Tower too tall for 1540 Bloor W according to new city study
Application for 27-storey condo heading to OMB
By Kris Scheuer
(Written Nov. 17 for Town Crier.) 

A developer trying to build a 27-storey condominium at Bloor and Dundas area is being sidelined by the city officials, who say nothing taller than 15 storeys should be allowed. 
A&G Mercouris has appealed its proposal to build a 250-condo unit building to the Ontario Municipal Board after city staff rejected the plan. 
The proposed 27-storey highrise tower is too tall and may create traffic problems, say both city staff and residents.Possibly working against A&G Mercouris is a recently completed Bloor-Dundas avenue study, which recommends between 10-15 storeys for development in the area.
The applicant originally applied for 29 storeys but reduced its request. 
“The fundamental concerns of the city remain — the building is much too tall and dense,” says Parkdale-High Park Councillor Gord Perks. 
“I’m hopeful (the study) does have an impact at the OMB because there’s so much consensus from Toronto city staff, property owners in the area, residents and community organizations.” 
Since A&G Mercouris submitted their condo proposal to the city in June 2007 — about four months before the avenue study began — the developer’s lawyer Adam Brown is saying the application shouldn’t be subject to the study. 
“It shouldn’t impact us,” he said. “It doesn’t distinguish this site versus a mid-block site.” 
Brown said the proposed site is at a busy intersection, right by a subway, and can’t be treated the same as other locations. 
Perks isn’t convinced. 
“Brown says his client’s building won’t set a precedent,” he said. “That doesn’t mean other developers won’t try and use it as one.” 
Residents opposed to the proposal are also concerned about pedestrian safety.
The development includes a plan to use an existing public laneway so residents can drive to an underground parking garage, and use a driveway off Dundas for garbage collection and deliveries, according to a Nov. 4 city staff report. 
But area resident Harry Cornelius said the driveway is too close to the only TTC bus, streetcar and pedestrian entrance to Dundas West Station.
“The pedestrians have to cross the (developer’s) driveway to get to the TTC,” said Cornelius, with Friends of Dundas and Bloor residents’ group. 
In March, the city requested the applicant to show how it will help improve interaction between pedestrians and vehicles at the site access driveway.  
They have yet to submit that information, but Brown said the proposal meets all city requirements. 
“We agreed to all site plan conditions of the city,” Brown said. “We were asked to (have cars) access on Dundas. Then we were asked 
to access the laneway. It’s been reviewed by us and the city. It’s not an issue.” 
Overall, Brown said the corner is ideal for intensification — at a major intersection next to transit.
“If you don’t permit it here, then where?” 

What the study says
The Bloor Dundas avenue study is a plan to support further intensification for Bloor Street West along Keele to the rail corridor, and Dundas St. West from Glenlake to Boustead Avenues. It was approved at community council on Nov. 10. 
Some highlights: 
• More pedestrian crossings, bikeways and parkland. 
• Review the Redeemer Lutheran Church, Lithuanian Community House on Bloor Street West and three warehouse buildings on Dundas West as possible heritage properties. 
• An agreement for greater public access of Bishop Marrocco-Thomas Catholic Secondary School’ s playing field.
• More licenced childcare for kids up to five to meet projected demand. 

Shot from the roof of an apartment building in west Bloor.

Aroma Expresso Bar on 500 Bloor St. West makes good hot chocolate.

I can’t speak for its service or quality of food (though it does look descent seeing how everything is made fresh and nothing is prepackaged) seeing how I’ve only been there twice and on both occasions was busy studying and having only ordered a hot chocolate. But dang, these guys know how to make hot chocolate! From drinking it the two times, I think this is what goes on into making it:

1. place half melted milk chocolate at the bottom of the cup

2. pour steamed milk over the chocolate and fill the cup to the brim

3. give it to the customer (for them to stir it themselves) and let them taste a little bit of hot chocolate heaven

The drink is four dollars and completely worth for it’s splendor and the cafe is a wonderful to place to study/read/dream/do nothing. From what I’ve briefly looked at online, the Aroma Expresso Bar is an international chain that started in 1994 in Israel. So have no fear if you don’t live in Toronto, there might be one in your city/town/village.

Check it out.

]]> http://thecreativecity.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/the-art-community-of-bloor-lansdowne/ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:24:37 +0000 Rahul Gupta http://thecreativecity.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/the-art-community-of-bloor-lansdowne/

On first glance, Bloor Street and Lansdowne Avenue doesn’t seem like an artistic hotspot. Yet, in the last several years, this neighbourbood has seen an influx of art gallerys, restaurants and other businesses. Newcomers like Mercer Union and Funktion have opened and transformed the neighbourhood.

For most artists, the decision to migrate to Bloor was a matter of economics. Faced with a major rent increase, Mercer Union elected to travel north from pricey Queen West. Funktion’s Jose Gabriel was warned by his friends to purchase security equipment given Bloor-Lansdowne’s reputation for crime. He and his partners opened up a gallery and storefront late last year and have made a living selling custom spray paint.

Heather Haynes from Toronto Free Gallery has championed community involvement since she moved to Bloor-Lansdowne in 2007.  Her space showcases works of an urban, social and cultural nature and she’s been a fierce critic of the sort of gentrification that she saw befall San Franciso when she lived there during the Dot Com boom. For Haynes and other like-minded thinkers, an artist’s responsibility is to the community, revitalization is a dirty word, and she fears that the new businesses in the area could price out local residents in favour of a new monied clientele.

“You look at a neighbourhood and assume it is swimming in chaos, that nothing good exists there,” she said during an interview last February. “People come in and place high priced restaurants and stores, places that are inaccessible to many residents in the neighbourhood.”

A major benefactor to the artist community of Bloor-Lansdowne might be one of its unlikeliest. Spiros Koumoudouros is the president of the local BIA and has worked with artists on a variety of projects including Nuit Blanche.

Komoudouros also owns the area’s largest employer: House of Lancaster, an adult entertainment landmark that towers citadel-like over Bloor West.

He envisions the neighbourhood to be completely transformed for the better in five years, with the introduction of many “nice” businesses. He wants to ensure that property values increase by $100,000 and for residents (so many of whom are immigrant and impoverished) to enjoy comfortable lives.

Komoudouros, Haynes and Gabriel are just some of the new and old residents of Bloor-Lansdowne, a neighbourhood that has undergone an unlikely transformation, and whose future remains undefined.

I had the pleasure of having the time to sit in All Things Tea today, and take in their enormous, aromatic selection. I have to say, I’m much more inclined to pay $2 for a spicy cup of tea than $4 for a foamy cup of coffee, and it was impossible to walk out without buying something to take home.

So I took some of that wonderful chai blend and wrapped it up for my friend Nicole’s birthday.

Ta-dah!