april edition
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The tenth installment of the Bloordale Press newspaperTRANSCRIPT
theBLOORDALEpressHttp://www.thebloordalepress.comAPRIL 2012 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 3
Community News from Ward 18
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FIELD OF DREAMS WINS $50k
BY AMBER [email protected]
Staff, students and parents at Perth Avenue Junior Public School (14 Ruskin Ave.) are celebrating after winning a $50,000 grant to fix up their schoolyard.
The school discovered they had won on March 21 after weeks of furious voting which finished only five days prior to the announce-ment of winners.
The grant is from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment’s Team Up Foundation, which announced the contest at the beginning of the year for charities either building or refurbishing sports and recre-ation facilities for youth.
Janice Robinson, principal at Perth, said she was closely watch-ing the voting results before polls closed at the end of March Break.
“When it came to the closing, I have to tell you there was some happy dancing in my living room,” she said.
The application process in-volved two rounds of voting be-tween January 30 to February 20 where the public voted for the top twenty, and then March 7 to
March 16 when the winners were decided.
Perth finished in third place, se-curing one of the four grants with 4,534 votes.
Joanne Alfonsi, the mother of a student attending Perth, and a member of the school’s schoolyard enhancement committee, said this grant is necessary in helping the community.
“There are a lot of low income families (in the neighbourhood) and they don’t participate in ex-tracurricular activities… so it’s a great opportunity for those children to have access through school,” she said.
The grant will not cover the en-tire cost of the proposed facelift,
Alfonsi said. Ana Bailão, Ward 18 councillor, has pledged $100,000 to the school, and the rest of the cost will be fundraised.
The total estimated cost for the entire renovation of the school-yard is estimated at $250,000. This will include an outdoor learn-ing garden with weather stations, outdoor seating for children, an athletic equipment area, a syn-thetic turf soccer field, and a play-ground. These are all items that may normally be located in a more community-oriented location.
“We don’t really have a commu-nity centre in our neighbourhood,” Alfonsi said. “We’re bordered by train tracks on either side.”
The unique set up of the school
makes it difficult to create an eas-ily accessible, safe location for something like this, Alfonsi said. This redevelopment will help fix that.
Robinson said she was im-pressed and touched by the hard work put in by parents and other members of the community. Perth and neighbouring school St. Luigi Catholic School – which also uses the schoolyard – worked as a team to get votes in. Robinson said it’s a good indication of what will hap-pen later on.
“Look how successful we’ve been working together,” she said. “It only means that in the future we can really collaborate a lot more to make things happen.”
see CINEMA, page 3
I N S I D E
STERLING ROAD DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Plans stay somewhat the same for huge development
Page 3
NEW MMA CLUB REPLACES BOXING MECCA
Trainer has a long list of professional students
Page 6
BROCK PUBLIC SCHOOL TURNING 125 YEARS OLD
Celebrations currently being planned
Page 2
Perth Avenue students run in celebration after realizing they won one of four MLSE grants. Photo courtesy Arwyn Carpenter
Perth Avenue Public School victorious in grant contest
PARADISE CINEMA TO BE SPAREDTheatre gets historic site sta-tus, saved from demolition
BY GURPREET [email protected]
The 75-year old Paradise Cin-ema, which sits at Westmoreland Ave. and Bloor St. (1006 Bloor St. W.) has been granted heritage site status and will not be demol-ished.
Built around 1937, the cinema has seen its fair share of changes – going from a well attended first-run cinema to a porno the-atre and an arthouse cinema.
However, the venue has stood vacant since 2006 and in January of this year, a prospective buyer submitted an application for its demolition. Luckily though, the site stood on the city’s inventory of heritage properties and fol-lowing the application for demo-lition, city council approved its heritage status on March 5.
According to the councillor’s executive assistant, Braden Root Mc-Caig confirmed that the site is still unsold and...
02
News
The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
These walls have been standing for 125 years. PHOTO By Shaleni McBain
BY SHALENI [email protected]
Brock Public School is in its 125th year, and the school is in the midst of planning celebrations for the historic event.
“We have a planning committee of teachers, parents, and former students,” said Victor Tran, the acting Principal at Brock Public School. “That’s one of the reasons I am so proud; all of the commu-nity involvement. “
The committee started with a
“wish list” of things they wanted to do for the celebrations. The committee has developed a motto for the event that shadows their theme of past, present and fu-ture - “To celebrate the present, honour our past and reach out to those who will be the future of our school.”
The celebrations will take place November 23 and 24. On the 23rd, a fundraising dinner put on by alumni will take place as well as a performance by the Famous People Players.
“I approached Famous People Players and they agreed to do a very specific show called ‘Hi-Yo Silver,”’ said Leo Darmitz, Brock alumni and planning committee member.
Friday’s events will also include opening an old time capsule and creating a new one for students to open in 25 years. Also on this day, students will perform their new school song which is currently under production.
On the Saturday, there is a day filled with activities planned at
the school from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. From games to performances, to profiles of graduates and a BBQ lunch, there will be events for people of all ages of the commu-nity to enjoy.
Darmitz has been working for close to eight years on this event. From digging up old class photo-graphs, to tracking down former students dating back to the 40’s, Leo has been riffling through old school information and memora-bilia to create a memory room for the celebrations.
Tran, Darmitz, alumni and committee members hope that many will attend and invite indi-viduals from the community to join in on the celebrations in No-vember.
“I, as well as many others are very passionate about this event,” Darmitz said.
Anyone looking for more in-formation on the celebrations, or anyone interested in purchasing tickets for the dinner can contact Leo Darmitz at [email protected].
CELEBRATIONS PLANNED FOR BROCK'S 125th ANNIVERSARY
BY GURPREET [email protected]
In an effort to get people out and exploring their neighbour-hoods, three Jane’s Walks will be taking place in and around Bloor-dale on May 5.
Originally started in 2007 in Toronto in honour of urban ac-tivist and writer Jane Jacobs, the event has expanded to 511 dif-ferent walks in 75 cities across 15 countries. The walks are aimed at bringing communities together by promoting belonging and en-couraging civic leadership.
The first walk will take place at 11:00 a.m. Called ‘Daffodils in Davenport’, Andrea Dawber of
environmental and social justice group GreenHere will guide a free tour that shows some of the 50,000 daffodils that mark the ar-rival of spring in Davenport.
The tour will also visit some public space projects and high-light a number of issues and op-portunities that arise for commu-nities wishing to reinvest in green space.
Interested parties are to meet at the southeastern corner of Chris-tie Pits Park (750 Bloor St. W.). The walk will wind through a number of parks from Christie St. west to Lansdowne Ave. and fin-ish at MacGregor Park (330 Lans-downe Ave.).
An evening walk will take place
at 5 p.m. at Wadsworth Park (120 Connolly St.). Parties are to meet in the southeastern corner and will travel to Campbell Park (255 Campbell Ave).
