Jane's Walk Connect. Observe. Bridge. Walk. Jane's Walk 2010 - May 1 & 2 » Participating Cities » Participating Cities

East of the Don River - From Gerrard to Queen and Broadview to the Railway Tracks

A rich and diverse community continues to evolve in this part of the east end, between the east bank of the Don River and the CN railway line bordering Degrassi. We will walk along some of these streets and explore the history and community of this area including the Don Jail, China Town, Degrassi Street, the Railway and that most walkable of grand downtown arterials, Queen Street East.

Meeting Place: Public Library Gerrard Street and Broadview

Tour guide(s): Ron Fletcher

End Location: Queen Street East and Broadview

Neighbourhood Leslieville

Public Transit Directions: Broadview Station, and 505 Dundas streetcar route operates between Dundas West Station and Broadview Station, 504 King streetcar route operates between Dundas West Station and Broadview Station

Accessible

Parking Available

Limited

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Located in Toronto's east end just across the Don River, some would deem our neighbourhood, Riverside/Leslieville as "transitional" and ripe for redevelopment - including suburban big box development. But our neighbourhood has a history of being daring, provocative and trend-setting.

Learn more about our "edgy-ness" as we weave our way through stories of successful community activism "against" car dependent development and "for" building a healthier, mixed, walkable and cyclable community.

Some of the important edges to be touched include:

1) the Don River/Don Valley Parkway,

2) the old Lake Ontario shoreline and industrial lands along Lakeshore Boulevard and

3) Eastern Avenue and the proposed big box site (former Toronto Film Studios).

Join us after the tour for lunch at a neighbourhood hot spot to continue the conversation.

Neluka Leanage is a planner who promotes development and design based on health. She has worked in policy and research in Canada and overseas. She sits on the steering committee of the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation.

Paul Young is a landscape architect and planner. He works with community groups and on planning for active transportation (A.K.A. walking and cycling).

Meeting Place: F’Coffee, 641 Queen St E

Tour guide(s): Neluka Leanage & Paul Young

End Location: Tango Palace (or Stratengers restaurant), 1156 Queen St E

Neighbourhood Queen Street East

Public Transit Directions: 501 Queen and 504 King streetcars. The 504 King connects to the Broadview subway station. Get off at the Carroll Street stop. The starting point, F’Coffee, is located on the south side of Queen Street.

Accessible

3km total distance by wheels and feet.

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Can Front Street’s well worn architecture and heritage interpretation be further animated? Can any tour compete with “Places to Bonk”? Well, walking with the spirit of Jane Jacobs, oh yes we can!

Our tour is a splendid melange of world-class academic heritage and archaeology, culture, cuisine and distillation. What of our Region’s natural history and first environmental jokes. Who were Toronto’s first inhabitants (a prize to the person who can say where the first village site to be commemorated by the City lies). Have you ever held a pipe effigy or arrow point from the Middle-Iroquian renaissance of north shore culture? Parliament Buildings and Block Houses lie underfoot. Thrill to an insider’s tour of the outside of the Flatiron Building. Learn of Toronto’s first stirrings of love for seafood at the long forgotten Turkish Coffee and Oyster Depot – did you know lobsters once travelled the Erie Canal destined for the dinner tables of York? Toronto’s musical beginnings did not originate with hippies at the River Boat! We will explore Toronto’s barrelhouse past with a traditional tune or two and visit a barrelhouse, no less.

Essential preparation: “Toronto: An Illustrated History of Its First 12,000 Years” ed Dr. Ron Williamson, James Lorimer & Co Ltd.; “I Am a Mountain”, Sarah Harmer, Rounder Records.

David Donnelly is one of Canada’s foremost environmental lawyer’s and advocates. He practised law in the Flatiron Building for five years and is a former Toronto Historical Board Tour Guide. He is NOW Magazine’s “Best of TO 2008” Green Activist, and recipient of Earth Day Canada’s Hometown Hero Award for 2008.

Dr. Ron Williamson is a world renowned archaeologist with over thirty-five years of field and research experience. In 1980 he founded Archaeological Services Inc., now the largest archaeological consulting firm in Canada. He is one of the featured experts on the acclaimed History Channel documentary, “Death or Canada”. Dr. Williamson is the Director of the multi-year Master Plan of Archaeological Resources for the City of Toronto. He also served on the board of Heritage Toronto for seven years.

