In The News

Green roofs sprout up in Toronto in record numbers

Daily Commercial News Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Daily Commercial News (DCN) has gathered the results of the Annual Green Roof Industry Survey and it's good news for Toronto. The city has, "experienced a 33 per cent growth in the installation of green roofs across the city," the article says.

The Toronto Metropolitan Region installed 338,310 square feet of green roofs in 2012, more than 100,000 more than the previous year. Toronto has more green roofs than anywhere else in Canada, but fourth overall in North America, falling behind Washington, Chicago and New York City.

"Through the Green Roof Bylaw, the City of Toronto has required over 250 development applications to include green roofs, totalling 170,000 square metres of new green roof in Toronto,” Jane Welsh, project manager of environmental planning with the City of Toronto, says in the article.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Daily Commercial News

Leslieville's Florabunda wins Amex Neighbourhood Gems contest

Amex Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Leslieville flower market Florabunda has won American Express's Neighbourhood Gems contest, a month long initiative designed to encourage cardholders (and Canadians) to "shop small and make a big difference."

Amex asked Marc Florabunda, who owns the shop with his wife, his thoughts on how the contest has influenced his business and community. He recognized the area's preexisting inclination to shop local and applauded the contest for making buyers more conscious.

"Shopping small is something that most residents of our Leslieville neighbourhood live and breathe every day, but the Shop Small movement has certainly helped in making even more people aware of how important it is to support the small businesses in their communities. We love that sense of community, and never want to lose that neighbourly feeling!"

Florabunda's win, which was determined via online voting, lands them a social marketing consultation with Facebook and an American Express advertorial in Toronto Life magazine.

Florabunda is located on 1131 Queen Street East at Caroline Avenue.

For more information, check out Amex's Shop Small Facebook page.

Original source: Amex

Portland comes to Toronto, but where's the fish?

Portland Press Herald Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Portland Press Herald recently gave our city a visit citing this summer's must-see as the forthcoming Ripley's Aquarium, the $130 million project expected to open later this summer. When reporter Ellen Creager asked exactly when it will open, a workman joked, "Never…The outside windows won't keep out the rain, and the inside windows won't keep in the fish."

The second recommended attraction according to the Herald is the very source of this year's headline panda-monium, the May 18 launch of the Toronto Zoo's panda exhibit. Er Shun and Da Mao arrived via FedEx from China in March and will stay in Toronto for at least five years.

Before launching into a series of recommendations over the sometimes-confused St. Lawrence Market and Kensington Market, the Herald warns of the city's vapid construction. "Spindly cranes reach for the clouds as new glass skyscrapers rise. The biggest disruptions are on Front Street, which is partly closed, and at Union Station -- all part of a giant five-year renovation."

The Herald knows its stuff. "This multicultural city of 2.7 million people welcomes 2 million visitors a year from the United States," the article says before encouraging American tourists to attempt the navigation of the TTC.

"Kensington Market is a groovy neighborhood near Chinatown, northwest of Spadina and Dundas. (Both streets have streetcars, so take a chance and ride one to the market.) During the summer, some days the area becomes a pedestrian-only zone.

"One of the coolest little corners is where Kensington meets Baldwin, home of the Good Luck Shop…Across the street is Global Cheese, from which the ripe smell of Stilton drifts into the street… On the blocks nearby are wares for sale, including frilly petticoats, macramé hammocks, artisan bread, curried goat, chocolate truffles and buckets of parasols; in other words, all the necessities of life in modern Toronto."?

Read the original story here.

Original source: Portland Press Herald

Following-up with graduates from the experimental ALPHA Alternative School

Daily Mail Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Toronto's ALPHA Alternative School opened its doors in 1972 and became the go-to place for parents looking to place their children in an alternative to conventional education systems.

ALPHA--A Lot of Parents Hoping for an Alternative--does not assign tests, homework or grades. Instead, students are taught individually and in diverse age groups. It's the city's original democratic school and, according to the school's website, is part of a larger international movement.

Photographer Michael Barker took portraits of many of the graduates of the inaugural class as part of an anniversary project, documenting where they are now. The Daily Mail picked up the collection and noted, "In addition to the heart-warming diptychs of then-and-now portraits of the former students also shows how an elementary education truly influences someone’s life-path."

