By Albert Koehl

I’m always happy when someone angrily yells at me when I advocate for cycling improvements in Toronto. I used to have a flag on my bike calling for ‘Bike Lanes on Bloor’ – until someone tore it off. This too made me happy. What I hate most is being ignored.

The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said that all truth passes through three stages: “First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self evident.” When I’m yelled at, it means cycling is at stage two – and closing in on the third.

After almost a century of building, expanding, and extending our auto-based transport system, there is plenty of evidence that we need drastic change: 300 000 Canadians killed and millions more injured on our roads during that period, countless billions of dollars in damages, poor levels of fitness, lethal air pollution, and the frightening pace of climate change. It’s inevitable that the value of cycling (and walking) will soon be accepted as self-evident- stymied only by the slow pace of receiving needed funds.

When automobiles became popular in Canada and the U.S. in the 1920s it wasn’t because of their efficiency. Instead it was arguments about liberty, independence, and the illusion of speed, along with the rising power of motoring interests that forced streetcar lines out of most cities. Over the next decades governments sunk billions of dollars into road and highway infrastructure. Today, the average citizens spend almost $10,000 annually to own and operate a car so they can travel just a bit faster than a bicycle.

Cycling in Toronto has become popular despite the lack of infrastructure. There benefits are obvious – physical fitness, low cost, and the pure joy of riding a bike. Despite the increasing number of cyclists on Bloor, Toronto’s bike plan remains almost 400 km short (!) of its 2011 goal of 500 km of bike lanes.

Fortunately – as the screaming at cyclists veers towards acceptance – more and more unlikely groups are promoting cycling and cycling safety. Ontario’s Chief Coroner and Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, in separate reports, have recently called for safer cycling conditions. Merchants in the Annex increasingly accept and promote bike lanes on Bloor. (Perhaps they are motivated by the Clean Air Partnership’s finding that only 10% of patrons at local businesses arrive by car – and the majority of spending is actually done by cyclists and pedestrians.) The Annex Residents Association has unanimously adopted a cycling policy that includes recommendations for bike lanes on Bloor, and 30km/h speed limits. Such strong support proves that people are finally paying attention.

So if you are among the people who oppose bike lanes and other cycling safety improvements – please take the time to yell at me. It always makes me happy — and confident that our community is heading in the right direction.

Albert Koehl is a Board member of the ARA, a founder of Bells on Bloor, and an environmental lawyer. He was on the coroner’s expert stakeholder panel for the recent active transport death reviews.

Annex stores prepare for Toronto’s plastic bag ban

By Alexa Huffman

Council announced this month that the city’s plastic bag ban will begin in the new year, but questions are now being raised about the impact this decision will have on businesses.

Making Toronto a greener place was a major factor in council voting on the bag ban Councillor David Shiner introduced this past June. After an initial voting  to ban plastic bags outright passed, 24-20, a motion this October to reconsider and reopen the debate failed to gain enough votes to go forward.

“It’s a matter of perspective but if it encourages longer lasting bags, it’s a good thing,” said Michel Lagace, co-president of the University of Toronto Environmental Student Union.

As of  Jan. 1, 2013, retail stores will no longer be able to provide customers with single-use plastic or biodegradable shopping bags, which leaves stores in the Annex looking for other options.

The scramble for options doesn’t necessarily mean that retailers, both bigger chains and smaller shops, are against the ban. Lyla Radmanovich, the corporate spokesperson for Dollarama, explained that the store is supportive of the City of Toronto’s objective to change consumer behavior in order to improve practices that benefit the environment.

“At this time, we are following the situation closely and will find appropriate alternatives as required,” Radmanovich said. “City officials have been receptive to our concerns and we look forward to how they plan on addressing this issue.”

One of those concerns include having customers be inconvenienced if they go for an impromptu shopping trip and have not thought to bring a bag.

Lagace said solutions that could work include environmentally friendly cloth bags or reusing cardboard boxes.

Karma Co-op (739 Palmerston Avenue) is a non-profit, member-owned and operated grocery store whose members add to an overstock pile of bags for those who come without.

