Following on the success of the May event, the Mirvish Village Business Improvement Area is again hosting a sidewalk sale this time on Saturday, July 11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Vintage wares, artists’ creations, and new merchandise will be featured, and local restaurants will offer up their tasty bites.

This event’s new roster of live music will include performances from the Backtrack Band (Motown and R&B), the Sean Stanley Quartet (early jazz, blues, and ragtime), and Mirian Katrib (singer songwriter, fusion).

—Brian Burchell, Gleaner News

Trip marks 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Canada

The Esprit Orchestra performed The Falcon’s Trumpet by R. Murray Schafer with Robert Venables on trumpet on June 4 at the Guangxi Arts Institute Concert Hall. Courtesy Mimi Mok, Esprit Orchestra

By Beth McKay

Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra is fearless when it comes to musical innovation, and its brave musical style has recently landed them on the opposite side of the world. In late May, 30 Esprit musicians left Toronto for the orchestra’s debut tour of China.

Esprit’s founding musical director and conductor Alex Pauk has been nominated for the Margo Bindhardt and Rita Davies Award, a $10,000 prize given to an individual who demonstrates creative and cultural leadership in the development of Toronto’s arts and culture. The award acknowledges just the sort of initiative exemplified by this trip, and recognizes Pauk’s leadership role in bringing Esprit’s ever-evolving new musical sound to countries around the world.

Pauk hopes the trip to China will build a bridge to a future of musical exchange between the two countries, and encourage the sharing of new orchestral musical culture in the future.

“The idea is to present strongly characteristic pieces,” says Pauk about the Canadian pieces Esprit will play, noting the orchestra’s versatility and ability to perform unique music. “My work combines different aspects of what Esprit does. It combines the orchestra with digital playback sounds, like sounds of nature and electronic tones.”

The orchestra’s musical repertoire includes pieces written by R. Murray Schafer, Pauk, and his wife Alexina Louie, who will also give pre-concert talks and master classes to students throughout the tour.

Esprit is Canada’s only full-sized orchestra solely committed to performing and promoting new orchestral music. This trip to China has taken some considerable fundraising for the orchestra’s members which demonstrates their dedication to sharing new music beyond Canadian borders.

Esprit will play at multiple venues in Beijing and Nanning, returning to Canada on June 6. Pauk says that on May 29, they will be performing all Canadian music at the 2015 Beijing Modern Music Festival.

“In the future, we would really like to see some players come here [to Toronto],” says Pauk. With the foundation that has been made over the past two decades, this idea isn’t too far fetched.

The musicians do intend to do some sightseeing in China, but Pauk expects to be very busy. On June 2, Esprit will combine with the musicians of the Guangxi Symphony Orchestra to form an ensemble of over 90 players. This large orchestra will perform both a Canadian and an international program including works from Vietnamese composer ng Hu Phúc, Germany’s Jörg Widmann, and three phenomenal Chinese composers.

The trip coincides with the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and the People’s Republic of China, a relationship that has been growing continuously every year since 1970.

Canada is home to roughly 1.3 million Canadian residents of Chinese origin, and has a comprehensive relationship with China at many levels and in many areas, including trade, health, education, and culture, according to the Government of Canada’s website.

Inclusionary zoning is used in 300 U.S. cities

By Joe Cressy

What makes a great city? Arts and culture, diversity, economic growth, and civic engagement. All these things matter a great deal. But, if you ask me, the test of a truly great city is whether we adequately care for the residents who live here. Sadly, on this front, we are letting residents of Toronto down.

Our city has an affordable housing crisis; and, the longer we delay in confronting it, the worse off we will all be.

The City of Toronto currently has more than 91,000 families on our centralized affordable housing waiting list. It’s a number that is almost hard to comprehend. This number exists at the very same time that Toronto has more condo towers under construction than any other city in North America.

As we grow as a city, we need to ensure that we are building neighbourhoods, rather than simply adding density. While we work hard to ensure we have the physical and social infrastructure to support our neighbourhoods, we also need to ensure that we are building equitable communities.

