Naturalist Nature Garden Walk

Saw this on the BQNA website, happening this Tuesday.

Toronto Field Naturalist Nature Garden Walk with Peter Iveson - All welcome

Tuesday, June 2, 6.45 pm Little Norway Park

Meet at the war memorial at 6.45 PM at the south west corner of Bathurst and Queen's Quay. rain or shine. We will inspect the newly restored Cosmic Maypole and the benches program, observe the Red wing blackbird Nesting season, visit the Irish park and end up in the Music Garden. We will be observing plants flowering and observing vertibrates and invertibrates, and discussing environmental issues.

Update: Missing teenager body's found

Update: Sad news, Shane Fair's body was found. Read the story

Toronto Police have confirmed a body pulled from the water at Ontario Place yesterday is that of missing York University student Shane Fair.

The teen's body was pulled from Lake Ontario near the spot where he vanished two weeks ago — dashing the hopes of relatives and friends who had organized waterfront searches and plastered the downtown with posters appealing for help finding him.

Sgt. Darrin Little said a passerby spotted the body in the water near the Ontario Place dome around 4 p.m.

---
You may have seen the missing signs for Shane Fair around the waterfront path and on Queens Quay. More from the Star

The Star reports:

"police in boats probed the bottom of Lake Ontario for any sign of Shane Fair, a 19-year-old York University student last seen at Ontario Place's Atlantis Pavillion in the early morning hours of May 16.

He was attending an end-of-the-year party and failed to board a bus back to campus at the end of the night.

He hasn't been seen since. His debit and credit cards haven't registered any activity.

More news reports plus his picture are in this Google News Search

Coming soon: Grill 4 U express to open in days

As you probably know, the Indian take-out restaurant Harbour Tandoori Grille at 218 Queens Quay West closed down in late March. It was a little sad because it's not a bad thing if the little businesses can survive, even thrive, on our street.

We've noticed in the past week or so that there was some renovations happening in that spot and today, the workers unveiled the sign for a new Middle Eastern restaurant.



We did a little search and found that this is part of a business in Vaughan and that the new store is set to open on June 1, Monday. From the Grill 4 U website, this is what we can glean.

Menu: Falafel, shawarma, kebobs, grilled chicken, burgers along with such sides as hummus, baba ganoush, tabouleh, greek salad.

The restaurant is based in Woodbridge and has two 'express' stores in Vaughan and on Queens Quay in a few days. The restaurant's description from its website.

Middle Eastern cuisine has never tasted better or been so enjoyably affordable than at Grill 4 U, winner of the 2008 Vaughan Citizen Reader’s Choice Award. The family run eatery, in only two short years, has built an enviable reputation for authentic, homemade falafel, shawarma, hummus and other Middle Eastern cuisine.

“Everything is made fresh daily, from scratch using only the finest ingredients,” says chef/owner Nihad Hazboun. “By using wholesome ingredients and our signature spices, we provide delicious natural foods of the Middle East, while catering to our customers’ increasing awareness of health and nutrition.”

The key to the success of Grill 4 U, is the tangy blend of shawarma spices prepared and perfected over a number of years by Nihad. “We use 15 different Mediterranean spices, passed down from generation to generation to create the perfectly spiced shawarma sandwich. It’s become my own creation and it keeps people coming back, day after day,” he says.

Queens Quay East streetcar line

We've written about the TTC plans for a streetcar line from Union out to Cherry Street. Here's an update from a recent National Post story

The TTC has also taken another step toward extending the Queens Quay streetcar line eastward into the ripe-for-development East Bayfront.

Although some work remains to be done for trucks entering the Redpath Sugar refinery on the waterfront, the line will include a new tunnel ending at an overhauled Union Station loop.

PowerBall: The city's power art fundraiser tomorrow

Who knew, that power plant turned art gallery is also the venue for, as the National Post calls it, "the most-talked-about arts fundraising bash on the Toronto calendar."