The last walk, called ‘Bloordale: A story of Transit, Entrepreneur-ship and Neighbourhood Change’ will take place at 1:30 p.m. Host Adam Popper will guide the group to fascinating entrepreneurs; dis-cuss the history of the streets, businesses and green spaces.
The group is to meet outside the Emerson Ave. exit of Lansdowne Station.
All walks are scheduled to last approximately 90 minutes. For more information, visit http://www.janeswalk.net
THREE JANE'S WALKS IN BLOORDALE BIG on Bloor festival may see some changes this yearBY JUSTIN [email protected]
The BIG on Bloor Organiz-ing Committee – which includes members of Bloordale’s Business Improvement Area (BIA) Com-mittee and community volunteers – met at Duffy’s Tavern on March 7 to discuss how the annual festival can improve this year.
“The festival is a great way to express our goals,” said Bloordale BIA Committee member, Dyan Marie.
Live entertainment has been labeled as a top priority for the festival and unlike last year, the
committee is going to encourage businesses to hire performers to play at their own establishments instead of using a few stages.
The goal is to have the entertain-ment more spread out by using the entire permitted section of Bloor St. W. However, concerns were raised by few that by having per-formers playing just a few dozen metres apart, the atmosphere is going to be “chaotic.”
Head of the BIA committee, Spi-ro Koumoudouros said he will see to it, that everyone cooperates.
Suggested performance venues thus far are, Duffy’s Tavern...
see FESTIVAL, page 3
Three Speed and The Holy Oak Café and possibly new clothing shop, Ephin Apparel.
Ephin Apparel representative, Rick Coyle offered to in-vite one or more Canadian hip-hop artists to the festival as well as trying to organize a “Red Bull type” skateboarding event to feature outside his shop at 1178 Bloor St. W.
To help moderate all entertainment plans, a music committee has been put in place.Although many stages will be eliminated this year, one main stage will remain. The location
agreed upon by committee members is outside of Bloor Collegiate Institute’s front doors. There, an award ceremony that highlights community contribution will take place. Other uses of the stage have not yet been decided on.
Local artist, Richard Mongiat’s long awaited Bloordale flag will also be unveiled at the festival.The two-day festival will take place on July 21 and 22 and will feature the same 600-metre sec-
tion of Bloor St., between Dufferin St. and Lansdowne Ave.For more information, look for the BIG on Bloor festival on Facebook.
03
News
The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
BY GURPREET [email protected]
Castlepoint Realty presented their updated building plans to the community at the Church of the Firstborn (72 Perth Ave.) for their development at 158 Sterling Road on March 22.
The development, which is to see roughly 800 residential units in the form of a tower, town-homes, and (600,000 - 800,000) square feet of commercial use saw very little in terms of new changes.
Starting with the townhomes on Perth Avenue, the number of units has been reduced to 26, as they will now be wider at 16 feet. However, they will remain three stories high.
Plans for the automotive tower - formerly home to Tower Automo-tives which opened in 1919 and which was, at the time, the tallest building in Canada - showed a glass three story addition.
The ground, second and third floor of this building are to be used for commercial uses, while the remaining ten floors will con-sist of residential spaces.
Citing restored buildings such as the Tip Top Tailors Loft (637
Lake Shore Blvd. W.) and the Queens Quay Terminal Building (207 Queen’s Quay W.) Castle-point stressed that they wanted to maintain the look and history of the tower and make the new addi-tion as discreet as possible – “like a crown on the jewel.”
Currently, the site is being ex-cavated for oil, TCA and gasoline contaminants. The process has al-ready been underway and should continue for the next couple of months.
There was concern over dust from a nearby daycare, who said the dust was abundant during these digs. Castlepoint apologized and assured it was because the fire hydrants were closed during that dig. They said that they tried to wet the dirt as much as possible before, but now the hydrants are running again and should cause no problems.
As for the route of most concern (traffic), which was brought up in this and a prior meeting in the fall, Castlepoint responded with efforts including 1,244 parking spaces and a proposed idea to alle-viate pedestrian and bicycle traffic with a new route on Sterling Road that will flow onto Dora Ave. and
also connect to the West Toronto Rail-path. The team said they un-derstand that it will be a difficult process to get clearance over the tracks, but they intend to fight for it as much as necessary.
Concern over whether 1,244 parking spaces in total were enough was responded to with the possibility of a Green-P parking lot if need be.
The proposal is being presented to city council in June and Cas-tlepoint President Alfredo Ro-mano said he hopes that it will go through and they can get to work on automotive tower as soon as possible.
“For every winter we don’t get to work on the tower; that costs us money. It’s getting more and more degraded by just standing there,” he said. Romano added that the building is now entirely stripped down from the inside and that can lead to problems like mould that will cost more to clean up.
In our previous article about the development, Councillor Ana Bailão said that she wanted the is-sue of affordability addressed. In response, Romano said that these new units would be “some of the most affordable in the city.”
DEVELOPMENT SEES LITTLE CHANGE
FESTIVAL, from page 3
there are no current interested parties. He also con-firmed hearing that the prospective buyer only put
in a demolition application to speed up the heritage proposal. The exact future of the site is uncertain, especially with the rash number of theatre closures in
the past few years. However, with some restoration efforts, cinemas like the Revue (400 Ronces-valles Ave.) still show films.
CINEMA, from page 3
The plans for the tower from the side and front.
Paradise has been without an owner since 2006. Photo by Justin Millerson
Aerial view of the development site.
BY KATE [email protected]
The Sara Duke Factory Store re-opened March 10 following an ex-pansion over a couple of weeks and the fresh look is paying off.
“In the first week I think I sold as many pieces as I usually do in a month,” said Sara Duke, the store’s owner and designer.
Duke had shared the space at 1244 Bloor St. W. with a design company called AKA Creative Group since 2010, until the com-pany grew and decided to move to a larger office.
“It was pretty apparent by Christmas of this year that I really needed a bigger store,” Duke said.
The store grew from just 80 square feet to about 750 square feet. The old store had one small change room and could hold just a few customers before it was full, she said.
Now, the back room is dedicated to larger fitting rooms with full-
length mirrors.Duke said she did the renovation
herself with help from friends and family. Her husband took down the wall that separated the original store from the office in the back. Other than the lamps she bought at Value Village, she got most of the furniture for free. The store closed on Feb. 22 for the renovation.
Duke’s handmade clothing is
reasonably priced.“I hate expensive clothes, but I
hate cheap clothes even more,” she said. Duke said affordable quality clothing is important to her, and the mark up on her designs is often very small. Her clothing is also sold at Coal Miner’s Daughter in the Annex and in two stores in Ottawa.
After graduating from Ryerson University’s fashion program in 2007, Duke briefly worked a nine-to-five job in product develop-ment.
