Photos: June 2009 Archives

WHERE: Dundas Street at Ossington.

WHERE: Queen Street West and Bathurst Street.

                            

Thanks to Derek Forgie, founder of Heterosexuals for Same-Sex Equality, Torontoist didn't just get to see Toronto's 29th Annual Pride Parade; we were in it! Marching behind HSSE's proud banner, we got to look out and see the masses of happy faces lining the parade route from start to finish. They perched on rooftops, dangled out of windows, swung from lampposts, and stood twenty rows deep—all dancing, waving, and cheering. While the crowd was taking photos of us (well, maybe not us specifically, but surely the lovely body-painted topless girls we were with), we turned our camera outwards on them to capture the amazing people who endured the early afternoon downpour to show their support, love, and pride. Happy Pride, everyone.

Currently flying circles around the downtown core, far above Pride partiers and amongst the stray balloons floating up from below and the news helicopters hovering above, is a small plane carrying a "FAIR CONTRACT FOR CITY WORKERS NOW!" banner. As we noted when an anti–Tamil Tiger banner flew in May, this sort of stunt isn't cheap: an aerial banner from local company SkyWords costs about $500 for half an hour, and today's plane has been out for a good forty-five minutes so far. We were plane-spotting from too far away to see the reactions of Pride-goers, but the sky didn't seem all that happy: since the plane's started going around, the sky's gotten a darker and darker shade of gray.

WHERE: Dundas Street West and Ossington Avenue.

             

Last night Yonge-Dundas Square filled up with hundreds of people celebrating the moves of the late King of Pop in the Moonwalk for Michael Jackson flashmob organized by the Urban Recreation Association Facebook group.

WHERE: Neil McLellan Park (Runnymede Street and Bloor Street West).

WHERE: Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue.

After the Osler Playground (and Trinity-Bellwoods, and Dufferin Grove) garbage bins all got unexpectedly emptied yesterday, we're changing how Strike Watch is going to work a bit: instead of just tracking the change at one location, as we started to earlier this week, for the rest of the strike we're going to be hopping around the city, snapping different garbage and recycling bins each day. Our Miles Storey took the photo above of the bin at Queen Street West and Markham Street at 12:30 p.m.; like most other bins throughout the city, it was initially sealed shut with plastic wrap, but that's since been pulled off.

We're not sure what the City's nineteen new waste drop-off sites'll be when they're announced today, but our money's on at least these three parking lots: the set around Ellis just south of Lakeshore Boulevard West, George Bell Arena's, and Étienne Brûlé Park's. The group—tracked down and captured for Torontoist yesterday and today by photographer Christopher Drost—have all sprouted bright blue fences around them, and as of this morning, one, Étienne Brûlé Park, is already accepting solid waste (securely wrapped) and organic waste (emptied into a bin on-site), but no recycling.

Well, this'll probably force a slight change of plans. As you can see, what once was full now is empty: there's distinctly less garbage in the bin outside of Osler Playground today than there was yesterday, and that's because—surprise!—the City is actively directing non-union employees to empty garbage bins from inside some parks.

              

Even though he denies it, Jeff Low is providing Toronto with a valuable service. In his spare time, Low (or "Mustapha" as he's better known online) recreates vintage photos from the Toronto Archives and then posts the then and now photos at Urban Toronto (a popular Toronto design and architecture forum). Low isn’t the first to recreate Toronto’s vintage photos, or even the best, but his collection is the city’s largest, and since starting in April 2008, he estimates that he’s recreated more than a thousand photos. "Urban Toronto inspired me," Low told Torontoist. "There was already some of that going on on a spotty basis—I decided to make a regularity of it."

Caught at 8:45 a.m. this morning, the accumulation of garbage outside of Osler Playground is, somewhat miraculously, mostly confined to where garbage is supposed to go; unlike some of the more dramatic messes in more heavily trafficked locations downtown, the garbage bin is full rather than overflowing. Of course, it can only get steadily worse: the neighborhood's scheduled garbage pick-up is tomorrow, and people like the Star's Royson James are saying that we should "expect the...strike to last well into next month and beyond." Which means that it may not be long before we need to switch to a wider-angle lens.