The Post picks it up:

...the Power Ball is locked in a party-throwing competition with other organizations around town. The Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum and the Ontario Science Centre have all been stepping up their game in the contest to hold the flashiest philanthropic shindig in town for under $200 a ticket. (And the AGO tried out the sleaze aesthetic at its 2008 Massive Party.)

Maybe you'll want to crash that party, hey why not enjoy our neighbourhood's big arts bash.

For Power Ball 11, we're turning it up a notch - all the way to eleven (‘This is Spinal Tap' mockumentary fans insert laugh here). In every area, we're getting one louder: over the top, extreme, unexpected, excessive, energetic, unruly. It’s a hellraiser. It’s a barnburner. It’s one louder.

- Snip -

Proving that a good bash is not necessarily tied to glam & flash, we will feature 4 open bars of unique thematic design, a pig roast on our lake-side ‘compound’ patio, fancy and not so fancy fare (including amazing food from Bymark Caters, featuring celebrity chef Mark McEwan), amazing music, a huge dance floor with changing video projections, smashed cars with cult movies like Mad Max and Solaris projected through headlights, ‘audio rock sculpture’, and much more. What more could there be you ask? How about an indoor forest, a bizarre video outhouse (you'll have to see for yourself), a drive-in movie theatre, a Conceptual art soft-porn peep-show, scantily clad roller derby girl rumbles, and a winnebago that has been aptly described as a "man cave on wheels". Add this up and do you know what you've got? Power Ball 11: It's One Louder - a party atmosphere that should not be missed, will never be forgotten, and is the power house of all party fundraisers. Be there and get one louder! 

Tickets cost $160 for non-members and $150 for members (of the Power Plant)
More info here

Shuttle bus time for 510/509 route

Okay, at least it's not winter. As you probably know by now, the TTC is running shuttle service between Spadina and Union, which means extra annoyance if you're trying to commute to and from home. Of course, at least it's sunny the next few days so I guess you could walk , right?

You can see the picture below, they are tearing up part of the track, the crews seemed to be out of service as of 2 p.m. Anyone know how long this will take?

 Update, we spotted this and a reader also tipped us off. It'll take a week

Starting 6:00 am, Monday, May 25 until 5:00 am, Saturday, May 30, the TTC will conduct track repairs on Queens Quay West, from east of Spadina Loop to the Harbourfront tunnel.  During the track repairs 509 HARBOURFRONT streetcars will run between Exhibition Loop and Spadina Loop.  510 SPADINA streetcars will run between Spadina Station and Spadina Loop.
A temporary replacement bus service will be provided on Queens Quay between Bathurst Street and Bay Street. At Union Station, customers must board the replacement buses on the west side of Bay Street, south of Front Street.
Customers will require paper transfers to transfer between the temporary buses and the subway.

Re-cycling the meeting...

Cycling is in the news today, after city council decided to approve bike lanes for Jarvis.

As you know, lots of cyclists use Queens Quay as a route when they come into downtown. They may come east from the Beach or west from the Martin Goodman Trail. We came across this debrief from Adam Vaughan abut a cycling meeting held earlier this year. It's available here and mentions some of the key issues for our riding. You can read the whole thing here:

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend our first Ward 20 Cycling meeting! For those of you who weren't able to attend, over 25 residents from throughout the ward were present to share ideas on how to improve cycling in Ward 20 from the waterfront, north to Dupont.
Discussion included:
• the need for a safe east-west bike route throughout the city
• the desire for bike lanes on Bloor Street
• the need to better enforce the bylaw that prohibits cars from parking in bike lanes
• the desire for more bike paths or separated bike lanes, and the challenges involved in implementing them
• the need for bike routes and bike paths that connect to the waterfront to the rest of the city

The goal moving forward is to develop a set of priorities for the ward that the office and the community can work towards. To aid in this goal, it was decided that a number of working groups should be formed, including:
• a Ward 20 Cycling Steering Committee, made up of representatives from across the ward. The Steering Committee will hold regular meetings to provide Councillor Vaughan's office with feedback on cycling-related issues, projects and plans relevant to the ward
• a Bloor Street Working Group, which will help provide feedback on future transportation plans for the street
• a Ward 20 Waterfront Cycling Group, which will look at the need for bike lanes and bike routes to connect the waterfront to the north, the need to accommodate bike parking, and other initiatives.