Deciding it wasn’t for her, she started a custom clothing business, but tailoring wedding dresses be-came too repetitive, so Duke start-
ed her clothing line and it took off immediately.
Duke said it is a “neighbourhood store” and owes much of her suc-cess to local customers.
“I’m so lucky that this great, amazing space that I inhabit is in a great, amazing neighbourhood,” she said.
04
News
The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
BY JUSTIN [email protected]
Long-time Bloordale watering hole, Duffy’s Tavern could be ex-panding its seats outside.
An application has been put forth to the City of Toronto to add an outdoor patio that could include up to 80 seats said Duffy’s Tavern Manager, Gary Adams.
“There is no true street patio in this area,” said Adams. “We want to have that feel of a walk by patio.”
Duffy’s Tavern has been a main-stay at 1238 Bloor St. W. since it started serving drinks in 1949. Ad-ams said the bar is in the midst of a transition that is eventually go-ing to “clean up” the bar from its criminally riddled past. This patio, he said would be just the start.
The only thing standing in the
way, said Adams is a 30-day post-ing that will explore if anyone in the surrounding area objects to the idea of a patio at the west side of the building.
“There’s a lot of residential [homes] in the area so we want to make sure they are alright with it,” said Adams.
The projected space for the patio is now just a patch of grass sizing at about 600 square feet.
The hope for a patio at Duffy’s Tavern is nothing new. Adams said that the previous owners have also tried for a friendly drinking ter-race, but were held back by the management’s blind eye to im-moral activity.
“The old owners were letting ev-ery reprobate in the neighborhood hang around here,” said Adams.
With the patio, future plans in-clude a new kitchen which would
retrofit Duffy’s as a full-menu res-taurant, and expansion within the current space. Adams said the Tav-ern could double in size by acquir-ing more space within the build-ing’s basement.
“We want to make Duffy’s a legitimate [music] venue down here,” said Adams. “We want big-ger bands.”
Doubling in size would allow Duffy’s to hold 400 people for an event as opposed to 200, the ap-proximate capacity today.
SARA DUKE REOPENS AFTER RENOVATIONS
DUFFY'S PUTS FORWARD APPLICATION FOR PATIO
Sara Duke now has more than 650 extra square feet of space. Photos by Kate McCullough
‘
COUNCILLO ANA BAILÃO 416-392-7012
Dear Neighbours,Our parks and public spaces
serve as the “green heart” for many
Ward 18 n e i g h -b o u r -h o o d s . G e n -erations of city builders have de-veloped u r b a n h o m e s , schools, daycares and oth-er core commu-nity pro-g r a m s a r o u n d p u b l i c parks in
the hopes that these would be the spaces where we come together.
But creating a successful pub-lic park requires more than sim-ply grass and trees. Residents, community based organizations
and the City must work collab-oratively to produce a successful public park. In order to encour-age collaboration and community involvement in our local green spaces, I have been busy speak-ing with residents, working with community groups and coordi-nating with City staff to build our park infrastructure and grow our park activities.
Among the newest park activity in Ward 18 will be the brand new space coming to Queen Street. Nearly the end of a year-long de-sign consultation process, Lisgar Park has benefited heavily from the artistic and cultural flavour of the West Queen West area and will be a destination for both local and City-wide interests.
Also “geared” towards the many talents of Ward 18 residents are the world-class renovations com-ing to the Wallace-Emerson BMX park. This professional-grade BMX installation will have ramps, rails and a half-pipe to keep our
youth challenged, active and in-volved for many years to come. The additional infrastructure will be paired with supervision and education programs to provide an exciting new recreational oppor-tunity for nearby residents and visitors. Join me for the official opening on June 9th.
I am also thrilled with the many instances of achievement and vi-sion realized through community involvement in our area. Teach-ers, students and parents from Perth Avenue Public School, St. Luigi Catholic School and the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club are striving to animate their schoolyard and neighbourhood by fundraising to build a running track. The effort recently secured $50,000 toward their project through a Province-wide voting contest. As Councillor, I am also pleased to be able to support this important community project with $100,000 to bring us closer to our goal. We will continue to
work hard to raise funds and do-nations collected at my communi-ty barbeque on June 23rd will go toward this worthy cause.
Like the Perth Avenue School-yard project, it is the input and engagement of local residents that enriches and enlivens our com-munity spaces. As part my efforts to inform and engage residents, I encourage you to attend my Com-munity Parks Summit on May 5th, 2012. This event will bring together residents, community-based organizations and City of Toronto staff for an afternoon of connection and consultation. Come to Dovercourt Park be-tween 1-3PM for the open house or RSVP to [email protected] for roundtable discussions which will take place between 3:30-5PM.
I will continue to work hard to keep our public parks exciting, our neighbourhoods active, and our community strong. Together we can keep Ward 18 green, fun and safe.
MP ANDREW CASH 416-654-8048 &
MPP JONAH SCHEIN416-535-3158
The Dalton McGuinty Govern-ment is moving ahead with a plan to build a high priced, exclusive, diesel train service from Union Station to Pearson Airport.
We like the idea of train service to the airport – it’s been a long-time coming. But we don’t like the fact that it will be spewing more diesel fumes into our already pol-luted city. And while this train line will be built entirely with public money -- that’s your tax dollars, it certainly isn’t being designed for
wide spread public use. Indeed, the purported ticket price is ru-moured to be between $20 and $40 per ride. Not that you’d have an easy time getting on it anyway since the train is only stopping twice between Pearson and Union!
Indeed when you combine this project with expansion plans for the Georgetown line, Metrolinx has suggested that as many as 400 trains could be running back and forth each day right through the heart of our neighbourhoods. Un-fortunately, the people who have to live through the incredibly dis-ruptive building process live in the very communities that will pay the environmental price for the use of
diesel.Even as re-
cently as two weeks ago a c o n c l u s i v e US study linked low exposure to diesel to lung cancer add-ing to the n u m e r o u s expert opin-ions against the use of diesel --in-cluding To-ronto’s own Medical Offi-cer of Health. Despite the warnings of health ex-
perts and the concerns of the hun-dreds of thousands of residents that live and work along the rail corridor; the McGuinty Liberals, with support from the Harper Conservatives, are pushing ahead with this plan. This is especially outrageous since an alternative plan using electric trains is plau-sible, affordable and sustainable.
Let’s take a closer look at why:➢Fiscal Prudence: Given the cli-
mate of fiscal constraint felt at allthree levels of government does
it make sense to invest in dirty die-sel trains now only to pay to retro-fit them (as vaguely promised) at some undefined later date? And why is McGuinty breaking the
“Buy Ontario” policy and buying diesel trains from Japan, rather than creating good jobs right here in Ontario?
➢Critical Mass: Given the high price for a ticket on this train and the lack of stations will commut-ers choose to take the train rather than a cab downtown? Will we be running nearly empty diesel trains through our communities?
