April 19, 2013 news update – Councillor Grimes’ Office

Following message is from Councillor Grimes’ Office: Please find the complete eNewsletter attached as a .pdf: April 19, 2013 Community Clean Up Days Here are some ways you can participate this weekend: Join Mayor Rob Ford’s Community Clean-up – Everyone is invited! Join Mayor Rob Ford and Clean Toronto Together on Saturday, April 20 at […]

Fort York and Garrison Common Maps – apps-related information

Nathan Ng has shared with me the following information: Date: Sunday, 14 April, 2013 To: Jaan Pill Subject: Fort York and Garrison Common Maps Hello! I’m sending this note because you had previously referenced a mapping project of mine, Historical Maps of Toronto, on your Preserved Stories blog. I’d like to draw your attention to another online historical […]

First Story is an interactive map of Toronto’s Aboriginal history

I’m pleased to share with you the following information from the Toronto Native Community History Project: FIRST STORY is an interactive multimedia map of Toronto’s Aboriginal history, empowering the Indigenous community of Toronto to reveal and explore our geography and culture. Users will have access, via a smartphone, to stories, photographs, archival documents, audio and video clips that illuminate Aboriginal presence and history in […]

Asbury and West United Church 1958 sanctuary was designated following a July 2010 city planning division report

The story of the Asbury and West United Church redevelopment appears very straightforward to me. I can readily follow the story because I lived on Saranac Blvd. from 1983 until 1991 and know the area well. The church is at the southwest corner of Saranac Blvd. and Bathurst Street. A Google Map of the area […]

Where the other half lives: Lower income housing in a neoliberal world (2009)

I was born in Sweden in 1946 after my parents and brother and additional members of our extended family fled Estonia in 1944 before the Soviet occupying forces sealed the borders of the Baltic states. I grew up in Montreal. A memory from the first five years of my life, in Sweden in the late […]

Built from 1912 to 1930, Henderson motorcycles became popular with police forces

In a previous blog post, I referred to information we’ve acquired from Jim Carr and C.M. O’Marra regarding the motorcycle in the photo (above) taken at about 1927 at Etobicoke Creek. It’s one of the photos we are using to publicize the May 4 and 5, 2013 Jane’s Walks in Long Branch. The illustration below […]

Reminder: Community Consultation – 2560, 3580, 3600 Lake Shore Blvd. West – April 11, 6:30 pm, Assembly Hall

The meeting is at The Assembly Hall, a building that serves as a great example of the adaptive reuse of a century-old heritage building that will also be featured among the Doors Open 2013events on the May 25th and 26th weekend. The background document referred to in the notice can be accessed here. [Click on […]

‘We think streets are good boundaries’ – planning article related to Davisville Junior Public School – April 10, 2013 Globe and Mail

Click here to read an April 10, 2013 Globe and Mail article highlighting development issues facing the Toronto District School Board as it seeks to develop properties to generate money for maintenance of its buildings. “We think streets are good boundaries” David Oikawa is manager of the midtown section of City of Toronto Planning: “We […]

Comment from Bob Lansdale regarding proposal to remove sand beach between Etobicoke Creek and Applewood Creek

In earlier blog posts – which have been viewed and commented upon by many site visitors – I’ve shared photos from Robert Lansdale from the 1920s to the 1940s when a cottage community existed at the mouth of Etobicoke Creek. I very much appreciate the fact that the Durance family has shared their historic family […]