[PHOTO] Detail, charcuterie board, Bandit Brewery

[PHOTO] Looking up at The Crossways

[PHOTO] Annette vs Dundas vs Dupont

[PHOTO] Looking west towards High Park North across Dundas West from the Crossways

[PHOTO] Model railroad, Mint Dentistry, 3084 Dundas Street West

The outpost of Mint Dentistry on 3084 Dundas Street West in The Junction had–has still, I hope–a lovely model railroad on display in its front window.

[PHOTO] Five photos of vintage calculators and Commodores, Z&Z Accounting (#thejunction)

I was passing by with Jim through the Junction on Dundas West one recent night when we came across the storefront location of Z & Z Accounting and Income Tax Services, at 3102 Dundas Street West. There, they had on display vintage machines of the sort that earlier generations of accountants would have used, including mechanical calculators and some vintage Commodore computers. (The C64 was not there, but the PET and VIC-20 were.)

[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.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto notes

• Matt Gurney wonders if the losses of votes for the Conservatives in the Greater Toronto Area will doom Andrew Scheer, over at the National Post.
• Jamie Bradburn took a look at the opening of the Ontario Science Centre, here.
• Spacing shares an argument for density transition zones in Toronto, here.
• The Village Idiot Pub in Toronto, across Dundas from the AGO, will rebrand itself the Village Genius. Global News reports.
• Queen and Coxwell will soon host some new affordable housing. Global News reports.
• The closure of a flea market on Old Weston road, a year after a tragic shooting, is a shame. The Toronto Star
• I am going to see at least some of the works in this year’s Toronto Biennial. NOW Toronto reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: HTO Beach, street art, transit, Draper Street, real estate

• Toronto’s HTO Park, a fake beach on the waterfront of Queens Quay, has been flooded out by Lake Ontario, too. blogTO reports.
• This open-air street art museum around Dundas West is an ingenious idea. blogTO reports.
• David Hains at Spacing explains how the TTC plans for major sports events, like the recent Raptors series.
• One house in Corso Italia has just gone on the real estate market for the first time since 1919. The Toronto Star reports.
• The row of vintage homes on Draper Street and its recently passed keeper are memorialized nicely here. The Toronto Star reports.

[PHOTO] Eastern evening sky with feathered clouds