“We’re very eco-conscious,” Talia Mcguire, Karma Co-op’s acting general manager said. “Most members like to bring in alternatives to plastic. Even in the fruit and vegetables section, I think we will use only a big roll of plastic bags a year.”

While Karma Co-op members have used their own bags for years, for others there will have to be an adjustment period. Radmanovich said Dollarama thinks other methods, like bag specifications may be just as effective as an outright ban and a discussion about alternatives is vital.

Lagace said the adjustment may prove hard to reinforce.

“But in the end, even if it’s not perfect, it’s a move in the right direction,” Lagace said. “We could be a trendsetter for another Canadian city.”

By Hamish Wilson

There was good news for cyclists at a recent public meeting initiated by the Annex Residents Association: many of the needed pieces for re-doing Bloor Street in the Annex for bike safety are finally coming together.

The ARA’s Transportation Committee produced three major recommendations for public consideration: bike lanes on Bloor, a lowering of the speed limits on residential streets to 30km, and easing “wrong” way biking on these side streets.

A study conducted in 1992 found Bloor ideal for an east-west bike route with the subway enabling a vast amount of non-car mobility, but since then official counts of bike/car crashes have shown a steady pattern of harm including four deaths with no real reaction.

The push for more bike-lanes was killed off in the summer of 2011 by the Rob Ford’s council to save around $500,000, the approximate cost of repainting the entire Bloor/Danforth – the same amount paid to former TTC Chief Gary Webster. Though cities like London, England, have seen the merits of expanding their bike network to ease subway woes, Fordian logic, backed by a majority of suburban councillors, seems intent on removing bike lanes.

Data presented by the Toronto Coalition for Active Transport showed that the majority of commerce on Bloor comes from public transit, cyclists and pedestrians. Currently, there are approximately 90 car parking spaces between Spadina and Bathurst, half of which would be excised if bike lanes are introduced in favour of the three Green P lots nearby.

With residents embracing real change to the street, Councillor Adam Vaughan is becoming increasingly supportive, though the devil lurks in the details. For instance, while wider sidewalks arguably improve pedestrian flow, good bike lanes would take up almost all of one current lane – and Bloor is not that wide. Also, merely placing sharrows on the road doesn’t adequately counter the speed of drivers who tend to respect white lines far more.

Sadly, getting a consensus from the community will not guarantee bike lanes as the motor-happy Fordists will fight this change, despite previously saying they would allow bike lanes with community support. Unfortunately, the communities and councilmembers of Scarborough, Etobicoke and North York have more votes than the old core and use them.

Next year, the city intends to redo Bloor Street from Bathurst to Lansdowne. Repairs to the Annex Bloor area’s heavily potholed and disintegrating roads could logistically be included within this makeover. Astoundingly, to merely repaint Bloor seems now to require an Environmental Assessment, whereas ripping out the hundreds of tonnes of sidewalk and road etc. has become routine destruction and waste. So what if we have issues with Mega-quarries – the three Rs don’t apply!

Civic responses, which gave equal value to lives and well-being, are in favour of attempting the repainting of Bloor between Spadina and Dundas – and to try it this fall, to see if the world ends. The simple repainting of Bloor for those 4kms would cost $100,000 – a large sum, yes, but a penny in the overall city budget. Is that too much to ask to improve the safety of cyclists while reducing carbon emissions?

HW is an Annex area cyclist advocate and consultant with many years of urging Bloor bike safety with Take the Tooker and the Bells on Bloor.

Residents try to move on

Police are investigating a total of 12 sexual assaults in the Christie Pits area. Photo by Andrew Russel.

By Andrew Russell

Residents of the Christie Pits area no longer have to look over their shoulders after police announced Monday Oct. 22 of the arrest of a 15-year-old male on 14 counts of Sexual Assault and two counts of Criminal Harassment in connection to a string of assaults that took place between August and October.

The most recent assaults took place over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Monica Gupta, chair of Friends of Christie Pits Park, said the area is shaken by the recent attacks.

“It’s very upsetting that it’s happening in our community. We shouldn’t have to afraid in our own community,” said Gupta. “It’s not reflective of this neighbourood.”

While residents are looking for answers, police are investigating the possible relationship between these and past attacks.

