January 27th, 2021 · Comments Off on GREENINGS: May you find your xingfu in 2021 (Jan. 2021)
You won’t find true happiness inside a box
By Terri Chu
As we leave behind one of the most collectively awful years in living memory, let’s hope we find some happiness in 2021. During my own, personal review of 2020, one life lost in particular stood out to me. Tony Hsieh’s death hit me in a way celebrity deaths usually don’t. Hsieh was the former CEO of American online shoe giant Zappos, a billionaire. I heard him speak at a conference about a decade ago, and I was so impressed that I stood in line to buy his book and get it signed just so I could ask him one question: What is your plan to lower the environmental impact of your company?
Disappointingly, he gave me a canned response about how important the environment was to Zappos but said nothing of value. I managed to flip through his book, but I can’t say I ever bothered to read it. The title never sat well with me, “Delivering Happiness.”
I just don’t buy the premise: happiness, delivered in a box? The rush that comes with the delivery of some new good is only followed by boredom and then by the insatiable desire for more “stuff.” What’s the average lag time between the joy brought on by the arrival of a new pair of shoes, and the time those same shoes are lost in the abyss of an evermore overcrowded closet?
When snippets started to come out about Hsieh’s death, I felt incredible sadness that his own quest for happiness ended the way it did. He seemed like a genuine guy who truly cared about people. I got the impression that he cared about the well-being of those who worked for him and really wanted to make customers happy by delivering it. Hsieh was well respected for building a company that empowered people to “do the right thing.”
However, his company was still built on the belief that happiness could be found in material goods.
Unfortunately the contents in the boxes delivered by Zappos, and so many other consumer goods, are created through the systemic exploitation of the living world.
The Chinese have a term that can be loosely translated into “a lifetime of happiness,”: Xingfu.
Weddings and births are the usual times to wish someone “Xingfu.” The term has a temporal significance that “happy” alone fails to capture. If someone says they feel “Xingfu,” it means they feel happy, cared for, loved, and fortunate about their life. It usually implies a culmination of life events.
Xingfu could never be delivered in a box. It could never come from the shopping mall or an online retailer.
Xingfu comes from the family and friends who surround you. In a popular 2000s era drama set in ancient China, the protagonist orphan is happily singing with her sworn sister and adopted father in a horse drawn carriage. As the music travels out, another character asks “do you hear that? That is the sound of Xingfu.”
Every single one of us knows that delivery-box “happiness” is fleeting. In 2020, when the world briefly stopped and the malls along with it, we faced a void.
Those of us with families suddenly had to focus our attention on their well-being. Those of us without families were suddenly cut-off from the webs of social support that sustain us on a day to day basis.
Most of us missed our friends and family. We missed making music, we missed having drinks with friends, hugs, kisses and chance encounters with people who we otherwise took for granted.
Xingfu is that happiness many of us didn’t know we had until it got taken away. While so many of us kept clicking for online delivery, we knew all too well that the feeling we sought would not emerge from the boxes that landed on our doorsteps.
In 2021, may we all find true happiness and realize that planetary destruction is not required in order to conjure it. May we find pleasure in spending time with loved ones. May we reach out to our neighbours, lend a helping hand, and immerse ourselves in the beauty of the living world we are a part of. May we find Xingfu now that we know it can be found right in front us.
Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldicare.ca.
January 27th, 2021 · Comments Off on LIFE: Preserving your poinsettia (Jan. 2021)
Gardening resolution for the new year
In May 2020, the Annex Gleaner celebrated 25 years of publishing. In acknowledgement of this history we are offering timely highlights of our past; this feature Preserving your poinsettia is from January 2006.
By Sarah Brierley
Here are some realistic resolutions you may actually have a hope of keeping!
1. Dust the leaf surface of your indoor houseplants. Perk up their air -cleaning capabilities by de-clogging their dusty pores with a damp cloth. Exfoliation takes on a whole new meaning!
2. Mist your houseplants — especially in winter’s dry crackling indoors weekly, or even daily if you can remember. This is an important pre-emptive strike against spider mites. Symptoms that you’ve already got the little visitors: top of leaves have yellow blotches, and tend to drop off; white webbing detected on branches. Give the plants a brick showering and swabbing down in the bathtub for exorcism.
