E
Ed007Toronto
Guest
Reopening as a venue in June. Extensive renovations. Bouncing floor remains.
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D
Darkstar416
Guest
Awesome news!
J
jayomatic
Guest
Yeah. Can't wait. Noticed a couple months back that work was being done. Thought it was perhaps going to be a wedding hall or something but thats awesome news that its going to be a venue again.
Can't wait.
Can't wait.
C
cdl42
Guest
T
tudararms
Guest
Is it still a big band hangout? One of the few left, i suppose.
S
shawnmicallef
Guest
Do the Rolling Stones and Godspeed you black Emperor count as big bands?
B
billy corgan19982
Guest
From The Globe and Mail
Pave paradise and put up a parking lot
Heading to the western waterfront this summer? Good luck finding the lake
JOHN LORINC
Special to The Globe and Mail
Around Parkdale these days, the locals have taken to calling their strip of the waterfront "the Wild West."
Heading into a summer when tens of thousands are expected to flock to a brand-new watercourse for the world championship dragon boat races, neighbourhood residents are bracing for huge crowds. The western beaches are about to roar back to life. But for reasons that mystify area residents, city officials are simultaneously preparing to hive off portions of scarce waterfront land for a 120-space parking lot and a pair of fenced-off boat storage areas proposed for one of the area's few remaining natural beaches.
Those moves have outraged Parkdale residents who frequent the area and are demanding to know why the local councillor, Sylvia Watson, seems to have signed off on what they call a creeping privatization of the lakeshore.
"The last place we'd want more parking is on the waterfront," says Roger Brook, co-chair of the Parkdale Residents Association's development committee. Residents are concerned about the environmental impact and the loss of accessible green space at the water's edge. "I feel defensive about this land," says David Greig, a 39-year-old designer who walks and boats in the area. "Not an inch should be given up."
Unlike other areas of the waterfront, the Toronto Transit Commission doesn't provide transit to improve public access. Nor have city officials developed a long-term vision for the area, which includes boating and sports clubs, the Palais Royale, the Sunnyside Beach pavilion, the Martin Goodman Trail, a boardwalk and concessions.
"There's no overreaching plan," Mr. Greig says, "so everyone wants to get their stakes in the ground while it's up for grabs."
"It's all about balancing the needs of the various users of the waterfront," Ms. Watson (Parkdale-High Park) responds. "You need to look at the whole picture."
This spring, a big part of that whole picture is the much-anticipated restoration of the Palais Royale. A year ago, Shoreline Entertainment, which runs other historic eateries in Toronto, signed a 15-year lease for the storied property, and it is spending $3-million to revive it as an upscale banquet hall with a capacity of 1,000. The venue is due to reopen in June, and city officials are hoping it will become a major new attraction along this stretch of the lakeshore.
To deal with traffic, Shoreline and parks staff cut a deal to build a 120-space parking lot within a grove of century-old willow trees that sit on a swath of land sandwiched between the Palais Royale and the Boulevard Club.
Shoreline president Terry Tsianos intends to spend $120,000 on the lot and will pay the city $25,000 a year for use of the land. He admits that 120 spaces isn't enough even for a mid-sized wedding (he originally requested space for 450 cars), and so Palais Royale will also provide a valet service, shuttling the overflow to free municipal lots farther down Sunnyside Beach.
While the company says it intends to work around the trees, using environmentally friendly paving materials, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has told the city that it is "very concerned" about the lot. City officials haven't responded to residents' expressed concern, but deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, Toronto's tree advocate, says he "was extremely nervous about this proposal," which he describes as a "work in progress."
Meanwhile, just a bit to the east, on a secluded stretch known around Parkdale as Yankee Beach, for its role in the War of 1812, Mr. Brook of the PRA says the parks department is considering a pair of requests to fence off stretches of about a hundred metres of waterfront land (about 30 per cent of the waterfront in question) on either end of the beach, to be used by the Boulevard Club and the Toronto Sailing and Canoe Club for private sailboat launches and boat storage.
Brenda Librecz, general manager of parks, forestry and economic development, says the city has yet to make a decision, and Ms. Watson says there's a need for more places where residents can launch small boats but insists she hasn't made up her mind on the issue.