Doors Open Toronto: Queens Quay's neighbourhood list

As we wrote earlier this week, this Saturday and Sunday marks Doors Open Toronto, that good old event that will let you in many historic buildings. Pictured above is the Roundhouse by Rogers Centre (we wrote it about here).


Here's a full list (find more detailed descriptions and times)

And below are waterfront and sorta waterfront sites. One notable new site is HMCS York and a cool site is the wind turbine generator at Exhibition Place.  Enjoy!


Distillery Historic District - Deaf Culture Centre 55 Mill Street, Building 5, Suite 101
11am to 5pm 4:30 12noon to 5pm 4:30

Distillery Historic District - Kiln Furnace 55 Mill Street Building 36
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4:45 10 am to 5 pm 4:45

Distillery Historic District - Rack House D 55 Mill Street
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4:45 10 am to 5 pm 4:45

Distillery Historic District - Scale Tank Loft 55 Mill Street
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4:45 10 am to 5 pm 4:45

Exhibition Place - Horse Palace - Green Roof 15 Nova Scotia Ave.
10 am to 4 pm 3:30 10 am to 4 pm 3:30

Exhibition Place - Horse Palace - Riding Academy 15 Nova Scotia Ave.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 10 am to 5 pm

Exhibition Place - Horse Palace - Toronto Animal Services 15 Nova Scotia Ave.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 5:00 PM 10 am to 5 pm 5:00 PM

Exhibition Place - Horse Palace - Toronto Police Mounted Unit 15 Nova Scotia Ave.
10:00 am - 4:00 pm 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Exhibition Place - Scadding Cabin Exhibition Place
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4:50 10 am to 5 pm 4:50

Exhibition Place Wind Turbine Generator Yukon Place, Toronto, ON

Fort York Armoury 660 Fleet Street W
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4:45 10 am to 4 pm 3:45

Fort York National Historic Site 100 Garrison Rd.

Her Majesty's Canadian Ship YORK 659 Lakeshore Blvd. W.
10am-4pm 3:45pm 10am-4pm 3:45pm

John St Roundhouse - Toronto Railway Historical Assoc. 255 Bremner Blvd
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4:30 4-Oct 3:30

John St. Roundhouse - Steam Whistle Brewing 255 Bremner Blvd.
10 am to 6 pm530pmnoon to 5 pm430pm

Museum of Inuit Art (in the Queen's Quay Terminal building) 207 Queen's Quay West
10 am to 6 pm 5:30 PM 10 am to 6 pm 5:30 PM

Union Station 65 Front Street West
10 am to 4 pm 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Our very own local street food: injera at Roundhouse Park

You've probably read a bit about those new street carts offering something other than hot dogs (Torontoist, Star, Post). It's Toronto's 'a la cart' program that offers: Thai food at Mel Lastman Square, Afghani (kebabs) at Metro Hall, Persian and Greek at City Hall, kebab wraps at Queen's Park, Korean at Yonge and Eglinton and jerk chicken wraps at Yonge and St. Clair.


Of course, we get one of our very own at Roundhouse Park, which is outside the Steam Whistle building and on the edge of Rogers Centre. It's Eritrean fare, or injera.

Injera, according to the Wikipedia entry, "is a pancake-like bread made out of teff flour" --  "traditionally eaten in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia. Those of you who have eaten at the one of many Ethiopian restaurants in Toronto know of the spongy like bread that have stews and curry like meats and veg on top. It's usually eaten by hand (and delicious).