Students went on to become writers, nurses, paramedics, bakers, activists and more. One graduate, Jennifer Ferrari, became an automotive technician and now encourages more women to get involved in her trade. She said the school taught her to care about people, "no matter what age, no matter what differences we have."

Read the full story (and see the pictures) here.

Original Source: Daily Mail

Toronto's East End gets love from Boston

Boston Globe Wednesday, May 08, 2013

A reporter from the Boston Globe makes many recommendations in the publication's travel section on where to go and what to eat in Toronto's east end. She starts by reflecting on Queen Street East's various changes over the past 15 years when she first visited Mary MacLeod's Shortbread.

"The area has changed so dramatically and is so vibrant. I heard that there are about 97 languages spoken around here," MacLeod told reporter Carol Ann Davidson.

Davidson goes on to recommend, among others, Bonjour Brioche, which makes "the best French toast, with real French Canadian maple syrup," the Leslieville Cheese Market for its "outstanding grilled cheese sandwiches," and Ambiance Chocolat's "hand-made chocolates and velvety mousse."

She describes the various eclectic shops and points out the area's unique history. "A short side trip onto Jones Street will bring you to the city's second-oldest Jewish cemetery dating to 1883. Access to this historic resting place is with a key that is kept by a neighbor two doors away. Just knock on her door."

And she doesn't stop without mentioning a few go-to destinations for the city's best views.

"Don’t leave the East End until you travel south of Danforth along Broadview," Davidson writes. "People pay big bucks to board tourist buses to view probably the best vista in Toronto at Riverdale Park."

Read the full story here.

Original source: Boston Globe

Waterfront makeover great for Canadian economy

Daily Commercial News Wednesday, May 08, 2013

A new study released by Waterfront Toronto provides deep insights into its role in the Canadian economy. "Toronto’s waterfront project has injected $3.2 billion into the Canadian economy and has created 16,200 full-time years of employment, according to economic research firm, urbanMetrics," says an article that appeared in the Daily Commercial News.

"The tri-government effort to revitalize our waterfront is an increasingly important driver for economic development in Toronto,"Toronto City Councillor Michael Thompson, Chair of Economic Development and Culture Committee, says in the article. "Ultimately it is helping Toronto compete with other leading global cities for investment, jobs and people."

The waterfront's revitalization prompted an additional $2.6 billion in development projects altogether, including the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games Athlete's Village, River City Condominums and Monde Condominiums. The article reports these constructions will "put another $2.2 billion in to the Canadian economy and generate $1.17 billion in labour income."

Once complete, "the revitalization project would add $12.9 billion to the economy and $4.9 billion in revenue to all three levels of government. The City of Toronto will receive an additional $252 million toward future infrastructure projects as well as $105 million annually in property tax revenue."

Additional reports say there are 44 recent or planned developments in the works.

Read the full story here.

Original Source: Daily Commercial News

Help name Toronto's newest waterfront park

The Grid Wednesday, May 08, 2013

Name that Park, a contest being run in partnership between Waterfront Toronto and the Grid, has opened its public voting round to determine the name of Toronto's newest waterfront park.

The park, currently known as the Don River park simply due to geography, sits on 18 acres of property between Bayview Avenue and the GO/CN railroad lines, from King Street to the rail corridor. 448 suggested names were submitted to the Grid's contest last month before five names were shortlisted by a selection committee consisting of community representatives, The shortlist was then reviewed by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department "to ensure the proposed names meet the city's naming policies," a press release said.

Voters can vote on any of the below names until May 16 at midnight.

The five names are:

Ataratiri Park: Ataratiri (pronounced "a-tar-a-TEER-y") is a Huron-Wendat word meaning "supported by clay." That's fitting, because the park is built on top of a clay flood protection landform that will prevent downtown Toronto from flooding during a major storm event in the Don Watershed. If Ataratiri sounds familiar, that's because it was also the name for a previous plan for the area.