➢Traffic: Given that the track is already in place and has no im-pacts on the flow of car traffic, why don’t we invest in an electric train system that won’t make our communities sick, that will be in-tegrated with the TTC so that it is affordable, and has stations that give TTC riders a rapid north/south transit option? In addition to ensuring that riders are actually served at the train stations that are currently planned (at Union, Bloor, Lawrence, and Pearson) why not add an additional six sta-tions to provide service to Wood-bine, Rexdale, Weston Village, Trethewy, the Junction, Parkdale, and Fort York, and tie it into the new and improved rapid transit on St. Clair and Eglinton?
Some people would have you believe that this is a done deal; that we can’t stop this dirty diesel train; that we have no other option but
to move forward with a train that will serve out of town busi-ness folks while we pick up the cost—to our health, the environ-ment and our common treasury.
Metrolinx was working full-speed ahead on the Mayor’s plan to bury the LRT on Eglinton be-fore a popular revolt forced the City and Province to change di-rections. And in the most recent provincial election, the Liberals broke down under political pres-sure and cancelled unwanted gas plants that were already under construction in Oakville and Mis-sissauga wasting millions of dol-lars to save their own seats.
So it’s not too late to change course here as well! We can stop this dirty diesel train. And we can build an electric train with sta-tions that serve our city without losing a single lane of traffic. It’s time for a focused debate on this issue, and let McGuinty know that we support smart, accessible, environmentally friendly public transit.
We’re talking to our neighbours in Davenport, and all along the rail path to let them know about McGuinty’s plans and that we have far better options. We’re get-ting petitions signed and bringing this debate to Toronto and into the halls of power at Queen’s Park and the House of Commons. We are working hard to protect our com-munity, and we encourage you to get involved. We’re hosting a party on April 28 at the West Toronto Railpath and we invite you to come bring your neighbours and demonstrate your commitment to healthy transit development in our city.
05
Letters from your political representatives
The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
BY JONAH SCHEINDAVENPORT’S MPP416-535-3158
It won’t be easy, but I’m determined to change politics in Davenport.
After working on three election campaigns in Davenport in less than two years, and listening to thousands of residents, I’ve heard repeatedly that people have lost faith in politicians and the political process. I understand why.
The political process often seems unclear and doesn’t seem to make sense, and many times it is unclear and doesn’t make sense. Too many people hear promises that never come true. They hear politicians talking but not listening. They feel like they are paying more to get by and get-ting less service and support in return.
It’s easy to become discouraged, but we cannot
afford to give up on government. Without an ef-fort to renew and repair our democratic process, we stand no chance to meet the challenges that face us. We need government to work for us, to help us steward our environment, to educate our young people, to create good jobs and to care for the sick and vulnerable people in our com-munity.
We are constantly told that government is “inefficient” and ineffective, yet recent and pro-posed cuts to programs and services make our government less effective and less efficient.
We need to reverse this from the ground up. For us that has to start right here in Davenport.
Earlier this year, I opened my community of-fice to better serve our riding. My fantastic and dedicated staff is working to serve you in our new office on St. Clair Ave. W. I’ve worked hard to create a team that is passionate and skilled and build an office that is accessible and welcoming.
In addition to providing information, advo-cacy, and assistance to constituents who need help accessing programs, our office will also be a meeting place for our community to discuss provincial issues that matter to Davenport, for educationals, coffeehouses, and to provide ser-vices like tax clinics for low income community members.
We often feel like government is working against us and not for us. If we’re going to turn this around, we need you be part of a new poli-tics in Davenport. My office wants to hear from you. We want to be in conversation with you. We want to work with you to make this province work better for all of us.
We’re on your side and we’re here to help. Please drop by our office at 1674 St. Clair Ave. W. and see a great exhibit of local artists. You can contact our community office by email at [email protected], by phone at 416-535-3158. To stay connected online, email and ask to join our mailing list.
BY ANDREW CASHDAVENPORT’S MP416-654-8048
Well it has been a wild ride in Ottawa these days. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper has been intent not only on ramming laws through Parliament without sufficient debate or oversight, but of using outrageous rhetoric to divide Ca-nadians and silence debate. For folks in To-ronto this is particularly disturbing since so much of what Harper is doing is toxic here. For example the vote to axe the long gun registry and destroy all the records will weaken gun control in big cities like Toron-to. Their proposed Lawful Access legisla-tion will permit law enforcement agencies to access your private online information without a warrant from a judge. That’s bad!
I held a townhall discussion of this bill in Davenport and knocked on doors in several neighbourhoods to discuss it. Overwhelmingly you had serious concerns. Well so does both the Ontario and the Federal Privacy Commissioners. But what does Vic Toews, our Public Safety Minister say a couple weeks ago? If you don’t stand with the government on this bill then you stand with child por-nographers! Ya, he really said that.
Which leads us to the topic of government’s crime bill C-10. Bil-lions for super jails and nothing to address the roots of most crime—mental illness, drug addiction and poverty. But it will divert precious financial resources away from what we DO need—comprehensive and affordable childcare, more recreation centres and programs for our youth, better public transit and much, much
more affordable housing.The Conservatives have run out of plans,
and the ones they have don’t work for Toronto. It is one of many reasons why I was proud, as one of the NDP Official Opposition’s housing critics, to introduce a National Housing Strategy recently. Affordable housing is one of the biggest issues facing people in Toronto and Ca-nadians right across the country. Over the next several months we’ll be pressuring the government to adopt this plan. And boy do they need one. Recently I asked the Human Resources Minister Diane Findlay about the lack of affordable rental accom-modations in Toronto. She said it wasn’t a problem since interest rates were so low people were simply buying houses. What?! Ya, she really said that too.
BY ANA BAILÃOWARD 18 COUNCILLOR416-392-7012
Dear Neighbours, After transit, I strongly believe the
biggest issue facing Torontonians is affordable housing. The need for safe, well-kept affordable housing is a criti-cal aspect of a caring and cohesive society, and provides dignity to the many low-income Torontonians that contribute readily to our social and economic health.
Toronto’s biggest landlord for af-fordable housing is also Canada’s, with the Toronto Community Hous-ing Corporation providing accom-modation for 154,000 tenants. Since amalgamation, the TCHC has strug-gled significantly under the responsi-bility of caring for the aging housing stock that was downloaded from the Province. Since then, the organiza-tion has been unable to keep up with the growing repair backlog, which is
currently estimated at over $750 million. This backlog, in combination with the corporation’s debt of over $2 billion, is a significant threat to the continued service delivery of affordable housing in Toronto
For this reason, a proposal was brought for-ward that would sell nearly 700 stand-alone units of housing scattered across the City. This would result in over $250 million to be injected directly into repairs to existing TCHC units.