Sarah Harmer is a Co-Founder of Protecting Escarpment Rural Land (PERL) and a well known Canadian environmental activist. She was the inaugural winner of the Greenbelt Award for her work protecting the Niagara Escarpment. Sarah is also known as highly acclaimed Canadian musician. In February 2007, Harmer received three Juno Award nominations. I'm a Mountain was up for Best Adult Alternative Album, her DVD Escarpment Blues was up for Best Music DVD. Sarah herself was also up for Songwriter of the Year for her work on "I Am Aglow", "Oleander" and "Escarpment Blues". Her acclaimed CD, “You Were Here”, was deemed by Rolling Stone "marvellously compelling" and Time voted “Best Debut CD” of 2000.

Rodney Clark is affectionately known as Canada’s “Oysterman”. As proprietor of the famed Rodney’s Oyster House in Toronto, Rodney’s has stewarded the Oyster’s for over 30 years in the GTA, uncovering the Oyster’s history and many secrets. Poised to debut Prince Edward Island’s first sustainable Oyster Depot in June 2009, using the force of the earth, sun, and wind to stewardship the ocean’s harvest, Rodney is an active environmentalist and a leader of Toronto’s Solar City movement in his neighbourhood. Rodney will be joined by Lawrence David, an Oyster aficionado and a bit of a great Oyster Buff from the Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill. They together will unveil Toronto’s beginnings in Oyster consumption, and there might be a bit of a tasting.

Meeting Place: Berczy Park, west side of Gooderham Building (the "Flatiron") at 49 Wellington St East

Tour guide(s): David Donnelly, Dr. Ron Williamson, Special guests Sarah Harmer, Rodney 'the Oysterman' Clark, Andrew Stewart and Lawrence David

End Location: Somewhere in the Distillery for a drink

Neighbourhood Front Street East

Public Transit Directions: Public Transit Directions: Union Station, walk east along Front Street (or King streetcar to Church Street, walk one block south).

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Greenwood-Coxwell is a neighbourhood claimed as home by many; it's called Little India, East Riverdale, Leslieville, Gerrard-India Bazaar, Upper Beach, and even Gaytown East. It is an area where no one group is truly dominant. It is a neighbourhood where people live with difference on a daily basis: restaurants that serve Pakistani, Afghani, Chinese, East Indian, and "Canadian" food are near the "Kick-n-Stab" restaurant and the Ulster Arms. Its historical development has led to diversity in its architecture, appearance, and use by newly arriving groups. Homes were intensively built on what had been farmland and clayfields for the brickworks once the Don River was crossed by the streetcar in the early twentieth century. Streams and undrained land were left alone until the 1950s which led to new developments of the standard "East York" style bungalow. Facing many of these are more recent walk-up triplexes.

Officially named the Greenwood-Coxwell Corridor by the City, it is a neighbourhood of contrasts. It is an “ethnic business enclave” catering to every South Asian cultural taste, but where Chinese is the most commonly spoken home language after English. Formerly, a working-class neighbourhood, it now has pockets of poverty, side-by-side with gentrified homes. Religious centres of 7 different faiths are spread through the neighbourhood. It's a social mix that makes a great community. On this walk we will explore the elements that create a space where everyone belongs.

Facilitated by local residents, and neighbours, Diane Dyson and Doug Fyfe, this walk invites discussion of what makes neighbourhoods strong. The tour begins where early twentieth century homes meets 1970s social housing, continues to Bollywood beats along the commercial strip and ends at one of the community parks.

Meeting Place: Northeast corner of Greenwood and Walpole Avenues

Tour guide(s): Diane Dyson, Doug Fyfe

End Location: Greenwood Park

Neighbourhood Greenwood-Coxwell

Public Transit Directions: 506 streetcar to Greenwood and walk north; or alternately, take Greenwood bus north from Queen (exit at Walpole) or south from Greenwood subway station (exit at Ivy and cross the road).

Accessible

Neighbourhood is on a slight incline.

