vic.gedris.org Never mind the blogs, here's the website.

The events take place in Toronto.

Read Transit Toronto’s September 4 posting for details.

More photos of Brad Pitt and the cast and crew of Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Frances McDormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton and Richard Jenkins are also seen sharing the stage with Joel and Ethan Coen.

 

 

WHAT: Junction Tree Tour
WHEN: September 7th, 11am to 1pm
WHERE: Meet at the northwest corner of Keele St. and Dundas St. West
HOW MUCH: Suggested donation $5

As centennial celebrations culminate during the Junction Arts Festival, join LEAF arborist Todd Irvine as he explores the neighbourhood to uncover both historic and newly planted native trees. From back streets to grand boulevards, the Junction is home to a diverse array of trees including the rare black oak often associated with High Park. Wander down a hidden alley to discover a honey-locust with a vigorous, arching canopy that is 60 feet wide. Peek into backyards or turn your gaze skyward to admire the massive canopies of white, red and pin oaks as well as the delicate boughs of black walnuts. This tour will also feature the personal story of one resident who has turned her front yard into a “monarch feeding station” by packing it full of native trees, shrubs and prairie plants.

photo from Lawrence Park Tree Tour by Andrew Chiu

The old forum wasn´t used at all so now I´ll try another round with PhpBB instead to see if there´s any interest. I´ll give it some months then it will be removed if there´s no activity. The link can be found on the left. Click it! Designed a new header too. Sorry Chronic Sick if I made you uglier then you really where :(.

At a church parking lot at Dupont and Avenue Road. It always cracks me up.

Last night, I had the immense pleasure of attenting the RATP’s presentation about the use of LRT rather than subways.  I’m not going to attempt to reproduce the information here, but am hopeful that the illustrations will show up on the TTC’s website fairly soon.

Toronto has needed this sort of presentation for a long time, and if only scheduling problems had allowed it other than on a Friday evening, there might even have been media coverage and more representation from senior staff and politicians outside of the City.

The Mayor of Paris decided that he wanted to reduce car use and green the city, and that transit was a key to regeneration of the inner suburbs.  ‘Tramways” (LRT in our terms) were the solution both for their lower cost (why build “five times the capacity at five to eight times the price”) and for their ability to stimulate the neighbourhoods through which they passed because of the pedestrian activity along the route.

Major street redesign was integral to their plans.  They knew perfectly well that the tramway would reduce road capacity, and the lower traffic volume combined with the lowered road speed converted semi-arterials into calmer, walkable neighbourhoods.

The bus service to be replaced had reached the maximum it could handle, and substantial additional riding came with the conversion to LRT.  They are now running peak headways of 4 minutes (15 trains/hour) of cars with a capacity of 300.  This is on a street with short blocks and much local demand.  Indeed, stop service time is a considerable part of the trip time even with all-door loading.  This makes the trip slightly slower, but avoids the need for passengers to access stations.

The construction projects were co-ordinated between all utilities and agencies, and a liaison committee met monthly with people and businesses in the affected areas.  A standard method of compensation for business interruption handled the vast majority of complaints in that department.  Construction co-ordination was vital to avoid the sort of cock-ups we have seen on St. Clair where each city agency rearranges its priorities without regard for the impact on overall project plans.

I could not help noticing the absence of centre poles to hold up the overhead even though the streets were a good six lanes wide.  Poles are considered visual polution in Paris and their use is minimized.  Where one pole can do the work of two or three, it does.  Transit City urban design team please take note.

This is not to say that the Paris Tramways and street geometries are a model for everything we do in Toronto, but it is so refreshing to have a city say ”this is what we can do” rather than endless reasons for delay.

As and when the presentation is available online, I will update this post with descriptive comments.

I was content to let the Toronto International Film Festival pass by without any personal involvement — even riding out my way around Yorkville to avoid seeing the desperation of people trying to get into films and producers tying to sell their ideas — until last night when I saw a screener of the new NFB film La Memoire des Anges (The Memories of Angels). It’s a collage of bits of NFB films produced about Montreal and takes us on the most fantastic journey — often from a pedestrian’s point of view — of that city through two decades worth of films.