While I recognize that the TCHC faces a growing backlog, the sale of these buildings will not help our City address the over 80,000 households currently on the waiting list for affordable housing; nor does it address the shortage of family housing units - the large proportion of the stand-alone units. Addition-ally, for truly prosperous neighbourhoods, we must value and maintain a mix of incomes and housing types in our communities.
Recently, I was pleased to receive support of the Executive Committee to delay the proposed sell-off until after a Special Working Group is created and able to report back on innovative ways of improving the shape of our TCHC housing. This Working Group will reach out to the non-profit, private and public sectors to
better manage our housing assets in a compas-sionate and more financially sustainable way.
Only with an understanding of the broader housing landscape can we maintain and reaf-firm Toronto’s stake in providing affordable housing by keeping this invaluable social asset viable and effective. As both a Councillor and Chair of the Affordable Housing Committee, I will continue to meet with tenant groups and ownership assistance organizations to have a stronger vision for Toronto’s affordable hous-ing future.
It is also critical that the Province and Federal government share in this commitment and rec-ognize their responsibility to the many thou-sands of Canadians who need housing support by investing in this issue through long-term, sustainable funding of affordable housing.
Toronto’s current housing situation is too critical to wait for solutions; we must begin the work to create them, and we must begin today. We must move forward with a vision that treats people respectfully and provides for the future needs of our City. This will continue to be my priority as these important discussions, and the work of the Special Working Committee, take place.
05The Bloordale Press MARCH 2012
Letters from your Representatives
BY JONAH SCHEIN Greetings Davenport! This is my
first article submission for the Bloor-dale Press. I’m really grateful to the editors for offering me this space to connect with you readers each month.
In many ways the Bloordale Press does more than tell the news in our neighbourhood – it’s part of the good news in our neighbourhood.
Bloordale Press is an example of a growing spirit of community engage-ment our riding.
I feel so lucky to represent this rid-ing where many people are making huge contributions to our neigh-bourhoods. Whether that’s the good folks at Bloordale Press, young people at City View Alternative School, organizers at Dufferin Grove Park, activists with The Clean Trains Coalition, or my old colleagues at The Stop Community Food Centre; people in Davenport are passionate about making our community a bet-ter place to live.
I know that the NDP reflects the values of Davenport. We all know what it means to work hard to pay the bills each month, and we are deeply
committed to the environment and social justice. As residents we all contribute a lot to our community but we also know that government has to do its part too. We need government to help people when they are vulnerable, to steward our environment, and to make life more affordable. We need government to invest in public transit and childcare, and to support senior citizens. And we know we can’t continue on the same old path. In tough economic times, we need our governments to stop giving billions of dollars away to corporations and start investing in our communities. This is the mes-sage that the NDP and I have been bringing to the legislature this fall.
I’m deeply honoured to have earned your support and I’ll work everyday to serve our riding and bring your voices to Queens Park.
I look forward to hearing from you and working together to make this a better riding and province to live in.
I am currently in the process of setting up my office at 1674 St. Clair West, and am available at 416-535-3158 or [email protected] At Queen’s Park I can be reached at 416-325-0014 or [email protected]
BY ANA BAILÃO Dear Neighbours,
With cooling weather, rosy cheeks, and arriving home from work in the dark, the signs of the season are upon us. Yet, despite these weather grievances, Ward 18 is alive with activity and colour.
Whether it is the beautifully wrapped packages in the arms of residents walking out of Queen Street shops, the beautiful lighting along Dundas Street, or the shouts and sounds of skates on ice at our many outdoor rinks - the holidays are here.
The holidays are also a busy time to move around our neighbour-hood. While good public transit is vital for a well planned City, the increased ridership during the winter months - when many driv-ers and cyclists find refuge from the salt and snow - is an important time to reflect on our current tran-sit priorities.
As a candidate, I campaigned on the principles of fast, efficient and affordable public transportation. With those principles in mind, any transit decisions that I support will
have the interests of Davenport residents at its heart while never neglecting the need for a global transportation vision for the City of Toronto.
In order to pay for improved transit infrastructure, and meet spending reduction targets, the TTC has proposed route changes across the City.In Ward 18, the 506 Carleton, 29 Dufferin, 505 Dundas, 26 Dupont are among the routes experiencing reduction in service. In each case these reduc-tions mean riders will have to wait longer (in most cases less than 50 seconds) between vehicles. I am pleased, however, that we will ac-tually see service increases to the 501 Queen, 168 Symington and 40 Junction routes.
These service cuts raise serious concerns about how transit will effectively serve Ward 18 residents. It is critical that affordable and ac-cessible transit be the focus of any transit changes in our Ward and we must look at a variety of methods of accomplishing this goal without compromising transit routes.
I support the notion that we must demand our fair share of transit funding from other levels
of government, and also strongly believe that we must seek to do more with the resources at hand by addressing efficiency concerns like overcrowding and vehicle bunch-ing.
For example, I have requested that City staff investigate solutions to the bunching of buses along the 29 Dufferin route and the TTC is now closely examining this matter. The Queen Street car is a further high-ridership route that suffers from bunching. Especially with the increased population that is predicted with upcoming develop-ment opportunities along Queen Street, it is necessary that we take a proactive approach now in order to guarantee the infrastructure to support the future.
Regardless of the season, I will continue to advocate for afford-able, accessible and sustainable transit for our neighbourhood and would like to wish all the residents of Ward 18 a safe and happy holi-day.
Best wishes to you and your loved ones and I look forward to seeing many of you over the holi-days.
05The Bloordale Press DECEMBER 2011
The Councillor’s Corner
The MPP’s Corner
BY JONAH SCHEINDAVENPORT’S MPP416-535-3158
It won’t be easy, but I’m determined to change politics in Davenport.
After working on three election campaigns in Davenport in less than two years, and listening to thousands of residents, I’ve heard repeatedly that people have lost faith in politicians and the political process. I understand why.
The political process often seems unclear and doesn’t seem to make sense, and many times it is unclear and doesn’t make sense. Too many people hear promises that never come true. They hear politicians talking but not listening. They feel like they are paying more to get by and get-ting less service and support in return.
It’s easy to become discouraged, but we cannot
afford to give up on government. Without an ef-fort to renew and repair our democratic process, we stand no chance to meet the challenges that face us. We need government to work for us, to help us steward our environment, to educate our young people, to create good jobs and to care for the sick and vulnerable people in our com-munity.
We are constantly told that government is “inefficient” and ineffective, yet recent and pro-posed cuts to programs and services make our government less effective and less efficient.
We need to reverse this from the ground up. For us that has to start right here in Davenport.
Earlier this year, I opened my community of-fice to better serve our riding. My fantastic and dedicated staff is working to serve you in our new office on St. Clair Ave. W. I’ve worked hard to create a team that is passionate and skilled and build an office that is accessible and welcoming.