3. Re-pot your houseplants (unless they are the types that like being root-bound).
4. Save those holiday-gift amaryllis bulbs for re-blooming. Who wouldn’t want to give these sparklers a second chance? (“Amaryllis” is a Greek word for sparkling) After blooming, remove the blooming stem to prevent it from draining the plant’s energy by trying to form a seed. Move to a sunny location and continue to water. The leaves are creating and storing food to power next year’s blossom.
When the leaves start to turn yellow (hopefully around the autumn), it is time to store it in a cool, dry, TOTALLY dark place and ignore it for eight weeks. (I’ve heard stories of amaryllis bulbs bundled into disused basement ovens) Seriously, it is like a souffle- you’ll upset the whole process if the bulb senses a peep of light too early.
After its eight-week hibernation, re-pot in fresh indoor potting soil with a bit of bone meal, and bring back to the light. Water as before.
Non-blooming is an indication that the bulb wasn’t dormant long enough, or that that the storage and forcing temperatures were too high. Bulbs that had four or more healthy leaves during the summer should have enough oomph to flower; those with less foliage may not flower. However, with time they can be coaxed into re-blooming in future years.
5. A bit of a challenge, but might as well give it a good green try: re-blooming a poinsettia.
Native to Mexico, the Aztecs used ‘Cuetlayochitl” to make a reddish dye. The flower is actually a “bract” (type of leaf). The plant has been maligned by red-flag poison warnings: an Ohio State University study showed that a 50-pound child who ate 50 bracts might have a slight stomach ache.
When the leaves start to fall off, cut back the stems to 4 to 6 inches in height. Do this in February or early March. Keep almost dry, in a shady spot. This will promote new growth. Come late spring, repot in a slightly larger pot and gradually introduce to a sunnier window, keeping the soil moist. Turn the poinsettia pot regularly to prevent rooting through the bottom hole. A quarter turn each week is suggested.
If you want the eye catching red bracts to develop again, come September you have to put it on strict light rationing. It needs to have 14 hours of TOTAL darkness per day, i.e. 5:00 pm to 8:00 a.m. Use a black plastic bag, and do so for eight weeks. (You are mimicking the light patterns in its native land at that time of year.) then position and water as before.
6. Line your household green bin with several layers of newspaper, not a plastic bag. Newspaper more readily decomposes in the big compost melt-down to which the stuff is sent. And then the system is less costly to our tax dollars as there aren’t so many plastic bags to be extracted from the process by technicians.
7. Salvage Christmas tree boughs to protect your garden beds and tree bases. Cut the branches off the main trunk, and lay them on top of your garden beds and around trees. Multiple benefits: traps snow as insulation against winter thaws and temperatures fluctuations; protects against drying winter winds; provides added moisture bonus during spring melt off. Remove in spring once shoots start peeping through.
8. Water evergreens during winter thaws (especially if under the roof overhang). As conifers still “breathe” through their leaves, evergreens lose moisture through transpiration. During no-snow periods, they are in danger of desiccating, and need to be watered weekly, just as if it were a summer drought. Branches can be freed from heavy snow pile up, but don’t knock off ice — you’re too liable to accidentally rip off living needles and branchlets.
9. Identify spots where you need to fill in with winter interest items.
10. Consider a live holiday tree for next year. (Especially good for filling in those winter interest gaps!)
If you don’t have your own garden, consider donating one to a park, church, cemetery, school, or apartment complex. Just make sure to get the okay ahead of time and check out if it can be considered a tax-deductible charitable contribution.
In the fall, buy from a reputable nursery. Store in a protected spot in your yard and water regularly. Excavate where you’ll be placing it. Put the dug earth somewhere where it won’t freeze.
Before bringing it inside, acclimatize the tree by putting it in an interim space for a few days, e.g. cool garage or unheated porch. The maximum amount of time a living tree can be in a house is five to seven days. Place in a cool spot away from heat sources. Keep lights to a minimum at they ‘cook’ the needles. Water daily. Try putting a tray of ice cubes on the root ball where they’ll gradually melt in.
Once your five to seven days of tree-dom are over, put it back in the transition site for a few days, then outdoors in the hole that’s been dug for it (still in it’s pot).
