Church / Wellesley village and Yonge south of Gerard are very different animals. I think this will go over well, even though some of the most popular spots have neglected to take part. I know many of the proprietors and if it goes well I'm sure they will take part next year.
They started on Monday, progress is slow - but it will be nice. By the time this is done we're only going to get a few weeks out of it.
The first series of parklets appear to be, all-in-all, about half built - between Wellesley & Maitland Street (east side). It looks better in person, it has built in flower boxes around each of the three sides and is at level with the sidewalk. They are all wood construction and are each being constructed from scratch on site.
Took these on Tuesday night, forgot to upload em till now
Man, this picture really pushes the idea of permanently widening the sidewalks. I'd feel so much more comfortable walking down Church if the sidewalks were always this wide. Patio space and a few developed trees could really beautify Church.
Work has really picked up, they may get two or even four of these open for the weekend. As I was walking along the street observing the progress and photographing I heard not one but two groups of people comment on them, both referring to "just like Montreal" (but in a positive way). These look great, early this evening -
I'm hoping they end up looking nice! Wonder if any consideration was given to closing portions of Church Street for the summer? (...this coming from a driver that relies on access to Church Street to get to work)
2 of 8 parklets completed, plantings go in this weekend - K. Wong-Tam
Edit: 7:30pm - all six parklets are painted and appear to be pretty much complete. Mulch is stacked and ready to go, once plants and soil are in they should be ready for use. They are very bright and colourful. Once again I observed many people stopping to look and discuss them as they walk by. The real test will to see how they function once they are in use.
The plantings were done this morning/afternoon (Saturday, before the rain) by a group of volunteers. Councillor Wong-Tam was there to get her hands dirty (she really was planting). People are using the parklets that have seating, the furniture arrives on Monday -