Torontoist's cool roundup has pictures and this description of the injera

Across the street from the south end of the Rogers Centre, Andnet Zere got off to a bit of a slow start with a cart that wasn't cooperating, but she recovered well before the afternoon's Blue Jays game let out. Zere, whose background is Eritrean, is serving generous portions of injera—spongy, slightly sour flatbread—filled with either beef or stewed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, peppers) and lentils. ... (read the rest here)

We hope to get out there soon to sample the fare. Anyone else try it?

Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association meeting

Got this little notice about the BQNA's upcoming annual meeting at the Harbourfront Community Centre.

BQNA Annual General Meeting - Thursday May 21st
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The BQNA will report on its accomplishments of the past year, share its plans for the coming year and introduce its executive for 2009-10. Our guest speaker will be Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell to talk about the improvements coming to Queens Quay and our parks and public spaces.

Thursday, May 21st, 7-9pm at HCC, Medium Assembly Room.

Heads up, Doors Open Toronto this weekend

We're back from an extended break (miss us?). Remember that this weekend -- and the weather is looking absolutely perfect for it -- we'll have Doors Open Toronto. Yes, you'll get your walking shoes, running shoes and explore some of the 150 buildings.

Here's the website and we'll post all the sites near Queens Quay later in the week.

Happy Victoria Day, Queens Quay: 5 things to do on a spring weekend

In spirit of the post we did one past holiday, an adapted view of what you can do on a weekend/holiday during the spring/summer

1. Run/Bike/walk: Explore the western part of Queen Quay and walk/bike/run to Ontario Place and back. You want to get some sun, don't you? While you're at it, watch the wavedecks at Simcoe under construction.

2. Eat: Queens Quay Terminal's open every day as a tourist destination. So, why not hit Pearl's Chinese restaurant for some above par dim sum at reasonable prices given the location, view and service. They open at 10:30 a.m. on weekends and 11 a.m. on weekdays. 207 Queens Quay (see website here)

3. Plant: If you had the foresight to buy some plants this past weekend, then it's good time to get the planters out and spruce up your condo baloneys.

4. Go forage for breakfast, lunch, dinner: Shopper's Drug Mart near Spadina is open, and the reliably always-open Rabba are open. We'll leave it to a future post of what you can do with what you find at both stores, but Shopper's does sell books, magazines and DVDs.

5. Ontario Place: You may have caught the fireworks yesterday night but it's worth noting that Ontario Place is now open. Swing by for a visit. And in late June/July (June 27, July 1, July 4) look westward for fireworks at night. Stake out a spot on your balcony or windowside or head to your condo's rooftop for great views.

Photo: Signage shadows

Here at Queens Quay Life, gonna take a few days off from blogging, but we've got lots of ideas. Actually, maybe we'll have one up on holiday Monday, but for now, here's a photo of the HTO sign or rather its shadow.



Happy Victoria Day

Uh oh, is the cash still coming our way?

Toronto Star recently reporting that the big $500 million pegged for waterfront development may not all get to the project.

The Star picks it up:

The federal government may be unable to spend all of the $500 million it has committed to the overhaul of Toronto's waterfront before it lapses, according to an internal report obtained by the Toronto Star.

Nearly $200 million is at risk, the report warns, because of unrealistic timelines, too much legal caution and the shuffling of federal responsibility for the project through six ministries since 2000.

A March 31, 2011 funding deadline is fast approaching and if it isn't met, the blame will be on all three levels of government, who have collectively turned 800 hectares of environmental contamination into a bureaucratic wasteland, said the June 2008 report, released only now to the Star under the Access to Information Act.

It's no secret that things have taken a long time to get rolling on this waterfront development. It was November 1999 when the city, province and federal government announced the landmark agreements. It was so long ago we're talking Lastman, Harris and Chretien.