Pile the earth around it, and also other mulching material so that the roots are well protected against temperature variations and thaws and earth heaving. Come early spring, gently remove the insulating material and plant it for real.
Comments Off on LIFE: Preserving your poinsettia (Jan. 2021)Tags:Annex · Life
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on ON THE COVER: “No pandemic doesn’t have an ending” (Dec. 2020)
Based on the “Cowan’s Cocoa” sign, the Gleaner muses that this photo, dating from between 1908 and 1912, was taken just west of the Annex off Sterling Rd.
These intrepid tobogganers embody the winter spirit that will carry us through this holiday season.
The photo gracing the cover of this year’s December issue is courtesy of the City of Toronto’s Archives the photo and is from Fonds 1244, Item 438A of the William James family fonds.
The Annex Gleaner wishes you and yours lots of safe, outdoorsy fun, and a Happy New Year! Just remember the words of Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, “No pandemic doesn’t have an ending.”
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December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on NEWS: Seven storeys proposed for Davenport/Dupont (Dec. 2020)
Plans for a futuristic condo at 361 Davenport unsettled
The trapezoidal-shaped lot here on Davenport is a challenge to squeeze density into. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
By Tanya Ielyseieva
A unique 7-storey mixed-used building from the developer Bianca Pollak is set to rise for 361 Davenport Rd., near Dupont.
If approved, this development will rise above an existing trapezoidal-shaped paved parking lot at Dupont and Davenport and include 16 residential suites. The development proposes a mix of six one-bedroom units, nine two-bedroom units and one three-bedroom unit ranging in size from 538 to 1,571 square feet. A commercial office is planned for the 60 square metre ground floor. The total gross floor area will be 1569 square meters.
“The proposed building would be constructed with a variety of materials and textures which shall not only help in breaking up the perception of building mass but also provide a standard of aesthetic which can be appreciated in the given aspirational value of the neighbouring context. The 3-storey high base building facade on Davenport shall be primarily composed of aluminum brise-soleil while the facade above shall be a combination of sky-grey stone finished solid walls and transparent glazing for openings,” stated the application by KFA Architects and Planners in September 2020.
The proposed height of the building is 24.7 metres, and the mechanical penthouse will rise another 5.4 metres above the roof of the 7th floor for a total height of 30 metres.
“Due to the smaller size of the lot and limited footprint, a unique form has been proposed for the building allowing it to respond in scale to the context, especially on the western side of the property adjoining the neighbourhoods,” stated the application.
Vehicles would enter the one-level automatic underground parking garage through the private one-way lane on the North side. This double-stacked parking system will house 13 parking spaces, 12 resident and one visitor. The rear entrance around the centre will have space for 20 bicycles, 16 long term and four short term.
This building will not require a loading and garbage pickup space as it will only include 16 residential units.
The current proposal is a result of cooperation and revisions between the Annex Resident’s Association (ARA) and the developers.
“I can say that we put a lot of effort to accommodate not only our client but the entire community too,” said Stefano Pujatti, founder of architecture firm ELASTICOSPA+3, in an email to the Gleaner.
According to Gillian Bartlett, ARA’s Communication Director and a member of ARA’s planning and development committee, the company originally wanted to build a 9-storey building and the project was considerably reduced in scale during the consultation process. Nonetheless, Bartlett believes that the application was “sloppily prepared, in a hurry.”
“They have understood that everybody said this nine-story thing just doesn’t fit in. It’s like trying to shoehorn an elephant into a mouse hole, kind of work. They could not come back to us with this seven-story one, instead, they went straight ahead and went into the application process. We haven’t had a chance to talk with them about that. They obviously listened to the fact that there’s no way to get their nine-story done. However, they haven’t come to chat about the seven-story,” said Bartlett.
In 2011, the City of Toronto approved two development proposals for three net-zero townhouses and then in 2017 they approved another development, for three freehold townhouses. However, according to Bartlett, the past developers chose not to build but to sell the land at a higher value.
The land was sold for $1,700,000 in 2012, then for $2,180,000 in 2017, and finally it was bought by Pollack designs in 2019 at $3,200,000.