In addition to providing information, advo-cacy, and assistance to constituents who need help accessing programs, our office will also be a meeting place for our community to discuss provincial issues that matter to Davenport, for educationals, coffeehouses, and to provide ser-vices like tax clinics for low income community members.
We often feel like government is working against us and not for us. If we’re going to turn this around, we need you be part of a new poli-tics in Davenport. My office wants to hear from you. We want to be in conversation with you. We want to work with you to make this province work better for all of us.
We’re on your side and we’re here to help. Please drop by our office at 1674 St. Clair Ave. W. and see a great exhibit of local artists. You can contact our community office by email at [email protected], by phone at 416-535-3158. To stay connected online, email and ask to join our mailing list.
BY ANDREW CASHDAVENPORT’S MP416-654-8048
Well it has been a wild ride in Ottawa these days. The Conservative government of Stephen Harper has been intent not only on ramming laws through Parliament without sufficient debate or oversight, but of using outrageous rhetoric to divide Ca-nadians and silence debate. For folks in To-ronto this is particularly disturbing since so much of what Harper is doing is toxic here. For example the vote to axe the long gun registry and destroy all the records will weaken gun control in big cities like Toron-to. Their proposed Lawful Access legisla-tion will permit law enforcement agencies to access your private online information without a warrant from a judge. That’s bad!
I held a townhall discussion of this bill in Davenport and knocked on doors in several neighbourhoods to discuss it. Overwhelmingly you had serious concerns. Well so does both the Ontario and the Federal Privacy Commissioners. But what does Vic Toews, our Public Safety Minister say a couple weeks ago? If you don’t stand with the government on this bill then you stand with child por-nographers! Ya, he really said that.
Which leads us to the topic of government’s crime bill C-10. Bil-lions for super jails and nothing to address the roots of most crime—mental illness, drug addiction and poverty. But it will divert precious financial resources away from what we DO need—comprehensive and affordable childcare, more recreation centres and programs for our youth, better public transit and much, much
more affordable housing.The Conservatives have run out of plans,
and the ones they have don’t work for Toronto. It is one of many reasons why I was proud, as one of the NDP Official Opposition’s housing critics, to introduce a National Housing Strategy recently. Affordable housing is one of the biggest issues facing people in Toronto and Ca-nadians right across the country. Over the next several months we’ll be pressuring the government to adopt this plan. And boy do they need one. Recently I asked the Human Resources Minister Diane Findlay about the lack of affordable rental accom-modations in Toronto. She said it wasn’t a problem since interest rates were so low people were simply buying houses. What?! Ya, she really said that too.
BY ANA BAILÃOWARD 18 COUNCILLOR416-392-7012
Dear Neighbours, After transit, I strongly believe the
biggest issue facing Torontonians is affordable housing. The need for safe, well-kept affordable housing is a criti-cal aspect of a caring and cohesive society, and provides dignity to the many low-income Torontonians that contribute readily to our social and economic health.
Toronto’s biggest landlord for af-fordable housing is also Canada’s, with the Toronto Community Hous-ing Corporation providing accom-modation for 154,000 tenants. Since amalgamation, the TCHC has strug-gled significantly under the responsi-bility of caring for the aging housing stock that was downloaded from the Province. Since then, the organiza-tion has been unable to keep up with the growing repair backlog, which is
currently estimated at over $750 million. This backlog, in combination with the corporation’s debt of over $2 billion, is a significant threat to the continued service delivery of affordable housing in Toronto
For this reason, a proposal was brought for-ward that would sell nearly 700 stand-alone units of housing scattered across the City. This would result in over $250 million to be injected directly into repairs to existing TCHC units.
While I recognize that the TCHC faces a growing backlog, the sale of these buildings will not help our City address the over 80,000 households currently on the waiting list for affordable housing; nor does it address the shortage of family housing units - the large proportion of the stand-alone units. Addition-ally, for truly prosperous neighbourhoods, we must value and maintain a mix of incomes and housing types in our communities.
Recently, I was pleased to receive support of the Executive Committee to delay the proposed sell-off until after a Special Working Group is created and able to report back on innovative ways of improving the shape of our TCHC housing. This Working Group will reach out to the non-profit, private and public sectors to
better manage our housing assets in a compas-sionate and more financially sustainable way.
Only with an understanding of the broader housing landscape can we maintain and reaf-firm Toronto’s stake in providing affordable housing by keeping this invaluable social asset viable and effective. As both a Councillor and Chair of the Affordable Housing Committee, I will continue to meet with tenant groups and ownership assistance organizations to have a stronger vision for Toronto’s affordable hous-ing future.
It is also critical that the Province and Federal government share in this commitment and rec-ognize their responsibility to the many thou-sands of Canadians who need housing support by investing in this issue through long-term, sustainable funding of affordable housing.
Toronto’s current housing situation is too critical to wait for solutions; we must begin the work to create them, and we must begin today. We must move forward with a vision that treats people respectfully and provides for the future needs of our City. This will continue to be my priority as these important discussions, and the work of the Special Working Committee, take place.
05The Bloordale Press MARCH 2012
Letters from your Representatives
BY JONAH SCHEIN Greetings Davenport! This is my
first article submission for the Bloor-dale Press. I’m really grateful to the editors for offering me this space to connect with you readers each month.
In many ways the Bloordale Press does more than tell the news in our neighbourhood – it’s part of the good news in our neighbourhood.
Bloordale Press is an example of a growing spirit of community engage-ment our riding.
I feel so lucky to represent this rid-ing where many people are making huge contributions to our neigh-bourhoods. Whether that’s the good folks at Bloordale Press, young people at City View Alternative School, organizers at Dufferin Grove Park, activists with The Clean Trains Coalition, or my old colleagues at The Stop Community Food Centre; people in Davenport are passionate about making our community a bet-ter place to live.
I know that the NDP reflects the values of Davenport. We all know what it means to work hard to pay the bills each month, and we are deeply
committed to the environment and social justice. As residents we all contribute a lot to our community but we also know that government has to do its part too. We need government to help people when they are vulnerable, to steward our environment, and to make life more affordable. We need government to invest in public transit and childcare, and to support senior citizens. And we know we can’t continue on the same old path. In tough economic times, we need our governments to stop giving billions of dollars away to corporations and start investing in our communities. This is the mes-sage that the NDP and I have been bringing to the legislature this fall.
I’m deeply honoured to have earned your support and I’ll work everyday to serve our riding and bring your voices to Queens Park.
I look forward to hearing from you and working together to make this a better riding and province to live in.
I am currently in the process of setting up my office at 1674 St. Clair West, and am available at 416-535-3158 or [email protected] At Queen’s Park I can be reached at 416-325-0014 or [email protected]
BY ANA BAILÃO Dear Neighbours,
With cooling weather, rosy cheeks, and arriving home from work in the dark, the signs of the season are upon us. Yet, despite these weather grievances, Ward 18 is alive with activity and colour.