The city has a chronology here which just shows how long things have taken. We think that things have speeded up considerably in the past few years and the plans for the Queens Quay redevelopment seem on track, if not still needing approval by the city later this fall. Sure, we've got the Spadina Wavedeck and the other wavedecks should be completed this summers. And yes, the East Bayfront project is well under way.

In short, it's laudable that Waterfront Toronto's got its act together, but it would be a tremendous shame that the fact it could have the rugged pulled out from underneath them because it took a long time to get started.

Streetcars galore and free-ish eastbound service (on weekends and holidays, between a few stops)

We recently saw a post on Transit Toronto about increased service to the 510 and 509 routes a seasonal adjustment when tourists and Torontonians start to flood the streetcars on their way to Queens Quay and Exhibition.

The gist: we're seeing increase of streetcar traffic for the weekend.

Also, as you know, the TTC usually doesn't take fares on parts of harbourfront so you can pay when you get to Union Station.

On Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from Sunday, May 10 until Labour Day, Monday, September 7, TTC operators are not collecting fares at Harbourfront. If you’re waiting for an eastbound streetcar on Queen’s Quay West at Bathurst Street, Dan Leckie Way, Lower Spadina Avenue, Rees Street, Lower Simcoe Street or York Street — or at the northbound platform at Queen’s Quay Station — you may board streetcars by either the front or centre door. You don’t have to pay a cash or token fare and the operators won’t give you a paper transfer.

We haven't thought about this until now, but of course, for us QQ residents, this kinda means weekend free inter-waterfront travel if you're going Eastbound. Say I live at Spadina and want to get to Sobeys, I guess I could take the TTC free for two stops... Sweet, easy grocery shopping.

By the way, they didn't have this Union Station collection thingy in place last weekend

More info on Cirque and Luminato

Thanks to reader Bob who tipped us off to this story in the Globe recently about the Cirque du Soleil event that will take over parts of Queens Quay in June.

The Globe picks it up

The latest creation from Cirque, which also marks the company's 25th anniversary, is a departure from the tightly controlled big-top and Las Vegas spectacles it's known for - representing a throwback of sorts to the company's street-performer roots, albeit one shaped by the massive creative resources Cirque now has at its disposal.

The Cirque show begins the evening of Friday, June 13, and stretches throughout the final weekend of Luminato. Two tribes of performers will start the weekend at two antithetical locations, one locale dressed up as a fantastical urban environment, the other decorated as a rural setting (at two of Toronto's main lakefront attractions: Harbourfront Centre, at the base of Simcoe Street; and the Music Garden, just west of the foot of Spadina Avenue). The tribes will each act out a series of street performances as they gradually converge along Queen's Quay for a final blowout show on Sunday evening.

But Cirque organizers are hesitant to offer more details about the storylines and concepts behind the show. The idea, says Yasmine Khalil, director of Cirque's events division, is not to offer the audience a chapter-by-chapter storyline, or to promise a series of distinct events, but rather to have them arrive and form their own impressions of what is unfolding before them. "If people come and try to understand too literally what is going on, it takes away from the magic and the enjoyment," Khalil says. Her advice: "Go and see what's going to happen that weekend with an open mind."

Tamil protests shuts down the Gardiner, Queens Quay becomes 'highway'

So we noticed on the way home tonight that Queens Quay was PACKED with cars. We were wondering what was going on until we saw that there was a massive Tamil protest on the Gardiner. The police had shut down the Gardiner, much of Spadina, part of Lakeshore and we hear the DVP to Bloor.

So that means Queens Quay becomes the East-West line through the city tonight.

Here are some pictures we got

Toronto Life's 50 Reasons To Love Toronto Now (and 5 reasons to love the waterfront)

In the June issue of Toronto Life, it lists 50 reasons why they love Toronto right now.

