An apple a day

“People who work in the financial district tend to get most of their food from the fast food restaurants located in the concourse,” said Meghan Telpner, stationed at the south east corner of King and Bay. “I’m convinced if healthy options were readily available, they might take them. So I’m here to see if that’s correct.”

Meghan had pedalled her bicycle down from Parkdale, where she’s a nutritionist. And where it’s easy to get a healthy, cheap, lunch. In the financial district, the foodcourts are filled with plenty of fast food outlets, but healthy food options aren’t easy to find. Meghan handed out free apples and advice on nutrition.

“Cheap ingredients make cheap food,” said Meghan. “People want quick things. They want their energy to spike back up, so they get refined foods. You end up with a 3 o’clock crash without fail. That’s when people reach for another coffee, or reach for donuts or candy.”

Donuts and candy bars are more expensive and unhealthy. “An apple is a more effective way to boost your energy levels,” Meghan said. An apple costs much less than a dollar.

How did Meghan do after an hour?

“I gave out 100 apples,” said Meghan. “Most of the people who stopped to chat were from out of town. I couldn’t give an apple to anyone in a suit. People become a little more receptive towards the end of the lunch hour. But there was definitely a lack of smiles and eye contact.”

Would Meghan be willing to try it again?

“For sure!”

Larchaud Dance Project

“It’s accessible, it’s high action, it’s fun, and it’s good for the whole family,” says Jennifer Robichaud, trying to describe the dance she and her dance troupe, the Larchaud Dance Project, will perform at this weekend’s Junction Arts Festival. It’s not that Jennifer isn’t sure what they will perform. She and her dancers have spent many hours practising their moves. But she doesn’t want to spoil the surprise.

Look for the Larchaud Dance Project at Dundas Street West and Pacific, on the north side next to Hakim Optical.

Latitude 44 and Reid English

This weekend, as part of the Junction Arts Festival, Latitude 44 will host Reid English, a sculptor, as he invites the public to help him put together a new sculpture.

“It’s a 7′ foot tall statue,” says MaryAnn DiBernardo, who together with her sister, Janet, runs the Latitude 44 Gallery. “We’re encouraging the community to bring any found objects, something they might think worthless, and help build the statue. If you happen to be walking by and you don’t have anything, we’ll have a box of objects you can use.”

She isn’t sure what will happen to the statue at the end of the Festival. Janet says we’ll have to drop by on Sunday evening to find out.

Heather Michele Yelland

Heather has roughly a dozen new paintings up as part of a group show at Latitude 44. “My newest figurative paintings explore the luminous possibilities of working with brass and aluminium sheets, using the warmth and depth of the metal to encircle and embellish the figures,” says Heather.

While Heather has participated in several shows, including last year’s Junction Arts Festival, she says she still gets nervous before each show.

Tia Gillespie

The Junction Arts Festival takes place this weekend up in the Junction. (It’s one of the best neighbourhood festivals in the city, so if you’ve never been, you should go.)

Tia is a painter and student at OCAD, but the work she’s got up at Latitude 44 suggests a mature artist, not a student.

“I started off doing my monoprinting as an expression of self-purification and kind of like a therapy, taking problems friends were experiencing and using the psychology of colour to create the works,” says Tia.

“I’ve sold three of them, two of my smaller prints, and one of my larger ones, which was part of the Local Option Arts Awards. I hope to sell more, if people are interested. I have one big one up, and I have three smaller ones. During the Junction Arts Festival on Saturday and Sunday I’ll be demonstrating my technique. Saturday from 3 to 6, on Sunday from 4 to 7.”

Rickard’s Griller of Glory

Bob Jenkins won the Rickard’s Griller of Glory contest at Dundas Square today. His prizes included a trophy and a Napoleon BBQ grill. Court Bethune took second place and James DiFiore came third. Though judging by the smells, any one of their meals would have made for a delicious lunch.

Backyard BBQers were invited to submit their recipes using Rickard’s Red and White beers. Bob, Court, and James were then selected to participate in a cook-off at Dundas Square. They had about 30 minutes to prepare their meals. Judging the contest were Mirella Amato, Alexa Clark, Councillor Kyle Ray, and Phil Nyman.

While everyone wanted to try the meals, Rickard’s wouldn’t let anyone beyond the judges sample the food and beers (liability insurance). If members of the audience weren’t hungry when they turned up, they were by the time the BBQers handed their plates over to the judges.

Yonge and Dundas gets scrambled

Yonge and Dundas today saw the introduction of a scramble intersection. Pedestrians, on their signal, can now cross diagonally. The City had helpers and police on hand in case there were problems, but everything seemed to go well.

There are painted markings on the road with which you can orient yourself, and there is a walk/don’t walk signal. But the scramble signal doesn’t last very long. If you’re in a wheelchair or elderly, you’ll have trouble making it across before the signal changes, although it’s not as bad as the Queen and University interesection – there even if you walk fast you’ll have trouble crossing University Avenue with one attempt.

If the Yonge and Dundas scramble experiment works out, the City plans to expand the idea to other busy intersections. Yonge and Bloor, Bay and Bloor, and Queen and John are several intersections that deserve the scramble treatment.

Supporting Locals

There is so much talk about local these days, but I have to wonder if it
is simply talk or if people are putting the sentiment into action.

