The area of Harbord Village is deficient in greenspace,” he said. “What we’re doing is to enhance the space we already have.”

Furness agreed.

“It’s really important as a community gathering place as there are not a lot of parks in Harbord Village,” she said. “In fact, there are no other parks in Harbord Village apart from that little Sally Bird adult park, which is for more structured use.”

The community played a large part in the redesign process, and worked with the councillor’s office, staff at Toronto parks, and the Harbord Village Residents’ Association to develop a plan for the renewal.

“We had a community event where people got to imagine what they wanted for the new park,” Furness said. “What came out of that was a really playful, nature-based, creative vision for a park that was not reflective of that.”

One of the major concerns of the community that is being addressed is the need for more space.

“Everyone has expressed a need for more open room in the park,” Furness said. “More room for unstructured play in the park. Picnic blankets, kicking around soccer balls, the ability to gather for that sort of thing.”

Dinny Biggs, who has lived in Harbord Village for over 30 years, also stressed the importance of having a community gathering space.

“You informally get to meet other parents and talk, just share ideas and funny things that are happening with raising kids,” Biggs said. “And now there’s similar things happening. I have a five-year-old grandson. When he comes to visit here I get him over to the park. It’s one of his favourite parks.”

Though the park’s construction schedule is slated to keep the park cut off for most of the summer, Biggs said she was unconcerned.

“We know the design will be better in the end.”

Phase two of the park renewal had been delayed until now due to the availability of funds. The $600,000 cost was more than was projected in the initial budget, and it took this long to secure the money.

But after a long wait, Amy Furness said she is anticipating the completion of the park’s renewal.

“We’re really looking forward to this process being over because it will let us turn the energy of community members towards programming and enjoying the park.”

READ MORE:

Part two of our 2016 parks review (July 2016)

PART ONE: Green sanctuaries in the heart of the city (June 2016)

Grading our Greenspace (2015)

An expansive dog run, a spot for runners, and an upgrade underway

In this, part two of our annual survey of parks in the Annex, we step into new territory. The majority of parks reviewed this month are ones we haven’t covered in the past, and as in part one, we discovered great greenspaces mixed among the mediocre, comfortable niches, and one park that needs a lot of work. Also this month? An update on work at the Brunswick-College Parkette, which is showing a lot of promise.

Reviews by Geremy Bordonaro and Emily Rea.

Healey Willan Park

504 Euclid Ave.

Time: 12:30 p.m.

Grade: A (last year A)

Reason to go: Healey Willan Park is great for small children. The space contains many play structures and toys for kids, with room to spare. Parents have more than enough seating with a lot of good vantage points for keeping an eye on their young. Thanks to the fences and an eye for cleanliness, the park is more than safe to use. Plenty of varieties of trees give a good amount of shade in case the heat gets bad. Overall this park is a complete package in terms of a family park.

Overheard: “Are there laser guns in the game?”

Did you know: Healey Willan Park is located on the former location of the Sisters of the Church convent.

Brunswick-College Parkette

15 Brunswick Ave.

Time: 12 p.m.

Grade: N/A

Reason to go: Once an overgrown disaster that highlighted not only the lack of green space in the area, but also the general neglect of existing parks, it’s been approximately five years since efforts began to have the parkette revitalized. Those five years have seen design competitions, cooperation between Joe Cressy’s (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) office and the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, and much scrutiny. When the parkette reopens this fall, it will be renamed The Doctors’ Parkette, and feature decorative pavers, seating areas, and improved planting.

Overheard: The whirring and humming of construction machinery and nearby waitresses taking orders at Caplansky’s.

Did you know: In 2011 the Harbord Village Residents’ Association held a design contest to help push the city to redesign the area.

Casa Loma Parkette

328a Walmer Rd.

Time: 11 a.m.

Grade: C

Reason to go: As the name implies, Casa Loma Parkette is just a short walk from Casa Loma. There is very little in this park save for a bench, a few trees, a picnic table, and a lot of free space, which has its positives and negatives. There is quite a lot of room to lie down on a blanket and relax or start an impromptu picnic. On the downside, there is very little shade, which may make it unbearable during especially hot summer days.

Overheard: “There’s a snapdragon shortage!”

Did you know: The nearby stables bear the names of the horses owned by Henry Pellatt, who lived in Casa Loma.