Like today’s DJs who re-mix and energize contemporary music, Luc Bourdon has created a virtuoso mosaic of stockshots and clips from 120 NFB films to present Montreal of the ’50s and ’60s. Documentary, poetry and essay rolled into one, The Memories of Angels is a singular lesson in Montreal history with its famous figures, symbolic places and ordinary citizens. Without a commentary, the film moves from the red light district to Jean Drapeau, the Jacques-Cartier market, department stores downtown, textile factories and the construction of Place Ville-Marie. We meet Geneviève Bujold, Oscar Peterson, Monique Mercure and Igor Stravinsky. We hear Raymond Lévesque, Jean Drapeau and René Lecavalier. A loving tribute to the vitality of Montreal and a joyous experience for all generations.

The NFB films used are so crisp and sexy and make Canada seem like the most exciting place on Earth. From Jesse Wente’s TIFF write up:

Watching La Mémoire des anges is like reconnecting with old friends and finding comfort in the familiar embrace of shared history. The film is a glorious reminder of Quebec and Canada’s rich motion picture history, and a chronicle of the evolution of the city of Montreal, from its industrial heyday to its time as a stage for the Quiet Revolution and Expo 67. Consisting of more than 120 excerpts from NFB films, it also reveals the vital role the National Film Board has played in the development of Canadian cinema.

In a dark time when our current Prime Minister is taking a battle ax to arts funding in this country, this film comes when it’s needed, showing us how valuable institutions like the NFB were and are in documenting Canada. It’s also a love letter to Montreal. While watching I thought it’s like the cinematic companion to “The 60s: Montreal Thinks Big,” the wonderful exhibit staged a few years ago at the Centre for Canadian Architecture that showed Montreal at the height of its urban powers.

There is one more screening tomorrow (September 7) at the AMC I at 5:30pm. If you’re not in Toronto right now, tell somebody who loves Montreal but is here to go see it. And since it’s an NFB film, it will be widely available after.

Hello Rogers, please stop blocking the bike lane

Observed by justthisguyyouknow on Mon, Aug 18 2008

Too many people think this part of Beverley is a parking lot. It's too bad, they did a nice job with the bike lanes on this stretch of Beverley.

License Plate: ON 4805 VB 1 violation Location: beverley and college
Toronto, ON Taken: Mon, Aug 18 2008

• The Millershevik revolution [ Globe and Mail ]
• Putsch comes to shove [ Globe and Mail ]
• Liberals target Toronto riding held by Chow [ Toronto Star ]
• Innes to challenge incumbent Chow [ Globe and Mail ]
• Innes takes on Chow [ Toronto Sun ]
• Port Authority CEO to run for Tories [ Globe and Mail ]
• Parisian LRT offers lessons for Toronto transit [ Toronto Sun ]
• Marooned on the TTC [ Toronto Sun ]
• No need for trendiness at Yonge and St. Clair [ Toronto Star ]
• Going up in smoke on city’s hip new strip [ National Post ]
• From stand-in town to central casting [ Globe and Mail ]
• Festivals close city streets [ Toronto Star ]

When was the last time you heard our Mayor, David Miller, talk about cycling? You will probably have to think all the way back to Bike Month. If you Google it, his last comments on cycling were for the Cyclist’s Union media launch. After that it seems very forgotten. How do other mayors fair?

Try this. Use the Google news feature with the search terms of other cities, their mayors and the term cycling. Example: Daley Chicago cycling. You will end up with at least a page of relevant hits for Chicago for news that is less than a month old. Same for Newsom San Francisco cycling. Ok I tried some predictable cycling friendly towns.

Let us try some others. Dallas one hit. Houston at least five. Vancouver three. (The mayor is being replaced shortly). Boston, five solid good news hits. Brampton zero. New York City, a few pages of good and bad. Buffalo two.

This is not a very scientific study and at best only supports a question. Why is our mayor so quiet on cycling issues outside of photo ops during Bike Month?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

The events take place in Brampton, Georgetown (Halton Hills), Guelph, Hamilton, Port Credit (Mississauga) and Toronto.