The affordable housing crisis is not new — it has been years in the making. In the 1990s, the provincial government downloaded the responsibility of affordable housing onto municipalities, and created a funding gap that continues to grow. Meanwhile, successive federal governments have been missing in action. In fact, Canada remains the only G7 country without a national housing strategy.

We need our provincial and federal governments to come back to the table as partners to address the housing crisis facing our city. Close the Housing Gap, a campaign led by the city’s Affordable Housing Office in partnership with Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) and countless other allies, seeks to build awareness of our city’s housing crisis and tell the other levels of government that the status quo is simply not an option.

With or without the partnership of our government counterparts, we must find ways to dramatically increase investments in affordable housing as our city sees more and more residential development. In Ward 20, we have more than 60 active development files and many more on the horizon. Our community is committed to building affordable housing, and our office requires an investment in affordability in every development in Ward 20. However, we need a legislative framework that mandates this investment in every development, city-wide.

Simply put, we can address the affordable housing crisis by simply mandating that every new residential development with over 20 units includes affordable units. It’s a practice known as inclusionary zoning and it is not new. In fact, inclusionary zoning is already used in more than 300 U.S. cities.

It’s a concept that seems almost too simple. Growth pays for equitable growth, and in the process we build mixed-income neighbourhoods. So, why haven’t we implemented this solution yet? The answer lies with the province. Inclusionary zoning requires provincial legislation, and the province of Ontario has not responded to the city’s repeated requests for this legislation.

With the addition of inclusionary zoning policies to our planning framework, our city could create a steady and growing supply of affordable rental and home ownership units across the city. We could ensure that our communities are built equitably, and that all residents have greater access to resources and services.

What makes a great city? I’d argue that inclusionary zoning and mandating equitable growth would be a good start.

Joe Cressy is the city councillor for Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina.

Collection of photographs captures spirit and character of the area

Gerald Pisarzowski, poses in front of Charlotte Hale & Associates Gallery on Markham St. Photo Courtesy of Charlotte Hale

By Annemarie Brissenden

Gerald Pisarzowski leafs through a series of platinum black and white prints bound into a beautiful book that is a work of art unto itself. His face quirks into the hint of an expression as he alights on a fresh image, each photo sparking a memory and a story.

“These people were so nice,” he remembers, hovering over a photograph of Ewe Dowlah and her co-workers at Caribbean Roti Place. “They were fun,” he comments about John Barthel and Maryse Claude of Vintage Video Collectables.

Mirvish Village People, produced in a limited run of 250 numbered copies, is the culmination of 80 days spent photographing the people who have built their businesses on the storied street. Many of the photos were exhibited during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in May at the Charlotte Hale & Associates Gallery in Mirvish Village.

“Out of a conversation around the remarkable people in Mirvish Village sprang forth the concept to produce a series of portraits that would become a legacy to the unique magic that has existed on the little street for many years,” writes Charlotte Hale, herself a subject, in the book’s foreword.

The resulting portraits, in which the subjects stand in the centre of their place of business, staring directly at the camera, are arresting. When viewed together, they celebrate the quirky diversity of Mirvish Village, one of the city’s hidden gems, where you can buy yarn for a knitting project, pick up the latest comic book, visit an art gallery, get your clothing mended, and finish off with some New Orleans cuisine, all on the same street.

“I call it a little hub of wonder in Toronto,” says Hale in her gallery, surrounded by the photos.

With Westbank Corp. — a sponsor of the exhibit — set to redevelop the area in the coming years, it’s unclear what will come of the businesses that have thrived here for decades, but what is clear is that the subjects of the pictures are facing the future with pride and determination.

As Hale notes, “Someone commented that everyone looks proud; a strength of the exhibition is that it reflects the pride in the community.”

“This captures it just before the change,” explains Pisarzowski. “It had to be done now, not in two or three years’ time.”

