[PHOTO] Detail, charcuterie board, Bandit Brewery

[PHOTO] Looking up at The Crossways

[PHOTO] “The Pope and Doctor”

This sign advertises the parish pub of St. Vincent de Paul.

[PHOTO] Virgin Mary, St. Vincent de Paul

This statue of the Virgin Mary outside St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church on lower Roncesvalles was serene.

[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] Ten Toronto links

• blogTO reports that Presto machines on TTC vehicles are regularly falling out of service because they need to be emptied of coins, here.
• CBC reports that Ontario Place might well accumulate a spa under Ford government auspices, here.
• NOW Toronto argues that new Ford changes to social housing, including zero-tolerance on fighting, will worsen the plight of residents.
• ACORN is leading a protest in Weston by tenants against allegedly neglectful landlords. CBC reports.
• Residents of a Roncesvalles apartment block are contesting their landlord’s reclassification of their complex as a tourist-oriented property. The Toronto Star reports.
• What will become of the Ontario Science Centre, 50 years old? The Toronto Star reports.
• That average monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto are now hitting $C 2500 is terrifying. The Toronto Star reports.
• Users of the Scarborough RT may find themselves riding buses instead of the RT (or a subway) for a good long while. The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto is doing its best to preserve its biodiversity, particularly in its ravines. The Toronto Star reports.
• Transit Toronto notes that, in exchange for Toronto accepting the Ontario Line, Ontario will not try to upload the TTC.

[PHOTO] Four photos of murals on Roncesvalles Avenue

Roncesvalles Avenue, the street at the heart of the west-end neighbourhood of Roncesvalles, stands out for its particular density in high-quality public art, the many huge murals lying in plain sight of all.

[PHOTO] Abandoned phone booth, Dundas west of Sorauren

[PHOTO] Nine photos of Robert Mapplethorpe’s The Outsiders and the Olga Korper Gallery

I went this afternoon to the Olga Korper Gallery, in a long-converted industrial space on Morrow Avenue in Roncesvalles just off Dundas Street West, to catch “The Outsiders”, an exhibit of several dozen photographic works of Robert Mapplethorpe selected from the perspective of exploring Mapplethorpe’s take on gender. The selection was acute; my friend and I had a great time talking about the perspectives Mapplethorpe represented in his works, the gazes that were exchanged or not and the items selected. The space, too, is gorgeous, a wonderful sort of post-industrial temple to the arts. I definitely recommend going to see this show while it is running, up to the 2nd of June.

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[PHOTO] Three graffitied walls: 2252, 2226, and 2113 Dundas Street West