Yet Parkdalers feel strongly that the city is prepared to sacrifice these areas for the sake of additional revenue and to appease commercial interests. They accuse the parks department of contributing to the lack of usage by failing to build waterfront pedestrian connections or cleaning up the beach. Nor has the city provided basic amenities, such as picnic tables and benches.
As he strolled through the secluded area one damp afternoon last week, Mr. Greig pondered the alternatives to parking lots and chain-link fences. "Wouldn't it be great if the boardwalk came through here?"
Pave paradise and put up a parking lot
Heading to the western waterfront this summer? Good luck finding the lake
JOHN LORINC
Special to The Globe and Mail
Around Parkdale these days, the locals have taken to calling their strip of the waterfront "the Wild West."
Heading into a summer when tens of thousands are expected to flock to a brand-new watercourse for the world championship dragon boat races, neighbourhood residents are bracing for huge crowds. The western beaches are about to roar back to life. But for reasons that mystify area residents, city officials are simultaneously preparing to hive off portions of scarce waterfront land for a 120-space parking lot and a pair of fenced-off boat storage areas proposed for one of the area's few remaining natural beaches.
Those moves have outraged Parkdale residents who frequent the area and are demanding to know why the local councillor, Sylvia Watson, seems to have signed off on what they call a creeping privatization of the lakeshore.
"The last place we'd want more parking is on the waterfront," says Roger Brook, co-chair of the Parkdale Residents Association's development committee. Residents are concerned about the environmental impact and the loss of accessible green space at the water's edge. "I feel defensive about this land," says David Greig, a 39-year-old designer who walks and boats in the area. "Not an inch should be given up."
Unlike other areas of the waterfront, the Toronto Transit Commission doesn't provide transit to improve public access. Nor have city officials developed a long-term vision for the area, which includes boating and sports clubs, the Palais Royale, the Sunnyside Beach pavilion, the Martin Goodman Trail, a boardwalk and concessions.
"There's no overreaching plan," Mr. Greig says, "so everyone wants to get their stakes in the ground while it's up for grabs."
"It's all about balancing the needs of the various users of the waterfront," Ms. Watson (Parkdale-High Park) responds. "You need to look at the whole picture."
This spring, a big part of that whole picture is the much-anticipated restoration of the Palais Royale. A year ago, Shoreline Entertainment, which runs other historic eateries in Toronto, signed a 15-year lease for the storied property, and it is spending $3-million to revive it as an upscale banquet hall with a capacity of 1,000. The venue is due to reopen in June, and city officials are hoping it will become a major new attraction along this stretch of the lakeshore.
To deal with traffic, Shoreline and parks staff cut a deal to build a 120-space parking lot within a grove of century-old willow trees that sit on a swath of land sandwiched between the Palais Royale and the Boulevard Club.
Shoreline president Terry Tsianos intends to spend $120,000 on the lot and will pay the city $25,000 a year for use of the land. He admits that 120 spaces isn't enough even for a mid-sized wedding (he originally requested space for 450 cars), and so Palais Royale will also provide a valet service, shuttling the overflow to free municipal lots farther down Sunnyside Beach.
While the company says it intends to work around the trees, using environmentally friendly paving materials, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has told the city that it is "very concerned" about the lot. City officials haven't responded to residents' expressed concern, but deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, Toronto's tree advocate, says he "was extremely nervous about this proposal," which he describes as a "work in progress."
Meanwhile, just a bit to the east, on a secluded stretch known around Parkdale as Yankee Beach, for its role in the War of 1812, Mr. Brook of the PRA says the parks department is considering a pair of requests to fence off stretches of about a hundred metres of waterfront land (about 30 per cent of the waterfront in question) on either end of the beach, to be used by the Boulevard Club and the Toronto Sailing and Canoe Club for private sailboat launches and boat storage.
Brenda Librecz, general manager of parks, forestry and economic development, says the city has yet to make a decision, and Ms. Watson says there's a need for more places where residents can launch small boats but insists she hasn't made up her mind on the issue.
Yet Parkdalers feel strongly that the city is prepared to sacrifice these areas for the sake of additional revenue and to appease commercial interests. They accuse the parks department of contributing to the lack of usage by failing to build waterfront pedestrian connections or cleaning up the beach. Nor has the city provided basic amenities, such as picnic tables and benches.
As he strolled through the secluded area one damp afternoon last week, Mr. Greig pondered the alternatives to parking lots and chain-link fences. "Wouldn't it be great if the boardwalk came through here?"