Whether it is the beautifully wrapped packages in the arms of residents walking out of Queen Street shops, the beautiful lighting along Dundas Street, or the shouts and sounds of skates on ice at our many outdoor rinks - the holidays are here.
The holidays are also a busy time to move around our neighbour-hood. While good public transit is vital for a well planned City, the increased ridership during the winter months - when many driv-ers and cyclists find refuge from the salt and snow - is an important time to reflect on our current tran-sit priorities.
As a candidate, I campaigned on the principles of fast, efficient and affordable public transportation. With those principles in mind, any transit decisions that I support will
have the interests of Davenport residents at its heart while never neglecting the need for a global transportation vision for the City of Toronto.
In order to pay for improved transit infrastructure, and meet spending reduction targets, the TTC has proposed route changes across the City.In Ward 18, the 506 Carleton, 29 Dufferin, 505 Dundas, 26 Dupont are among the routes experiencing reduction in service. In each case these reduc-tions mean riders will have to wait longer (in most cases less than 50 seconds) between vehicles. I am pleased, however, that we will ac-tually see service increases to the 501 Queen, 168 Symington and 40 Junction routes.
These service cuts raise serious concerns about how transit will effectively serve Ward 18 residents. It is critical that affordable and ac-cessible transit be the focus of any transit changes in our Ward and we must look at a variety of methods of accomplishing this goal without compromising transit routes.
I support the notion that we must demand our fair share of transit funding from other levels
of government, and also strongly believe that we must seek to do more with the resources at hand by addressing efficiency concerns like overcrowding and vehicle bunch-ing.
For example, I have requested that City staff investigate solutions to the bunching of buses along the 29 Dufferin route and the TTC is now closely examining this matter. The Queen Street car is a further high-ridership route that suffers from bunching. Especially with the increased population that is predicted with upcoming develop-ment opportunities along Queen Street, it is necessary that we take a proactive approach now in order to guarantee the infrastructure to support the future.
Regardless of the season, I will continue to advocate for afford-able, accessible and sustainable transit for our neighbourhood and would like to wish all the residents of Ward 18 a safe and happy holi-day.
Best wishes to you and your loved ones and I look forward to seeing many of you over the holi-days.
05The Bloordale Press DECEMBER 2011
The Councillor’s Corner
The MPP’s Corner
06
News
The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
Sully’s Boxing Gym’s old stomping grounds have been transformed into an mixed martial arts gym. Photo By Gurpreet Ghag
BY GURPREET [email protected]
It’s almost a passing of the torch in some ways. For decades the gym at the top of Monza Auto Service (21 Wade Ave.) was a shrine of To-ronto’s boxing history, but now with the popularity of the sport decreas-ing, the gym has been transformed to facilitate the sport stealing its at-tention – mixed martial arts.
Back in its heyday, the gym was run by popular boxing promoter Earl Sullivan and named Sully’s. It was a regular hotspot for talent and
was the home gym to Canadian boxing legend George Chuvalo for a period in his career. In 1966, in preparation for the fight that made Chuvalo legendary, Muhammad Ali even skipped some rope and flashed some leather there.
And while Sully’s did end up moving its ring to 1024 Dupont St., the space remained a boxingclub.
It wasn’t until this past January that new owner Joe Bartella and the other owner and head instructor Mauricio Amado decided to sign a lease and turn it into the Evolução Thai MMA School.
“We put up new punching bags because they are supposed to be at a different level for this training. We put down new mats from wall to wall, took down the ring and added an octagon, put up all these wall mats which was hard because the walls aren’t all level,” Bartella said.
Yes, it was a beautiful renovation, Bartella said, but the real draw of the school is its head instructor – Mauricio Amado.
While Amado is not that fluent with English, his colleague Henry Lima was quick to say that his ex-tensive experience and accomplish-
ments in and out of the octagon more than make up for it.
Born in Brazil, Amado has been fighting since the age of 13 and has gone on to an impressive profes-sional career, and an even more im-pressive one as a trainer.
Amado’s students include for-mer UFC light heavyweight champ Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and current middleweight champion Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva, who boasts a cur-rent record of 14 consecutive wins.
Bartella said that there are plans to make the most out of those kinds of connections for the stu-
dents here.“We will have UFC fighters come
and train here with the students,” he said. “They will do that for [Ama-do].”
Also, in the not so distant fu-ture, Bartella hopes to have satellite classes with fighters from around the world, where fighters will be able to teach via their computer from a remote gym.
The school will officially open on April 2 and is offering a free trial class to anyone
interested. There is also a dis-count for the first fifty people who sign up. For more detailed infor-mation and to get rates or class times, visit http://www.evolucao-thai.com
MMA CLUB MOVES INTO LEGENDARY BOXING SPOT
BY GURPREET [email protected]
In an effort to get people out and about, The Davenport West Bike Project launched their second cam-paign with a community bike forum on March 20.
Running out of and in conjunc-tion with the Davenport Neighbour-hood and Community Health Cen-tre (1900 Davenport Rd.), the forum aimed to connect to the community with health issues.
“We thought biking would be a non-clinical and friendly way to talk to people about health,” said Gabri-elle Langlois, the project’s coordinator.
Langlois said the project is partic-ularly beneficial to the area it serves from Bloor St. W north to Rogers Rd. and east to west from Ossington Ave. to the C.P./C.N. railway tracks because of the area’s “higher than average amount of chronic disease cases.”
In a 2007 study by The Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, it found that the three neighbour-hoods that make up the project’s area are ranked 108th, 122nd and 136th out of 140 neighbourhoods in Toronto for incidence of diabetes.
Langlois and her volunteers plan to ride last year’s successes and continue to inform the community
about bicycle maintenance and re-pair, injury prevention, exercise and healthy eating.
This particular event started at 3:30 p.m. with a bike repair clinic and went on to 8:30 p.m. with key-note speakers, a dinner, and future planning for the expansion of the project.
Spring Bike Check-up
As part of the bike clinic, Geoff Becarich from Bike Pirates (1292 Bloor St. W.) helped riders get their bikes up to riding standards and of-fered the following checklist before you hit the pavement:
- Check for rust (a bike rider’s en-emy) on the chain and cables.
- Check for cracks in the tires as they may cost you multiple flats dur-ing the season
Rust, Bercarich added, can be treated by scrubbing your chain with soap and water. Cracks in the tire, depending on the severity, may need to be replaced.
For all major problems, Bercarich recommends visiting Bike Pirates where you can learn how to fix the problem yourself.
For more information on the Bike Pirates, visit http://www.bikepirates.com.
For more information about the Davenport West Bike Project, visit http://www.dpnchc.com
DAVENPORT WEST BIKE PROJECT LAUNCHES INTO SECOND SEASON OF HEALTHY LIVING
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The spot that once saw Muhammad Ali train, now may attract the likes of Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva
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09
News
The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
BY MELINDA [email protected]
The Junction Triangle’s Tele-phone Booth Gallery’s (3148 Dundas St. W.) most recent show brings together nine local artists.