Read Transit Toronto’s September 4 posting for details.

Brad Pitt at Roy Thomson Hall.

Fans hunting for Mr. Pitt.

And Tilda Swinton taking a photo with fans at North American premiere of Coen Brother's Burn After Reading at Toronto International Film Festival.

In a sickening turn of events, David Frum, who can best be described as “Sarah Palin without lipstick,”

Down, I tells ya

has found a new home at the Daily Week.

Frum is well known as the fellow who wrote The Song that Made the Young Men Die, but he will be better known by readers of the ALLDERBLOB as the man whose recent bicycle repair here in Southern Ontario included an unexpected “Homeland Security fee” of $1,000.

And The Week, as our readers will know, is an upstart British publication with a focus on U.S. news and events, set to challenge the hegemony of car advertisers Time, Newsweek and Scholastic Upfront all at once. It publishes both a weekly print edition and a daily online edition, and strives for a balanced mix of opinion from the far right and (at least what passes for it in the U.S.) the far left. We like reading the Week. For the past month or so, a link to it has appeared on our pages under the heading “Research Dept” (for the time being it gives the lie to the notion that car advertising is necessary to keep an online magazine afloat).

But citing the far right is one thing. Allowing further air-time for that would-be American patriot (he’s Canajun, eh?) David Frum is truly a sickening turn of events.

Why? Perhaps a digression is in order.

The executive editor of the Week is our colleague [a-heem! --ed.] Francis Wilkinson, a writer whose career we have followed with interest since his days as a busboy at the Golden Inn in Avalon, N.J. His internship in the 1980s with Alexander Cockburn at the Nation was an inevitable next step. Wilkinson resurfaced (for us) in the early 1990s when we started seeing his name on the masthead at Rolling Stone magazine, where he was National Affairs Editor. He subsequently worked as a consultant for Democratic political candidates at the firm Doak, Carrier, O’Donnell, Wilkinson (famous for its lost battle to preserve California Governor Gray Davis against the Arnold Schwarzenegger juggarnaut in 2003, and its winning fight to elect Antonio Villaraigosa mayor of Los Angeles in 2005). Then, even as ALLDERBLOB day was proclaimed here in Toronto, Wilkinson parlayed his strengths and experiences into a new position. He was proclaimed “blob editur” [please fix spelling before publication --ed.] at that little-known ALLDERBLOB competitor, the Huffington Post. In short order he was writing opinion pieces at the Guardian Online as well as chronicling the U.S. presidential race on the pages of the New York Times and Car Advertiser. Around July 2008 however all this opinion writing came to a jarring halt.

Silence from the charmed pen of F. Wilkinson.

What next, the world asked.

The answer was not long in coming: as announced at the Wall Street Journal and Car Advertiser in August, Wilkinson had the new job as executive editor at the Week.

Here at the ALLDERBLOB, we have in the past made sporadic and obscure reference to Mr. Wilkinson and his work. Most recently, we pointedly compared David Frum and Mr. Wilkinson on the fame-o-meter, and found Wilkinson wanting.

But now, likely in direct response to our provocative comparison, Wilkinson has hitched his wagon to Frum’s star. Suddenly the words DAVID FRUM (and no, sadly, the capitals are not our invention) have appeared on the Week’s online content. We can only warn Mr. Wilkinson of his folly. We cannot take responsibility for the imminent fall from grace the appointment of Sr. Frum portends for our old pal Frank.

Frank, drop Frum. Drop him now; drop him without hesitation. Frum’s rancid ink will not only soil your pages. It will darken your soul. Stay with Frum and you will one day soon be writing alone, in the darkness of your living room, with your loved ones quiet and asleep and unaware. Stay with Frum and at best a future blobbing will be your fate.

