[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• A beautiful Toronto would be nice, but this goal will take planning. The Toronto Star reports.
• Sean Marshall writes about the sad ironies of suburban neighbourhoods in Toronto unsafe for pedestrians.
• Jamie Bradburn takes a look at Davenport Road in the past, here.
• Transit Toronto notes the arrival tomorrow in the GTA of the Holiday Trains of the CPR, part of a fundraising campaign for food banks.
• Spacing shares an essay considering the idea of a map of Toronto according to runnability.
• Sidekick West, a new comic shop in the Junction Triangle, has unfortunately closed down. blogTO reports.
• Toronto Life breaks down the references in the massive 10-story mural painted by BirdO at Yonge and St. Clair.

[PHOTO] Map of west Toronto, 1868

This map, displayed at the Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden parkette in the west-end neighbourhood of Roncesvalles, depicts territory that was–one year after the formation of Canada–still substantially rural. The map clearly shows the great arc of Dundas Street West as it curves north, avoiding what were then swamps and other lowlands and now substantially High Park, as well as the shallower curve of east-west artery Davenport Road to the northeast along the base of the escarpment marking the shoreline of the Ice Age’s Glacial Lake Iroquois.

These territories have all been transformed radically, densely urbanized and booming. Even the Humber River that was once a boundary has become an internal waterway of the City of Toronto, Etobicoke on the western side being part of the legal city.

[PHOTO] Seven photos from a winter afternoon’s walk in Carleton Village and Earlscourt

After running some errands in the late afternoon I found myself wandering through the west-end neighbourhoods of Carleton Village and Earlscourt, wandering north up Symington Avenue to Davenport Road and then heading east. It was a warm afternoon, barely below freezing point, and the clean white snow was falling down lightly.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: rent, homelessness, TTC

• blogTO takes a look at a Dupont Street two-bedroom apartment with the astonishingly cheap monthly rent of just $902.
• CBC Toronto notes a new shelter for homeless women at Dupont and Davenport.
• Gilbert Ngabo at the Toronto Star looks at the desperate state of emergency housing for the homeless in Toronto.
• Transit Toronto looks at new TTC proposals for revised transit routes and schedules in The Junction.
• TTC parking lots, facing pressures for residential redevelopment, may become major political issues. CBC reports.

[PHOTO] Twenty-two photos of Caledonia Road, Eglinton south to Davenport

This evening after work, I took a walk south down Caledonia Road, from Eglinton Avenue West south to the street’s terminus with Davenport Road. This stretch of Caledonia Road has multiple neighbourhood allegiances: It is recognized as a standalone neighbourhood of Caledonia, wedged between the rail lines to the west and Prospect Cemetery to the east, but the city of Toronto recognizes it as Caledonia-Fairbanks, and it fits within the broader neighbourhood of Fairbank at least as far south as St. Clair Avenue. South of St. Clair, Caledonia Road might also fit into Earlscourt, but I’m unclear about that.

Whatever this neighbourhood is called, it is a generally non-descript area of western Toronto, part of the old city of York and heavily low-rise residential. It shades lightly into commercial at major intersections and tending towards the post-industrial around Caledonia’s intersection with St. Clair Avenue. It is a heavily Portuguese neighbourhood, with Portuguese and Azorean flags adorning many front stoops, but it is not unique in this. It is a neighbourhood become increasingly popular with homebuyers, many signs advertising sales and advertisements. It will certainly be transformed in coming years: Densification must surely hit here too, especially with the Eglinton Crosstown coming. It was lovely walking even the ever-darkening clear blue sky.

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Last night, I took a leisurely walk home on a warm summer evening, west on St. Clair from St. Clair West station and then south through Regal Heights, down to the northwesternmost corner of Dovercourt Village.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto notes: new TTC stations, Davenportage on Davenport, Lawrence West, Trump

• Transit Toronto notes that, on the 28th, three new TTC stations will be open for visitors.
• Samantha Beattie describes Davenportage, a recent exploration of Davenport Road’s past as a portage route, at the Toronto Star.
• Edward Keenan talks about how the Lawrence West SmartTrack station can be made a success, over at the Toronto Star.
• The Toronto Star reports on how Donald Trump was the only person to profit from the former Trump Tower in Toronto.