Parking Available

Street

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In the 1850's, the emergence of a working class and a large homeless population coincided with the industrialization of the city. Walk through East Downtown Toronto, one of Toronto's oldest neighbourhoods and discover the local history of poverty. Find out about Toronto's poor hosues and the slums of Cabbagetown. Learn how a wealthy church at Dundas and Sherbourne became a church of the poor in the heart of Toronto's skid row in the 1960's. Hear stories of how the unemployed organized during the depression to stop evictions in Cabagetown. Find out about how Allan Gardens,a playgorund for the rich in the 1880's, became a gathering place for some of Toronto's most militant anti-poverty demonstrations.

Meeting Place: Parliament Street and Front St. E (North West Corner - Across from 51 Division Station)

Tour guide(s): Gaetan Heroux

End Location: Allan Gardens (Sherbourne Street and Gerard St. E.)

Neighbourhood East Downtown Toronto

Public Transit Directions: King Street Car E. to Parliament - then 1 minute walk south to start location.

Accessible

TTC might be a problem because need to take a street car to Parliament.

Parking Available

There is meter parking along King Street E.

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We asked Jane's Walk participant Lawrence David of of Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill to sign Patrick McMurray's wonderful book Consider the Oyster with an inscription that recognizes Jane's Walks. Here's what Lawrence wrote:

"In great admiration of Jane and with high regard to those who disobey the edict 'walk don't run' "

Join a group of local runners for an easy 8 kilometre jog through the southeast downtown. You'll stop at some community gardens along The Esplanade and listen to local celebrity gardener Dan O'Leary as he speaks passionately about the Childrens' Garden. W'll run through the historic Distillery District and speak to Julie Beddoes, President of the Gooderham & Worts Neighbourhood Association about living in their unique community. You'll get a close look at the Don River and the future West Don Lands Community. You'll see that a lot of work has been done to prepare these lands for housing, parks and employment uses.

We'll stop at Councillor Pam McConnell's house in Cabbagetown to hear her thoughts on the different types of home ownership in her neighbourhood, including the new construction at Regent Park. We'll run past 51 Division on Parliament Street, past the design stores on King East, and finish up at the Market.

There are some stairs to climb coming from the Don River trail at Riverdale Farm, but it will be a relaxed running commentary with plenty of stops. Running shoes are highly recommended and some basic running skill is essential.

Required reading: Run/Walk/Roll - St. Lawrence Market, Distillery District, Corktown

This free self-directed guide, created by the St. Lawrence Running Group, is available here or at these local businesses: Lettieri, Hot House Café, Starfish Restaurant, Second Cup, C'est What, Wellington Chiropractic and Massage, and the St. Lawrence Market BIA Office.

The second map by the running group Runners' Guide to Southeast Downtown by Toronto artist Marlena Zuber has not yet been released. All participants on Jane's Jog will receive a copy of the first draft of the map.

Meeting Place: St. Lawrence Market; Southwest corner Front Street East and Jarvis Street

Tour guide(s): St. Lawrence Runners

End Location: St. Lawrence Market; Southwest corner Front Street and Jarvis Street

Neighbourhood Cabbagetown & St Lawrence

Public Transit Directions: King Street Subway; walk or take King Street car to Jarvis, walk south to St Lawrence Market at Front Street

Parking Available

There is plenty of street parking and off-street parking nearby

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This historic walk of the "Beach" will wander down side streets, focusing on some heritage areas of the neighbourhood. Highlights include Kew-Williams Cottage - the last dwelling of the original settlers who started Kew Gardens, and Inglenook - one of the original cottages built by architect C.F. Wagner as his summer home (and the home where director Norman Jewison was born and raised). These are just some of the historic areas we will see on our tour. Tour guide Gene Domagala has conducted close to 300 historic walks in Toronto over the past thirty years.

Meeting Place: Beaches Public Library at Queen St. E. and Lee Ave.

Tour guide(s): Gene Domagala

End Location: -

Neighbourhood Queen and Woodbine

Public Transit Directions: Queen Streetcar to Lee Avenue

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This historic walk of the "Beach" will wander down side streets, focusing on some heritage areas of the neighbourhood. Highlights include Kew-Williams Cottage - the last dwelling of the original settlers who started Kew Gardens, and Inglenook - one of the original cottages built by architect C.F. Wagner as his summer home (and the home where director Norman Jewison was born and raised). These are just some of the historic areas we will see on our tour. Tour guide Gene Domagala has conducted close to 300 historic walks in Toronto over the past thirty years.