The city workers' strike, effective as of midnight last night, likely won't be a pretty one. With broad and wide "service adjustments" to garbage collection, child care, and, perhaps worst of all, our ability to ride ferries to the Island; with massive Pride festivities near; and with stories trickling in of picket-line confrontations, there's word of talks between unions and the City but not much word of progress.

                     

On Sunday, more than five thousand people gathered on the lawns of Queen's Park in front of the Ontario Legislature for an impassioned demonstration against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the subsequent violence against supporters of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi in Iran. With some protesters flying Iran's current flag while others waved the country's flag as it existed before the Islamic Revolution, emotions ran high in the crowd: some argued first with one another, and then—as police moved in to form a barrier at the front of the crowd as several people remonstrated forcefully with the speakers—with the police themselves.

                     

On Sunday evening, more than thirty of Toronto's most celebrated chefs congregated in the open air of Yorkville Park for Toronto Taste, Second Harvest's biggest and most lavish fundraiser. Honouring its nineteenth year, the event raised $250,000 in just one night—enough to provide 500,000 meals for people in need. Torontoist was lucky to snag a couple of these hot tickets and chat with some of our city's food glitterati who—despite the challenges of running restaurants in this economy—are continuing to do their part to fight hunger.

                                   

The place to be at this year's Woofstock festival was the fountain in Berczy Park. Despite the moderate temperatures and a layer of suspicious-looking foam covering the water, the fountain was crowded with dogs fighting for rubber balls, chasing each other, and—in the case of one very determined Great Dane—doing vigorous laps.

       

The annual World Naked Bike Ride, celebrating all that is naked and bike, turned heads as they rode through downtown Toronto yesterday. In countries all around the world similarly de-clothed convoys take place every year to draw attention to the vulnerability of cyclists and the dangers of vehicle pollution. Torontoist caught the riders in the buff as they came along Queen, and a gallery of photos—which (obviously) contain nudity—is above.

                                   

At the crack of noon on Saturday, countless food enthusiasts lined up to buy fistfuls of tasting tickets for Luminato's one and only food event, 1000 Tastes of Toronto. Eastbound lanes of Queens Quay between Lower Simcoe and Rees were closed to accommodate the forty-some vendor booths, stretching down the street in front of the beautiful new Simcoe Wavedeck. Some of the city's best-known and respected chefs were there, chatting with patrons and serving up street-friendly versions of their signature dishes. Torontoist was fortunate to sneak in a bit early and partake in this whirlwind tasting tour of Toronto.

                     

As a prelude to this coming weekend's Woofstock festival, organizers arranged the Woofstock Doggie Weddings High Tea at the King Edward Hotel yesterday. The puntastic event—hosted by comedian Laurie Elliott—brought together doggy couples who wanted to prove their "commuttment" by taking their "bow vows." Each canine couple received a blessing from Reverend Dr. John Joseph Mastandrea and a certificate of "muttrimony".

On the second-last Sunday in May, Jack Layton and Olivia Chow picked up some cans of spray paint and some acrylic paint, strolled into a laneway in the Annex, and spent the day marking their territory—on the big aqua wall of their own home, previously littered with tags.

                            

Kensington Market held the first Pedestrian Sunday of the year yesterday. The car-free streets thronged with people enjoying a sunny day as they ate street food from the neighbourhood's restaurants, listened to bands (including Escalate and Mr Something Something with their Soundcycle), played giant scrabble, learned how to fix their bikes courtesy of the Bike Pirates, and danced in a stream of bubbles.

            

On Saturday night, just before sunset, and just after a flash storm, Toronto hosted an exceptional rainbow—well, two exceptional rainbows, one on top of the other. And, as is usually the case with dramatic weather these days, photos of it flowed into our Flickr pool. Some of our favourite shots are above.