Corktown Common: "Corktown" for the larger neighbourhood the park will form a new part of—a neighbourhood named to honour the Irish workers who settled there after their country's famine—and "Common" because it will belong to everyone. Corktown Common would be the second of two recent east-end parks to share the "Common" designation: nearby Sherbourne Common opened in 2010.

Don River Park: As a park running alongside the 38-kilometre-long Don River, Don River Park as a name doesn't need much in the way of explanation: it would be called what it is - a park designed to celebrate its location in one of Toronto's most significant watersheds. (And it would get to keep Waterfront Toronto's working name for it.)

King's Reserve: King's Park, stretching from Berkeley Street to Queen Street East to the Don River, was one of two reserves set out by Lt.-Gov. John Graves Simcoe for public use when the Town of York was founded in 1793. (The other, on the western end of town, was the Garrison Reserve.)

Wonscotonach Park: Before Lt.-Gov. John Graves Simcoe renamed it after England's River Don in the 18th century, the river that abuts the park was called Wonscotonach (pronounced Waw-sco-taw-NAWSH) by Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation people. In her diary at the time, Elizabeth Simcoe wrote that the word meant "back burnt grounds," though some scholars prefer "burning bright point."

Vote on your favourite name here.

Original Source: The Grid

Buzz over local artist's upcoming sewer tunnel photography exhibit

The Atlantic Cities Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Michael Cook has been documenting Toronto's drain and sewage tunnels for almost a decade in an effort to raise "awareness about city sewage problems." His photography captures tunnels, rarely seen by the public eye, in a fascinating light, exposing their various constructions and materials.

Though his work is beautiful from an art perspective, he tells the Atlantic Cities that the awareness facet is his biggest concern.

"In the city, people are very interested in getting involved in things like this," Cook told the publication. "But they need to be able to understand and see those systems to make substantive change on this issue. One of the reasons that it's been so difficult to get traction around the issues of water in the city is that the infrastructure is completely invisible."

In an extensive Q&A, 30-year-old Cook goes on to say, "My position on all that is to be able to have an honest and public conversation about all those issues, we really need to be able to see sewers and know them as real places. Residents need to be able to think of them as components in the places that they live. And for that they need to be able to know them visually and spatially. So putting these photographs out there has always been an important part of my practice."

His work will be featured as part of Toronto's annual Scotiabank CONTACT photography festival that runs May 1-31 at more than 175 venues throughout the GTA, including various subway stations. Cook's exhibit, Under this Ground, will feature 45 images viewable along St. Patrick Station's subway platform.

Incidentally, Yonge Street's photography editor Tanja Tiziana will also be featuring her work as part of the CONTACT festival in the exhibit called Memory and Context, taking place at the MJG Gallery (555 Parliament St).

Read the full story here.

Original Source: The Atlantic Cities

Toronto designer makes flags for local neighbourhoods

Metro News Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Yonge Street's flag, as designed by television researcher Brendan Hennessy, features a golden Y "for the street's name and the colour of the subway line," the designer writes on his website. "Blue and white represent its role as Toronto's main street and represents its extension into the rest of Ontario."

Hennessy told Metro News he's been fascinated by flags since he was a child and began designing neighbourhood-centric flags after moving to Toronto from Ottawa four years ago. He realized each neighbourhood had its own charm and history.

"Toronto is pretty unique in terms of how diverse its neighbourhoods are," he told the paper. "There so are many of them, and they’re on a micro level. Like you walk a few blocks and you’re in an entirely different part of town."

The first of his 13 designs were revealed in Spacing magazine in December, but his collection has grown to 22 and counting. He's listened to feedback, including the flak he's gotten for unintentionally neglecting the East end, and is trying to make each of his flags better incorporate multicultural elements of the city's history. Many of his designs include aspects of nearby subway platforms, grid lines, traditional flags, as well as notable imagery such as the Davenport family's coat of arms.

Among his collection, Hennessy has designed flags for Lake Shore Boulevard, "A stylized sailboat above three stripes representing the sky, the lake, and College Street, "A golden sun, taken from the street signs along College Street. The colours come from the Italian flag, with a yellow stripe added to represent a warm sunny day on a College St patio."

He told Metro he plans to finish the series eventually.