Lists are, well, arbitrary. We can imagine the staff of Toronto Life gathering at a story meeting thinking up ideas. Maybe they have a map of Toronto so they try to cover the city. Who knows.

Anyways, from our boring but safe banks (No. 1) to the number of same-sex couples (No. 4) to our enviro-mayor (No. 35) they hit just enough topics to seem to cover the city.

So what about the waterfront community and Queens Quay? The Waterfront Revitalization comes in at No 34, with the magazine citing the HTO Park. Number 43 is that everyone bikes and everyone knows that they have to bike through the waterfront to get from east or west to downtown. And they point to Porter (No. 22) as a civilizated way to travel "we're ready to swap our protest for praise". Finally, at No. 13, they point out to the ethnic food (injera) at nearby Roundhouse Park and the CN Tower's LEDs make it cool (No. 12).

We have to say we agree that there are cool aspects to the waterfront.

A look at the Lower Don Lands as plans unveiled

The video above was released by Waterfront Toronto and gives an interesting view of what the Lower Don Lands will look like in the future. We're talking about Cherry Street, which you'll reach if you keep on going east on Queens Quay.

As we wrote earlier, Waterfront Toronto released its vision for the Lower Don Lands last week.

From the National Post

Plans to transform Toronto’s industrial Lower Don Lands into a vibrant neighbourhood may be the impetus for a conservation project that local activists have been promoting for nearly 30 years: the naturalization of the Don River’s mouth.

Waterfront Toronto today revealed preliminary schematics for the Lower Don Lands redevelopment, which includes reopening the mouth of the Don River and allowing it to meander its way into Lake Ontario between the Keating and Shipping channels.

---

Waterfront Toronto will unveil the plans to the public this weekend, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Lawrence Hall, 157 King Street East.

You like comics? Toronto Comic Arts Festival

This weekend launches some events associated with the Toronto Comic Art Festival. There are lots of events but we're listing some of them happening at Harbourfront.

Graphic Novels: The Creation of Art and Narrative.
Gallery Showing at Harbourfront Centre
Friday May 8th - Sunday June 21st.
Opening Reception Friday May 8th, 6pm-10pm
York Quay Centre, 235 Queens Quay West
FREE

Featuring: Canada: Jeff Lemire, Kagan McLeod, Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki, Doug Wright (by Seth). Anke Feuchtenberger (Germany), Emmanuel Guibert (France), Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Japan), Adrian Tomine (USA).

Graphic Novels: The Creation of Art and Narrative. Harbourfront Centre will play host to a unique series of installations by top cartoonists from Canada and around the world as they attending the fourth Toronto Comic Arts Festival, May 9-10. Illuminating the creation of “The Ninth Art,” Graphic Novels will include original artworks and process materials, as well as tools, sculpture, and photography to build an insightful portrait of the creators working in this popular medium. This exhibition is co-presented with The Beguiling and The Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

Authors at Harbourfront Centre: Seth, Adrian Tomine, and Yoshihiro Tatsumi
In association with The Toronto Comic Arts Festival
Friday, May 8 at 7:30 pm
Brigantine Room, York Quay Centre, 235 Queens Quay West
Tickets $8.00, available at harbourfrontcentre.com

Authors at Harbourfront Centre helps jump start the 2009 Toronto Comic Arts Festival with an evening of world-renowned graphic artists/novelists: Seth, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, and Adrian Tomine. Seth (George Sprott: (1894-1975)) and Tomine (Shortcomings) debut their latest graphic novels, followed by a discussion between Tomine and Tatsumi about Tatsumi’s latest work, A Drifting Life. All three authors appear courtesy of Drawn & Quarterly (Montreal).

This event, presented in partnership with The Beguiling, will also feature a corresponding visual art exhibition Graphic Novels: The Creation of Art and Narrative, located in Harbourfront Centre’s York Quay Centre.

Future of the Lower Don Lands to be unveiled

This moved a few days ago, and should be interesting to see what plans Waterfront Toronto has for the Lower Don Lands.

