Councillor Adam Vaughan to be at Queens Quay for meeting tomorrow

As seen on Vaughan's site

Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association Town Hall
Date: April 27 2009
Time: 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Harbourfront Community Centre, 627 Queens Quay
Councillor Vaughan will be a guest speaker at this meeting being organized by the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association. Bring your questions about the neighbourhood and hear about TTC service, traffic issues, the Toronto Island Airport, the Toronto Museum Project, a new library branch, and more.

Expect some fireworks maybe as the Toronto Island Airport announcement is tomorrow as well. Well timed.

Condo owners of the ward, unite!

As if there are not enough residents associations, here's another one that's being founded. The Trinity-Spadina area is pretty massive and packs in quite a few condos and as you can see from the map below, makes up a pretty huge area. In 2006, the area had 115,355 residents. It's an odd area, made up of the old-school annex and downtowny neighbourhoods that politicians like Tony Ianno and Olivia Chow and Adam Vaughan have tapped into the Portuguese and Chinese communities. Of course, over the past decade, a condo demographic has flooded the area.

Question of course is what's the goal of an association that takes up such a wide area. Are there issues inherent to all condos regardless of whether you're on the waterfront (Queens Quay), at CityPlace (a community on to itself) and other developments on King and north. Can we argue that issues on the water, like TTC access and the redevelopment, differ from those condo owners who live on club land near Adelaide and Richmond). Interesting times, we're sure, and we'll be interested to see if this becomes more of a political body less one that can tackle the real and varied issues of urban living.

Trinity-Spadina Condo Association Meeting

Date: Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Time: 7 – 9 p.m.
Location: Harbourfront Community Centre, 627 Queens Quay (at Bathurst), Medium Assembly Room

You are invited to attend the founding meeting of the Trinity-Spadina Condo Residents Association. For more information, you can contact 416-603-9664.

Resolution: Get fit in the neighbourhood

It's the new year and it's resolution time here in Queens Quay. A top item on many a list is to get fit and lose weight. A few options in our neighbourhood.

Booty Camp Fitness: Too late for this time, as they've sold out, but this group can be seen outside the Harbourfront Community Centre during the warmer climes. They've migrated to 77 Harbour Sq this winter. Women only and you'll have to register early as they sell out. (link)

Harbourfront Community Centre: The centre at Bathurst and Queens Quay has quite a few programs. It costs $200 for 6 months and $450 a year for a full year (plus 1 year acces to weight room). You can join classes, from Bollywood Lunch Fitness for $16 for 3 weeks or lunch boot camp for $48 for 9 weeks.  They also have yoga, pilates and dance classes as well as boxing and karate. Here's more info on their site.

Your condo's gym: Okay, most of us here live in condos and apartments that have a gym. And yes, most of our gyms are crowded and small, save for the impressive ground floor gym at the Rivera. If you have sa condo, you're working with treadmills, stationary bikes, stairmasters and weights. Here's a sample of a guide for those of you who want to know how to use them. (link)

A gym: There are quite a few boutique and designer gym studios throughout downtown but here are the big ones within walking distance. Premier Fitness at Roger Centre or the GoodLife at Union Station.

Yoga: We see lots of people walking with yoga bags/mats. Suspect they're doing it near work. Here's one place where you can search for Toronto studios

Walk, run, cycle: We often take a run on the waterfront. From Queens Quay, you can run/walk/cycle west to Bathurst then you can join the Martin Goodman Trail (in theory, Queens Quay is part of the trail, but you kinda lose it in the traffic). From Spadina, you can go about 3 kilometres to the Ontario place and pass the baseball diamonds, the waterfront trails. Here's a sample map of a route you can take from Spadina. If you're more into long distance running or want to do an hour long cycling ride, you can go all the way to Humber Bridge, a 16 kilometre round trip. And yes, they're plowing the route through the winter

Skating at Natrel Rink (prices and hours)