“It’s a visual narrative of a community in the early stages of a major development,” adds Hale.

Traditionally Pisarzowski is a landscape artist noted for his hand-coated platinum prints, and so documenting the urban environment is a departure for the photographer, who admits to a bit of “vision block, like writer’s block”, before embarking on the project.

He expected to produce only 20 to 25 images, but in the end was hard pressed to keep the exhibit to 50, and plans to take additional pictures this summer. The collection of images has attracted much interest, particularly from Westbank, which will restage the exhibit in its community office, and the Toronto Archives. A copy of the book has also been put into the Mirvish Collection, as a tribute to the couple who — whether by design or happenstance — created the little neighbourhood.

“It was the vision of one individual, or really his wife,” says Pisarzowski of Anne and Ed Mirvish. “This was really an incubator. People, for not a lot of money, could start a business, and then as their mentor, you had Ed Mirvish. He seemed a pretty relaxed and easy-going sort who recognized that people came up through the system. He knew what it meant not to have hot water.”

Pisarzowski envisions returning to the project again in the coming years, suggesting that he’ll do the “next set of images in 2017, during the” — and here he struggles to find the right word, “destruction, tear down, evolution”, before settling on — “middle portion”.

It is a reflection of how, just as the conversation continues about the future of the area, this exhibition continues to expand and evolve, becoming a space for sharing and recording memories.

“The thing about the exhibition being here,” says Hale, “is that it opens the door for people to come in and tell their stories about the area.”

For a copy of Mirvish Village People by Gerald Pisarzowski, please contact Charlotte Hale and Associates at chaleandassociates.com. Proceeds from the sale of the book, which costs $425, will go to Covenant House.

The orange wave has toppled the bastion of blue.

The New Democratic Party’s (NDP) recent sweep to power in Alberta should put the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) on notice. Even if the right wing was united in that province, the combined seats of the Conservative and Wild Rose parties would not be enough to crush the wave. Meanwhile, the Liberals caused barely a ripple. It’s a clear signal that those living in the province wanted change.

It also reflects changing demographics.

People from the rest of Canada are moving to Alberta seeking jobs. But not all of them are ending up on oil rigs; just as many are settling in urban centres like Edmonton and Calgary, bringing with them their urban sensibilities and urban concerns. If we are lucky, it will force the western-centric CPC to start paying attention to the urban agenda, if only as a means of survival.

But, if past experience is any indication, we won’t be so lucky. The federal government has a history of ignoring cities, particularly Toronto. Even when the Liberals were in power, spouting lots of rhetoric about pursuing an urban agenda, that rhetoric rarely materialized into action.

As for the Conservatives, their strategy ignores the basic realities of our nation: 80 per cent of us live in cities. And one of those cities — the city that everyone loves to hate — Toronto, is an economic engine that drives the wealth of the country.

As with the Liberals before them, Conservative members of Parliament don’t seem to champion an urban- or Toronto-centric agenda. The Minister of Finance, Joe Oliver, serves a large Toronto riding, but you’d never know it when the budget is tabled.

At least, however, the CPC pays attention to Eglinton-Lawrence. It’s been ignoring Trinity-Spadina for years, fielding laughable candidates without any hope of success. One wonders if it’s the Conservatives’ version of hazing: sending the newbie to run in downtown Toronto, just to see how the candidate fares against the likes of well-known community stalwarts like Adam Vaughan, Olivia Chow, or Joe Cressy.

This election, however, the party had a chance to demonstrate its intent to take the riding seriously. The change in electoral boundaries has seen Trinity-Spadina split into University-Rosedale, Toronto-Centre, and Spadina-Fort York. Trinity-Spadina’s current MP, Adam Vaughan, will run in Spadina-Fort York, while Chrystia Freeland (MP, Toronto-Centre) will run in University-Rosedale. While both are Liberal, Freeland is new to parts of the Annex, as is NDP newcomer Jennifer Hollett, who will run against her.

