Until last week I hadn't used the Toronto Public Library in years. I had a library card but I didn't use it. This was because my local branch was small and never had anything I was interested in and the inter-branch loan system was difficult to use and slow. Having renewed my card I find that the whole library paradigm has shifted (I realise I ( Read more... )

Transit City is dead and Ford's daft plans for unaffordable and unviable subways to nowhere might as well be. So maybe it's a good time to be thinking about what transit (and transportation more generally) needs to look in, say, a decade from now ( Read more... )

The north side of Sherbourne Common park is now open so there is park east of Sherbourne on both sides of Queens Quay. There is kids' playground equipment and a large grassy area plus a funky water feature that runs north south all down the east side of the park.


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Girl at market: Would you like a free copy of the Sun.

Me: No thanks, I don't have a parrot.

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For decades the various levels of government have been squabbling about how to develop Queen's Quay East and the port lands. (Roughly, this is the land that encloses the eastern half of Toronto harbour). Mostly it has been underused industrial land, parking lots and the like. Over this summer they have finally started to develop the section from ( Read more... )

Wednesday nights at this time of year I referee U18 games on Wednesday evening; boys or girls as required. Sometimes I get a game in the city but three times in the last five weeks I've been out to the north east (Lindsay, Ajax and, last night, Brock which is near Uxbridge). Getting out of the city in the late afternoon is a nightmare. I just ( Read more... )

Yesterday afternoon I headed back down to Harbourfront to see the tall ships sail out via the Western Passage. I found an excellent vantage point at the rather surreal Ireland Park. Unfortunately the wind was blowing out of the southwest pretty much directly up the Western Passage so, although all the ships had sails (but close hauled!) set they ( Read more... )

The Tall Ships are in Toronto this weekend. It's not quite the grand affair we had a decade or so ago when most of the world's working tall ships were in town. This time it's mostly Great Lakes residents with a handful of interesting visitors. lemur_catta and I toured the ships on Friday but Muggins forgot to take the camera so this morning I went down to ( Read more... )