Meeting Place: Beaches Public Library at Queen St. E. and Lee Ave.

Tour guide(s): Gene Domagala

End Location: -

Neighbourhood Queen and Woodbine

Public Transit Directions: Queen Streetcar to Lee Avenue

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Creating an Urban Estuary at the Mouth of the Don

Major world cities such as Toronto are in transition, needing to re-integrate strategically important post-industrial landscapes while reframing their interactions with the natural environment. Through a major initiative of WATERFRONToronto the long neglected area where the Don River enters Toronto Harbour is being transformed into a naturalized river mouth in a generous park setting as the centerpiece of vibrant new mixed-use riverfront and lakefront neighborhood that unifies the goals of ecological restoration and urban regeneration. A multi-disciplinary team led by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates of which I am part was selected through an international competition to guide this effort. The tour will explore the past, present and future of this remarkable site.

And as an added attraction the Toronto Region Conservation Authority is holding its Paddle the Don event that day. The Landing Party will be held in the Villiers Street Parkette at the corner of Villiers Street and Don Roadway where we will end up and it will be underway when the walk finishes. We will meet there with Adele Freeman, the Director of the Watershed Management Division of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority who will briefly explain the TRCA’s work in the Lower Don. There will be a BBQ as well as live music and displays including a Waterfront Toronto display.

Meeting Place: Keating Channel Pub - Cherry Street and Villiers

Tour guide(s): Ken Greenberg, Brenda Webster, Planning Project Manager for the Lower Don Lands and Waterfront Toronto; Adele Freeman, the Director of the Watershed Management Division of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority

End Location: Keating Channel Pub and Grill, 2 Villiers Street at Cherry Street. And as an added attraction the Paddle the Don Landing Party will be happening simultaneously in the nearby Villiers Street Parkette neara where we will end up. That BBQ and wine tent party will be underway when the walk finishes.

Neighbourhood Toronto Waterfront

Public Transit Directions: The 72 Pape bus route passes by the starting point. It operates between Pape Station on the Bloor-Danforth Subway, the area of Pape Avenue and Eastern Avenue, and Union Station on the Yonge-University-Spadina Subway, generally in a north-south direction. Get off at Villiers Street, beside the Keating Channel Pub. Accessible service is provided on the route. Union Station is an accessible subway station.

Accessible

No vertical challenges. Note length and uneven sidewalks etc.

Parking Available

Parking lot at the starting point

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This year (2009) marks the centennial of the Midway Annex. Midway was largely a default name for the area between the City of Toronto (whose eastern boundary was just east of Greenwood) and the Town of East Toronto (whose western boundary crossed Danforth about a half kilometre east of Woodbine). In its entirety, Midway ran down almost to Queen. Upper Midway was north of the Grand Trunk Railway tracks.

Last year's walk, which exceeded all expectations by drawing more than 130 people, aimed to help us start rediscovering the lost history of Upper Midway's Danforth strip while exploring the potential of a great urban main street waiting to be reborn. It was a dusty rural road with small wooden bridges over swamps and creeks until pavement and streetcar tracks arrived in 1913. Its surrounding market gardens supplied fresh produce and dairy products to the nearby city, but gave way to a 1920s building boom that followed the close of World War One and the opening of the Bloor viaduct. The name Midway was largely forgotten as this hybrid streetcar/automobile suburb developed. Also largely forgotten is that for more than 40 years, people from four or five blocks north and south of Danforth walked daily to the Upper Midway strip -- for streetcars into the city core and for nearly every kind of shop and service imaginable. We had movie theatres, bowling alleys, several supermarkets, scores of independent food stores, lots of bank branches and a wide range of clothing and shoe stores. The sidewalks were often packed.

Things changed rapidly after the subway replaced streetcars in 1966. With transit stops suddenly much farther apart, with traffic speeding up in the absence of streetcars and with major retailers shifting to larger-scale car-dependent business models, Danforth as a pedestrian-friendly destination went into decline. But we still have some great restaurants and shops (some new since last year's walk) and we still have the bones of an urban strip that could rival Queen in the Beach(es), Roncesvalles in High Park or Greektown in north Riverdale. We can all benefit if we get back to investing in our community. Let's put our eyes on the street and our feet on the sidewalks. Last year, people brought along old pictures and tales of the past. We should encourage the same thing this year. It's also good to get people to talk about businesses really worthy of recommendation (I can't remember who suggested last year that I try Djerba, but thanks. What an excellent restaurant).

