Results tagged “garrisoncreek”

There's a speed bump on Crawford Street, not long before the one-way road cuts through the northernmost edge of Trinity Bellwoods Park. After drivers lurch over the bump, explains Martin Reis, they often pick up speed fast, accelerating towards Dundas, through and past a small crossing that joins the isolated north-west tip of Trinity Bellwoods with the park as a whole, a crossing frequented by slow-moving seniors headed for nearby residences.

By the 1880s, historian J.E. Middleton writes, "Toronto no longer felt itself a compact little city, but a straggling big one, outgrowing its civic services as rapidly as a small boy outgrows his pantaloons." Clearly the municipal government needed to adapt—by expanding its powers and influence over the lives of its citizens—to meet the needs of a bustling industrial city. While some emerging public services, such as public transit and the waterworks, could be developed by private investors, other less profitable—but equally essential—ventures were left to municipal officials. Thus, sewers became one of the first public works undertaken by city council. The scandal surrounding the construction of the Garrison Creek sewer in 1884-1885 illustrates the problems encountered when city officials stretched beyond the modest capabilities of their traditional function.

So you think you know the history of Toronto's water? Taddle Creek used to flow down Philosopher's Walk, Garrison Creek used to flow through Trinity Bellwoods Park, all of the land below Front Street used to be in the lake, and R.C. Harris built everything; what else is there to know? Well, how about the mighty Laurentian River that flows from Georgian Bay to Lake Ontario right through High Park? That's just one of the surprises exposed by HTO: Toronto’s Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-flow Toilets published late last year by Coach House Books. The book's two-and-a-half dozen essays and accompanying photos document our changing relationships through time with the natural and artificial watercourses that flow through the city.

ZOMBIES: Put on your make-up and rip off your clothes—it’s the 2008 Toronto Zombie Walk! Sponsored by the concurrent Toronto After Dark Film Festival, the walk will stumble out of Trinity-Bellwoods Park, shuffle along Queen Street to Bathurst Street, and heave up to Bloor Street, finishing in the alley behind the Bloor Cinema. Zombies will receive a discount for tonight’s festival screenings. Brain-eating mayhem continues at the Annex Wreckroom for the Zombie Walk Afterparty, featuring Misfits tribute band The Skulls, with guests The Rock Ons and The Von Drats. (No cover, but donations toward next year’s street permit gratefully accepted.) Zombie participants should meet in the pit of despair at the Dundas Street end of the park. Trinity-Bellwoods Park, 3 p.m., FREE.