Village of Yorkville Park

115 Cumberland St.

Time: 4:00 p.m.

Grade: A

PHOTO BY EMILY REA/GLEANER NEWS: The Village of Yorkville Park is a natural extension of the area, and features some inventive uses of water as well as a piece of the Canadian Shield that is part art installation, part climbing structure.

Reason to go: Village of Yorkville Park is located in the heart of the busy, posh shopping district. It is a perfect spot for people-watching or enjoying a drink on a hot day. Children enjoy scrambling up the big rock, which is a piece of the Canadian Shield. The park has a water feature and seating in both the sun and the shade. It does not feel like an oasis, but rather a natural extension of the cosmopolitan neighbourhood. It would be nice to see more green space for lounging, but in an area where real estate is at a premium, Yorkville Park makes the most of its space and is well integrated in the neighbourhood.

Overheard: “Your gelato matches your dress!”

Did you know: The park is designed as a collection of various landscapes in Canada, including the prairies and marshes.

Queen’s Park

47 Queen’s Park Cres.

Time: 4:30 p.m.

Grade: B+

Reason to go: Queen’s Park’s beautiful and relaxing landscape sits by the Ontario Legislature, surrounded by Queen’s Park Crescent. A thick canopy of trees shades the entire park, breaking only to reveal the large statue that lies at the centre of the park. The paths that radiate out from the statue are popular with commuters passing by and runners out for their daily jog. Queen’s Park has plenty of benches, but no other features — it is a park for running, walking, or sitting, not playing.

Overheard: “Who is that in the statue?”

Did you know: The man in the statue at the centre of the park is King Edward VII, grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II.

Vermont Square Park

819 Palmerston Ave.

Time: 2:00 p.m.

Grade: A

PHOTO BY EMILY REA/GLEANER NEWS: Vermont Square, with its pirate playground, bocce ball courts, and ample space, is one of the best we reviewed this month despite the sandy areas where the grass has been worn down.

Reason to go: After a refresh a few years ago, Vermont Square Park has one of the best playgrounds in the neighbourhood. Stylized to look like a ship, the play structure is inventive and popular among neighbourhood children. The park is spacious, with plenty of green space and seating. However, the field in the centre is worn down to dirt. Additionally, the area could use more trees to provide extra shade. Nonetheless, Vermont Square Park is one of the best parks in the neighbourhood.

Overheard: “Do we have to go home?”

Did you know: The park has bocce ball courts, a rarity in the city.

Huron Playground

495 Huron St.

Time: 5:00 p.m.

Grade: D+

Reason to go: Huron Playground is in desperate need of an update. The grass is worn down to dirt throughout the park, meaning there is no pleasant place to lounge. The area smells of the litter strewn around, and graffiti marks the play structures and outbuilding. The park itself is a reasonable size and is located in a quiet area. If Huron Playground were re-vamped, it could be a perfect after-school spot for children from nearby Huron Public School, but in its current state, the playground is deserted and dingy.

Overheard: Silence.

Did you know: Huron Playground is getting a renewal starting this year.

Bickford Park

468 Grace St.

Grade: B+ (last year A)

Time: 1 p.m.

Reason to go: Bickford Park serves as a great dog park. There’s a massive amount of space for dogs to run around and stretch out and dog bags and disposals are readily available. Despite this focus, however, there isn’t much for humans. The aged seating and park benches are very sparse outside the off-leash section, and while there is a baseball diamond in the park, with Christie Pits so close by, there isn’t much reason to use it. Dog owners should definitely have Bickford Park on their minds.

Overheard: “Hey yo! Boy, get off of her! Sorry about that.”

Did you know: Dogs stick out their tongues when they get hot in order to cool down.

READ MORE:

PART ONE: Green sanctuaries in the heart of the city (June 2016)

Grading our Greenspace (2015)

City hosts consultation on Westbank’s Mirvish Village plan

By Annemarie Brissenden

So pervasive is the spectre of Donald Trump these days that it’s impossible to escape, even in the Annex.

“Thank god it wasn’t Donald Trump,” said one community member of Westbank Project Corp.’s plans for Mirvish Village during a June 13 community meeting at the Bickford Centre. Met with much laughter and applause, this was perhaps one of the few times everyone in the room was in agreement.