“Police are treating the first 10 incidents as being perpetrated by the same suspect,” said Const. Wendy Drummond. “ The potential for these recent assaults to be connected is there but more investigation is still needed.”

The attacks come just over a month after local residents held the ‘Action Against Recent Sexual Assaults’ rally to symbolically take back Christie Pits.

“Anything that’s being done to raise awareness on the street is something that’s very positive for the community and for police investigations,” said Const. Drummond. “These kinds of events can encourage people to come forward. Sexually assault is an underreported crime.”

On Saturday night Oct. 6, two separate women were assaulted in the span of a few minutes. The first woman, a 19-year-old walking from Harbord St. near College St. and Montrose Ave., was approached from behind by a man and sexually assaulted around 10:55 p.m. and fled north on Montrose.

Minutes later at around 11 p.m. he assaulted a 29-year-old woman walking south of Harbord along the same street and continued running north.

On Sunday, around 11:45 p.m., a 23-year-old woman was walking south on Grace St. from Bloor St. when a man approached her from behind and sexually assaulted her.

The suspect descriptions in all three cases vary slightly but the suspect is generally described as a black male, between 25 and 40 years old, with a stocky-to-heavy build and a height between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-10.

Monica Gupta hopes residents are not deterred by the recent attacks and continue to live their normal day-to-day lives.

“Don’t stop going out to bars, restaurants, and local businesses,” said Gupta. “It could be very detrimental to the community.”

Plan includes $3-million cut to staffing costs

By Ryan Saundercook

The Royal Ontario Museum announced in a press release this past July that it would be cutting total salary and benefits costs for its employees by 10 per cent, which amounts to roughly $3 million a year.

Janet Carding, the museum’s CEO and driving force behind the museum’s new strategic plan, said that after a decade or so of major construction projects, such as the Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the museum has worked up a significant debt, which needs to be tackled now.

“We need to manage our expenditure and reduce it right now … We’ve had a very successful philanthropic campaign, and we’ve had very successful changes in terms of visitation, but the museum nevertheless was running an overdraft and had some bills that it needed to pay, and right now we need to become smaller as an organization,” said Carding.

Carding said the changes are largely a part of keeping the museum relevant in a world where mobile internet access has left us “drowning in information.”

“We really need to think, in terms of our plans, about what kind of organization we want to be for the community,” said Carding. “What people are looking for now is not information per se, what they’re looking for is a way to journey through it and learn at their own pace, and particularly find information they can trust. We’re re-orienting ourselves around the idea that our visitors and users might visit us through the doors or might come to us online … It’s really focusing around the user and putting that at the center of the organization.”

However, such a plan won’t come without some sacrifice, and likely won’t be to everyone’s liking.

Rather than simply cutting a specific number of positions, Carding said employees have been offered a voluntary severance package, available until Aug. 31. After this date more steps may need to be taken depending on how many employees take the package.

The press release stated that “Until a final staffing plan is finalized in September 2012, no specific job reductions will be made other than the changes already announced to ROM senior management.”

OPSEU, which represents many of the ROM’s employees, will be meeting with museum representatives on Sep. 4, 2012, and is currently unable to make a comment to the media, said a representative.

Another significant change the museum has made was dropping admission prices late last year, making the ROM more accessible to patrons who may have felt that $24 was too high a price to pay for a visit to the museum.

“We removed the reason not to come by getting the price right, but we then still need to create this sense that the museum is a relevant place for the community, so that’s part of our long-term thinking,” said Carding.

Carding said the combination of a lower admission price and a more user-driven experience will help to drive numbers.

“We need to work hard to maintain and increase our visitation in order to make sure we don’t have less money coming in, and so really focusing on making the museum into what our visitors are interested in, and focusing on how we engage people and build longer term relationships, that is going to be important to our financial viability.”

The Annex, Seaton Village could be out of Trinity-Spadina riding

By Andrew Schopp

The federal electoral district of Trinity-Spadina could be cut down to size, with the Annex and Seaton Village being removed from the riding and rezoned as part of the St. Paul’s riding, if the proposed changes by Federal Electoral Boundaries Commission for Ontario go through.

