News   Nov 01, 2024
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Davenport

The Benue, a takeout restaurant serving Nigerian cuisine, is now open at the Davenport & Christie:

 
Didn't catch if it's still going by the same name or something different, but a new cafe type place has opened up at the former Seesaw Cafe at Davenport & Ossington, which closed a few months ago after a car crashed through its front windows.


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Ongoing renovations on this low-rise apartment building along Davenport, just west of Dovercourt. The exterior paint job, windows and stairway are new:


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Work is mostly complete for the additional floor on top of this building at Davenport & Alberta:


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While they've started to clear our the interiors of this former television repair shop on Davenport, around a block and a half west of Dovercourt:


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Someone posted this in the Davenport Village residents Facebook group.

A potential improvement to the stairwell with new accessibility ramp to the south side of Davenport, just east of the railway at Caledonia:


View attachment 392594

Nice. This will be important for connecting between the Davenport Diamond trail and the Green Line.

The existing steps are TERRIBLE. I refer to them as the Stairs of Death.

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[Edited to add photo of existing abomination]
 
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Someone posted this in the Davenport Village residents Facebook group.

A potential improvement to the stairwell with new accessibility ramp to the south side of Davenport, just east of the railway at Caledonia:


View attachment 392594

An improvement to be sure, but I still see tangible shortcomings and wasted opportunities.

1) Bare concrete, sigh, tagger's heaven. Could we at least use a decorative form?

2) I don't see any lighting.

3) Railings/Banisters are a snooze, and don't look like they'll age well.

4) I see some effort at landscaping, but not right next to the rail corridor. Missed opportunity. Just plant perennials/shrubs densely. Wouldn't require more than once per year maintenance. Just show up every spring, remove any litter, minor pruning, thick bed of fresh mulch and go.

5) To be fair, this wouldn't be obvious in the drawings, but is there a snowmelt system envisioned?
 
Nice. This will be important for connecting between the Davenport Diamond trail and the Green Line.

The existing steps are TERRIBLE. I refer to them as the Stairs of Death.

View attachment 392602
[Edited to add photo of existing abomination]

LOL......now anytime I pass these, forever and ever, I'm going to think of them as 'Vic's Stairs of Death'

"When Vic truly despises someone, he makes them walk the stairs of death" (ominous soundtrack inserted here)
 
Though to be fair, the stairs into Earlscourt Park are just as bad, if not worse, in the winter when they turn into a trampled down icy slide.
 
Though to be fair, the stairs into Earlscourt Park are just as bad, if not worse, in the winter when they turn into a trampled down icy slide.

These ones?

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Well, at least they have lights and a nice landscape setting, so people can record an eventful descent of the stairs and have a scenic background all in one shot.

***

Or did you mean these ones?

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- No lighting, no Railings, rather odd angle.......

- also I'm all for naturalizing the hillside, but um....just not mowing and letting non-native species takeover doesn't really cut it.
 
The ones at the corner of Caledonia and Davenport. Your second photos shows the older version of that staircase. It was upgraded a few years ago to stone with railings and lighting, similar to the first photo you posted. All good....but completely neglected in the winter. It's a maintenance issue more than design. Both of those staircases and pathways at the south end of the park are nearly unusable for much of the winter.

1649875289342.png
 
The ones at the corner of Caledonia and Davenport. Your second photos shows the older version of that staircase. It was upgraded a few years ago to stone with railings and lighting, similar to the first photo you posted. All good....but completely neglected in the winter. It's a maintenance issue more than design. Both of those staircases and pathways at the south end of the park are nearly unusable for much of the winter.

View attachment 392607

Again, a reason that I'm a real proponent of snowmelt systems in key spots.

Over level ground, they're a nice to have, but may not be justified when weighed against the expense.

But on slopes, stairs, spots prone to ponding/icing, and at bus stops, I think they make a world of sense.
 
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