Photo of the week: Ladder down

Seen at the base of 370 Queens Quay, a few days after a big wind storm, a ladder down..

Heard about the Hood: Media roundup

Wrapping up what's written about the waterfront. This week, focus on the eastern waterfront

Recent coverage of the neighbourhood include a list of new year's resolutions by Toronto Star's Christopher Hume, headlined New year brings opportunity to transform the city. In it, Hume says:

The transformation of the Toronto waterfront: We know, we know, nothing ever happens on the waterfront. Sometimes that definitely seems the case, but in a city where change happens at a glacial pace, there's no point in holding one's breath. Still, the impatient amongst us are waiting anxiously to see what George Brown College plans to do with its large site south of Queens Quay east of Jarvis St. This project has the scope to alter the neighbourhood dramatically and bring new vitality to the area. The campus represents the best opportunity so far to redo the central waterfront.

Another one by Hume

Indeed, there are big plans a foot for the area between Yonge Street and Cherry, long the vast undeveloped wild 'east' of the central waterfront. The National Post focuses in on projects slated for the future.

A few excerpts:

By spring, work will begin on Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Park – the area’s main green spaces. Also coming soon is the beginning of construction on the massive West Don Lands project a few blocks north, and the possible demolition of the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway.

The projects come after many years of discussion, and raise hopes for a vital district free of the planning mistakes of the central waterfront.

More on the organization leading this charge.

Led by Waterfront Toronto – the organization that the city, province and federal government created to manage the project – designers are attempting to reshape the area south of Queen’s Quay, between Lower Jarvis and Parliament streets, into a livable neighbourhood after years of neglect or industrial use.

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)

Weekend guide to Queens Quay

What's going on in our area (minus major league sporting events, you know about those). Know of any events? Leave a comment or mail queensquaylife@gmail.com

Harbourfront Centre
Visual Arts at York Quay Centre (link)
Friday - Sunday, 12 - 6

Skating at Natrel Rink (prices and hours)

Power Plant (link)
John Greyson is a Toronto artist who teaches film at York University. His titles include Proteus, Lilies, Un©ut and Fig Trees.

Rogers Centre
International Bowl (link)
All weekend. Teams from the Big East and MAC Conferences collide for the third straight year as NCAA college football returns to Rogers Centre in the 2009 International Bowl.

Sewage in the harbour?

Our harbour is dirty enough, so it's not that gratifying to read this report from CityTV about the possibility of sewage leaking into the waterfront.

The report reads:

But, according to a published report, there's a risk Torontonians could be forced to contend with a significant amount of their raw sewage spilling into the Don River and flowing out into the harbourfront.

During an assessment for a Toronto Water project last week, staff discovered a massive sewer line running underneath the Don Valley had split. A robotic camera revealed the cracks along a 60-metre section of the line, just north of O'Connor Dr.

Read the rest of the story here

Resolving to eat local: Mamma's Pizza

(Potato Pizza from Mamma's Pizza)
Queens Quay is home to about 37 eateries -- we'll loosely define them as places where you can pick up a bite to eat, from resturants to fast food. We thought it'd be a good idea of what each has to offer.


So beginning today, we'll embark on a year's journey (okay, it may take longer or shorter) to eat our way through the neighbourhood. If you have thoughts or reviews of your own, please feel free to do them to save our guts.

Today, we'll start with Mamma's Pizza


Mamma's Pizza 249 Queens Quay West
This is our standby delivery option for pizza in this part of the city. It's been here for a few years and seems to pull down a lot of local business. Mamma's is what we'd term as the 'middle' to 'high' class of pizza. Better than cardboard but not as good as some of the pizza you can find in some of the restaurants outside the Waterfront (hint: Terronni's for one).

But since the likes of Amatos and Mammas, at least we don't have to just go for the options derived from the pizza wars (think 241, the pizza 'villes' and the pizza squared chains).

Mamm's has reliable delivery, an interesting menu with good ingredients (Rapini and hot specialized sausage),

The food: Pizzas, you can build your own or select from one from their menu. They don't have twins options so you build your perfect pizza. You can also opt for Calzones which are tasty and huge, the sandwiches or pasta, which is surprisingly good.

The pesto sauce tends to be a little salty, some of their specialized seem too rigid and you can't find a happy medium when you want meat -- they have an all meat pizza (yummy but gut busting) and lots of veggie but not much in between. The potato pizza is a nice touch for runners in the community looking to carb up.


Eat in: Probably can fit about 6 people comfortably. More people are likely to pop in, point at a slice and bring it out to the nearby HTO park to enjoy easy streetfood.

Delivery: We've used them a lot and they're quick. No complaints, the food arrives hot!

What should locals know: Try the calzone, it's a filling one-dish meal. The sundried tomatoe and chicken one is a favourite, as is potato pizza and the meal lovers if you're feeling really bad. The more fancy vegetarian options are delish. Have fun using their phone service when ordering. It's a bunch of dialtone pushing before you get to the Queens Quay location. Maybe worth putting local number on speeddial. Website has their latest menus and deals.