The current boundaries of this part of Trinity-Spadina are the CP rail line, just north of Dupont St.; Ossington Ave. to the west; and Avenue Rd. to the east. The area that would become part of St. Paul’s comprises everything north of Bloor St., with Avenue Rd. remaining the eastern boundary, and the western boundary shifting to Dovercourt Rd. The intersection of Bloor St. W. and Ossington Ave. would become the northwest boundary of Trinity-Spadina.

The boundaries of federal electoral districts are reevaluated every 10 years, after the census is conducted. Both the number of districts and their boundaries are reassessed to reflect population shifts and growth.

According to Olivia Chow, MP for Trinity-Spadina, the proposed redistribution of electoral boundaries threatens to break up tight-knit communities.

“The change of boundaries, it will rip the University of Toronto neighborhoods apart,” said Chow, in a telephone interview.

“There are a large number of University of Toronto students and professors that live in the Annex and Seaton Village. That whole area has always worked together with the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, Huron-Sussex Residents’ Association, and the Annex [Residents’ Association]. They’ve always worked together in a lot of U of T development issues, neighbourhood development issues, and Business Improvement Areas.”

The condo-boom in Trinity-Spadina has meant a massive influx in the riding’s population. According to Statistics Canada’s 2011 census information, Trinity-Spadina’s population has grown a whopping 25.5 per cent in just five years. This translates to 29,372 new constituents in the riding.

By comparison, neighbouring Toronto Centre has only grown 7.3 per cent. In fact, no riding in the city comes close to the growth seen in Trinity-Spadina; in a distant second place is Willowdale, with 8.6 per cent.

The proposed changes would see Toronto Centre absorbing the most eastern strip of Trinity-Spadina—from University Ave. to Yonge St, and from Dundas St. W. down to the lake—if the changes are made. A sliver of Trinity-Spadina, the area from College St. down to Dundas St. and from University Ave. over to Yonge St. would be rezoned as part of a newly created Mount Pleasant riding.

“Population shifts and increases, efforts to honour existing municipal boundaries whenever possible, and the establishment of 15 new electoral districts have required substantial adjustment to Ontario’s electoral map,” said the Honourable Mr. Justice George Valin, chair of the commission, in a press release.

The proposal leaves Toronto with two additional ridings, increasing the total number to 25.

“It has always been an integrated community, so to rip the Annex part out and divide it on Bloor Street, it makes no sense whatsoever,” said Chow.
Although Chow agrees that the condo boom calls for re-distribution, she said that tearing up established Toronto communities is not the answer.

“I agree a re-distribution is necessary, but the growth really is not in the Annex part, it’s the condos,” she said.

“If you look at Yonge Street, Bay Street, and the waterfront, the growth area is really down south, so why would you want to disturb an old, established
neighbourhood in order to accommodate new condos? It makes no sense.”

The boundary changes are at this stage only a proposal and are still open for input from local residents.

Chow will be bringing together the residents’ associations that have worked together in the ward for the last 30 years to discuss the proposed boundaries.
Most concerning to Chow is that the University of Toronto neighbourhood will be split in half by the boundary changes.

“It’s mostly the University of Toronto neighbourhoods that are being chopped up into pieces and there’s no sense of identity anymore … It’s up to the local residents, it’s better that they speak up, and trust me I’ve heard from a lot of them,” she said.

While Trinity-Spadina has been an NDP riding since 2006, St. Paul’s, represented by Carolyn Bennett, has been Liberal since 1993.

When asked what effect she thought the redistribution would have on her support in the area, Chow said, “That’s the least of my concerns.”

The redistribution of electoral districts is a 10-step process. Currently the Ontario Commission is on step four, which is the release of the proposed changes. Between July and November public hearings must take place. In March 2013 MPs are able to file objections to the changes, and the entire process is expected to be completed by September 2013.

The changes will take effect in a general election called at least seven months after the new boundaries are established. While the next election is planned for October 2015, the earliest that the new boundaries would take effect would be for a general election called in April 2014.

Torontonians will have their chance to comment on the proposal at two separate meetings. The first is on Wednesday, November 14 at 10 a.m at North York Civic Centre (5100 Yonge St.), and the second takes place on Thursday November 15 at 11:30 a.m. at Metro Hall (55 John St.).

