Amare
Senior Member
Almost looks like an amplified and much improved version of home: Power and Adelaide. So far I really like this one.
- Thread starter Northern Light
- Start date
Northern Light
Superstar
Looking over the Landscape Plan, I see:
All the trees on Dawes will be in open planting beds, with soil cells below, and at least 30m3 of soil per tree. (good, 40m3 would be better)
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I wonder if the City will start enforcing this:
I can tell you more than 1/2 of all planting would be rejected if they did!
Plant List:
Of note here, love to see the Red Oak.............I don't consider Kentucky Coffee Tree or Common Hackberry native to Toronto, but I'm fine w/them as street trees, when not adjacent to natural features. Though I do see some evidence of Kentucky Coffee Tree seeding into our ravine systems. At least they're both native within 250km.
New Jersey Tea isn't native here either.
Japanese Spikenard.......hmmmm; not native, haven't seen it used much here, but likes very rich, soils, forest like settings.....prefers it a bit damp......
Canada Yew, I love........I seriously question how viable it is in this setting
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Don't see any provision for Bikeshare, that should be incorporated.
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Don't like the pedestrian lights as rendered, they broadcast light, lots of needless light pollution, a different lighting style should be selected.
The BIA has an approved set for Danforth, it would seem logical to use their design.
All the trees on Dawes will be in open planting beds, with soil cells below, and at least 30m3 of soil per tree. (good, 40m3 would be better)
****
I wonder if the City will start enforcing this:
I can tell you more than 1/2 of all planting would be rejected if they did!
Plant List:
Of note here, love to see the Red Oak.............I don't consider Kentucky Coffee Tree or Common Hackberry native to Toronto, but I'm fine w/them as street trees, when not adjacent to natural features. Though I do see some evidence of Kentucky Coffee Tree seeding into our ravine systems. At least they're both native within 250km.
New Jersey Tea isn't native here either.
Japanese Spikenard.......hmmmm; not native, haven't seen it used much here, but likes very rich, soils, forest like settings.....prefers it a bit damp......
Canada Yew, I love........I seriously question how viable it is in this setting
****
Don't see any provision for Bikeshare, that should be incorporated.
****
Don't like the pedestrian lights as rendered, they broadcast light, lots of needless light pollution, a different lighting style should be selected.
The BIA has an approved set for Danforth, it would seem logical to use their design.
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A Torontonian Now
Senior Member
I think this is a great location for density. Minto may not be the best developer, but they are far from the worst and are a very serious one, making me glad to see them here as this will be moving forward.
When you get a rare non-cynical comment from Amare, you must be on to something.
When you get a rare non-cynical comment from Amare, you must be on to something.
Tramways
New Member
" ... in the highly desirable east end Toronto neighbourhood."Minto has acquired this site:
Minto Communities takes over proposed 30-storey condo site near the Danforth - Livabl
The major developer is claiming a stake in the highly desirable east end Toronto neighbourhood.www.livabl.com
Translation:
" We're running out of barely affordable chunks of space in Toronto.
This armpit is what we have left to work with."
[ I can call it that because I live nearby. Don't even ask about that CrappyTire. ]
Northern Light
Superstar
While the area is certainly not the 'Mink Mile' I would very much disagree with your take.
There are many interesting retailers along this section of Danforth, the streetscape is decent with trees, pedestrian lighting and flowers, the subway is right there etc.
Certainly the strip hasn't gentrified........yet.
But with a 31-storey tower underway at Main, another tower just west of that; the redevelopment the Gerrard Prairie nearby and the VP Station parking lot, that process is afoot.
Tramways
New Member
Two words:
Main Square
an existing collection of bleak apartment towers which dominates the southeast corner of Main and Danforth
Another feature:
Danforth from Main to Dawes
a traffic choke point for buses, streetcars, and clueless drivers -- now down to one lane each way.
Bonus feature:
the absolute worst CrappyTire in existence.
It's so awful that it doesn't even register when I'm trying to think of which CrappyTire to visit. Staff at the nearby HomeHardware considered that CrappyTire to be one of the best marketing features -- for their own HomeHardware store.
