http://www.facebook.com/bloordaletimesMAY 2014 VOLUME 2 ISSUE 4

Neighbourhood news worth repeating

BY RYAN POINIERpoirier1441@gmail.com

Mark June 7 off your calendar, especially if you live near Little Portugal.

The DuWest Fest is coming back for another year and if last year was an indication, this festival will be lively and full of entertainment.

The event showcases Dundas West, its restaurants, shops and people.

Helder Ramos, coordinator of

the Dundas West BIA commit-tee (Business Improvement Area), helped organize the inaugural fes-tival and said the event gives the members in the community a great chance to meet their neighbours and see what their own community has to offer.

“I think it may have introduced some neighbours together and some businesses to the community around the BIA,” Ramos said. “It’s sort of introduced that to the city, a lot of people came out that prob-

ably haven’t been in the neighbour-hood before.”

Ramos said that he believes the DuWest Fest will get bigger over time. This year will include several new additions to the festival as June 7 is jam-packed with things going on in Toronto.

“This year, the 100 in One Day takes place in Toronto and all over the world,” Ramos said. “It’s a fes-tival of student led interventions. We’re promoting that and sup-plying two or three of our festival programming as interventions for that.”

The 100 in One Day is an in-ternational event that brings citi-zens of Toronto together in tak-ing part in creating acts of urban change. It will be held on June 7. For more information, visit http://www.100in1day.ca

This year’s DuWest Fest will include more music and perfor-mances as well by “partnering with

a local music festival called Lula-World,” Ramos said.

The LulaWorld festival takes place at the Lula Lounge, a restau-rant/ nightclub on Dundas Street West that serves as a venue to many music artists. The festival begins on May 18 and ends on the same day the DuWest Fest begins.

“On that day what they’ll do is they’ll program a new stage that wasn’t there before with some solid world music acts including some international performances,” Ra-mos said.

Jane Ferris, owner of a newer restaurant to the Dundas West area called Wallflower, was involved in the festival last year and plans on participating again this June.

“It’s great for business,” Ferris said. “I remember the streets were jammed and there were tons of street performers.”

For more information, visit http://www.dundaswestfest.ca

see BLOOR C.I. page 2

INSIDEICONIC JANE’S WALK HITS

WEST TORONTOBloordale home to several walking tours in early May

Page 2

NEW SPORT NOW AVAILABLE TO PLAY IN TORONTO

“BlitzBall” ready for action thanks to a local business

Page 7

LOCAL AUTHOR PUBLISHES SECOND BOOK

Elizabeth Hawksworth takes a hobby one step further

Page 6

FUTURE PLANS FOR BLOOR C.I.

DISCUSSED BY HANNAH HOLLINGSWORTHhannahr.hollingsworth@gmail.com

Classes at Bloor Collegiate Insti-tute are finishing up for the sum-mer, and there are big plans in place for the land it sits on.

The secondary school will be moving from the current location at the corner of Bloor and Dufferin streets to Brockton High School lo-cated Brock Ave. and Croatia St. in September 2016.

Although the two buildings are less than 100 feet away from each other, the switch has caused unease amidst those involved in the plan-ning.

The two secondary schools and the former Kent Senior Public School, closed in 2012, sit on al-most six hectares of TDSB prop-erty.

“My main concerns are the loss of public space and the loss of the school facilities,” said Ward 18 Councillor Ana Bailão.

The Toronto District School Board announced its plans to sell the current BCI building in...

COMMUNITY FESTIVAL TO RETURN TO DUNDAS ST WEST

TIMES

THE

BLOORDALEB

02

News

The Bloordale Times May 2014

BY VANESSA MARCIANOmrcv0050@humbermail.ca

Thousands of people, spanning across 22 countries, joined in a walking conversation around their neighbourhoods during the first weekend of May.

The movement, inspired by icon-ic activist and urbanist Jane Jacobs, aims to teach people about the area in which they live.

“After passing away in 2006, [Ja-cobs’] friends, colleagues and people who admired her work wanted to find a way to memorialize her, and one of her ideas was about self orga-nizations and how cities have the ca-pability of providing something for everybody, only when everybody contributes to making a great city,” said global director, Denise Pinto.

Jane’s Walk, a series of walking tours put together by volunteers, started in Toronto in 2007 and is only growing, now in it’s eighth con-secutive year.

Jane’s Walk gives people the op-

portunity to foster community by having each other meet in a physical space.

“We are all online these days and it’s very difficult to find opportuni-ties to be face to face with our neigh-bours,” said Pinto. “Increasingly, people don’t even know who lives next door.”

In total, there were three walks organized in the Bloordale, Ward 18 area on May 4, running from one to two hours each, and local resi-dents were encouraged to join and connect and share ideas with other residents.

Toronto’s rich multicultural di-versity often has a reference as ‘the world in one city’. No matter what part of the city someone is from, ev-eryone has a story to share, and it’s never too late to organize and host a walk.