“Truth to tell, we’d have loved to see three townhouses on the site, but as it gets flipped for increasingly high amounts, a real plague, in my personal estimation, in this city, developers naturally want to squeeze every penny they can from the lot without any larger, publicly informed sentiment. Trust me – if I won the lottery, I’d buy that land and turn it into a forested park. But obviously, that’s not gonna happen!” said Bartlett in a letter to the Gleaner.
Comments Off on NEWS: Seven storeys proposed for Davenport/Dupont (Dec. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on NEWS: Holiday giving adapts to COVID-19
Westbank Corp. donated $5,000 to the Winter Table program at St. Peter’s Church on December 19. The developer was unable to host the neighbourhood turkey giveaway this year due to Covid-19 restrictions. Shown are (left to right) Richard Tone (Winter Welcome Table, St Peter’s Church), Father Michael McGourty (St Peter’s church), John Lee (Westbank), Councillor Mike Layton, Mario Catarino (Winter Welcome Table, St Peter’s Church), Ian MacLeod (Westbank), Michelle Naray (Westbank), and Carla Cameira (Winter Welcome Table). COURTESY WESTBANK CORP.
Due to the current public health safety restrictions, Westbank Corp., the developer of the Mirvish Village project, was unable to host its annual turkey giveaway this year.
For 28 years the Mirvish family hosted a turkey giveaway out of Honest Ed’s and Westbank picked up the tradition in 2018. More than 1,000 turkeys were given away by Westbank Corp. each year in the first two years of its program.
This year Westbank partnered with the Winter Table program at St. Peter’s Church (840 Bathurst St.) in partnership with St. Joan of Arc Parish at Bloor and Keele streets to donate $5,000 for the program. It not only paid for all of Winter Table’s takeaway meals on December 21, but hopefully will pay for meals for the remainder of the winter season.
The December 21 Winter Welcome Table will provide a full turkey or ham takeaway dinner to all those who come to receive one. Leftovers will be delivered to local shelters for their residents. The Winter Table program has run for over 25 years, and provides meals every Monday night for those in need from November to March.
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on NEWS: Area long-term care homes and COVID (Dec. 2020)
There have been many outbreaks in long-term care homes across Ontario, including ones within the Gleaner’s distribution area. According to the province, Vermont Square, Kensington Gardens, O’Neill Centre and St. George Care Community have all experienced coronavirus outbreaks but have recovered since.
According to an October 30 statement from MPP Jessica Bell’s office, 62 residents and 47 staff tested positive for the coronavirus at Vermont Square. Executive Director Abiola Awosanya did not respond to the Gleaner’s request for comment by press time. The province shared that there were 11 deaths from COVID-19 in the home.
Vermont Square is now virus-free and is only allowing essential visitors, has increased cleaning and sanitation protocols, implemented bi-weekly testing for staff, and ensured a daily screening of all residents and staff.
Also, according to the province, eight residents of Kensington Gardens died from COVID-19, as reported in the May 2020 edition of the Gleaner. Kensington Gardens is now virus-free and has implemented stronger protocols similar to those at Vermont Square.
According to the province, there are 134 long term care homes in all of Ontario with an active COVID-19 outbreak, as of December 15, 2020. Also according to the province, 2,424 long term care residents in Ontario have died from the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, and 292 locations have resolved their outbreak. Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing’s COVID-19 tracker, which includes data from retirement homes, reports much higher numbers, however.
Thankfully, the centres located in the Annex have fully recovered from the virus, and are taking extra precautions to prevent further outbreaks.
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on NEWS: Former City Councillor Ila Bossons, dead at 83 (Dec. 2020)
Ila Bossons, former Chair of the Annex Resident’s Association, died December 7 at the age of 83. Bossons served as a Metro and Toronto city councillor from 1988-2000, serving four terms through the turbulent period of Toronto’s amalgamation.
Metro Councillor Bossons represented Midtown, an area that included the Annex, but extended North to Eglinton. She was concerned with enhancing the city’s liveability, and known as a progressive who was independent of the unofficial NDP coalition.
An early advocate of recycling and bike lanes on Bloor Street, Bossons worked with the Toronto Conservation Authority to enhance protection of the city’s ravines. She also campaigned for provincial permission to let the city install cameras to catch people running red-lights.