[pullquote]“The building has to fit with both the existing and planned context”—Graig Uens, Planner, City of Toronto[/pullquote]

It was City Planning’s first opportunity to canvass the community for feedback on the developer’s revised application for the project, which it submitted to the City of Toronto in May. Hosted by the planning department, the meeting included many representatives from Westbank, councillors Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) and Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina), as well as several officials from the city’s parks, transportation, and planning departments.

Planner Graig Uens provided some preliminary comments on the revised application. Noting that the parcel of land — which includes Honest Ed’s and Mirvish Village and is bounded by Bloor, Bathurst, Lennox, and Markham streets — is targeted for growth in context, Uens said that the revisions correspond to areas previously flagged by the city: increased green space and heritage conservation, and a refined built form. He added that the city is continuing to work externally with the applicant and internally to ensure new services keep pace with growth and intensification.

These latter concerns were the ones communities focused on the most during the question and answer session.

“Believe me, things are pretty dense there right now,” said Seaton Village resident Aaron Davis, who was echoed by a neighbour: “it is already difficult to get on the subway east from Bathurst. [With] no changes in transit capacity, how can the neighbourhood add 1,000 units?”

Some people expressed the need for greater bicycling services, while others, like one Palmerston Boulevard and Lennox Street resident, wondered how traffic would be handled, both during construction and after, especially in the context of development in the Bathurst corridor.

“It’s difficult to get up my driveway between 4 and 7 p.m.; I haven’t seen a clear analysis of how we’re going to handle that density.”

Connected to the questions about density are questions about height, particularly regarding the taller two towers, one of which tops out at 29 storeys.

“The towers stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the community; the max should be nine storeys,” said a member of the audience, who identified herself as an architect.

Many asked how the application fits into the context of the Four Corners Study — which currently states that no building at Bloor and Bathurst streets should be higher than nine storeys — a planning document that would govern development in the area that is also underway at the city.

“Westbank has ripped [that] document to shreds,” said one person to much applause.

However, Uens was at pains to explain that “the southwest corner is a different animal; the larger site affords an opportunity to do more.”

“The building has to fit with both the existing and planned context,” he added.

Not all those who took to the microphone were opposed to the development. As all the units remain rental, some believe it will enable those who don’t anticipate being able to afford to buy a house in the Annex to continue to live in the neighbourhood.

An 18-year-old Harbord Collegiate Institute student with the demeanour of a young Joe Cressy stood up in “[full] support of this project. It will allow people to live in the neighbourhood.”

“Hats off to the [Westbank] team for listening, and incorporating the funky things that make the Annex so great,” said Geoff Cape, the founding CEO of the Evergreen Foundation. “I have teenage boys, and maybe they will be able to stay in the neighbourhood.”

“I think we’re close,” said Brian Burchell, chair of the Bloor-Annex BIA (who also publishes this newspaper). A supporter of the project from day one, he challenged the “dynamic duo” of Cressy and Layton to “find a way to make sure this does not end up at the Ontario Municipal Board, if we wish to show that we can effectively plan in this city without being under the constant thumb of that erratic provincial arbiter.”

All of Westbank’s submissions are available at the city’s planning portal. This article is part of a series of this newspaper’s ongoing coverage of the development.

READ MORE:

 NEWS: Westbank submits revised application (June 2016)

DEVELOPINGS: Annual review reflects tension between community activism and OMB (March 2016)

Westbank towers over 4 Corners (January 2016)

City hosts first Mirvish Village community consultation (November 2015)

Residents’ associations share concerns for Mirvish Village (October 2015)

Westbank submits application (August 2015)

BABIA endorses Westbank proposal (July 2015)

How do you make it real? (April 2015)

By Geremy Bordonaro

A dispute between Caplansky’s Deli and the building’s landowner over repairs caused the restaurant to be closed briefly in June before a court order reopened it.

On June 6, the landlord of the popular deli at College Street and Brunswick Avenue unexpectedly changed the locks and terminated the restaurant’s lease. Home to the city’s first Caplansky’s Deli for seven years, the landlord said it was giving notice that the business had violated a term in its lease related to repairs.

Earlier this year repairs to the building, unrelated to the deli, had accidentally triggered the sprinkler system and flooded the basement. Caplansky’s paid for the sprinkler repairs and later for a city mandate to replace a fire panel. These repairs ended up being the cause of the closure.