Stephen Wickens is an editor at the Toronto Star and has spent about 35 years in the newspaper business (not counting his boyhood Star, Tely and Globe routes). He's also a locally raised lifelong amateur urbanist.

Joe Cooper is a columnist with the East York-Riverdale Mirror. As a boy he worked in a butcher shop that his grandfather founded in 1927 near Woodbine and Danforth.

Meeting Place: TOUR FULL - if you have a reservation you will have been notified already, or will be in the next 24 hours about the starting location.

Tour guide(s): Joe Cooper

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Danforth - Greenwood to Woodbine

Public Transit Directions: Danforth Subway Line

Reservation Required

Limit: 35

Accessible

Curb cuts and crowded streets likely

Parking Available

Green P parking and side streets

close

This year (2009) marks the centennial of the Midway Annex. Midway was largely a default name for the area between the City of Toronto (whose eastern boundary was just east of Greenwood) and the Town of East Toronto (whose western boundary crossed Danforth about a half kilometre east of Woodbine). In its entirety, Midway ran down almost to Queen. Upper Midway was north of the Grand Trunk Railway tracks.

Last year's walk, which exceeded all expectations by drawing more than 130 people, aimed to help us start rediscovering the lost history of Upper Midway's Danforth strip while exploring the potential of a great urban main street waiting to be reborn. It was a dusty rural road with small wooden bridges over swamps and creeks until pavement and streetcar tracks arrived in 1913. Its surrounding market gardens supplied fresh produce and dairy products to the nearby city, but gave way to a 1920s building boom that followed the close of World War One and the opening of the Bloor viaduct. The name Midway was largely forgotten as this hybrid streetcar/automobile suburb developed. Also largely forgotten is that for more than 40 years, people from four or five blocks north and south of Danforth walked daily to the Upper Midway strip -- for streetcars into the city core and for nearly every kind of shop and service imaginable. We had movie theatres, bowling alleys, several supermarkets, scores of independent food stores, lots of bank branches and a wide range of clothing and shoe stores. The sidewalks were often packed.

Things changed rapidly after the subway replaced streetcars in 1966. With transit stops suddenly much farther apart, with traffic speeding up in the absence of streetcars and with major retailers shifting to larger-scale car-dependent business models, Danforth as a pedestrian-friendly destination went into decline. But we still have some great restaurants and shops (some new since last year's walk) and we still have the bones of an urban strip that could rival Queen in the Beach(es), Roncesvalles in High Park or Greektown in north Riverdale. We can all benefit if we get back to investing in our community. Let's put our eyes on the street and our feet on the sidewalks. Last year, people brought along old pictures and tales of the past. We should encourage the same thing this year. It's also good to get people to talk about businesses really worthy of recommendation (I can't remember who suggested last year that I try Djerba, but thanks. What an excellent restaurant).

Stephen Wickens is an editor at the Toronto Star and has spent about 35 years in the newspaper business (not counting his boyhood Star, Tely and Globe routes). He's also a locally raised lifelong amateur urbanist.

Joe Cooper is a columnist with the East York-Riverdale Mirror. As a boy he worked in a butcher shop that his grandfather founded in 1927 near Woodbine and Danforth.

Meeting Place: TOUR FULL - if you have a reservation you will have been notified already, or will be in the next 24 hours about the starting location.

Tour guide(s): Joe Cooper

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Danforth - Greenwood to Woodbine

Public Transit Directions: Danforth Subway Line

Reservation Required

Limit: 35

Accessible

Curb cuts and crowded streets likely

Parking Available

Green P parking and side streets

close

This year (2009) marks the centennial of the Midway Annex. Midway was largely a default name for the area between the City of Toronto (whose eastern boundary was just east of Greenwood) and the Town of East Toronto (whose western boundary crossed Danforth about a half kilometre east of Woodbine). In its entirety, Midway ran down almost to Queen. Upper Midway was north of the Grand Trunk Railway tracks.