Ila Bossons voted against Toronto’s 1996 bid to host the Summer Olympics. Again in 2000, she was one of only two councillors who voted against approving Toronto’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics, along with Michael Walker of North Toronto. At the time, bid chair David Crombie called the 54-2 vote a “ringing endorsement,” though Toronto ultimately lost to Beijing. Bossons argued the money would have been better spent on schools, housing and hospitals.
Ila Bossons was born in Germany in 1937. She attended schools in Munich, Madrid, Pittsburgh and New York. She leaves John, her husband of 56 years, her son Miles, and her brother Walter Haeberle. A full obituary will appear in an upcoming issue of the Gleaner.
—Nicole Stoffman/Gleaner News
Comments Off on NEWS: Former City Councillor Ila Bossons, dead at 83 (Dec. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: Ford attacks watershed protectors (Dec. 2020)
As the federal government adopts a bold plan to surpass its 2030 climate plan targets by dramatically hiking carbon taxes, spending billions to help Canadians retrofit homes, and provide massive incentives to carbon heavy industries to change their ways, the Ontario premier appears to be headed in the opposite direction. According to the auditor general’s recent update, this province is not even going to meet its miserly 2030 goal of reducing carbon emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels.
In early December, Doug Ford passed legislation to strip the power from local conservation authorities (CAs) who protect water quality and floodplains from the impacts of development. In addition, the provincial government has issued 38 Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO’s) that override local planning rules, supersede municipal authorities, and allow developments on wetlands, farmland, and previously protected conservation areas.
The changes to the powers of conservation authorities were buried in an omnibus budget bill and come as a surprise to those authorities, but former Tory Cabinet Minister David Crombie saw the writing on the wall. Crombie, who chairs the Greenbelt Council resigned. Six of his colleagues from the council joined him in this move to protest the sneaky amendment of the Conservation Authorities Act. He said “this is not policy or institutional reform, this is high-level bombing and must be resisted.”
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark, quickly tried to change the narrative suggesting the board members had failed “to expand the quality and quantity of the Greenbelt,” but no one is buying the idea that this provincial government is the true champion of the environment.
The bill, which is now law, forces Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities to allow development in environmentally sensitive lands. Though the CAs can attach provisions requiring the developers to enhance the natural environment, those provisions are now appealable to the minister of the environment directly and the minister’s decision on any appeal is full and final.
This fall, Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas said city staff were shocked to learn that the minister of municipal affairs had issued an MZO for a 10-acre parcel of land in the environmentally sensitive Oak Ridges Moraine. The plan, done with zero consultation with the municipality calls for a new 128-bed long-term care facility and 75 detached homes. “I am not going to sugar coat… it’s not about making affordable housing, these houses are going to sell for a million dollars each,” said Mkrakas adding that the land has water table issues and that’s just one reason it’s not zoned for residential housing. “This is not how you grow communities, this is how you ruin them.”
Outside of the legislation, the government appears to be taking aim at the CAs themselves. Environment Minister Jeff Yurek has issued an edict to all 36 of the province’s CAs to begin to wind down all non-essential programming. This would include education centres like Black Creek Pioneer Village, trails, and SNAPS (sustainable neighbourhood action programs). Since this all comes at budget time, you might think this is about money, it’s not. The CAs are funded by the municipalities. This is a mean-spirited strategy to thwart the efforts of those in roles to protect the environment. Many of the these “non-core” programs fund the core conservation ones.
So while the federal government boldly acts on the urgent need to address climate change, our provincial government is busy de-clawing groups tasked with such things as flood plain protection. Ironically, the conservation authorities’ work is even more important in the extreme weather we experience as a result of climate change. Either Doug Ford does not see the connection or he doesn’t care.
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on FORUM: Ford’s fall agenda deeply flawed (Dec. 2020)
Environment, evictions, schools dominate final days of Queen’s Park 2020 Session
By Jessica Bell
Queen’s Park closed for the year on December 8. Here are the legislative highlights from the final few weeks:
The Ford government continued trampling on Ontario’s natural environment. Government Bill 229 stripped the power of local conservation authorities to protect water quality and floodplains from development.
We also learned that Premier Ford has issued 38 Ministerial Zoning Orders to allow developers to override local planning rules as well as municipal opposition in order to start building immediately on farmland, protected conservation areas, and wetlands. We calculate that 19 of these developers are PC party donors.