“It’s really easy to plan a walk. Think of the stories you want to tell and then tie them to a physical place,” said walk coordinator Jas-mine Frolick. “Practice doing that

route, and then get it up online.”Pinto said leaders share their

knowledge, but also encourage dis-cussion and participation among the walkers.

“It’s about people talking about their own experience and everyone being an expert where they live. Participants also learn way more about the city that they’re from,” said Pinto.

Jane’s Walk operates on a shoe-string budget and relies heavily on the power of volunteers. In order to sustain growth by getting more peo-ple involved, they’ve started a “text to donate” campaign. Text the word “JANE” to 45678 to give ten dollars.

In Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she wrote, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody,

only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.

“We hope people explore their city and go away with a deeper un-derstanding with what’s in their own backyard and that they con-nected with strangers, who are now friends,” said Frolick.

For more information about walks in the area, visit www.http://janeswalk.org

JANE JACOBS’ LEGACY FELT IN TORONTO AS JANE’S WALK HITS BLOORDALE

Residents walk on the West Toronto Railpath on one of many tours across Toronto in last year’s Jane’s Walk. Photo courtesy Vic Gedris

...November for some much-needed funds.

“There is a deeper problem about how we’re financing education in our prov-ince,” Bailão said. “School boards need to sell real estate to fund their capital needs.”

Bailão said another school has made an offer on the land BCI currently sits on, al-though she could not disclose which one.

“I will continue to get all the informa-tion that I’m privy to accessible to the community members,” Bailão said. “Once the city is involved I can guarantee that there will be lots of community consulta-tions, meetings and updates.”

Currently there are 526 students at BCI and 74 Alpha II students who will be transferring to the Brockton building, ac-cording to the April 2014 newsletter from Ward 9 TDSB trustee Maria Rodrigues.

Bloordale resident Ben Hoff, part of the Local School Community Design Team for BCI in 2012, said the current renova-tion plans for the Brockton building don’t

look the same as the originals.In the visioning process for the site, the

TDSB said there would be a gut retrofit of the facility, according to Hoff.

“Now they’re really just upgrading the mechanical systems and giving it a fresh coat of paint for renovation,” he said.

Hoff said the original plans were to build a pedestrian path from Bloor Street to the northeast corner of the Brockton building.

“That whole concept of the frontage of Bloor Street and the new entrance appears to have been thrown away,” Hoff said. “It appears that they intend to sell as much as they can without allowing for future ex-pansion on that school site.”

Once the move takes place in Septem-ber 2016, the main entrance to the Brock-ton building will be on Croatia St..

Hoff said another concern is lack of outside space for students when they’re not in class.

“There are no intentions to protect for courtyard-type space for kids to hang out,” Hoff said. “The kids attending will have no place to go.”

BLOOR C.I. from page 1

Bloor Collegiate Institute is slated for change as classes are to leave in September 2016. Photo by Hannah Hollingsworth

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Running Time: 136 minutesDirectors: Anthony Russo and

Joe RussoActors: Chris Evans, Samuel L.

Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Rob-ert Redford and Anthony Mackie

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is not just this summer’s blockbuster kick off movie, it is a complete film full of wit, intrigue with an on-target hot-button plot.

DC Comics ought to start pay-ing attention to the top box office recipes that Marvel has been mix-ing up for the past decade or so.

The formula: great actors x great writing = a whole-lot-a money.

Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johans-son and Chris Evans bring chem-istry to this surprisingly great se-quel; an oxymoron in Hollywood - a town historically known for bad sequels.

Come to think of it, I can only name three movies, that had sig-nificantly better sequels than the original film: The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part II, and

Aliens. The Godfather Part II was so good it won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1975 winning Best Pic-ture Oscars for both The Godfa-ther and The Godfather Part II be-coming the first sequel ever to win a Best Picture Academy Award and the only time the award went to a sequel of a Best Picture. Do I dare place Winter Soldier on the list? Categorically, it is hard not to.

The Winter Soldier is such a well made film I could only find one tiny hiccup with an unneces-sary insert-fight-scene-here mo-

ment. We’ll see if you can spot it, although it’s not too obvious.

Beyond this flaw, it’s hard not to like Cap 2 with it’s believable all-American wholesome lead, backed up by a solid and diverse support-ing cast.

If you have not yet seen this film you are missing out, and if you have seen it already why not revisit it, for I bet the upcoming sum-mer releases won’t pack the same punch as Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Overall Grade: 4 1/2 steelturkeys

04

Feature

The Bloordale Times May 2014

Http://www.facebook.com/bloordaletimes

1139 College St. Toronto, ON. M6H 1B5 | Facebook.com/BloordaleTimes General Info/ Advertising: 647-961-4516, thebloordaletimes@gmail.com twitter@bloordaletimes

*EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/ART....Justin Millerson*ASSOCIATE EDITOR....Melissa Millerson*COPY EDITORS....Rob Lamberti, Gopi Bezzala*ADVERTISING....Justin Millerson*CONTRIBUTORS.... Vanessa Marciano, Vanessa Campbell, Rebecca Hamill,