Last year's walk, which exceeded all expectations by drawing more than 130 people, aimed to help us start rediscovering the lost history of Upper Midway's Danforth strip while exploring the potential of a great urban main street waiting to be reborn. It was a dusty rural road with small wooden bridges over swamps and creeks until pavement and streetcar tracks arrived in 1913. Its surrounding market gardens supplied fresh produce and dairy products to the nearby city, but gave way to a 1920s building boom that followed the close of World War One and the opening of the Bloor viaduct. The name Midway was largely forgotten as this hybrid streetcar/automobile suburb developed. Also largely forgotten is that for more than 40 years, people from four or five blocks north and south of Danforth walked daily to the Upper Midway strip -- for streetcars into the city core and for nearly every kind of shop and service imaginable. We had movie theatres, bowling alleys, several supermarkets, scores of independent food stores, lots of bank branches and a wide range of clothing and shoe stores. The sidewalks were often packed.

Things changed rapidly after the subway replaced streetcars in 1966. With transit stops suddenly much farther apart, with traffic speeding up in the absence of streetcars and with major retailers shifting to larger-scale car-dependent business models, Danforth as a pedestrian-friendly destination went into decline. But we still have some great restaurants and shops (some new since last year's walk) and we still have the bones of an urban strip that could rival Queen in the Beach(es), Roncesvalles in High Park or Greektown in north Riverdale. We can all benefit if we get back to investing in our community. Let's put our eyes on the street and our feet on the sidewalks. Last year, people brought along old pictures and tales of the past. We should encourage the same thing this year. It's also good to get people to talk about businesses really worthy of recommendation (I can't remember who suggested last year that I try Djerba, but thanks. What an excellent restaurant).

Stephen Wickens is an editor at the Toronto Star and has spent about 35 years in the newspaper business (not counting his boyhood Star, Tely and Globe routes). He's also a locally raised lifelong amateur urbanist.

Joe Cooper is a columnist with the East York-Riverdale Mirror. As a boy he worked in a butcher shop that his grandfather founded in 1927 near Woodbine and Danforth.

Meeting Place: TOUR FULL - if you have a reservation you will have been notified already, or will be in the next 24 hours about the starting location.

Tour guide(s): Joe Cooper

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Danforth - Greenwood to Woodbine

Public Transit Directions: Danforth Subway Line

Reservation Required

Limit: 35

Accessible

Curb cuts and crowded streets likely

Parking Available

Green P parking and side streets

close

This year (2009) marks the centennial of the Midway Annex. Midway was largely a default name for the area between the City of Toronto (whose eastern boundary was just east of Greenwood) and the Town of East Toronto (whose western boundary crossed Danforth about a half kilometre east of Woodbine). In its entirety, Midway ran down almost to Queen. Upper Midway was north of the Grand Trunk Railway tracks.

Last year's walk, which exceeded all expectations by drawing more than 130 people, aimed to help us start rediscovering the lost history of Upper Midway's Danforth strip while exploring the potential of a great urban main street waiting to be reborn. It was a dusty rural road with small wooden bridges over swamps and creeks until pavement and streetcar tracks arrived in 1913. Its surrounding market gardens supplied fresh produce and dairy products to the nearby city, but gave way to a 1920s building boom that followed the close of World War One and the opening of the Bloor viaduct. The name Midway was largely forgotten as this hybrid streetcar/automobile suburb developed. Also largely forgotten is that for more than 40 years, people from four or five blocks north and south of Danforth walked daily to the Upper Midway strip -- for streetcars into the city core and for nearly every kind of shop and service imaginable. We had movie theatres, bowling alleys, several supermarkets, scores of independent food stores, lots of bank branches and a wide range of clothing and shoe stores. The sidewalks were often packed.

Things changed rapidly after the subway replaced streetcars in 1966. With transit stops suddenly much farther apart, with traffic speeding up in the absence of streetcars and with major retailers shifting to larger-scale car-dependent business models, Danforth as a pedestrian-friendly destination went into decline. But we still have some great restaurants and shops (some new since last year's walk) and we still have the bones of an urban strip that could rival Queen in the Beach(es), Roncesvalles in High Park or Greektown in north Riverdale. We can all benefit if we get back to investing in our community. Let's put our eyes on the street and our feet on the sidewalks. Last year, people brought along old pictures and tales of the past. We should encourage the same thing this year. It's also good to get people to talk about businesses really worthy of recommendation (I can't remember who suggested last year that I try Djerba, but thanks. What an excellent restaurant).