There are very few Ontarians who support these anti-environment moves. The government’s attack on Ontario’s natural lands is why six members of the Ontario Greenbelt Council, including former PC cabinet minister David Crombie, have resigned from their positions in protest. As Premier, Doug Ford is granted huge formal power, but he must use those powers for the good of the people, not for personal political gain.
The auditor general’s recent annual environmental report also exposed the Ford government’s failure to meet its own miserly climate change goal of reducing emissions by 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. It looks like they didn’t even try. Our collective work to tackle climate change goes beyond any four year term. In the coming weeks, we will be releasing our bold Green New Deal plan. I also urge all of us to work with local residents and groups (Fridays for Future, The Ontario Clean Air Alliance, The Palmerston Residents Association are a few examples) to push for real climate solutions.
Premier Ford said no one will be evicted during a pandemic, but in August the government lifted the eviction ban and now the Landlord Tenant Board is undergoing an eviction blitz. We are hearing disturbing reports of people being evicted without even receiving a notice of their hearing. There is no benefit to society or our economic recovery in evicting people who can’t afford to pay rent because they have lost their job to a pandemic. Ontario needs a well-run Landlord Tenant Board with competent and fair adjudicators, a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic, and rent subsidies so people who have lost their job can pay the rent.
In response to public pressure from so many of us, Doug Ford extended the commercial eviction ban so tenants can’t be evicted for non-payment of rent. The federal government has also eased the eligibility rules to access the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy Program so tenants can apply directly for financial aid. Previously, businesses could only access this federal rent subsidy program if the landlord signed up.
Sadly, this rent subsidy program is too late for many. The Kensington BIA calculates that over 20 businesses have permanently closed since the pandemic began in Kensington alone. As we campaign for governments to save our main streets, I encourage all of us to shop at local independent stores for items we need. We have launched an ‘I Shop Local’ sign campaign for our area. If you want one for your window or business, please contact us.
Like every parent, I am watching the spread of COVID-19 in our schools very closely. The asymptomatic testing of staff and students at Thorncliffe Park School revealed 26 positive cases, and showed that COVID-19 in our schools is more prevalent than originally thought.
I support the government’s decision to listen to public health and quickly tighten public health screening guidelines for kids in schools. I know how hard is it take time off work to get your child tested for COVID-19, but I also know these measures, and many more, are necessary if we want to keep our schools open and our kids learning.
The money to do more is available. The latest Financial Accountability Office report reveals the Ford government is sitting on $12 billion in unspent COVID-19 funds, most of it transferred from the federal government. Some of these unspent funds must go to investing in smaller safer classes immediately and more expansive testing and contact tracing.
These holidays, I implore you to stay safe and follow all the public health rules as the pandemic’s end appears on the distant horizon. The global rollout of vaccines demonstrates the astonishing ability we have to survive and adapt. Let’s hold tight to our hope, ingenuity, and capacity for change as we tackle the bigger climate crisis to come.
Your support may prevent “ghost” towns on main streets
By Mike Layton
One of the most challenging years in recent memory is almost at an end, and I want to take this time to express my gratitude for the work of so many who saw us through. From our Medical Officer of Health and city staff, to local businesses, community groups and residents, it is clear that the majority of us want to work to overcome this pandemic, together.
As we still have many months of the pandemic ahead of us, it is also important to acknowledge the myriad of ways that pandemic fatigue can show up in our day-to-day lives. The overwhelming feeling of a sudden change is hard on everyone, and it affects people at different times, in different ways.
As I have said before, the pandemic has shown that together we can make transformative change happen quickly
—Mike Layton
However, it doesn’t alter the fact that it remains critical that we follow the advice of Toronto Public Health, and that we get our information from reliable, informed sources.
I continue to have full confidence in Toronto Public Health to learn, adapt, and evolve as new information becomes available to guide our response and keep Toronto residents safe.
One of the most pressing current effects of the pandemic we are facing is the strain on small businesses in our city.
The problem is a national one, with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business estimating earlier this year that 225,000 businesses across Canada are at risk of permanent closure due to COVID-19 measures. These measures are saving lives, so it is important that we continue to create ways that we can adhere to them, while also supporting local business.