In University-Rosedale, then, the CPC has a chance it hasn’t had in years: the opportunity to run against those who haven’t established a political toehold in the area. Further, with the boundary change, the party has demographics in its favour: a greater number of voters likely to flow to blue aligned against a group of voters who could run red, orange, or even green.

Except the Conservatives have already bungled it.

For one thing, waiting for the Conservatives to answer a Gleaner inquiry is akin to waiting for Godot. We’re trying not to take that personally.

What we are more concerned about is the candidate they’ve fielded. Young and energetic, Karim Jivraj has a website (that’s all we have to refer to) that focuses on his bilingualism, international perspective, and legal acumen, all of which (according to him) have positioned him as a successful future legislator. What the website doesn’t reflect, or even discuss, is an understanding of issues specific to University-Rosedale, or even Toronto. It also fails to mention that he hasn’t even lived here for a year. Is that the whiff of a carpet bag we smell?

It’s time for the Conservatives to take our neighbourhood, and our city, seriously.

Led by David Suzuki Foundation Neighbourhood Park Ranger Aidan Nolan (above left), volunteers transform a canoe into a garden in front of the Tollkeeper’s Cottage at Bathurst Street and Davenport Road. A Community Canoe Garden Network initiative, the garden — one of 11 installed along the corridor of old Garrison Creek — creates an abundant habitat for bees, birds, bats, and butterflies while reminding residents of the lost rivers that flow beneath the city. Photo: Neiland Brissenden, Gleaner News

A native plant garden is taking root in a derelict canoe positioned on what was once the shore of a lake dating to the last ice age. Located in Tollkeeper’s Park at Bathurst Street and Davenport Road, it is one of 20 urban installations that will make up the Community Canoe Garden Network, itself part of the Homegrown National Park Project. Each canoe garden is beached along Garrison Creek, one of the city’s old waterways, and provides a habitat for local bees, bats, butterflies, and birds.

Aidan Nolen, a David Suzuki Foundation volunteer, which the foundation terms a Neighbourhood Park Ranger, is leading the initiative, and planning to install nine more community canoes this year.

“Nolan is a super volunteer who has committed an extraordinary amount of time and energy to this cause,” said Jode Roberts, a foundation staff member. “He has taken it a step further by including an educational component about lost rivers, and has started to include First Nations groups who identify with the canoe as a cultural symbol.”

A corridor for native and European travellers alike for generations, the location of this particular canoe is especially historically significant.

All of downtown south of Davenport Road was once under Lake Iroquois, until approximately 12,000 to 13,000 years ago, when the last ice age ended and the receding waters formed Lake Ontario. Still visible, the old shoreline is noticeable in the dramatic changes in elevation at Bathurst Street north of Davenport Road.

Thought to have been a trail stretching from Montreal to Niagara, this route along the edge of an ancient lake was documented by Elizabeth Simcoe (wife of then Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe) in 1776. Only the section between the Humber and Don rivers is in its original location.

The Tollkeeper’s Cottage, also part of the park, is a museum about tolls, roads, and nineteenth-century life. The oldest structure of its kind Canada, it dates to 1835, a time when private developers built roads, and charged all those travelling along them a fee, or toll, per use. Think of it as an early Highway 407 built on a native pathway.

Interested in hosting a canoe installation? For further information, or to make a donation, please visit www.communitycanoe.ca.

—Brian Burchell/Gleaner News

Government urged to act now to reduce the risk of a rail catastrophe

By Arthur White

About 200 people attending an April town hall on rail safety learned that little has changed since they last met in November.

“I was asked to tell you what progress we’ve made,” said Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s), flanked by Liberal MPs Chrystia Freeland (Toronto Centre), Adam Vaughan (Trinity-Spadina), and Carolyn Bennet (St. Paul’s). “Very little to none.”