Hannah Hollingsworth, Ryan Poinier, Edward Bayley

**The Bloordale Times is published monthly and distibuted within Ward 18’s boundaries and neighbouring areas. 10,000 copies are de-livered door-to-door, to local businesses and areas of interest. Call or email us with your story ideas or to inquire about our advertising rates**

THE

TIMESBLOORDALEB

LOCAL FILM BUFF JESSICA BERRY GIVESSOLID REVIEW FOR ‘CAPTAIN AMERICA’ BY JESSICA BERRYmyyearatthemovietheatre.tumblr.com

BY VANESSA CAMPBELLvanessa-campbell@live.ca

Hundreds of dedicated shoppers flooded the Kensington Market, Parkdale and parts of Bloordale on April 17 for the annual Vintage Crawl.

The Vintage Crawl is a night when vintage shops stay open until mid-night. Founded by stylist and editor Odessa Paloma Parker in 2012, the bi-annual event is city-wide and cre-ates a more laid-back atmosphere by hosting DJs, serving alcohol and having exclusive promotions.

Though the late night event is fairly new, it has created an oppor-tunity for businesses both old and new to expand their clientele and introduce new products.

However for some business own-ers, like Crispian Underwood of Stella Luna (1627 Queen W.), it was just another night. Stella Luna is one of the oldest vintage clothing shops in the city at 19 years old. Under-

wood prides herself and her shop on the quality of her products, rather than quantity.

“The 90s are vintage these days. I try to have things from the 50s and 60s but that are still wearable and not just old for the sake of be-ing old,” said Underwood. “Differ-ent stores have different things so if you’re in ten different vintage stores, they might all have a different feel.”

With the sudden popularity of vintage culture and the increase in vintage shop openings events like the Vintage Crawl only add to this trend.

“One of the good things about vintage is that it’s one of a kind,” said Underwood. “When it fits you and it’s nice and you want it, you know no one’s ever going to see someone else in it because that’s the only one.”

Robin Vengroff, a Ryerson Fash-ion Communications grad and owner of the newly-opened Three Fates (1394 Queen St. W.) said she was happy about the exposure the Vintage Crawl gave her store.

“I started going into vintage be-cause of my grandmother. I just started doing pop-up sales with some of her old stuff and it grew from there,” said Vengroff.

After a few years of hosting pop-up shops throughout the city, Ven-groff was finally able to open up a shop of her own. Three Fates is a

vintage-meets-modern shop that features pieces from California and some local Toronto designers as well.

“I have a combination of vintage and new stuff,” said Underwood. “I also get a lot of my clothes from California. I used to work in more corporate fashion and was always

back and forth. I like the bright vi-brant prints you can find in Califor-nia and I’ve always just found the quality to be better.”

The next Vintage Crawl is ex-pected to take place in the Fall. For more information on the Crawl, vis-it http://www.vintagecrawltoronto.com

NIGHT-TIME VINTAGE CRAWL TAKES TO THE STREETS OF WEST TORONTO

Owner of Three Fates Robin Vengroff (left) stands with patron Mackenzie Lashbrook. Photo by Vanessa Campbell

MPP JONAH SCHEIN416-535-3158

It’s election time again in Ontario!It has been my honour to serve our community as

your MPP since 2011. I think we have a great thing going in Davenport. In just a couple of years, we have trans-formed our political culture in Davenport, from one where constituents were neglected by absent politicians into a dynamic hub of community activism and civic en-gagement. Our constituency office is staffed by some of the best advocates in the province and has helped hun-dreds of people gain access to services and supports and helped our community stay connected and informed.

I’ve worked in partnership with our MP, Andrew Cash to bring the issues and concerns of our community for-ward to be debated provincially and nationally – whether that’s clean trains on the Air Rail Link, contra-flow bike lanes, stopping exploitative unpaid internships, or elec-toral reform.

Holding the balance of power at Queen’s Park, our NDP team, fought for accountability for our constituents and to protect the public interest.

We successfully leveraged our power in the legislature to raise revenue through a new surtax on high income Ontarians and to secure a commitment to establish an independent Financial Accountability Office at Queen’s Park.

But we have not been able to stop the Liberals from creating chaos in the classroom by legislating teachers contracts, or pursuing costly public private partnerships, corporate tax cuts and cuts to critical public services.

People across Ontario are furious with the Liberal Government for good reason. Not only for their most famous scandals - for E-Health, ORNGE, and the Gas Plant cancellation and cover up – but also for their long record of putting the interests of their friends and well connected insiders ahead of the public good.

Privatization of highway maintenance and the closure of train services have left northerners stranded. Plans to “modernize” the OLG have forced municipalities to consider private mega-casinos and brought reckless cuts to the horse racing industry that have devastated rural communities in Ontario.

Recent revelations show that another Liberal P3 proj-ect threatens public safety in Windsor and will leave the public on the hook for millions of dollars.

And here in Toronto, we’ve seen a private company –

Presto -- paid hundreds of millions of public money for a transit fare system that has still not materialized.