UTS humanities teacher hopes to inject urban studies into Ontario curriculum

Andrew Schopp

The curriculum taught in public schools across Ontario covers everything from the Canadian Shield to the formation of cumulus clouds, but covers very little regarding the urban landscape in which 81 per cent of Canadians live.

“It seems crazy to me that the city, everybody lives there, everyone is affected by what happens in the city, but we don’t learn about how it gets built,” said Craig Cal, urban planner at urban design firm, Urban Strategies.

Maximum City, the brainchild of humanities teacher Josh Fullan, is a summer program in urban design for high school students, with the goal of injecting urban planning curriculum into the bloodstream of Toronto schools.

According to Human Resources and Skill Development Canada, as of 2011, more than 27 million Canadians live in urban areas. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, make up one-third of Canada’s population. Yet the curriculum laid out by the Ontario Ministry of Education does not educate students about the inner workings of the municipalities the vast majority of Canadians call home.

“This kind of curriculum just doesn’t exist right now,” said Fullan.

“If we want to prepare students to live, and lead, in cities sustainably and optimally, we must give them the skills and the knowledge to do that. Students are very eager to tackle this kind of curriculum. They are very engaged and it is very relevant to them.”

Rather than spend their summers wasting away in front of the PlayStation, students in the  Maximum City program tackle a variety of urban topics and issues, guided by experts in urban design, planning, and architecture.

The experts cover everything from bicycle accessibility on Bloor Street to the unique architectural design of buildings in the Annex.

“One of the most engaging and exciting days of the program last year was the transit module. Transit is an issue that students are hugely connected to because they are major stakeholders,” he said.

“They use it very heavily and they are not really involved in any of the planning conversation, so when we have experts come in and talk to them about transit it’s a very lively discussion.”

In day nine of the 10 day program, the students of Maximum City were presented with a design challenge: to redesign a block around the University of Toronto, bordered by Spadina, Bloor, Huron and Washington streets.

“We’ve created this fictional scenario for the students which basically says that the university, which owns that entire site, has issued a request for proposals. They are looking for ideas to revitalize this underperforming site. Each team has to come up with a sustainable solution for the site. That means it has to perform better environmentally, economically, and socially,” he said.

The students enrolled in Maximum City come from all parts of the GTA, from Scarborough to Mississauga. Many are students at the University of Toronto Schools (UTS, 371 Bloor St. W.).

“After these two weeks I realized how much you can actually do to make Toronto a better city,” said Alisha Atri, 14, UTS student.

“If you just bring a community together it can become safer, if you even add lamps to a street, simple things like that can make streets safer.”

The program has made great headway in reaching a wider audience for its curriculum.

“The University of Toronto Schools has [given the] green-light for a new course next year that will be taught to a cohort of 110 students at UTS throughout the school year. It’s basically an amalgam of geography, civics, and Maximum City curriculum,” said Fullan.

“That was always kind of the goal, not just to reach an audience of 20 or 30 students in the summer, but to reach a broader audience. It remains to be seen if they carry through and teach it, but there is certainly some interest, not just at our school, but at other schools, in teaching the curriculum.”

Police and city staff aim to keep parks safe after hours

By Victoria Prouse

Increased complaints about after-hours disturbances in neighbourhood parks are a telltale sign of summer for Toronto Police 14 Division. To combat this situation, 14 Division’s Community Response Unit has implemented a special parks initiative, which began in April and runs until September.

According to Staff Sergeant Darren Halman, in responding to complaints that include illegal drug use, alcohol consumption, animals running off their leashes, and people sleeping in the parks at night, 14 Division has adopted a two-pronged approach to ensuring Toronto’s parks are welcoming and safe for all. While offences including drug and alcohol use result in immediate charges and the issuing of tickets, transgressions like allowing dogs off their leashes are initially resolved by educating individuals about park rules and regulations.

[pullquote]“They’ll go somewhere else … If we’re moving people along, for example, from Bellevue Square, they would move to Scadding Court”

—Staff Sergeant Darren Halman, 14 Division[/pullquote]

Halman identified Bellevue Square Park in Kensington Market as a particularly problematic site. “We are certainly going to monitor that area for the next little while,” he said in a telephone interview.