Afraid that an oil train derailment could turn their neighbourhood into another Lac-Mégantic, the residents who crowded into the Church of the Messiah on Avenue Road blasted the government for what they see as dangerous inaction. Proving the point, Matlow went over the unanswered slew of motions, letters, and meetings city council has used to try and press Lisa Raitt, the Minister of Transport, to take further action.

“We have been contacting her quite often and have actually received no response,” reported Patricia Lai, a co-founder of Safe Rail Communities, an advocacy group from the Junction dedicated to tackling the crude oil threat. She has also been trying to reach Raitt with petitions and letters, but has come up against a wall of indifference.

“One thousand people could just go [to an unprotected rail crossing] and refuse to move,” proposed Peter von Bitter at an April town hall on rail safety. He was one of many residents at the meeting frustrated with the federal government’s lack of progress on rail safety. Photo: Neiland Brissenden, Gleaner News

Every day, hundreds of tank cars rattle by the church, which sits right next to the Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP) line along Dupont Street. Many carry tens of thousands of litres of volatile crude oil. Almost two years ago, 72 of those cars passed by here on their way to Lac-Mégantic, Que., where they derailed and exploded, killing 47.

“That could have been us,” said Lai.

In April 2014, Transport Canada announced tougher standards in response to the fatal derailment in Lac-Mégantic and moved to take 5,000 of the most dangerous DOT-111 tank cars off the rails. The remaining cars, which the Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has repeatedly called “inadequate for the safe transport of dangerous goods”, will have to be retrofitted by 2017. For Matlow, that isn’t nearly fast enough.

“Minister Raitt has made various piecemeal announcements that respond to perhaps the most dangerous cars,” said Matlow. “But the many, many hundreds throughout the country that are not the most dangerous, but still extremely dangerous, are still going through our neighbourhoods every single day and night.”

Since the last town hall in November, three rail accidents have struck Ontario, all near Gogama, south of Timmins. Bennett and Vaughan both said the derailments reveal the inadequacy of the standards Raitt announced last year. The cars met the new regulations, but still leaked and caught fire, in one case polluting nearby waterways.

“We were already concerned that the changes to the DOT-111 cars were not sufficient,” said Bennett. “Now it’s proven.”

This March the Ministry responded with new standards that require full head shields, thicker steel, and thermal jackets on all cars, measures the TSB has been recommending for decades. But the changes leave 10 years for the industry to catch up, allowing dangerous cars to plow through Toronto until 2025.

Many at the town hall were unhappy with this timeline, with one person pointing out that defective consumer products are immediately recalled whenever they present the slightest safety risk. Contacted after the meeting for comment, Raitt’s press secretary, Zack Segal, said that there is a “balance to be struck”, and the deadlines in place are “aggressive”. But industry can’t replace a tank car fleet numbering well over 200,000 from one day to the next, especially when many are based in the United States, which has laid out an even slower timeline.

“We must increase the safety of rail cars as soon as possible,” he said, “but we must also provide tank car owners with enough time to comply with the new requirements.”

Infrastructure was another major issue at the town hall, especially given that TSB reports reveal a possible link between weak rail lines and the Gogama crashes. Vaughan brought the problem home to Toronto, warning about the risk posed by the dozens of level crossings along the city’s rail corridor. The Conservatives have committed only $10 million to improve them, he told the audience, a sum that “doesn’t even cover the environmental assessment”.

Vaughan was stark about what an accident would do to the Annex.

A relatively new rail tank car, part of a train that stretched as far as the eye could see, was parked on the CP rail line just north of Loblaws at Christie and Dupont streets on April 29. It appeared the entire train was carrying the same cargo, Flammable Liquids, as denoted by the red symbol defined as such by Transport Canada’s website. Photo: Brian Burchell, Gleaner News

“If those cars crash they blow up; an explosion in a dense urban area is not going to be anything other than an extraordinary, horrific tragedy.”

Segal took issue with Vaughan’s charges, responding that the $10 million improvement fund is only one part of the ministry’s plan to address safety at level crossings. He added that Transport Canada has also imposed regulations that provide crossing safety standards and clarify the respective responsibilities of rail and road authorities.