We’ve heard a lot of big talk about transit, but seen little action when it comes to badly needed investments. Instead, we continue to see TTC services cut and fares increase.

After all the conversations, panels and reports about “revenue tools” for transit, the government has failed to deliver, promising instead to “use existing revenue” to pay for transit, refusing to roll back their corporate tax cuts, and in the recent budget suggesting that they will sell off public assets.

The most recent budget made many more promises - many to be delivered over the next ten years. But we have seen the Liberals make big promises when they are feeling desperate – whether that is to move gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville in the last general election, or to build a Scarborough subway or extend subway service to Thornhill in recent by-elections.

People across Ontario have lost confidence in this government and their promises. Ontarians deserve the chance to vote for a real alternative and a government that puts people first.

Twenty years of corporate tax cuts by Liberal and Conservative governments have starved the province of the revenue we need to deliver services and left us with crumbling infrastructure. Meanwhile Liberals and Con-servatives have raised personal taxes, introduced new user fees and allowed transit fares to skyrocket. We need a fair tax plan in Ontario.

New Democrats will continue to push for practical policies that protect the public interest. We cannot con-tinue to give tax breaks to corporations without securing commitments that they will invest in our local economy and create jobs in Ontario.

New Democrats will prioritize sensible transit ex-pansion – to electrify the Air Rail Link and to build the Downtown Relief Line first, before billions are spent adding more riders to an overcrowded subway system by building a subway to Thornhill.

In recent Ontario by-elections, communities in Kitch-ener-Waterloo, London, Windsor and Niagara Falls, people have looked at their options and voted NDP. In this election, it’s clear that the NDP is the progressive choice to bring change to Ontario.

Here in Davenport, I hope I can count on your sup-port so that I can continue to represent you and bring your priorities forward at Queen’s Park.

COUNCILLOR ANA BAILÃO 416-392-7012

Dear Neighbours, As you know, the Bloor Collegiate School has

recently been designated as surplus land by the To-

ronto District School Board (TDSB) and bids have been accepted for the purchase of this property. Since the beginning I have felt strongly in the need to think big about the potential of this site, while properly preparing for every possible outcome.

The process for this land sale is outlined in On-tario Regulation 444/98 of the Education Act and requires that all properties declared surplus by a school board are first circulated to other school boards, educational and government institutions before they can be listed on the open market. The regulation also specifies that any of these parties, if interested in acquiring the circulated property, must present the school board with an offer at fair market value within 90 days of the property being circulated.

Under the current framework, the prescribed response time is insufficient for the City to respond in cases where funding is not already identified in the current Capital Budget (a process itself which can easily take over a year). By the time the City

receives notice of surplus properties circulated by the school boards, it is often too late.

In the specific case of the recent surplus desig-nation of Bloor Collegiate lands, transfer of this property and future uses of the site will have a tremendous impact on our community for gen-erations. Despite interest from numerous City de-partments for portions of the site, Toronto Lands Corporation (acting on behalf of the Toronto Dis-trict School Board) would not entertain any bid that was not for the entire site.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for the City of Toronto to obtain the necessary funding approval to submit an offer for the entire property prior to the deadline, as such a bid could not progress through the appropriate reporting schedule within the 90 day bidding window.

The provincial regulation requires TDSB and to maximize value from the sale of its properties but this prevents the investigation of other positive community solutions, including partnerships and

long-term leases. As it exists currently, Ontario Regulation 444/98 remains overly prescriptive and inflexible to the exploration of such possibilities, which offer significant potential to benefit both the local community and the City.

Recognizing this serious community impact, I presented an urgent item to City Council to fur-ther investigate ways of achieving greater coor-dination and cooperation between the City and Toronto School Boards. This motion also requires the City Manager to initiate discussions with the Ministry of Education regarding Ontario Regula-tion 444/98 with a view to implementing changes that will permit greater flexibility in the process and support more creative solutions for retaining important community assets.

I look forward to keeping you involved and informed about this project and please feel free to contact me at anytime through my office or by visiting my community hours every Saturday be-tween 10am and noon at Dufferin Mall.

MP ANDREW CASH 416-654-8048

In early April, the CBC announced that its budget was being slashed by $130-million this year and 657 jobs would be lost. This is another huge to the public broadcaster.

The CBC is a Canadian cultural institution. For over 75 years it has brought quality Canadian programming, news and sport into our homes, on TV, radio, and more recently, online. It has been the standard-bearer for Canadian historic, linguistic and cultural identity. It has exposed us to new Canadian talent in the arts and in sports and kept us accountable through award-winning journalism.

Now, all of that is at risk. The CBC has been the victim of severe budget cuts over the last several years. It started in the min-1990s when Jean Chrétien’s Liberal government started axing CBC fund-ing. Between 1995 and 2006, the Liberals cut the CBC’s budget by $380 million.

When Stephen Harper and his Conservatives came to power in 2006, they continued where the Liberals left off cutting $242 mil-lion in the last eight years.