Stephen Wickens is an editor at the Toronto Star and has spent about 35 years in the newspaper business (not counting his boyhood Star, Tely and Globe routes). He's also a locally raised lifelong amateur urbanist.

Joe Cooper is a columnist with the East York-Riverdale Mirror. As a boy he worked in a butcher shop that his grandfather founded in 1927 near Woodbine and Danforth.

Meeting Place: TOUR FULL - if you have a reservation you will have been notified already, or will be in the next 24 hours about the starting location.

Tour guide(s): Joe Cooper

End Location: TBA

Neighbourhood Danforth - Greenwood to Woodbine

Public Transit Directions: Danforth Subway Line

Reservation Required

Limit: 35

Accessible

Curb cuts and crowded streets likely

Parking Available

Green P parking and side streets

close

Trace the past with us as we walk through the King/Parliament neighbourhoods. Re-live the development activity initiated by the 1996 Kings bylaw, which resulted in new opportunities for urban intensification and land conservation, and the restoration and modernization of previously underused spaces to attract new tenants such as start-up and incubator companies.

In addition, we now see many residential options in these neighbourhoods where a higher percentage of people choose eco-conscious, sustainable lifestyles.

The King-Parliament area comprises Corktown, Moss Park, St. Lawrence, West Don Lands, and the original Old City of Toronto, settled by John Simcoe in the 1700s. Many of the buildings in this area are designated heritage buildings or are of historic significance.

In this walk we will start with the Queen Richmond Centre, a linking and restoration of seven historic buildings with a new internal courtyard garden, a building that is now home to many including an exclusive women's club/spa, nanotechnology research facilities and the largest print and publishing company in Canada. From there we will take you through new urban solutions to small sites, a culinary school that connects to the neighbourhood visually and programmatically, SAS: a project that stands out in the green front, and many other buildings that have been creatively re-used.

Dermot Sweeny, founding principal at Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co Architects, is a Toronto-based architect that works with clients to push for further sustainability and healthier spaces. Dermot's work has been recognized through design awards and publications. He is an inspiring guest speaker on green architecture, creative urban spaces and sustainable real estate. John Gillanders is a principal at Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co Architects. John's design passion includes bringing sustainable options to work spaces through integrated design strategies. Dermot and John work often together on projects such as the new multi-use modern building at Richmond and Sherbourne, the Queen Richmond Centre (designed with Young + Wright Architects), and the Derby building.

Meeting Place: Yonge and Queen, south-east corner, under the clock

Tour guide(s): Dermot Sweeny, John Gillanders

End Location: Balzac’s Café in the Distillery

Neighbourhood King/Parliament

Public Transit Directions: Take the subway and exit Queen Street (on the Yonge line)

Parking Available

You can park in the Eaton Centre parking lot on Yonge off Shuter, or look for metered street parking along Victoria Street

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See this dense and diverse community from a fresh perspective - through the eyes of the engaged and enthusiastic St James Town Youth Council. Learn about the history of the neighbourhood and what was here before this densely populated and diverse high rise development, visit their favourite spots to hang out, travel the secret shortcuts, get spooked by the 'ghost houses' and weigh in on the raging debate about what's the best grocery store: No Frills or Food Basics. We might even meet some local legends along the way, like the Creepy Princess Man, The Carpet Guy, Dr Portugal and the amazing role models who have lived here and organized this community for decades. We'll also hear about hopes and plans for greening up the towers as part of the Mayor's Tower Renewal initiative. The inside scoop on St James Town will forever change the way you think of this thriving, friendly and fascinating high-rise neighbourhood.

The St James Town Youth Council are supported and facilitated by the Yonge Street Mission and Banyan Youth.

Meeting Place: Sherbourne subway station - Glen Road exit

Tour guide(s): St. James Town Youth Council

End Location: tba

Neighbourhood St James Town

Public Transit Directions: Sherbourne subway station - Glen Road exit

Accessible

some bumpy sidewalks, busy roads and crowded sidewalks will likely be encountered

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The St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood has been awarded the 2009 Landmark Award by the Ontario Association of Architects. Heralded for its design excellence and contribution to the community, it is also the most successful and ambitious downtown revitalization project ever undertaken by the City of Toronto. The area continues to be a leading example of community development and renewal, nurturing its historic past, while remaining flexible to respond to current and future needs. Frank Lewinberg, a founding partner of Urban Strategies Inc. will lead the walk. Nearly 30 years ago, he led the creation and implementation of the master plan for the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood. Join Frank on this tour and see first hand how his theories of quality urban design have blossomed into one of Canada’s most notable neighbourhood success stories.