Those regulations will still do nothing to upgrade level crossings to overpasses, however, a measure Vaughan views as a priority.

Lai’s most scathing criticism focused on what she sees as a lack of government oversight, a problem both she and Freeland blamed on the Conservatives’ push for industry self-regulation.

“Right now railways are responsible for creating their own audit system and auditing themselves,” explained Lai. “The federal government just sort of says, ‘Oh, you have an auditing system, check. Oh, you’ve done an audit, check. You’re done, we’re good.’”

In response, Segal said that industry self-audits do not replace regulations, rules or standards, and that Transport Canada expects rail companies to take “necessary corrective action” if its audits detect a significant deficiency. He further emphasized that Transport Canada conducts approximately 30,000 inspections and audits per year and that there have been no cuts to inspections, to the department’s core operating budget, or to “front-line safety and security”. Still, those policies did not succeed in finding the track problems that triggered the Gogama crashes, or in preventing the Lac-Mégantic tragedy.

After tearing apart the government, the town hall opened up to audience questions, and the talk turned to solutions.

Lai said methods already exist to reduce the volatility of Bakken oil from North Dakota, a particularly explosive form of fracked oil that’s led the surge in rail transport through Toronto. She said that volatile oil can by stabilized, and such technologies are required in some jurisdictions, like Texas, but that North Dakota has yet to impose similar regulations.

“What’s good enough for Texans, who are not a people known for hyper-regulation, is good enough for my constituents,” said Freeland, arguing that the Conservatives’ inability to convince American officials to improve regulations represents a failure in diplomatic relations.

Henry Wiercinski, one of the directors of the Annex Residents’ Association, drew particularly warm applause when he called on the government to “slow the trains down”. Though the speed limit on the line through Toronto is 35 miles per hour for hazardous goods, Wiercinski said, the cars are known to puncture at even lower speeds. Someone in the audience shouted that they’ve seen the trains going much faster.

(Reached for comment subsequent to the meeting, CP?press officer Salem Woodrow said that the company monitors its crews using on-board recording systems and that failure to comply with speed limits would “result in consequences for employees. Train speed limits are strictly adhered to. “If residents believe that a train is exceeding the speed limit, they should report it to CP.”)

Bennett stirred up a bit of controversy when she called for “a serious conversation about rerouting”. There might be formidable political obstacles to bypassing Toronto, one woman noted, since the rail line running north of the city passes right through Raitt’s Halton riding.

But Safe Rail Communities doesn’t support rerouting. The group has grown into a national organization, and Lai doesn’t think shifting the problem to another community is a real solution.

“If we say we don’t want them in our backyards, well, who will?” she asked. “Some people are saying ‘move it up to Milton’; well, those places are populated too, and saying that this group of citizens’ lives are more valuable than that group is not going to effect any meaningful change.”

Despite the occasional disagreement, all of the panellists agreed that, between strengthening tank car standards, improving infrastructure, and increasing government oversight, something could be done to make communities safer. Freeland, who lives only a block away from the rail line, put it bluntly.

“Look, the reality is, this is very fixable,” she said. “Ultimately it is the job of the federal government to regulate and it is the job of the federal government to keep people safe. And a federal government that cared about that could fix this really quite quickly.”

As the debate went on, some in the crowd started to propose more drastic tactics to force Raitt’s hand. Peter von Bitter, who said he helped stop the Spadina expressway from cutting through the Annex more than 40 years ago, called for another round of civil disobedience.

“There are all these unprotected crossings,” he said. “So one thousand people could just go there and refuse to move. Surely the newspapers would be invited.”

Lai didn’t think she’d lead the charge for direct action, but said blocking the rails might do some good.

“We agree that those kinds of things are part of the discussion and solution,” she said. “Maybe not for us personally, but absolutely, those kinds of people do get attention, and that’s what we need.”