(The picture on the right is entitled TTC Santa 3 and is by Roger Cullman. It is used in accordance to his Creative Commons license. This post has been crossposted to Bow. James Bow and Metronauts)

It’s strange how the prospect of a plan to significantly improve and expand public transportation infrastructure in the Greater Toronto Area leaves me more discouraged than hopeful. But that’s the tone of the little voice that’s starting to speak at the back of my mind as I hear that Metrolinx, the regional agency set up by the McGuinty government to study the future transit needs of the GTA, is set to release a $55 billion plan chalk full of ambitious transit expansion proposals.

The problem is, this is the second grand plan to be released by the provincial player in two years…

Read more and follow the discussion at the Metronauts website…

[murmur] is pleased to announce we have launched our latest project in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood as part of this weekend’s Junction Arts Festival. We have installed 27 listening posts — those familiar green ears — throughout the neighbourhood (download and print out the map of locations here) with over 80 stories spread among them. More locations will be added in the coming weeks.

This [murmur] was commissioned as the legacy project of the Junction Arts Festival — itself in its 16th year — to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Junction City. Check out their site for details and schedules, or just head to the neighbourhood anytime this weekend as Dundas will be closed from Keele to Quebec Avenues and filled with art, installations and performances.

A special thanks to all our volunteer story collectors who scoured the streets looking for brains to pick (and record) and to Tania Howells who drew the fabulous new Junction map above.

Yes you read that correctly...  ICE bikes not trikes.  ICE has been busy lately.  In addition to their larger rear wheel options for the Q and T trikes, they have completed development on their B1 and B2 two wheelers.  The B1 is a dual 20" bike with rear suspension that is designed for travel.  The B2 is and unsuspended dual 26" machine that also breaks down for travel and storage if need be.  Prices will be in the $2500 range and the weight limit is 210 lbs.  More pics after the jump and more info in the ICE web site.

      

Canadian velomobile importer, bluevelo, has released the first shot of their new open tip velomobile.  It uses the German-built Cab-Bike as a base and mates that with a custom sportier top made by Nimbus with help from Reg Redaro.  Prices start at $7495 CAD. 

Toronto artist Amos Latteier has just launched N8R TXT, a public art project where you can send in an SMS with your location, anywhere in Ontario, and receive back a site specific haiku “expressing nature” at that spot based on the local geography, season, weather, time of day, plants, and animals. Here’s how it works:

Text your location to 416-662-3408. Locations should include the name of your city, and must be in Ontario, for example: “100 queen w, toronto”, “hamilton”, “laurier & elgin, ottawa”.

Some examples:

“Summer evening, bloor & landsdowne, toronto”
slumpd in the subwy
ladybird beetls nappng
rusticatd stone

“Summer morning, lake simcoe”
these yello pebbles
a bug hat, or bug jacket
beside a dirt road

“Summer night, Toronto”
bneath the lamplite
hardly nything open
small town Toronto

It’s free (only costs whatever your mobile plan charges to send a text) and is quite lovely. Latteier often investigates the intersection of nature and technology — check out his project Call of the Wild, “Cell phone audio tours of downtown Portland wildlife” — and you also may remember his Pigeon Condo project back in 2006 at Yonge and the Gardiner. With N8R TXT it’s remarkable how sweet the machine generated haiku poems can be. Latteier writes:

Historically haikus are themed around season and place. They also traditionally employ a technique called “cutting” which is basically juxtaposition. I tried to write my poem generating program to follow those techniques. Of course it also uses juxtaposition by bringing together “high” and “low” language and by connecting consumer electronics with “nature”.

You can follow recent activity on the site itself via RSS feed, or subscribe to the Twitter feed. Even when it’s not your personal haiku, it gives a neat snapshot of artful moments around the city as people go about their business. Put the number in your phone’s contact list and text away wherever you are.

We told you about the Stollery Signs in Ad Nauseam: The Story of the Stollery Signs. What Titan Outdoor Doesn’t Want You to Know.

Titan Outdoor has applied for the variance to legalize these signs. The Planning Department is recommending the variance on the condition that Titan remove the existing illegal fascia sign on the easterly wall facing Yonge and Bloor and abandon the variance it received to built additional signs along the rest of the roof. Here is the staff report [PDF].