All of Hennessy's flag designs can be found on his website.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Metro News

David Suzuki grades Toronto's enviro standings

Post City Wednesday, May 01, 2013

David Suzuki and his Foundation's communications specialist Jode Roberts wrote a piece for Post City this week grading Toronto on its environmental and sustainability efforts. The "report card" notes many of the things the city is doing well, placing a large emphasis on the city's various parks and park initiatives.

Toronto's Park People, a network of more than 80 parks groups from across the city, were credited with providing innovations in the use of public space. "From installing outdoor brick tandoori and pizza ovens to hosting farmers markets and a litany of cultural festivals, more and more neighbourhood parks are becoming dynamic, vibrant hubs. And the good news continued last month with the announcement that the Garfield Weston Foundation will be supporting innovative new projects with $5 million in funding over the next three years. Watch for exciting things to happen in a park near you," Suzuki and Roberts wrote in the report.

They also applauded one of their own efforts, a new project that aims to establish a "Homegrown National Park in the heart of the city by creating a vibrant green corridor following former path of Garrison Creek, one of Toronto's most important lost rivers." The project will involve the planting of native trees and shrubs, as well as "cultivating bird- and big-friendly gardens and growing food in backyards and balconies" between Dovercourt and Bathurst, stretching from Dupont to the waterfront.

Toronto's "urban dwellers" also helped the city out, especially considering the City of Toronto released a Biodiversity in the City series of booklets exploring the various critters that live among us. These books are available at libraries and for download.

However, the city lots marks for the high number of bird deaths ("Toronto buildings are estimated to kill at least one million birds each year"), the advent of "fracking" as a home heating measure, and the possibility of potentially hazardous pipeline leaks that may come as a result of piping oil from Alberta's tar sands through Ontario's Line 9.

Overall, Suzuki and Roberts are pleased. "Toronto is on track to have an unprecedented green boom this year."

Read the full report card here.

Original source: Post City

Wattpad now captures more monthly readers than Kindle

Venture Beat Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Toronto's Wattpad wants to be the Pinterest of stories, according to the vision of founder and CEO Allen Lau. He tells Venture Beat that Wattpad, the online e-reading platform that features work from indie and well-known writers alike, gets more monthly activity than popular platform Kindle. Last month's numbers included 15 million unique visitors, 1.5 million story uploads, and three billion user minutes spent on Wattpad.

The Ontario ministry of economic development invited Venture Beat to Toronto this week to checkout the city's startup scene. Wattpad is at the top of their list, alongside Hubba, Fixmo, Extreme Startups, the University of Waterloo, Google's Waterloo facility and about as many visits with venture capitalists and angel investors as the online tech publication can handle. But reporter John Koetsier, the VB representative visiting Toronto this week, says the reporting on Wattpad is his own.

Venture Beat praises Wattpad for its method, which to date does not include a monetization model; something Lau says is intentional.

"Where he wants to be is similar in size to a Facebook or a Twitter: hundreds of millions, or even billions. And how he plans to get there is by doing more of what Wattpad has done to date: via indie authors and, increasingly, branded books and name-brand authors," Koetsier writes.

Lau tells Koetsier that Wattpad has taken a very episodic approach to its platform to emulate the television format, presenting larger works in pieces over time. “Attention spans are getting shorter and short, so to make long-form writing work, we break it up," Lau says.

Koetsier will be reporting throughout his Toronto visit. Read his articles here.

Original source: Venture Beat

Local barista moves on to International Brewers Cup finals in Australia

Ottawa Citizen Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Lit Espresso Bar's Joshua Tarlo, 25, has been crowned Canada's best brewer at the Canadian Brewer's Cup. He will move on to the International Brewer's Cup Championship in Melbourne, Australia next month.

Lit's smooth espresso is a favourite among locals. Using ethically produced Ethiopian beans that are roasted at Pig Iron Coffee Roasters in Mississauga, Tarlo won judges over with his customer service and his ability to explain his process and show knowledge of his product.

The second annual Canadian Brewers Cup took place in Ottawa where Tarlo had to get innovative to recreate the taste of his Toronto coffee, which was altered due to the difference in geography. He told the Ottawa Citizen he stayed up late into the night before finding a balanced blend of spring water and distilled water.