“It is something we had done,” said Cody Kitchener, the media coordinator for Caplansky’s Deli, a few days after the incident. “We had to get our fire system upgraded and we paid out of pocket. We’re thinking that may be the issue but we don’t know with any sort of certainty.”

Caplansky’s Deli will continue to run in its original location for the foreseeable future.

By Geremy Bordonaro

A recent community consultation meeting demonstrated that there is wide support for designating Kensington Market as a Heritage Conservation District (HCD), although one aspect of the neighbourhood — its unique culture — may be difficult to quantify under the heritage designation.

Residents from across Kensington and Chinatown expressed their opinions on what makes the area unique, and how a designation could best protect the market, during the June 21 meeting.

While the feedback for the project was positive and enthusiastic, most of the attendees focused on the community’s culture rather than its architecture, which is what an HCD is designed to protect.

The community was labelled an HCD study zone earlier this year.

Feedback forms from the meeting will be available in mid-July for residents to read on the HCD Toronto website, which also has information on several other consultations across the city.

READ MORE:

NEWS: Kensington Market to become heritage district (May 2016)

NEWS: Community council approves Madison Avenue HCD (October 2015)

NEWS: Preserving a historic street (May 2015)

The boldly named Transformational Task Force is a massive rethink of how the Toronto Police Service (TPS) spends over $1 billion each year as guardians of public safety. It has issued an interim report that is chock full of trial balloons worthy of serious consideration. However, there are some glaring omissions that are perhaps attributable to the fact that this is, after all, a review of the police by the police.

[pullquote]It really is trying to leapfrog to a more modern, efficient, transparent, and accountable public service.[/pullquote]

Born of a longstanding frustration with the service’s seeming inability to come to grips with a budget that grows unstoppably, the task force deals with issues that go well beyond the accounting ledger. It really is trying to leapfrog to a more modern, efficient, transparent, and accountable public service. The political and temperamental alignment of this mayor, this premier, and, most importantly, this new police chief, is an opportunity that should not be squandered.

One cannot ignore the fact that last year 4,125 of the 7,800 uniform and civilian employees of the TPS were on the province’s Sunshine List, each earning $100,000 or more. About $900 million of the operating budget, or 89 per cent, is spent on salaries and benefits, and the service is locked into annual increases under a three-year collective agreement with the city. It’s no wonder the operating budget grows like it’s on autopilot.

Managing this expensive payroll and deploying the highly-trained staff to meet the shifting sands of crime incidents and crime prevention is key to spending precious public tax dollars effectively. After all, wage gains for police have gone up by 20 per cent since 2008 whilst crime rates have fallen. The police ought not to be exempt from the supply and demand economy. The task force was right to focus first on how police are deployed, suggesting using new technology and new thinking.

The 17 divisions from which the service operates no longer reflect the city’s individual neighbourhoods and their needs, so the task force recommends reducing the number of stations. In a positive, innovative step that would make the service more accessible and nimble, it would assign officers available by phone, email, text messages, social media, and via an enhanced TPS application, to work in specific neighbourhoods every day. Disbanding the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) — a blunt instrument approach in which officers without local knowledge are parachuted into higher crime areas — is also a good idea.

The task force recommends a more triaged approach to 9-1-1 calls. At the moment, the police are the primary responders and the recommendation is that uniformed officers limit their attendance to when there is an immediate personal safety risk or an urgent investigative need.

Getting the TPS out of the business of managing lifeguards and crossing guards will bring savings too. Many of the recommendations suggest offloading duties placed on expensive uniformed officers onto civilians either within the force, in other city departments, or even in some cases, private security.

The recommendations around “culture change” are disappointing and a muddle of euphemisms. It may be impossible for the police themselves to talk about the “thin blue line” and whether or not it is appropriate to continue to pay suspended officers who have been charged with criminal offences. Constable James Forcillo, the convicted murderer of Sammy Yatim, is a shining example of what is wrong with this practice. Between this interim report and the final one, the task force should summon the courage to address some of the real issues around police culture.

Overall, the community-centred vision is laudable. The attempts at changing the engagement with neighbourhoods and the utilization of new technology will bring the police closer to the people whom they have pledged to protect.

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