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Church-Wellesley Village

Roy G Biv said:
Oh, he'll be back.


Anyone hitting up the Halloweek festivities tomorrow night? Church st. is always a great time on Halloween.
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I am, I love Halloween in the Village. It's looking like it might be a wet one, or windy at best.

Info. on what's happening this week here: http://www.halloweek.ca/
 
Halloween in the Village

It was a terrific turnout tonight and the Church Street BIA did a great job with stages, beer gardens (a first for Halloween I believe) and a few food and retail tents. When I came out at around 10:30pm it was shoulder to shoulder from Cawthra Park down to Maitland Street, I didn't attempt to walk any further. My dog & friends parked ourselves in front of 7 & 24 Video and let the show pass us by. Another great Halloween show on Church Street. The crowds started to thin out a bit around 1:00 but it was still going strong when I left around 2am.

Huge apologies for the crappy photos, new camera coming in a few weeks.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge.

 
Having lived in Malvern for 11 years I would have to say this. It's not a ghetto by the American definition, but it definetely does have its problems. The middle income communities in the neighbourhood are extrememly different than the government housing complexes, namely Empringham, Wilcox Creek/Grace Hartman, etc. Here's a article I wrote personally (attatched below). I am not saying this to increase the stigma in the neighbourhood, however if we ignore the fact that there is a problem it will continue for years to come.

Malvern is a wonderful community! Never have I seen so many different cultures and diversity. It's a very young community that I hope will have a bright future. I've spent most of my life there and it really has opened my eyes to a lot of issues, issues that I plan to dedicate my life to help fixing.

Jaye101 said:
Tomorrow's Too Late
Jelani Laws

The summer’s heat Sunday, July 29th, 2007, persuaded me to open my back door. My mother came downstairs quite angry—the time was 3:15 am, and the television was blaring.

At this time 25-year old Michael George would probably have been driving north on Morningside Avenue towards his girlfriend’s house, unaware of the imminent danger that awaited him.

She fumed about the open backdoor. I refused to feel unsafe to open my backdoor.

Completely justified, I left the door open. It was shortly after, that five gun shots went off as if the gun itself was inside my head.

Living near the intersection of Morningside and Finch, gunshots were regular this summer. This was the third time in three weeks my family was awakened by these illegal firearms.

In a frantic panic, I instinctively locked the backdoor and ran upstairs to safety. I checked that each member of my family was accounted for—they were in a state of shock. To feel this unsafe in your own home is a crime in itself.

It was 3:30 am and the police were now arriving.

As the sirens bellowed up Morningside Avenue, I stood on my front lawn and watched paramedics perform C.P.R on a gun shot victim.

The paramedics moved the victim onto a stretcher then placed him in the Ambulance. However, the ambulance did not proceed to the hospital.

The minutes passed by as if they were days. The police told those who watched that the paramedics would stabilize the victim before they would proceed to the hospital.

A black Pontiac sped down the road and 3 people rushed out with desperation.

The mother, the father and the sister—all distraught beyond the most delicate state of vulnerability.

The father ran up to one of the police officers, and interrogated them anxiously.

“That’s my son in there!”

A deep sadness came over me as I heard the passion and distress in his voice. The minutes passed as if they were days. The father paced back and forth.

“His name is Michael,” he whispered.

I went inside and got him a glass of water. He paced back and forth as his son lay inside the ambulance fighting for his life.

The minutes passed by as if they were days. The anxiety was contagious, and many of the neighbours wept.

A special investigator slowly walked over and spoke to the father, in a voice too faint to be heard.

It would soon be evident what was said.

“I lost my son!”

I witnessed a young man lose his life and the images of his family are burnt into the back of my mind.

People don’t quite realize the reality of the issue until they watch the events unravel as I did on that Sunday morning.

Toronto is a safe city in many respects. In fact it’s the safest large city on the continent. However, if you walk down Dundas near Parliament at midnight and have the delusional impression that no harm will come to you, then obviously a statistic has been misinterpreted.

In Malvern, many people have The Gangster Mentality. It is a small ratio of the populous, however this does not mean that the problem is non-existent whatsoever.

There is a problem, but if we continue to compare ourselves to the United States to determine the status of crime in Toronto, our problems will remain unresolved.

Toronto is not Sao Paulo or Mexico City, but you cannot compare statistics to exonerate crimes committed in the city.

It all relies on perspective. The problem is much more real to one who resides in Regent Park as opposed Riverdale.

Trouble usually only find those who seek it, and the majority of the murders are of active criminals. However people in these neighbourhoods have their quality of life significantly affected by this small minority.

When I look back, I’ll always remember that the nightly news is not a cheap episode of C.S.I.

Until many of the politicians witness these types of events for themselves—victims will remain only numbers.

Waiting one day can possibly mean one more life lost to mindless violence. We must act today to ensure the lives of tomorrow.
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God I wanted to murder someone waiting in line at Buddies this Halloween. You think they'd expect crowds now that Crews is gone. But they still have no way to control the line whatsoever. Just buy a few stantions, problem solved.
 
We went to lo'la on Maitland. It was fantastic. No real dance floor, but a great dj, and while it was super busy, there was no need for crowd control :)
 
lo'la is always a great time. It's really a great atmosphere, and a good alternative to all of the other places.
 
Roy G Biv said:
I'm skeptical that they will survive there. The patio made Zelda's.
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I saw a sign on the door on the weekend that said it was opening on November 3rd or 4th.

Zelda's Living Well may survive, but it won't be the happening neighbourhood hot spot that it was when it was on Church Street.
 
And Church Street looses another high profile tenant...

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(photo courtesy of Twitter's @Xtra_Canada)
 
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