"These guys put a lot of effort and time into their presentation … It’s a very fun, but slightly wonky group of passionate people," Pat Russell, a senior product developer for Second Cup and one of the judges at the competition, told the paper.

The World Brewers Cup takes place at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo from May 23-26, 2013.

Read the full story here.

Original source: Ottawa Citizen

London critics applaud National Ballet of Canada's performance

The Guardian Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The National Ballet of Canada's performance of Romeo and Juliet debuted to a sold-out audience at Sadler's Wells Theatre and launched the company's first performance in London, England in 26 years.

Featuring principal dancer Guillaume Côté (read our interview him here) and his real life wife Heather Ogden, the Toronto-based production received praise from some of London's major publications.

The Guardian said, "[Choreographer Alexei] Ratmansky's version is rich in dramatic and choreographic insights... Juliet (a light, bright Heather Ogden) is all recklessly fast footwork and wheeling jumps. Romeo (faultlessly danced by Guillaume Côté) has a poet's sensibility that registers in the airy drift of his arms and upper body."

"The National Ballet of Canada move with bright footwork and easy upper bodies: this is a lively, confident company," wrote The Independent.

The Times continued, "Ratmansky’s Prokofiev staging, made in Toronto to mark the company’s 60th anniversary in 2011, is a fresh take… his imagination and invention cast Prokofiev's score in an entirely unexpected and welcome new light--a remarkable achievement."

ROM dinosaur exhibit to make U.S. premiere in Cincinnati

Times Colonist Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The Royal Ontario Museum Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana exhibit will make its U.S. premiere on June 13 when it opens its doors at the Cincinnati Museum Centre. The exhibit features artifacts, bones, fossils, and 17 full-size skeletal casts recently excavated from South America, Africa and Madagascar. They are 65 million to 250 million years old.

"This exhibition gives you the extraordinary opportunity to experience dinosaurs you've never seen before, in ways you've never imagined," Douglass W. McDonald, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center, told Times Colonist.

The exhibit will also include a dash of augmented reality made possible by iPads mounted on columns paired with downloadable apps. The technology will layer virtual experiences on top of the exhibit and "will allow people to download an app, point their iPads or iPhones at markers such as posters or rugs or even small stickers and see an animated dinosaur appear to pop out of their phone."

Read the full story here.

Original source: Times Colonist

Toronto ranks sixth in global competitiveness

Toronto Board of Trade Wednesday, April 24, 2013

A new report ranks Toronto as the sixth most globally competitive city among 23 Canadian and international cities.

The report, titled Toronto as a Global City: Scorecard on Prosperity and issued by the Toronto Region Board of Trade and the Certified Management Accountants of Ontario, explores "human capital" and how it effects productivity and economic success. It is the fifth time a Scorecard on Prosperity has been issued.

Toronto placed sixth overall, with Paris, Calgary, London, Oslo and Madrid above it. Other cities included San Francisco, Seattle, Sydney, Tokyo, Boston, Stockholm, Dallas, Vancouver, New York, Barcelona, Montreal, Halifax, Hong Kong, Milan, Berlin, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Shanghai, which placed last.

The report measured Gross Domestic Product (GPD) per capita and GDP growth, productivity and productivity growth, income per capita and income growth, employment growth and unemployment rates. It identifies strengths and weaknesses with city cores.

"In our comparison of human capital, Toronto ranks fourth out of 12 North American competitors. Through our analysis of 13 related indicators, we conclude that human capital cannot be viewed as the main cause of Toronto’s relatively low productivity performance. Nevertheless, the excellent overall score hides some troubling underlying weaknesses that leave no room for complacency," the report says.

"The Toronto Region needs to attract more skilled immigrants, more university and college graduates, and it needs to make better use of the employment potential of its female population. Considering the continuing economic uncertainty, business, educators, and all levels of government have a role to play in addressing this and other underlying economic challenges."

Toronto measured fifth overall last year, but this is the first time it has ranked above all American cities. Much can be attributed to the city's labour attractiveness, which continues to be the driving force behind Toronto's high ranking.

Read the full report here.

Original Source: Toronto Board of Trade