A few in the crowd seemed eager to join von Bitter, including Dionne Renée, a former mayoral candidate.

“I’m sure many people will join on the corridors of Toronto to stand there in front of the trains and say ‘You’re not moving forward!’ in order to get Lisa Raitt, or anyone else, to start taking action,” she said, before throwing a question back at the MPs sitting behind her.

“I ask our elected officials, would you be on the front of the line standing on the tracks with us?”

Madison Avenue to become a Heritage Conservation District

By Annemarie Brissenden

What may be one of Toronto’s most historic streets was almost demolished to make way for an urban expressway.

And now, after championing its survival over the Spadina Expressway, the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) is leading an effort to ensure the preservation of Madison Avenue well into the future by seeking to designate it as a Heritage Conservation District (HCD).

Falling under the purview of the Ontario Heritage Act, HCDs allow a municipality to protect and enhance the special character of a property or group of properties.

There are currently 20 in the city, three of which are in the Gleaner’s coverage area: Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA) I and II, and the East Annex. In addition to the proposed Madison Avenue HCD, two more studies are underway for HVRA III and the West Annex.

They “are an incredibly important tool under the heritage act,” said Joe Cressy (Trinity-Spadina, Ward 20), “to not just designate a property, but to preserve an entire area’s unique character.”

It’s something Madison Avenue has in spades.

In 1886, Simeon Janes, a late-nineteenth-century land speculator, purchased a large parcel of land to create a residential suburb for middle and upper class professionals. He prohibited the development of anything but single-family homes, and eliminated lanes for horses and carriage storage. That area — from Bedford to Spadina roads, and Dupont to Bloor streets — became the Annex, and its houses reflect one of the most prolific and creative periods of Toronto’s built history.

Of all the streets in Janes’s Annex, Madison Avenue remains the best example of that history, retaining much of the same character that marked the street when it was created.

“It is the relative completeness of the original fabric, the original streetscape, the concentration of the uniquely Annex style houses, as well as examples of a variety of other architectural expression that warrant protection,” writes architect Catherine Nasmith in a report for the ARA on the street’s heritage. “Almost all of the original structures survive, and it is this continuity of heritage fabric that it is important to protect and preserve.”

If established, the Madison Avenue HCD would apply to the exterior of the residential properties from Bloor to Dupont streets, except those that front on Bloor Street. Even those that do not contribute to the heritage character of the street would be included, and would be subject to district guidelines should any major alterations or construction be proposed. There would be no impact on selling the property, and changing the property use would fall under the city’s existing zoning regulations.

Nasmith’s report, available on the ARA website, describes the architectural elements that would be accounted for under the proposed HCD: windows, brick, stone masonry, roofs, and front yards. There’s no guidance about the back of the houses, except that any additions must not exceed the main roofline of the property as seen from the sidewalk.

The guidelines also encourage homeowners to eliminate front yard parking and paving if possible, adding, “depressed garages are disruptive to the streetscape”.

Madison Avenue homeowners attending a meeting on the proposed HCD in April seemed mostly in support of the plan, said Sandra Shaul, the ARA board member who has been working on the HCD since 2005. She added that those with concerns were worried about having to get approvals for repairs.

According to Heritage Preservation Service’s (HPS) website, routine maintenance and minor alterations that do not affect a property’s heritage character would likely be approved, while major changes that have an impact on the property’s heritage attributes or involve demolition, requiring a city permit anyway, would need additional approval by city council.

HCDs are not meant to “freeze a street in time, but help manage and guide growth,” noted Cressy. They are “intended to preserve the view of the heritage elements from the street.”

He added that HPS consults with property owners regularly, and pointed to the city’s grant program, which provides funds for the preservation of heritage properties, as well as a tax rebate for eligible heritage property owners.

“Madison Avenue has been identified by architectural historians in the past as a gem,” said Shaul. “We have the opportunity to preserve an intact streetscape. We have already lost St. George Street and Spadina Avenue.”