Despite Toronto parks being closed to visitors after midnight, officers patrolling this park clear people out on a nightly basis.

According to Halman, the fundamental problem with this method of dealing with individuals in parks after-hours is that following eviction from a park, these individuals tend to simply move to an adjacent park.

This issue is “unfortunately a reality” said Halman. “They’ll go somewhere else … If we’re moving people along, for example, from Bellevue Square, they would move to Scadding Court.”

To counteract what Halman identifies as a “revolving door” pattern, the Community Response Unit undergoes a comprehensive sweep of area parks. “We won’t just go to one park, we’ll go to six or seven parks in the area.”

A supplementary endeavour established to secure the safety of Toronto’s parks is the City of Toronto’s Park Ambassador Program (PAP). This endeavour is quite different from 14 Division’s Parks Initiative, as it focuses on addressing the root causes of undesirable behaviour in parks.

Troy Ford is the City of Toronto’s Park Ambassador. Both his supervisor, Richard Ubbens, parks director at the City of Toronto, and Halman describe Ford’s work as highly generative.

“Troy does a lot of work [in Bellevue Square] and he works with us regularly,” said Halman. “He goes in and meets [loiterers] at their level, establishes a relationship with them, talks about appropriate behaviour in parks, and escalates that as necessary,” said Ubbens in a telephone interview.

According to Ubbens, the PAP works concurrently with the City of Toronto’s Streets to Homes Program, which delivers street outreach and housing assistance to marginally-housed people throughout the city. It seeks to help find permanent housing and subsequently provide the supports they require to remain in their homes.

Ubbens characterizes after-hours park disturbances as “part of a bigger problem.” He cautioned against depicting it as a “nuisance” issue, emphasizing how it indicates systemic issues that need to be addressed. He said it reflects the fact that these people need to be connected to the right services to address the acute health issues and social service needs that frequently plague them.

Ubbens said that although bylaw infractions are much more frequent than Park Ambassador requests, the significance of this initiative cannot be underestimated. He was careful to emphasize the difference between Parks Ambassador issues and bylaw enforcement infractions.

“If it’s illegal activity, the police can obviously move in and charge people … For the most part, [the PAP] is dealing with parts of society that aren’t so well connected.”

Local cartoonist releases third book

Perry King

In the middle of the G20 protest saga in 2010, Dave Lapp was at ground zero watching the chaos.

A veteran cartoonist, teacher, and local resident, Lapp eventually took his experiences to paper, using a trusty black tip marker to draw a black-and-white two-page strip.

The strip took 10 hours a page, but this was more than a comic for Lapp. “I wasn’t doing it for the newspaper, I was doing it because … what a unique experience, man oh man,” said Lapp, who thought a final product would have taken too long for newspapers.

And then, Lapp says “that was me not relying on the media, I thought ‘I don’t trust what [is] happening on the news,’ so I went down to have a look.”

In June, Conundrum Press published the cartoonist’s third book, People Around Here, a 160-page compendium of comics that appeared in the Gleaner and other publications over the span of a decade.

“I underestimated what was going on [at the G20]. Stupid me, I had black pants on, a black shirt,” he said.

“Where are the cops? I kept thinking, ‘Where are the police?’ Here we are starting at King and Yonge. They’re walking up the street, slowly, yelling, breaking windows, breaking windows, breaking windows … and there’s a contingent of six or eight cops that kept their distance about 30, 40 metres …”

In contrast to this eye-opening experience, most of the comics in People Around Here are snapshots of everyday life. “Those stories, the original ones, were always me in coffee shops or restaurants sketching,” said Lapp.

The strips cite streets, neighbourhoods, and landmarks in Toronto, and are layered with Lapp’s dry humour. Many of the stories are of conversations with his colleagues, or conversations Lapp happened to overhear.

“There is a side to him that you don’t really see in person that does come through in the work,” said Chester Brown, Lapp’s colleague and a comic icon in his own regard. “I would place Dave at the forefront of the artists who are doing really interesting work, but there are just so many interesting young cartoonists—cartoonists in their 20s and early 30s. I guess Dave is situated somewhere between those guys and me, age-wise.”