Waterfront Toronto is holding a technical briefing for media on May 7 to provide detailed plans for the Lower Don Lands which have been developed through an Environmental Assessment (EA) process.
The plans for the area take an innovative approach to naturalizing the
mouth of the Don River by moving it from the Keating Channel to Lake Ontario,
providing for the transformation of a long neglected area into sustainable new
parks and communities.
Jointly sponsored by Waterfront Toronto, City of Toronto, and Toronto
Transit Commission, the EA has examined several alternative planning solutions
for the 125-hectare (308 acre) industrial area located south of the rail
corridor in the east end of Toronto's waterfront.
Toronto Region and Conservation will also present the new river alignment
and innovative flood protection strategies for the Don River.

Sobeys on Queens Quay: Not a tourist destination?

If you go to the Queens Quay Terminal website, you'll see that they're open "7 days a week". We take that to mean that it's open every day. True, you can go to Pearl on holidays for dim sum.

Thanks to a reader for tipping us off to what he saw on the Toronto City Council blog. The council voted against a change to the by-law that would have allowed the Sobey's to open on holidays.

Well, that's a shame for residents. Okay, we're not tourists but it'd be nice to have it open since we have so little infrastructure down here. Nice to see that our local councillors (Vaughan and McConnell) voted for it.

Under the current by-laws, the Tourism Area Exemption includes "The Eaton Centre and The Bay Queen
Street Store; Queen Quay Terminal; the Downtown Yonge BIA; Bloor Yorkville BIA and The Distillery District." (Background document) Clearly, there are those who think not all of the services in the Terminal is not considered tourism. Downers.

Following is from the city council.

Holiday Closing By-law Amendment Defeated
City Council has voted against a proposed amendment to the Holiday Closing By-law that would have allowed the Sobey's store at Queen's Quay Terminal to open on holidays.

The vote was 13-20 as follows:

YES Augimeri YES Carroll YES Davis YES Filion YES Jenkins YES McConnell YES Mihevc YES Milczyn YES Palacio YES Perks YES Rae YES Vaughan YES Walker

NO Ainslie NO Bussin [Chair] NO Del Grande NO Di Giorgio NO Feldman NO Fletcher NO Ford NO Hall NO Holyday NO Kelly NO Lee NO Lindsay Luby NO Minnan-Wong NO Moscoe NO Nunziata NO Ootes NO Pantalone NO Saundercook NO Shiner NO Stintz

Landscape Architects agree: Spadina Wavedeck is kinda cool

Yay, the Spadina Wavedeck wins another award (okay, it didn't win a really prestigious one, but it did today).

From a press release out today

Waterfront Toronto's Spadina WaveDeck has received another prestigious design award, this time from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). The Spadina WaveDeck earned a 2009 Honor Award from the ASLA in its General Design category and was one of two Toronto waterfront projects honoured this year.

"We're so pleased that the Spadina WaveDeck has been honoured again," said John Campbell, President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto. "This project exemplifies what Waterfront Toronto means when we say that design excellence is part of everything we do. It's a public gathering place that is also a stunning piece of art."

Green rooftops?

Thanks to the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, who gave us their upcoming calendar of events. Tonight, here's an interesting meeting:

Downtown Multi-Unit Residence Solar Energy Project
At this month’s meeting, we’ll hear how Ontario’s new Green Energy Act will make it
more rewarding to invest in green energy production on our rooftops.

Tuesday, May 5
7:30 -PM
Windward Co-op
34 Little Norway Cres.

Cycling in the ward

Another item from Adam Vaughan's recent newsletter

At the conclusion of the Ward 20 Cycling meeting held on February 25, it was decided that a steering committee in addition to a Bloor Street Working Group and Waterfront Working Group would be formed to provide Councillor Vaughan's office with feedback on cycling initiatives and concerns in the ward.