Combined, the Liberals and the Conservatives have cut the CBC’s budget by over $620 million in the last 15 years.

Couple that with the recent loss of NHL hockey, and our pub-lic broadcaster finds itself in an extremely vulnerable position. The result is hundreds of layoffs and service reductions across the country.  In this extremely competitive media market, the CBC is being left without the tools to remain competitive with the private broadcasters who too often rely on imported American program-ming rather than the creation of original Canadian content.  This is a policy of death by a thousand cuts. It has to stop!

I have heard from hundreds of Davenport residents and Canadi-ans across the country who are angry over these attempts to weaken our public broadcaster.

New Democrats are committed to stable, long term funding for the CBC to ensure that future generations can enjoy the same excel-lent productions to which we are accustomed. In doing so, we seek to revitalize infrastructure, rural service and regional program-ming so that the CBC remains accessible to Canadians from coast to coast. We understand that Canadians value public broadcasting and that the Conservatives are out of touch on this, and so many other issues.

I’ll be fighting these cuts in the House of Commons in Ottawa. You can add your voice to mine by signing my petition to save the CBC. Copies are available in my office at 1162 College St or online at http://petition.ndp.ca/stand-up-for-the-CBC.

To share your thoughts on this or any other issue, get in touch with my office at get in touch with my office at 416-654-8048 or andrew.cash@parl.gc.ca

05

Letters from your political representatives

The Bloordale Times May 2014

Local Toronto author Elizabeth Hawksworth always wanted to tell stories. Since the moment she picked up a pencil she wanted to

put words to paper.Hawksworth just finished her

second book, Lake Effect: Voices of Toronto’s History. It’s the go-to book for short stories and vi-gnettes about Torontonians who came from around the world and

struggled to settle into what would become Canada’s largest city.

“Above all, I have wanted to give voices to people who other-wise would not be able to tell their stories. That has kept me writing, even when I wanted to quit,” said Hawksworth.

She said Lake Effect: Voices of Toronto’s History started as his-torical fiction, but “ended up be-ing something bigger.”

Hawksworth said the main message of Lake Effect is the pure and unadulterated push for sur-vival and the inspiration behind it. Many of the short stories in the anthology are about people of different ethnic backgrounds be-cause she wants to reflect on To-ronto’s multicultural spirit.

“As someone who was not born in Toronto, but came here to chase my own hopes and dreams, the inspiration of eking out a living in a place that is often unforgiving

really made me want to explore that drive to succeed through a number of points of view,” said Hawksworth.

Hawksworth said Toronto’s beauty was also an inspiration to write Lake Effect. This beauty was measured by not only what was appealing to the eye, but the “dark spots in history.” In her book, she tells of the strengths of the people who endured hardships to build Toronto.

“I’m not a photographer, but I love taking photos and a lot of the photos I take and share, on social media and Instagram, or even just with friends and family, became the foundation of some of the stories in the book,” said Hawk-sworth.

She hopes to expand on one of the short stories in the collection, as well as write another series of short stories focusing on native Canadians.

To date, Hawksworth, who said

her major inspirations include F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. Annie Proulx, Margaret Atwood and L.M. Mont-gomery, has published two books, including Break for Beauty, and numerous articles for the Huff-ington Post. She also runs a body-positive blog.

“The writing process itself can be very hard,” said Hawksworth. “Lake Effect took two years to write, because for me, writer’s block often prevented me from moving forward with a story. I scrapped several stories due to this because they weren’t the ones that wanted to be told.”

She said as tough as writing can be, one of her greatest challenges is marketing her books.

Hawksworth said that for aspir-ing writers, the key is to not worry about perfection and to simply just write.

“Practice your craft and you will find your own voice and style,” she said.

Community Profile

LOCAL AUTHOR EMBARKS TO GIVE NEW TORONTONIANS A VOICEBY REBECCA HAMILLbecky.nobrega@hotmail.com

Local author Elizabeth Hawksworth. Photo courtesy Elizabeth Hawksworth

06 The Bloordale Times May 2014

FREE FREEchicken Pad Thai

with order over $35Free spring roll

with order over $25

(not valid with other discount) (not valid with other discount)

*FREE DELIVERY

AFFORDABLE SENIOR LIVING IN THE HEART OF BLOORDALE VILLAGE

1140 Bloor Street West • NewHorizonsTower.com

CALL 416-536-6111 TODAY

NHT offers YOU MORE

Services, Support & Companionship

Swing into Spring at NHT!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER Swing into Spring • It’s all here at NHT • Come Join the Action!

At NHT we are birds of a feather. Together residents and staff are family. We ind joy in one another and in everyday living.

Local business Off Limit Sports is aiming to launch the new sport of “BlitzBall” in Toronto.

The idea for the sport started with a video that was making the rounds on social media.

“It was something that we noticed a lot of people were commenting on or a lot of people were sharing, so it was obvious that it was something everyone found interesting,” said Off Limit Sports co-owner Eric De Guia.