From Honest Ed’s to Euclid Street to Yorkville, this Annex-area has often been his muse.

To have a third book published is still a pleasant surprise for this veteran artist. “Maybe the possibilities were there before, but I’m not really sure,” he said.

Lapp has come a long way as an artist. After a failed attempt to publish a comic while studying at OCAD, he resorted to publishing smaller comics. “The good news is I shifted my publishing focus. The bad news is I wasn’t thinking books at all,” he said.

He also supplemented his income with teaching gigs at the AGO and the Avenue Road Arts School (460 Avenue Rd.).

He didn’t leave his love behind, and his first two books, Drop-in and Children of the Atom, were published in the interim.

The indie comic scene in Toronto has been rewarding, but also unrelenting over the years.

Chester Brown, whom Lapp draws inspiration from, can relate.

“Going into cartooning, I had a suspicion that it wasn’t going to make me lots and lots of money and that I would be measuring my success in other ways—which is pretty much the case,” he said. “As long as you go into cartooning with your eyes wide open about that, then there are rewards to be had.”

Lapp is now focusing on publishing his next book, Pencils, a 500-page project that he began in 2006, which has been his white whale.

It is based on his own childhood life in London, Ontario at a time “when things were different. The parents weren’t monitoring all the time, no TVs, no video games. we would just go out in the field,” said Lapp. “It doesn’t have the organized evil of the Children of the Corn, but I was using up some of my nine lives with some of these neighbours.

“One of the key stories I love in the book is when my neighbour and I loaded up 30-aught-six hunting rifle. We were only like nine or ten years old … he loaded up the rifle, pointing it and swinging it at me. I had a World War II German Luger, and I filled the clip with bullets, and that’s just the two of us …”

From his parents’ divorce, to nature and his environment, the book explores relationships between himself and others at the time, and Lapp is taking studious care with the details.

Brown, a close confidant of Lapp, is looking forward to the new work. “I’m hoping it’s going to be the breakthrough book for him, the book that really puts him on the map, and gets people really recognizing him,” he said.

Pencils was intended as Lapp’s first published book, but he now finds himself with three. “I feel so lucky about all this stuff,” he said.

To see more of Lapp’s work, please visit davelappcomics.blogspot.ca.

Community Response Unit works to involve the community

By Victoria Prouse

Toronto Police 14 Division has worked diligently over the past few years to promote its image beyond the realm of law enforcement. Fundamental to their persona as, first and foremost, community members, is the work done by the Community Response Unit (CRU).

Staff Sergeant Darren Halman leads 14 Division’s CRU, which is comprised of 50 officers. “We work with the community to empower them to solve the problem,” with the ultimate goal to “try to get as many people involved.”

Halman emphasizes the crucial role the CRU plays in policing the city. “We’re not just trying to target people who are committing criminal offences,” he said. Rather, they will “have a conversation.”

14 Division covers an area that Sergeant Halman and Officer Brian Haywood describe as having undergone a rapid and marked transformation over the past 10 years. Consequently, the work being done by the CRU has become increasingly significant.

Haywood explained that ten years ago, Parkdale was a hotspot for crack cocaine-related arrests. Now crucial community networks have been consolidated in this neighbourhood, which have supported the growth of a different population in this area.

Another example is Liberty Village, now a favourite location for young professionals. However, “when you talk to the older population […] they called it ‘hooker alley’; when the trucks start, hookers would be between the trucks.”

The Community Response Unit addresses many of the issues this new demographic considers undesirable. Cutting down on park nuisance problems, as well as Project Post, an initiative increasing police presence in marginalized neighbourhoods, are CRU initiatives. “Kids shouldn’t have to go to a park and be afraid,” said Halman.

“At the CRU, what we do here is develop a strategy to help go and solve the problem.”

Tips on holding a fundraising concert in your own backyard.

By Susan Oppenheim

The first time that I heard the term “house concert” was about three years ago, when my musical son-in-law was heading to Kitchener-Waterloo to perform at one. A host opens their home, or in summertime their yard, to a minimum of 25 people who pay a cover charge, and can buy CDs and refreshments. Because these events take place in comfortable settings with like minded-people, the informality and ambience is unparalleled.