The city is seeking comments on the Madison Avenue HCD Study & Plan (available at www.hcdtoronto.wordpress.com) until May 15, at which point the plan will be updated and finalized for review and approval by community council, followed by city council.

ROMwalks, a volunteer initiative of the Royal Ontario Museum, features a walking tour of the Annex that includes Madison Avenue and presents an extensive review of the area’s history. The next walk runs July 12 at 2 p.m. For further information, visit www.rom.on.ca/romwalks.

Questions of density raised at PARA AGM

By Annemarie Brissenden

Palmerston Area Residents’ Association (PARA) members hoping to gain special insight into Gregory Henriquez’s plans for the redevelopment of the corner at Bloor and Bathurst streets had to settle for a presentation on the values underpinning his work.

The architect, chosen by developer Westbank Corp., was the featured guest at PARA’s well-attended annual general meeting on May 11. He was joined by Graig Uens, a Toronto planner coordinating the City of Toronto’s response to the development, who explained the planning process as it relates to the Mirvish Village/Honest Ed’s site.

The meeting itself evolved into a bit of a dance as attendees challenged Henriquez to reveal his plans for the site and pushed Uens to set up community consultation meetings as soon as possible, while both gentlemen did a lot of arm-waving as they tried not to comment on a proposal that has not yet been submitted to City Planning for formal review.

“There is no application in for the site yet,” explained Uens. “Once the application comes in, we will begin our internal review and response process.”

In general terms, if the application comes in at the end of May, the planning department expects to have comments from the city’s agencies in July and present its preliminary report to the Toronto East York Community Council in the fall, likely in October. It would then work toward submitting a final report in late fall or early winter. It will also, as with any application of this nature, conduct community consultations, something that’s not without a unique set of challenges when it comes to this site in particular.

Westbank’s plans have generated a great deal of interest, drawing comment not just from members of neighbouring communities, but also from a broad range of stakeholders. Westbank’s March open house, for example, attracted over 500 people. In this case, the traditional model of community consultation may not work, admitted Uens, “so we may have to come up with significant and unorthodox gestures” for meeting with local residents. All avenues of communication are under consideration, he added, included open houses, pop-up tents at community fairs, on-line materials, and outreach through residents’ associations and business improvement areas.

If the questions from PARA’s AGM are any indication, local residents want to understand the planning review process, as well as what impact a development like the one Westbank presented at its open house would have on their daily lives.

“What effect would 3,000 extra people have on the 12,000 people who are already living there?” asked one resident. “How will I get to work?” “Will we never be able to park on our street again?”

“What will it mean for Bloor Street?” asked others.

“Will the difference to the people living here be huge or marginal?” asked yet another attendee at the meeting, who summed up the general tone of the questions.

Uens stressed that the city will include the answers to these questions in its final report, adding that it will also consider the proposal in conjunction with other approved developments for the area, as well as the results of the four corners study on Bloor and Bathurst streets that is set to be finalized this summer.

The question and answer period made it clear that local residents are still unsure what to make of Westbank and the Vancouver-based architect.

During his presentation, Henriquez discussed the “commodification of density” and the impact of “rapid growth over a short period of time” on Vancouver. In reviewing his previous projects, he stressed his commitment to a values-based architecture and a high level of sustainability, and his desire to find a balance between his client and the community.

“Partnerships with groups like PARA are essential if we are going to do good in the world,” said Henriquez, reassuring the crowd that he was definitely the architect for the site, and that this wasn’t part of some elaborate bait and switch, as one person suggested.

Acknowledging that Vancouver’s exceptional density “is shocking, we are doing things that are needed. The question is, how to do it.”

This seems to be the biggest challenge facing the area, whose residents are mindful of the need for additional density; the question is how to absorb it.

The conundrum is not lost on the planning office, either.

“Toronto is a growth centre,” said Uens, noting that the city attracts 50,000 new residents each year.

But for many PARA members at the AGM, the basic question remains, how much is too much, and how will we know if we have reached the limit?