The video shows an Italian team playing soccer, but they had their own name for it. The sport is a varia-tion of soccer where each player is inside a protective bubble ball from their knees to their heads. Off Limit Sports wants to brand it differently because they want to do more with the bouncy, protective balls than just soccer.

There seems to be a market for odd sports in Toronto, De Guia ac-

knowledged.De Guia and Marco Polsoni cre-

ated Off Limit Sports in 2010. They were filled with multiple ideas on how to enhance and add additional value to the world of social adult sports leagues and tournaments in Toronto.

“As players my partner and I found that we did not receive much value or there was a lack of social connection when joining other so-cial adult sports leagues and tourna-ments. We had the same ideas about how we would want to make things better; cool prizing, big parties, early bird discounts and specials, making it more social,” said De Guia.

It started as a part time project with a contact list of roughly 50 vol-leyball players and just one league, one night a week.

Since switching to a full-time op-eration in 2012, they have grown to include beach volleyball, soc-cer, baseball, dodgeball, trampoline dodgeball and now BlitzBall. They

have now grown their reach to well over 3,500 players and running five league nights a week with multiple weekend tournaments and events throughout all four seasons.

De Guia said they divide all their sports into categories of skill level. It starts at recreational, for those just looking to have some fun, and con-tinues through three more levels, which end at competitive or elite. What really sets them apart is that they work with individuals looking to connect with other players to form long lasting teams and relationships.

Even dodgeball gets divided this way because De Guia said they have players, who represent Canada in dodgeball tournaments.

But the focus of Off Limit Sports is having fun.

They try to integrate a bigger social element because “we are all about sports and being social,” said De Guia.

“We figure the better the team gets along with each other the better the

team chemistry is and the better the team plays” said De Guia. “Every-body knows us as the guys who have great social parties.”

This aspect of their business is part of what they use to set them apart.

De Guia said there is a lot of com-petition in Toronto and people tend to stick with the companies they know. That’s why it is important to let people know that they offer a stronger social emphasis as well as more playing time, cheaper rates and referees.

From here, Off Limit Sports looks to start branching out to do private events, like team building for companies. They are beginning to do this now.

De Guia said they will be bringing BlitzBall to Nathan Phillips Square as

part of a City of Toronto event dur-ing the last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August.

“The sky’s the limit with this. Any-where people want to be active, we want to break into that market,” said De Guia.

For more information about Off Limit Sports’ leagues or tourna-ments, go to their website at http://www.offlimitsports.com, or call 647-977-1380

07

News

The Bloordale Times May 2014

BRAND NEW SPORT TO HIT TORONTO STREETS IN COMING WEEKSBY EDWARD BAYLEYe.bayley44@gmail.com

BlitzBall in action. Photo courtesy Off Limit Sports

The Bloordale TimesNeighbourhood News Worth Repeating

Discover one of Toronto’s most up-and-coming neighbourhoods.

Follow the Bloordale Times today!

—

Summer courses begin July 2. Registration is open. Save $30 on 8-week courses and 3-day workshops with promo code SUMMER30, and $40 on 1-week intensives with promo code SUMMER40. Save $50 on Art Camps and Youth Studio with promo code SUMMER50 through June 15.

To register, visit tsa-art.com, call, or drop by the office.

SPARK YOUR CREATIVITY AT TORONTO’S LONGEST-RUNNING INDEPENDENT ART SCHOOL. OUR HANDS-ON EDUCATIONAL MODEL FOCUSES ON STUDENT-BASED LEARNING IN DRAWING, PAINTING, SCULPTURE, COLLAGE, MIXED MEDIA, YOUTH AND FAMILY, DIGITAL AND PHOTOGRAPHY.

980 Dufferin Street, 2nd Floor Toronto ON M6H 4B4 416.504.7910 | info@tsa-art.com

This page is a joint effort between the Bloordale Times and the Bloordale BIA to showcase local businesses.

Your business name here...If your business is on Bloor St. between Dufferin St. and Lansdowne

Ave. and you would like to advertise on this page, please call 647-961-4516

1222 Bloor St. W.416.531.1028

EPHINSTORE.comEPHIN.comSTOMPDOWN.ca

416-532-7997LOW PRICES AND HIGH QUAlITY SERVICE

We Craft Quality Lenses In Store LabEYE EXAMINATION ARRANGED (next door)

Over 3000 Frames to Choose fromLarge Quantity of contact lenses in stock

Satifaction Guaranteed

Shop Bloordale

Tune up your bike for 50% off

1222 Bloor St. W.416.531.1028

$25.00Broadway Cycle

WHY SWEET PETE’S?

“The truth is simple: we don’t just sell

bikes - we love bikes and we want you

to love them just as much as we do.”

1204 Bloor St. W. 416.533.4481

$30.00Now only...

In our recent Dovercourt Park Community Audit (held on April 28th) a group of more than 20 in-terested neighbours, community leaders, and city staff took a walk together. Along the way, they talk-ed.