Meeting Place: In front of St. Lawrence Market South Building, at the corner of Jarvis and Front Streets

Tour guide(s): Frank Lewinberg

End Location: Same as start

Neighbourhood St. Lawrence Neighbourhood

Public Transit Directions: Take the subway to either Union Station or King Street Station. From Union Station, turn right from the front entrance and walk east along Front Street for 3 blocks. From King Street subway station, the King streetcar runs along King Street and stops at the corner of Jarvis Street, in front of the St. Lawrence Hall.

Reservation Required

Limit: 25

Accessible

Parking Available

The Market is surrounded by meters and parking lots. The average two-hour stay costs between $2 and $6. View this map: http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/access/parking.html

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Explore the Don River starting at historic Todmorden Mills. We will meander along the river banks and watch as canoeists “Paddle the Don."

Meeting Place: Todmorden Mills, 67 Pottery Road

Tour guide(s): Tom Fiore, Alan Lavine, Jay Tabac

End Location: Finish at Starting place

Neighbourhood Todmorden Mills

Public Transit Directions: see website: www.ontariowalks.com

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We will follow the route of last year's popular walk but with a different theme. At The Distillery, Michael McClelland will talk about the history of the site, particularly the river -- Taddle Creek -- that once ran through it.

At the main gate to the West Don Lands Flood Protection Landform work site, Carla Guerrera and Dave Madeira will talk about the work visible from Cherry St.

We will stop briefly in historic Corktown and continue to the Queen St. bridge for a bird's eye view of the construction site with more explanation there from Carla and Dave.

We will go down the staircase from Queen St. to the trail along the Don River. As we walk south, we will be able to greet paddlers in the annual Paddle the Don event as they approach their destination. Mark Wilson will talk about the river, its history, the work that has been done on its restoration and plans for its future destination in a new naturalised estuary in the port lands.

Walkers are invited to watch paddlers arrive and disembark on the Keating Channel and to join them at the TRCA barbecue, enjoy the sunshine and share a glass with friends at the wine tent

Meeting Place: Beside Balzac's coffee shop in The Distillery

Tour guide(s): Michael McClelland, Carla Guerrera, Dave Madeira, Mark Wilson

End Location: The TRCA Paddle the Don barbecue at Don Roadway and Villiers St.

Neighbourhood Distillery, Corktown, Lower Don River

Public Transit Directions: To The Distillery: 72 and 172 buses to Trinity and Mill Sts; King streetcar (504) to Trinity and walk south At the end of the walk: 72 or 172 bus on Commissioners Street

Accessible

Steep staircase at one point. This was manageable for strollers last year. A guide will be prepared to take those who cannot manage the staircase by an alternate route but this would mean missing the main part of the walk along the riverbank.

Parking Available

City lots on Berkely and Parliament south of Front; limited Distillery parking; TTC advised

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Centre For City Ecology

Jane's Walk

Toronto - East End (e. of Jarvis)

All tours go – Rain or Shine

Toronto - East End (e. of Jarvis) (all walks)

Degrassi Street: Between the Riverside and the Railway

Edgy-ness in East Toronto

Front Street East: Peoples' Palace, Oysters, and Ovations

Greenwood-Coxwell: A Neighbourhood of Many Names

History of skid row and working poor in East Downtown Toronto

Jane's Jog: Cabbagetown and St Lawrence

Kew Beach West

Kew Beach West

Lower Don Lands

The Other Danforth: Death and Life of Upper Midway (Sat @10:00)

The Other Danforth: Death and Life of Upper Midway (Sat @14:00)

The Other Danforth: Death and Life of Upper Midway (Sun @10:00)

The Other Danforth: Death and Life of Upper Midway (Sun @ 14:00)

The Other King

St James Town: The Inside Scoop

St Lawrence Neighbourhood

Walk the Don

West Don Lands River Walk

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How can an individual get involved with Jane's Walk?

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