At neighbourknowledge.com we spent much of our summer talking to local
merchants. I didn’t hear a strong message that the cash registers are
ringing louder now then years gone by - in fact it seems the majority of
local merchants are struggling now, perhaps more so then ever.

Regardless of whether the stories were coming from urban Toronto, the
suburbs, small towns in Alberta or BC the themes were the same - big box
and chains are moving in and driving the rents up. Higher rents combined
with aggressive pricing by the chains means margins are being reduced to
the breaking point for many independent businesses.

This affects everyone - not just local merchants. If each community has
the same mix of chain drug store, chain coffee shops, and big box store,
then what differentiates them? Where does the character come from? This
trend towards generic neighbourhoods will affect everyone when
neighbourhoods all start to blend and lose their individual charm.

Two of my favourite haunts fell victim this summer. Both of these places
had been around for decades and had the decor to prove it. The Stem Open
Kitchen on Queen West. It has been on this once eclectic strip for 40
years, but has apparently fallen victim to the area trend toward chain
stores and much higher rents. Whether or not you are a fan of diner food
you must admit the neighbourhood has lost some character that it will
never get back when the Stem is replaced by yet another clothing store
chain or cafe.

In my own neighbourhood of “Upper” Beaches, Michaelangelos, a classic
old Italian restaurant on Gerrard St. closed this summer as well. My
husband and I really liked that there was a restaurant that we could
walk to and enjoy a great meal. When the dreaded “under renovation” sign
was posted, along with the disconnected phone number, I felt a real
loss. Our only option for dining out in the neighbourhood was gone
overnight. So for us the neighbourhood had changed for the worse.

These businesses had built a loyal clientele and reputations that any
start-up would envy. Yet for whatever reason they couldn’t make it. I’m
not suggesting that there isn’t a place in every neighbourhood for a mix
of independent and chain businesses, but after spending time out in many
neighbourhoods I think we are losing the right balance.

With all of the media attention focused on local why are these
businesses not enjoying the fruit of all of this attention?

Why is there such a gap between people talking local versus actually
shopping local? I for one am motivated to try to look further into the
questions, and I’m inspired to help make neighbourknowledge.com part of
the solution.

Getting neighbourhoods online

One of the things that has become clear in our first 6 weeks is that people loved the notion of being able to add things to their own town, they’d love it even more if we could help. So, help we will. Starting this week we’ll go out into neighbourhoods, introduce ourselves, take some photos and help get some places online.

So the coming months will be busy. We’ll be travelling to different Canadian cities, towns and communities. We’ll share our schedule in advance when we can, so you’ll know when you will be getting your neighbourhood online.

Visiting Vancouver

Well, I asked for a tour of Vancouver and today I certainly got what I asked for. My tour guide was Trevor, our BC neighbourknowledge rep. We did a walking tour of a number of neighbourhoods and by the end of the day I had a completely different perspective on the city of Vancouver.

Our morning started on Granville Street and then to Granville Island (V6H). Granville Street had some interesting shops, but most importantly there was a Tim Horton’s kiosk in the local Esso station so I was able to get my morning fix. It was raining so we hurried along Granville Street and headed down to Granville Island.

This area of artisan shops and market is accessed by going under the Granville Street Bridge. Many of the buildings are converted or currently used industrial building. The whole area has a great feel - it almost makes you want to be a craftperson or artist even if you’re not (I’m not!).

The shops are unique and generally minded by the artist/owner themselves. The market was great with so many unique vendors - it reminded me a lot of the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, with the mix of vendors selling local, organic and fresh goods. We were there on a Monday morning and it was quite busy so I can’t image how busy it is on weekends. The Kid’s Market was also a fun place to visit. What a great place to shop for a child’s gift.

From Granville we moved along to Kitsilano (V6J). Kitsilano had a great mix of shops and restaurants. It felt more hip then the east side neighbourhood (V5T & V5V) that we visited yesterday which isn’t necessarily good or bad - just different. We stopped for a quick bite at the take-out counter at Caper’s Markets, which is a local upscale grocery chain.

After our 5-minute lunch on the go we walked over to East Kitsilano (V6J) for a tour of Robert Held Glass Studio. We entered in through the gallery that had a great selection of pieces on display. Then we were taken into the shop where the pieces are made. This is a really big operation - and hot with their large number of open ovens. Watching the process that these artisans go through to produce the end product makes you appreciate pieces even more.

In the afternoon we visited Yaletown (V6Z). Trevor had a Meet a Local interview with David Lowe owner of Cito Espresso so we headed directly there. I really enjoyed tagging along for the interview. I loved David’s passion for his business - and I had the best latte ever.

With more interviews in the area tomorrow we kept our visit here brief today. However, I must say I was absolutely surprised and fascinated not only by the density in this part of Vancouver but in how well executed it is. I was just amazed at how an area that is so saturated in condo’s can feel neighbourly but it does. The condo designs are unique, blend well with the street and many of greenscape and rooftop gardens integrated. Many cities could look to Vancouver as a model for how to make density attractive.

Our last stop of the day was Davie Village (V6E), Vancouver’s gay neighbourhood. There were a number of bars, clubs and restaurants. The area had a reto feel to me, with the older architecture and there was a lot of people out on the street so the area had great character.

My day ended with a whole new appreciation for the city of Vancouver. I don’t know what in particular surprised me but I just had an overall sense of my expectations being surpassed. I look forward to the second day of our city tour tomorrow.