A last look at a Leslieville factory By Josh Sherman
BEFORE THE old Weston bread factory at 462 Eastern Avenue is redeveloped, Toronto-based photographer Laird Kay has preserved its raw industrial image with a photography project. “I like photographing industrial machines and showing the beauty of machines,” Kay explained. Continued on Page 22
Volume 47 No. 6
Laird Kay’s photography
May 15, 2018
PHOTO: JOSH SHERMAN
Beaches—East York provincial candidates share platforms at meeting Above, NDP candidate Rima Berns-McGown, Liberal incumbent Arther Potts, and Green Party candidate Debra Scott attended the provincial all-candidates meeting, hosted by Beach Metro and Community Centre 55, at St. John’s Norway Anglican Church (470 Woodbine Ave.) on the evening of Thursday, May 10. Read a recap of the event on page 3 and check the candidates platforms on pages 14–15.
Police Beat
Meeting mulls future of Main Square, Shoppers World
Homicide in the Beach
By Josh Sherman By Josh Sherman
TORONTO’S 28TH homicide of the year has taken place in the Beach. Toronto police say they answered a call about a stabbing at the apartment building at 2422 Queen St. E. just before 3 a.m. on Sunday, May 6. When officers arrived at the scene near Queen East and Blantyre Avenue, they found a man suffering from stab wounds in the building’s second-floor hallway. The man died at the scene. Police have identified the victim as Robert Joseph Walker, 48, of Toronto.The homicide squad has taken over the investigation and police are asking anyone who may have seen or heard anything related to the stabbing to share information with them. A police spokesperson suggested a total of 28 homicides is abnormally high for Toronto at this point in the year but noted the April 23 Yonge Street van attack that left 10 dead has inflated the number.
PHOTO: SUSAN LEGGE
The apartment at 2422 Queen St. E.
“The reason why it’s so high is because of the Yonge Street incident,” said TPS Const. Jen Sidhu. There were 65 homicides in Toronto in 2017, down from 74 the previous year. Check beachmetro.com for updates
SEATED IN back of Grumbels (290 Main St.), an independent deli/café set to close this month while city-planning staff consider a high-rise condo proposal for the land it rests on, local resident Gerry Dunn mused about the future of the neighbourhood. “Where is my next Grumbels? It’s not here,” he said. “This is a distinctive place,” added Dunn, founder of the Danforth Village Community Association. Dunn and other members of his community group see development coming to the area, and when it does arrive, they would like to see it be “balanced.” He notes that “there are certain priorities.” As examples, Dunn mentions affordable housing, a variety of apartment sizes suitable for families and singles alike, and the kind of smaller retail spaces that foster independent—not big-box—development. These are some of the issues to be addressed at a community meeting later this month at Hope United Church (2550 Danforth Ave.).
On May 30, the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit, membership-based real estate organization, is hosting an open house and presentation. It will showcase possible visions for Main and Danforth as well as the sprawling RioCan-owned Shoppers World plaza on the southwest corner of the Danforth and Victoria Park Avenue. Paul Bedford, the city’s former chief planner and dean of ULI’s Urban Leadership Program, emphasized that the visions to be presented are not official development proposals by any means. They are part of the half-year-long program he leads. “They’re ideas that people in their 30s who’ve been working in the field for about 10 years have come up with and think that these are ideas that should be put out there for consideration by city-planning staff and by communities and councillors,” he explained. The Urban Leadership Program accepts 30 applicants from fields such as architecture, planning and real estate law per term. Continued on Page 3