I have volunteered now for about 13 years for the Annex-based baroque orchestra Tafelmusik.

Through this connection, I was linked to “classical revolution” evenings, where performers sit in with sheet music on a drop-in basis and jam the classics. They are open to the public, sometimes donations are suggested, and you can usually order food and drinks, as they tend to take place in more-than-willing restaurants. They are fabulous experiences.

This summer I decided to host my own house concert. I have a terrific sun deck on an extension on my property (in the Christie, north of Bloor area) that is on a public laneway, so planning an open-air evening would likely not pose a sound problem for many of my neighbours.

For talent, I approached the Metis Fiddler Quartet, whom I had met at a classical revolution night. They are a totally unique classical/folk performing group comprised of two violins, a cello. and an acoustic guitar.

Siblings Alyssa, Conlin, Nicholas, and Danton Delbaere-Sawchuk, now ranging in age from 16 to 26, started playing professionally in earnest 10 years ago. They grew up nurtured and surrounded by music, with lessons ranging from the Suzuki Method, Royal Conservatory of Music, and independent mentors. They are the grateful recipients of Canada Council travel grants and study bursaries, and have earned for themselves and our country a solid reputation for playing concert that focus on the rich musical roots of Canadian Metis and Aboriginal elders. They are delightful and extremely gifted. When approached to do my first  house concert they eagerly accepted.

The only big stress I had: what if it rained? I was glued to my iPhone weather app, and luckily it didn’t.

Would I do it again? You bet!

For more on the Metis Fiddler Quartet, please visit metisfiddlerquartet.com. For more on Classical Revolution Toronto, please visit their Facebook page.

Tips that worked for me

• You are the host and you supply the space. We mutually agreed that 25 guests would be my ideal limit.
• The talent will fill the seats for you and arrive in plenty of time to help set up, work the door, and clean up afterwards.
• Local musicians find paying customers using their fan list, website, Facebook, neighbours, and family members. For our event they sold 90 per cent of the tickets.
• They brought wine and beer and CDs to boost their sales, and volunteers to assist.
• I donated homemade desserts and iced coffee and lemonade at the end of the performance for a social mix-and-mingle. This got everyone chatting, and is something that I love doing
• They included other performers in the sales who after the set quietly slipped out to their cars and brought in more instruments. We had an incredible jam session that lasted till almost midnight.

By Kristin Eliason

This past July, a new collaborative workspace opened on Bloor. CO:WORK (703 Bloor St. W.) opened with the goal of creating an inspiring space, where productivity and networking would be possible.

“I think the workforce is changing. People are empowered,” said Heidi McCulloch, founder of CO:WORK. “They can work from wherever they need to, and increasingly, they want to.”

McCulloch decided to take things into her own hands, considering flexibility and the psychology of space when opening her new business.

High ceilings and large windows flood the rooms the rooms with light.

Open spaces, 1700 square feet altogether, promote something that she likes to call “spontaneous collisions,” moments in which random encounters with colleagues can spark inspiration or solutions to problems.

“Sometimes even if you’re not talking,” she said, “there’s something that happens about being in physical proximity to people”.

Barnabe Geis, communications lead for the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), agreed.

“When you have hundreds of people working to make the world a better place under one roof, there is huge potential for new collaborations and initiatives to emerge,” he said.

CSI, which began in 2004, was at the forefront of the shared-workspace model. CSI opened their second location at 720 Bathurst in 2010. CO:WORK seems to have adopted this successful model.

Affordable work rates—an hour at CO:WORK can be had for as little as five dollars—mean the space is available to almost everyone. Private, semi-private, and open work areas cater to clients’ personalities and needs.

There are also spaces where events and workshops can be held. CO:WORK has held two events within the past month, and also sponsored the international Creative Mornings Toronto series at the Gladstone Hotel on August 31.

“I think that the big hope is that … we can just be a go-to for those people who want the office at the end of the street,” said McCulloch.

According to Geis, CSI welcomes the new kid on the block. “In the end [with these kinds of spaces], you will have happier, healthier, and more productive people, and this is of benefit to the communities they belong to, and the city itself.”

For more information on CO:WORK, please visit coworkonbloor.ca