Local infrastructure:
Secord School still has portables (!!!)
Main Sq Community Centre is trying its very best to serve, but it is just SO TIRED.
Pre-COVID, most rush-hour buses are packed as they leave/arrive MainSt subway station. These new residents should be prepared to walk the 4-5 blocks to the subway (I have watched many able-bodied people wait for a bus when it would have been quicker just to walk)
Most of those "interesting retailers" seem to be just hanging on by their fingernails.
Can't really imagine "gentrified" ever becoming a term to describe the neighbourhood.
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Northern Light
Superstar
You seem like a ray of sunshine.
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Main Square isn't great, but, it's not horrific.
The Canadian Tire is fine for what it is, it's a big box retailer, with rare exception, service is not their selling feature.
I like the change in the Danforth, resulting from the Bike Lanes, you'll be happy to know they'll be extended to Victoria Park in the near future; and that Councillor Crawford seems open to extending them into his ward in Scarborough.
Secord is on the list for reconstruction, yes, it's overdue, because the province won't give the TDSB the capital funds it requires, nor let it raise its own.
Pre-Covid the TTC was packed in rush-hour in most communities. That's not ok; but hardly unique to this area of town.
UrbanAffair
Senior Member
As someone else who lives here part time at least, the one lane part is actually quite positive, because it includes an east west bike route that now flows across almost all of Toronto, excluding Scarberia.
The school I went to in Forest HIll as a child had portables. It's really not that big a deal.
I guarantee this will get "gentrified". When the land value gets to a certain point, it is basically impossible for an area to not gentrify. Also, when all the houses around the area start at 1 million, your already pretty much. Good or bad, the area will gentrify.
I understand your "feeling" about the area. I notice the roughness and the sidewalk cafés and the very Brooklyn-like Italian soccer cafés that dot the streetscape, but the area has already started to change. I am closer to Coxwell, but there are plans in the works along the entire stretch. It will get there because there is a subway under it, and because it is in close proximity to the lake, highways, good restaurants, and because the residential population has money to spend.
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Tramways
New Member
Yup, just want to make sure no one is under any illusions as to the nature of the neighbourhood.
And thanks to Main Square, actual rays of sunshine are a bit lacking during much of the day.
Yes, the bike lanes are a welcome addition. And the bike lanes along Danforth are very well done (see? there is a benefit to being served last -- many of the kinks get worked out by the time it's your turn). The problem, as usual, is the continued accommodation of parking along a major artery.
Sorry, but that specific CrappyTire is so particularly abysmal that its reputation reaches beyond the local area.
As to gentrification, the twinned MainSquare/CrappyTire combination might compare with StJamesTown in the effect it has on its immediate surroundings -- also known as "blast radius" (this comparison sort of breaks down because this area is not within easy reach of a Cabbagetown nor a Rosedale, where historic desirability blunts some of the blast). Adding numeric density with shiny renderings won't necessarily change the flavour of a neighbourhood. It's entirely probable that MainSquare itself had been looked upon with the same hopes for neighbourhood uplift when it was originally proposed. And now?
Finally, when the main feature of a location is its access to transit -- the ease by which people can pass through the area -- what does that say about the area itself, about wanting to take the time to linger in that area?
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Northern Light
Superstar
Technical Difficulties
New Member
Thanks to @Northern Light and @AlbertC for the updates on these projects. Glad to see movement happening on both.
Northern Light
Superstar
Poked by here yesterday, October 19th, to see if any Demo had started. It has not.
Next to this is their old outdoor lumber area; there's some suspect supply available if you have a project you just don't care about, LOL. It is behind a fence, but I'm assuming you might be able to grab some when demo begins.
Next to this is their old outdoor lumber area; there's some suspect supply available if you have a project you just don't care about, LOL. It is behind a fence, but I'm assuming you might be able to grab some when demo begins.
Undead
Senior Member
Found the suspect lumber.
Northern Light
Superstar
I thought that was the quality lumber. LOL
Nuts2020
New Member
I was just wondering has this condo project and the one across the street (10 Dawes Rd) been given the go-ahead to start construction after the demolition?