I want to express how important it is that we continue to shop locally. Apart from the social andcommunity building benefits, studies have actually proven that locally owned stores generate much greater benefits for the local economy than national chains.
This is because, overall, locally owned businesses generate 70% more local economic impact per square foot than chain stores, with small businesses generating an average of $68 of local economic return for every $100 spent.
Local economies languish not because too little cash comes in, but because shopping at big box stores ensures that most of the money you spend flows out.
Among the many downsides, big box stores regularly bring with them lower pay, net job losses – even though they advertise job gains – from forced local closures, in addition to declining tax revenue. When you choose to buy your next item through curbside pick-up at a local shop, that money will stay in the city and keep our local economy going.
It sounds simple, but these small actions can literally save neighbourhoods from becoming ghost towns, or the even more prevailing, “clone towns” – where every street houses the same big box fast-food and retail options.
I also know that times are tight for many, and for some, the money is just not there. So I wanted to also make clear that another way you can support local business is to share online. Write a review and tell others about a great experience you’ve had at a small business. “Like,” comment and share their work on social media; subscribe to their email list. Often small business owners are just one or two people, so helping to get the word out for them will go a long way.
As I’ve mentioned before, the pandemic has shown that together, we can make transformative change happen quickly. I know that there is more that still must be done, and I remain committed to working with you and my council colleagues to ensure that no resident is being left behind.
As always, my staff and I are here to assist in any way we can. Please don’t hesitate to contact my office by emailing Councillor_Layton@toronto.ca or calling 416-392-4009 to let us know your questions and concerns.
Mike Layton is the councillor for Ward 11 University-Rosedale.
December 21st, 2020 · Comments Off on FOCUS: Ring Music shuttered (Dec. 2020)
A deeper look reveals a storied past
Bruce Dowd (L) and Bill Wager (R), 1974 or 1975. COURTESY MICHAEL MCLUHAN/RING MUSIC
By Nicole Stoffman
Ring Music, the guitar shop at 90 Harbord St., whose customers included Gordon Lightfoot, Bruce Cockburn, and Lenny Breau, has closed after 51 years in business.
Owner John La Roque says he’s “Working away on a new album,” and the now-empty storefront heralds the end of an era. Ring’s closure presents an opportunity to tell its little-known history.
It all started when musician Bill Wager arrived in Toronto from New York in 1969, with a few hundred dollars in his pocket. His new bride insisted he get a real job, so he took a walk down to Queen St. West to ask for work at a printers’ shop, having had experience in that industry.
A guitar gets the Bruce Cockburn treatment, 1983. COURTESY MICHAEL MCLUHAN/RING MUSIC
He saw a guitar in the window of a pawn shop and knew he could sell it for twice the price. Wager had learned a great deal about guitars from Dan Armstrong, the inventor of the world’s first clear plastic electric guitar, and owner of a guitar shop on 48th Avenue in New York.
Wager repaired the instrument and put it in the shop window of Ring Music, an audio store (named after the Lord of the Rings) that his friends had just opened at the southeast corner of Harbord and Spadina.
The guitar sold two days later so Wager, “went cruising pawn shops,” to buy more guitars, fix them up, and sell them at twice the price. Soon he was splitting rent with Ring Audio. A short time later he set up Ring Music in the back of the store, where he also did repairs.
Michael McLuhan, 1973 or 4, with a 1956 Les Paul Guitar, this is a very prized guitar nowadays, worth about 250K. Then it could be had for less than $1,000. COURTESY MICHAEL MCLUHAN/RING MUSIC
“Then weird things started to happen,” Wager told the Gleaner. “One day I see a nylon string classical guitar. It’s not my expertise, but something said, ‘Buy me.’ I bought it and brought it back to the store. I put it in the window. A few days later, this lovely blonde girl walks in and says, ‘Can I try it?’ I said, ‘Sure!’ I’m surprised the guitar didn’t melt, she was so good. She was fantastic. We were all standing there, our jaws on the floor. It turns out it was Liona Boyd.”
When U of T built the Benson Athletic Centre in 1972, Ring Audio moved to Queen St. West and Ring Music moved to 90 Harbord St. The following year, Michael McLuhan, son of Canadian media guru, Marshall McLuhan, joined Ring to apprentice with Bill Wager and luthier Bruce Dowd. Michael was so good with the customers, that within three months, he was running the front of the store, too. “He never threw any customers out of the store like I did,” explained Wager.