Sharlene Rankin, the gallery’s director, said the exhibition, accordingly called Local Call: Neighbours Group Exhibition, was quite different than anything the gallery has done before.
“It’s a very diverse show with more conceptual works involv-ing poetry and installation to beautiful sculptures, photog-raphy, watercolours, woodcuts and paintings, even some sound works and sound sculptures,” Rankin said.
The Local Call display ran from March seventh through the 31st, she said.
Participating artist Katherine Knight said there was no better spot for the gallery to be located.
“To see the Telephone Booth trying to make a go of it in our
neighbourhood makes me want to support them and be part of that excitement of being in a neighbourhood that is radically changing,” Knight said.
Knight said she showed off her Victorian era needlepoint motto photographs, which were collected over a 30-year period from a neighbour at her summer home in Nova Scotia.
Knight said her neighbour owns approximately 160 of the Victorian needlepoints. Knight said she chose six of the mottos to be displayed at The Local Call.
“This would be a different kind of project for me; usually my photographic work is black and white landscape. I thought it was a good opportunity having a neighbourhood show that was somewhat a work in progress as a project that is not quite fin-ished yet,” Knight said.
Ana Bailão, Councillor of Ward 18, said The Junction is only beginning to grow and in the future we can expect to see
more galleries and artists show-casing their work in the area.
“A lot of people still don’t think of the Junction as be-ing somewhere they would go. That is actually one of the ma-jor changes that we are finding because it is getting so expensive for a lot of these emerging art-ists and galleries to be on Queen or King as an example, they are looking for places that have a lot of character like the Junction,” Bailão said.
Bailão said the gallery did the right thing by getting into the area before it became too satu-rated.
“I think it’s a good step that they are tapping into the local talent. They will obviously be working with the artists and the arts community around the city but there is going to be a strong local component to it and I think that’s very important,” she said.
For more information visit www.telephoneboothgallery.ca or call 647-270-7903.
TELEPHONE BOOTH GALLERY UNITES LOCALS
BY KAITE [email protected]
In this technological music age of synthesiz-ers and sequencers, Redxdown, the one-man band from Bloordale is finding its identity by mixing genres.
In the beginning, Redxdown was beat and rhythm focused, but Donal Ward-McCarthy, the man behind the sound grew his music into what he called a hybrid style of techno by mar-rying meaningful lyrics and industrial beats.
The first spark of Redxdown started in 2004, after Ward-McCarthy, who is originally from Ireland got his residency here in Canada, and after he settled in the Bloordale area.
Ward-McCarthy had been working on his own music when he met Elliot Bryant in a Long & McQuade, the go-to-guy for dance music, he said.
He and Bryant started jamming together and after a few months Redxdown was born. They released an EP in 2005 and “really ex-perimented a lot, with a lot of different styles,” Ward-McCarthy said.
However, Elliot and Ward-McCarthy were moving in two different musical directions, Elliot wanting to stick with the techno style and Ward-McCarthy wanting to “move at a faster pace,” while producing more lyrical songs, so they mutually separated roughly four years ago.
It was decided that Ward-McCarthy would stay under the already built up Redxdown name, but the whole concept of who it was began to change.
Making the change from techno to more
lyric-focused songs went smoothly for Ward-McCarthy who is fascinated by the dance beats but says he finds inspiration from some of his favourite bands with strong lyrics, like U2.
Now, Ward-McCarthy’s main goal for Redxdown is for the music to be heard and af-fect someone, “that’s why I feel music is here for us, to help us see things differently some-times,” he said. “It is up to us on how we view the world and in many cases music does help us look at the world in a different way.”
Redxdown’s upcoming album, having gone through the recording process, is now being shown to record labels but so far, there has been no release date set.
Redxdown performs live only two to three times a year, but all the shows have been lo-cal. On March 22 and March 24 Redxdown played for the Canadian Music Fest at the Comfort Zone and The Ossington, a perfor-mance is also scheduled for the Big on Bloor Fest happening July 21 and 22 this year.
The Telephone Booth Gallery’s director Sharlene Rankin has brought the community together in her latest showing. Photo by Melinda Warren
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ARTIST PROFILE: DONAL WARD-McCARTHY
Photo by Kaite Boivin
Art Gallery Guide
10 The Bloordale Press APRIL 2012
The Daniel Faria Gallery is pleased to present “ Welcome to the Twenty-First Cen-tury”, an exhibition of new work by Douglas Coupland.
The work analy-ses sensations cre-ated by information technology that are
nearly universal in the western mind. At the same time it dis-cusses our yearnings that are eternal to all of humanity, couched in the form of impre-cations and pieties addressed to people living at this century’s beginning.
Loop Gallery is pleased to announce exhibitions by loop members John Abrams entitled Entertain-ing Modernism, and Sung Ja Kim entitled Trans-forming.
Entertaining Modernism comprises a selection of new paintings and sculp-tures that emanate from John Abrams’ ongoing interest in concepts of the
modern found in film, sculpture and painting. Experi-menting with narra-tive disjuncture by juxtaposing abstract forms that have over time taken on rec-ognizable modernist symbolism, with the immediacy of paint-ing he achieves great visual effects.
Solo ExhibitionOpened Thursday, March 10
Reffo’s artistic research attempts at rendering movie-like disquieting atmospheres carefully prepared through sketch-es, imitation of original stage-set photographs and vintage film frames. The event portrayed is a still-image, convey-ing a sense of anguish for dream-like situations
where the roles of the persecutor and the victim are not clearly defined. The visionary aspect of his realistic images is fur-ther emphasized by an original and disturbing use of lighting. Technical excellence and manual dexterity lead to crystal clear forms obtained by minimal layering of paint in a fashion that is evoca-tive of the great tradition of Italian painting.
Opening: Saturday, March 31Artist: Amanda Reeves
Amanda Reeves, an artist of great subtlety and con-trol, has an abiding interest in the act of looking and seeing. Reeves places great emphasis on movement in her newest body of work. Shape elements spring from imagined foci, collid-ing and veering, defining the structure of the paint-ing as they compete for ter-ritory on the picture plane.
An illusion of space is created by Reeves’ innova-
tive selection of colour and tone. Informed by colour theory, Reeves uses simple shapes and restrained co-lours in her paintings to connect the viewer with the invisible act of perception. The resulting chromatic nuances give the paintings an intangible optical qual-ity similar to “after images”, challenging the viewer to take pleasure in the physi-cal act of seeing. The pre-cise rendering of each shape belies her free-hand technique; each painting offers a pristine surface un-marked by brush or hand.
Daniel Faria Gallery
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Reception opened: Saturday, March 31 2012
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