They talked about transporta-tion with city experts and why that curve at Dupont and Ossington makes pedestrians feel nervous. They talked about infrastructure and if Toronto Hydro could make the changes to reduce the sporadic black-outs and power losses in our area, or how Municipal Licens-ing & Standards can help us build a better community. They talked about the environment, and oppor-tunities to plant trees and improve parks with Toronto Park People (a project of Tides Canada Initiative

Society). They talked about art, and the difference between graf-fiti and vandalism, and the oppor-tunities for culture and history to be injected into our streets. They talked about safety with METRAC (Metropolitan Action Commit-tee on Violence Against Women and Children) and Toronto Police Services 14 Division, and how all of these things impacted our per-sonal security.

Mostly, though, they talked about our community; how proud they are, how fiercely devoted they are, and how excited they are about its future.

As we collect the results of the audit, METRAC, the city of To-ronto, and the Dovercourt Park Community Association (DPCA) are tabulating the results. In the future, DPCA is hoping to post the report online, and continue to sup-port feedback about the commu-

nity through web-enabled tools. In the meantime: we’re thrilled to know that the audit has already in-spired change.

Our audit has already helped clear up debris on the street: mak-ing it safer for anyone of any ability to get around in our community. We’ve already have trip hazards and poor sidewalk repairs on Oss-ington and Bloor at the top of the list for city staff. We already have 14 Division to support us in our safety initiatives with METRAC.

But most importantly, we’ve al-ready got the community interest-ed in our next audit! Let us know where you think we need to study in the Dovercourt Park Commu-nity! Are Hallam and Dovercourt your next big investigation areas? Or should we study our parks and green spaces? Or our schools and alleyways? Let us know at dover-courtpark@gmail.com

09

Community Column ~ Health & Wellness

The Bloordale Times May 2014

BY DR. JENNIFER BAERGot a question?health@drjenniferbaer.com

What are you cooking up this Mother’s Day?

So we all know it’s crazy to only have one day each year that is devoted to celebrating moms – when they spend 365 days a year taking such great care of us! The least we can do is make it a truly special day. Have you figured out what you’ll do to celebrate Moth-er’s Day yet? Let her know how much you care by cooking up a beautiful meal in her honour. This gorgeous Spring-themed Mother’s Day Brunch Menu is sure to make her feel special! I’ve included one of the recipes here, and the rest can be found on my website: http://www.drjen-niferbaer.com/recipes-and-blog/spring-recipes

Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes with Tart Cherry Glaze

Baby Shrimp SaladJerusalem Artichoke ChipsGluten Free Strawberry-Rhu-

barb CrispGluten Free Lemon-Ricotta

Pancakes* with Tart Cherry Glaze (serves 6 – about 18 x 3”

pancakes) * adapted from chow.com

Ingredients:5 tablespoons unsalted butter

plus more for pan1 cup organic whole milk1 1/4 cups sweet white sor-

ghum flour1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder1 teaspoon fine salt3 large eggs, yolks and whites

separated2 tablespoons granulated sugar1.5-2 tablespoon packed finely

grated lemon zest (from about 3 medium lemons)

3-4 Tbs lemon juice1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract3/4 cup sheep’s milk ricotta

cheese

For Glaze:2 cups tart cherries in syrup1 Tbs coconut sap sweetener

(or brown sugar)1/2 Tbs lemon zest1-2 Tbs sorghum flourCombine all glaze ingredients

in small sauce pan and bring to simmer uncovered, allowing it to reduce and thicken.

Meanwhile, melt butter and combine with milk in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, sift to-gether flour, baking powder, and

1/2 teaspoon of the salt; set aside. Place egg yolks, 1 tablespoon of the sugar, lemon zest & juice, and vanilla in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Whisk in the milk-butter mixture. Next, add the reserved flour mixture and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined (do not overmix); set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk egg whites to soft peaks using a per-fectly clean bowl and whisk. Half-way through whisking, sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Us-ing the rubber spatula, fold the whites into the reserved batter until just combined. Gently fold the ricotta into the batter, allow-ing the batter to be lumpy and streaked with ricotta.

Heat a large nonstick frying pan, griddle, or seasoned cast iron skillet over medium heat until hot. Lightly coat the pan’s surface with butter, then use a 1/4-cup measure to scoop the batter into the pan. Cook until bubbles form on top of the pan-cakes, about 4 minutes. Flip and cook the other side until the bot-toms are golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve im-

mediately with glaze and a dollop of plain Greek yoghurt. I can’t imagine there will be any – but leftover pancakes can be tightly wrapped and frozen.

Jennifer Baer is a Naturopathic Doctor & Digestive Health Ex-pert, in your neighbourhood.

Additionally a trained chef & holistic nutritionist, Dr. Baer sees diet & digestion as key cor-nerstones of long-term health promotion & disease prevention. For more information about her services, please visit:

http://www.drjenniferbaer.com

ASK YOUR BLOORDALE NATUROPATHIC DOCTOR - DR. JENNIFER BAER

Dr. Jennifer Baer, Naturopathic Doctor.