Ring music attracted a professional clientele with its reputation for guitar repair. The Bay City Rollers called Ring to repair their instruments when they were in town. In order to avoid being mobbed by girls in the street, the Rollers asked that their instruments be picked up and dropped off at the hotel. Ring Music provided the same type of pick up and delivery service to Gordon Lightfoot, who reciprocated by wearing his Ring Music T-shirt in public, and being interviewed for Ring’s radio ads, as did Ian & Sylvia Tyson.
The store’s humble facade of recent years does not reveal how much of a storied place it is. Bill Wager and his team once inlaid a diamond into Ian Tyson’s fretboard. Bruce Cockburn once coached a young boy from Grimsby how to play his song “Foxglove,” in the store.
“I remember Bruce Cockburn coming in and trying guitars and the way he’d treat the guitar was like his was giving it a chiropractic treatment,” recalled Nathan Hiltz, an employee from the 2000s.
Other notable customers included Lightfoot’s guitar player, Terry Clements, Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones, Dave Wilcox, Jim Cuddy, Tom Cochrane, and Lenny Breau, considered to be one of the greatest jazz guitarists of all time.
“He was always penniless,” recalled McLuhan of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee. “Which made it a bit of a problem to service him, because we did have to get paid.”
Penniless or not, working musicians were always welcome at Ring Music.
“You wanted to come to us because we could get you happenin’,” said McLuhan, who purchased the store in 1974. “Everything was on a handshake basis.”
They prided themselves on making used instruments, some of which had been in terrible accidents, road-worthy again.
Ring Music was sold again in 1984, this time to John Laroque. McLuhan had hired Laroque in 1982 to learn repair and to look after customers. LaRoque expanded the business into new guitars and a started a music school.
The store was a haven for former employee Nathan Hiltz, who came to Toronto from Halifax in 2000 as an aspiring young jazz musician. New to the Big Smoke, he found his community by simply crossing paths with other players.
“Ring has always been a very welcoming, helpful place, built around very caring people,” said Hiltz. “Toronto becomes a little less nice, a little less cool, a little less comfortable every time a guitar store closes.”
The mystique of Ring Music was rooted in Bill Wager’s own credentials. In New York, he had played on demos in the Brill Building, which famously housed songwriters and music publishers that wrote some of the greatest American popular music. Songwriters would use the demos to shop songs to artists. Wager played on the demo for “You Keep Me Hanging On,” made famous by the Supremes. He also played bass and guitar on occasion for the Cavalcade of Stars, where he recalls backing nine year old Stevie Wonder.
Ring Music also helped create a market for vintage guitars.
“In 1969 there was no vintage market, there were only used instruments,” said McLuhan. Ring became known for servicing electric guitars, including big jazz arch-top guitars from the forties on up. Arch-tops feature an ‘f-hole,’ similar to that of a violin. They are prized by jazz and blues artists alike for their big, complex sound. “We developed this insane reputation as those instruments started to become revered as vintage instruments.”
Ring music also helped to launch the career of world-renowned luthier Linda Manzer, when they bought her first guitars. Based in Toronto, Manzer now makes guitars for the likes of Paul Simon and Pat Methany. Her creations can be seen in the permanent collections of The Canadian Museum of Civilization and the McMichael Art Gallery.
“Ring was the hub of musical and social activity, and it was always exciting to walk in because you never knew who you were going to see playing a guitar or end up in a lively conversation with,” said Manzer.
At Ring Music, it was more important to resurrect guitars, often with homemade parts, than to restore them with original parts. A case in point was a 1942 Vega Deluxe hand-carved in Boston, with a Maple back and spruce top. One day, the Vega Deluxe came into the shop an accident victim, missing the back and neck, and with a crushed brace. After being revived at Ring Music, it was owned by McLuhan, then LaRoque, and eventually Nathan Hiltz, who wasn’t looking for a guitar at the time.
“People now borrow this guitar from me to do recordings,” says Hiltz. “I didn’t have money to buy a lot of guitars, so it was a big deal for me to buy it, but I was guided very, very well.”
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