Category Archives: Eye Weekly

May 4, 2006 · 6:21 pm

Beach-side parking

Half a century before The Docks thrilled island residents, the place to dance on Toronto’s waterfront was the Palais Royale (see Stroll). After eventually falling into disrepair and abandoned, the heritage building is a centre of activity again, as the Pegasus Group, the company that now owns the lease to the hall, puts the final touches on its restoration.

Amid the Palais’ renewal, conflict has erupted between local residents, the developer and Ward 14 councillor Sylvia Watson over plans for a parking lot under a grove of willow trees and a 2.4-meter fence that will cut across the beach to keep out vandals. Pegasus, which owns several bars in Toronto, intends to open the Palais as a banquet hall this spring. They expect to start construction of the parking lot in late May.

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September 29, 2005 · 6:20 pm

A party in the wee hours

U OF T – “Race down in your jammies. Just slide on your bunny rabbit slippers and come on down,” says Andy Barrie, the locked-out host of CBC Radio’s Metro Morning. It is 6am on Sept. 23, and he’s calling listeners to the parking lot outside CIUT, the University of Toronto’s campus radio station, where locked-out CBC employees have been producing Toronto Unlocked for the last three weeks. This morning’s chilly party celebrates the last episode of the morning show. A large, brown-paper sign taped to the side of CIUT reading “Toronto Unlocked” is, we are told, the work of a paintbrush-wielding CBC staffer. It is cold, windy and dark — not bunny rabbit slipper-friendly weather.

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September 15, 2005 · 6:17 pm

A tale of two malls

Scarborough Town Centre is a reluctant community centre; many feel it could learn from Dufferin Mall’s example

Sharon Shelton is unhappy with her neighbours at Scarborough Town Centre. “Over the last [few] years there hasn’t been anything — any sort of partnerships — happening with the mall management or the merchants,” she says. That’s troubling because, in Scarborough, a suburb suffering from an acute shortage of social services and infrastructure, the mall functions as a de facto community centre, a place where youth and families congregate. Some feel that it should be doing more for the community.

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August 25, 2005 · 6:15 pm

Student guide: Unchained on campus

Some day soon, you’ll realize (or remember as you’re standing in line) that your cafeteria specializes in old Pizza Pizza and soggy sandwiches. Whether you live on campus or forget your lunch, there’s no need to settle for a noontime chocolate bar. Most schools have something more interesting hidden away.

There are advantages to sharing your school with culinary students: for instance, sampling their homework. George Brown (300 Adelaide E.) students get a taste of the real world at Siegfried’s, where they run a gourmet restaurant. Also check out theChef School Bake Shop for entrees and pastry goodness. It sure beats student dentistry.

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August 18, 2005 · 6:12 pm

A huge bin of rubbish

RONCESVALLES – It’s an overcast Saturday afternoon and the garbage can outside Sak’s Fine Foods is getting some attention. That’s no surprise — it’s new, and it’s seven feet tall. The whimsically named EcoMupi is part of a three-month pilot project. If plans move ahead, 1,500 of them will litter the streets of Toronto, each bearing two large, illuminated billboards. During the pilot phase, citizens are encouraged to comment on the bins at http://www.toronto.ca/garbage/bintest.htm.

Judging by the passersby at Roncesvalles and Howard Park, people are happy to comment. “At first, I wasn’t sure what it was,” says Dorothy Sawicki, checking out the functional part of the bin, which is tucked on the narrow edge. There are slots for paper, cans, batteries, cigarette butts and litter, but she’s missing half the capacity, because the second set of deposit slots are on the other side, facing the road. Examining that side leads to a near collision with a cyclist.

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July 14, 2005 · 6:09 pm

The easier way to take your bike

THE ANNEX – A bus, a bike rack and my bicycle; all of the ingredients are on the platform at Bathurst station, I’m just not sure how to put them together. I’m trying out the bus-mounted bike racks that have been installed on 98 buses spread over five (soon to be six) TTC routes for a one-year pilot program. Each bus can carry two bikes at a time, and they ride for free. But as many times as I read the pamphlet on which handle to pull when, I can’t figure out how I’m supposed to get my battered CCM on transit.

I wave my intention to the driver. Then I wave again, in confusion. In an act that seems well above the call of duty, he gets off to give me a tutorial. I learn to pull a handle up slightly to unlock the rack, fold it out towards the ground, place my wheels in two grooves and pull a black foam-covered U over my front wheel.

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· 6:06 pm

Dancing to the music in your head

YONGE AND EGLINTON – “Oh my god, what are they doing?” These are not words you expect to hear at the Celebrate Toronto Street Festival, the annual celebration of corn on the cob, humidity and Yonge Street. The woman who speaks them stands just north of Eglinton, peering into what looks like a bumper-car enclosure. But no one is running into each other under this roof. They’re dancing — quietly. The 10 or 12 people on the floor are wearing large silver headphones and moving to a silent beat.

A sign at one end of the dance floor reads “There’s no DJ like NO DJ.” And by the sound of the silent room, you might think there was no DJ. But there is a DJ. It’s Nico Okkerse, who calls himself NO DJ. The music he spins is broadcast to wireless headphones.

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June 23, 2005 · 6:03 pm

Still pretty in pink

Last Tuesday, June 21, queer youth from across the GTA gathered at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre for the tenth annual Pride Prom. The theme was “A Midsummer Night’s Prom: A Decade of Pride and Magic.”

In the spring of 1996, mere months had passed since the Supreme Court extended the Charter to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Ontario had just become the first province to give same-sex couples adoption rights. And the Triangle Program, a classroom for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) students forced out of the normal school system by homophobia, had just opened. It was the Triangle Program participants that organized the first Pride Prom.

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June 16, 2005 · 6:01 pm

Terrorism and circuses

YONGE-DUNDAS SQUARE – There are not many places where a crumpled, smouldering car wreck can be upstaged, but on the evening of June 9, it’s happening. Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable (Socially Acceptable Terrorist Action, or ATSA) is in town to stage a mock car bombing and criticize sport-utility vehicles. Set up in the northwest corner of the square, the art installation even smells right, thanks to a fume machine burning vegetable oil. Blasting horns from the cars idling in rush-hour traffic provide the right soundtrack. It’s even a smog day. But most of the people in Dundas Square are watching a nearby busker, especially now that he’s standing on a 10-foot ladder, juggling knives.

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June 9, 2005 · 5:58 pm

The science of sweat

Toronto summers are sweaty. Through smog days and heat warnings, we sweat to cool off. There’s nothing especially cooling about perspiration, though; anything evaporating off your skin will do the trick.

“We also sweat because surface sweat glands are sensitive to stress, psychological stress,” says Jack Goodman, professor of exercise physiology at the University of Toronto.

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