DOVERCOURT PARK COMMUNITY AUDIT INITIATES DIALOGBY KIM BETHKEDovercourt Community Park Assoc.

Digital, meet Physical.

Toronto’s first coworking space of its

kind.

MakeWorks is 10,000 sq ft of shared workspace, private offices, 3D printing lab, Makerspace (ceramics, wood-working, metals) and event space all in a restored factory at College West. Our mission is to connect software and hardware companies under one roof, and provide them with the tools, mentorship and community to thrive.

1139 college street - 416.5469675

www.makeworks.com

NeedWorkspace?

Art Exhibitions

10 The Bloordale Times May 2014

Nadia Belerique: Have You Seen This Man

Have You Seen This Man furthers Bele-rique’s investigation into the moods of space in its physical and psychological oc-cupations. Borrowing from diverse literary styles such as poetry, news headlines and prose, she translates these languages with varied technologies into an illusory visual installation.

Provoking the per-formativity of objects, photographs, objects in photographs and pho-tographs in objects, the installation beckons, “Look. Yes, look again, and longer this time.” By playing with notions of positive and negative space, Belerique creates inversions, resulting in intentional disorienta-tions that compel per-ceptual reassessments.

The Archer 3 depicts a temporal collage of found tape, acetate and Rubylith©, an an-tiquated masking film used in photolithogra-phy to edit images prior to their reproduction. Assembled on a digital home-office scanner, light skims The Archer 3 to produce a fixed image. Traces of Bele-rique’s activity are also

revealed; smears from her fingertips on the material become sug-gestive markings. The background becomes a vague gradient, created by her manipulation of light from the scanner and the room, which together act as a surro-gate aperture.

A vast, off-white rug fills the gallery, punc-tuated by ambiguous steel structures derived from life-sized, figura-tive cardboard cutouts. The carpet reveals more markings, this time from boots, track shoes and heels dipped with Liquid Light©, a light-sensitive emulsion that, when exposed to sun-light, reveals the im-printed activity on the rug. A mystery tran-spires. The structures, in their apparent fixity, remain suspicious.

Nadia Belerique (b. 1982, lives and works in Toronto) constructs installations that en-gage with the poetics of perception and asks how images perform in contemporary culture. Primarily invested in questions around ma-teriality and dema-terialization through the illusion of pho-tographs, her image-based works are often interrupted by sculp-tural objects.

Lost Illusions/Illusions perdues (part two)Since 2003, Sarah Pierce has used the umbrella term – The

Metropolitan Complex – to describe her practice. Despite its institutional resonance, this title does not signify an organi-zation. Instead, it demonstrates Pierce’s broad understanding of cultural work, articulated through working methods that often open up to the personal and the incidental. Character-ized as a way to play with a shared neuroses of place (read ‘complex’ in the Freudian sense), whether a specific locality or a wider set of circumstances that frame interaction, her activity considers forms of gathering, both from the perspec-tive of historical examples and the situations that she initi-ates. Sarah Pierce’s Lost Illusions/Illusions perdues (part two) refers to the ‘lost illusions’ of the recent past, and present. In this exhibition, support structures from recent exhibitions re-appear as material excluded from the institution’s archive while the galleries are divided into black and white.

Wil Murray: Die Welt in Farben

Using as source mate-rial a turn of the 20th cen-tury photo portfolio book bought at a flea market on Berlin’s Unter Den Linden, Murray continues his ex-periments in traditional photographic methods and their eternally renewed re-lationship to painting. For Die Welt In Farben, Mur-ray re-configures the photo lithograph of one of Eu-rope’s great sights found on each of the book’s 41 pages as a collage made from his great stash of photo and painted imagery. These collages are then photo-graphed on large-format

negatives and printed tradi-tionally, in black and white on fiber-based paper by master printer Bob Carnie. Murray then colours each page by hand, using long-since discontinued archival photo oils, in the manner that photos were coloured at the beginning of the 20th century. These replace-ments are then re-attached to the original pages, com-pleting the substitution of one definition of original with another. Literary nar-ratives loom large in Mur-ray’s practice and this proj-ect allows him to develop his collage based painting practice as an ode to nar-rative’s earthly vessel: the stacked pages of the book.

Daniel Faria Gallery

M AY 0 9 – J U N E 0 7 , 2 0 1 4

188 St Helens Avenue12

31 2

x

x

A P R I L 0 4 - M AY 2 4 , 2 0 1 4 MERCER UNION

31286 BLOOR Street West

x

M AY 0 1 - J U N E 0 7 , 2 0 1 4 p/m GALLERY

1518 Dundas Street West

11

Community Contributions

The Bloordale Times May 2014

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A CONTRIBUTOR? HAVE A HAND IN YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER? WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING PHOTOS, COMICS, POEMS, PUZZLES AND SHORT

STORIES FOR THIS PAGE. EMAIL US AT THEBLOORDALETIMES@GMAIL.COM!

Comics...

Puzzles...

Fill in the grid with digits in such a

manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1-9, without

repeating any.

sudoku