The Ward 20 Cycling Steering Committee and working groups will meet for the first time on Thursday, May 7 at 6:00pm.

At this first meeting, we will discuss:
. frequency of meetings
. updates on cycling initiatives
. ideas for improving and expanding bike parking throughout the ward
. possible new initiatives to explore in ward 20
. issues surrounding bike lanes on Bloor Street and Queen's Quay
. improving connections to the waterfront

Date: Thursday, May 7
Time: 6:00 - 8:00
Location: The Centre For Social Innovation, 215 Spadina, Suite 120 (ground floor)

Membership to these groups is open. Please contact Councillor Vaughan's Constituency Assistant Dale Duncan at dduncan@toronto.ca or 416-392-4044 if you would like to sign up as a member of one or more of these groups.

Jane's Walk: Get to know your neighbourhood in Toronto

Sorry we didn't get this out sooner, but this weekend marks Jane's Walk, marking events both Saturday and Sunday to let you connect with your city's history, architecture and life. There are SOOO many events you can see here on the website. Peruse it right now and we're sure you'll find some events on Saturday or Sunday

"Get the inside scoop on your city and neighbours - free walking tours for locals who want to go deeper"

Here are just some of the nearby walks.

Downtown Sculpture Walk

* Charles Campbell
* Saturday, May 2, 2009
* 10:30am
* Walk: 1.5 hours

Meeting Place: The Archer sculpture on Nathan Phillips Square, City Hall, 100 Queen Street West

Garment District and Wellington St.: Historic yet ever-changing

* Dylan Reid
* Sunday, May 3, 2009
* 2:30pm
* Walk: 1.5 hrs


Meeting Place: "The Thimble" sculpture at the North-West corner of Richmond St. West and Spadina Avenue

King-Spadina: One of 'The Two Kings'

* Paul Bedford, Margie Zeidler
* Saturday, May 2, 2009
* 10:30am
* Walk: 2.5 hours


Meeting Place: 401 Richmond St. W., at the Roastery Cafe on ground floor, this building is just east of Spadina Ave

Lower Don Lands

* Ken Greenberg
* Sunday, May 3, 2009
* 10:00am
* Walk: 1.5 hours
Meeting Place: Keating Channel Pub - Cherry Street and Villiers

View Jane's Walks 2009 in a larger map

Ship arrives at Queens Quay, collects booty ($100) luckily no pirates to be seen

Saw this press release move through earlier today. Shipping season arrives at our harbour.

The Toronto Port Authority is pleased to announce the arrival of this year's first ocean-going vessel into port via the
St. Lawrence Seaway this week.
It's another sure sign that Spring is here, and the TPA will mark the occasion by honouring Captain Yang Sibing of the MV Wigeon with a beaver hat
in a traditional ceremony that dates back 148 years. The Wigeon, a 22,790 metric tonne vessel operated by Montreal's Canfornav Inc., is bringing a cargo
of sugar to the Redpath Sugar facility from Colombia.
The storied hat used in the ceremony originally belonged to Captain John Hooper Meade, who immigrated to Canada from England in 1828. Capt. Meade
became a successful Toronto merchant and landowner with holdings on Centre Island as well as a hotel and two steamer vessels. Made by Christies Hats of
London from silk and beaver pelt, Capt. Meade donated the hat to mark the occasion in 1861. His grandson, Captain John Allen, was Toronto's Harbour
Master from 1925-30.
The ship's captain will be "crowned" with the antique hat by TPA Harbour Master Angus Armstrong in a photo opportunity. Earlier in its history, the hat could be worn by the captain of the first spring "saltie" in port for 24 hours, but this tradition was discontinued after several mishaps in which the custodians of the hat felt the need to celebrate by overindulging in downtown taverns.
The captain will also receive the traditional $100 cheque (the amount has not changed in approximately 80 years) and a commemorative briefcase.

Friday, May 1, 2009
10 a.m.