D
Darkstar416
Guest
I believe Roger is our very own "Green22."
B
billy corgan19982
Guest
Yes he is.
A
adma
Guest
Blasphemous (or hazardous) as this might sound, any consideration t/w using the LS median for parking purposes? (I know it's used as makeshift parking during events like the Canada Day fest--mounting those curbs is hell on the axles, but still...)
S
shawnmicallef
Guest
I was thinking that (blasphemously) -- and the overhead walkway to Roncesvalles/King has that weird ramp that goes down to the grassy nowhere island, so there is away to get to it w/out cross the street at grade.
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I was sent some images by one of the groups involved in the fight that i've posted on the wire here (also info on tonight/monday's public meeting) including this map:
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I was sent some images by one of the groups involved in the fight that i've posted on the wire here (also info on tonight/monday's public meeting) including this map:
E
esplanade guy
Guest
That is just crazy! Toronto does not need more parking lots an the waterfront or the loss of beach front to private enterprises. I am calling the mayor and my local counseller tomorrow, this is so wrong!
S
shawnmicallef
Guest
There are some interesting comments on this on the Spacing Wire right now. spacing.ca/wire/?p=719
Non-politically though, that sprung dance floor, to my surprise, wasn't sprung at all. It was rot, and a frame that "gave". As it aged, it gave more, feeding the legend:
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http://eye.net/eye/issue/issue_05.04.06/city/stroll.html
Eye - May 4, 2006
Stroll
The end of Toronto
There is, fittingly, a Coffee Time at the end of Toronto. It's in Parkdale, where Queen, King, Roncesvalles and The Queensway terminate in an impossible urban tangle of streetcar tracks and wires. Somewhere up in Vaughan -- or, worse, Aurora -- the city starts to come together, rolling south, getting thicker and less suburban, acquiring subways, streetcars, more people and then suddenly nothing. A freeway followed by Lake Ontario wilderness.
It's a good place for the Katyn Memorial, a monolithic slab of steel cracked in half, just east on King. It was built to remember 15,000 Polish prisoners of war who vanished in 1940 from camps in Russia. Over 4,000 were later discovered in mass graves at Katyn, murdered by the Soviet State Security police.
Parkdale wasn't always estranged from its lake. Building the Gardiner resulted in the destruction of 170 homes, as most of Parkdale's north-south streets ended as wharves on the lake. Parkdale was posh and mansion-filled (and many streets are slowly poshing up again through gentrification). Adjacent was the Sunnyside Amusement Park -- "the poor man's Riviera," complete with dogs dressed up in girls' clothes and horses that dove head-first into the lake -- which was also removed to make way for the Gardiner.
All that's left of this era is the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion and the Palais Royale, a lonely lakefront outpost despite being only a two and a half minute walk from two major streetcar lines over the Roncesvalles pedestrian bridge.
Built in 1889 as Dean's Sunnyside Pleasure Boats, the original frames for the boat doors are still visible in the Royale's basement. When it was converted into a dance hall in 1922, all the usual big band names came -- Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Count Basie -- and the place was regularly packed. In 1988, Basil Dolan recalled, "There were so many people here that you weren't allowed to break into jive. You had to stay close or the bouncers would come over and warn you. 'No breaking or you're out.'"
But big bands fell out of style, and the place went downhill with only occasional shows, like the "secret" Rolling Stones gig in 2002, when a temporary air conditioner was installed on stage to keep the millionaires from overheating.
Palais Royale is currently undergoing $3 million in renovations, though, and it will reopen in June with regular live-music bookings and a huge lakeside patio. The renovation has also busted one of Toronto's long-held myths: the legendary sprung dancefloor wasn't sprung at all -- the floor just "gave" a little. No matter, legends aren't always built on the truth, and it will be good to have the Palais Royale back.
SHAWN MICALLEF IS AN EDITOR AT SPACING MAGAZINE, NEW ISSUE IN STORES NOW. STROLL APPEARS EVERY TWO WEEKS.
Non-politically though, that sprung dance floor, to my surprise, wasn't sprung at all. It was rot, and a frame that "gave". As it aged, it gave more, feeding the legend:
--
http://eye.net/eye/issue/issue_05.04.06/city/stroll.html
Eye - May 4, 2006
Stroll
The end of Toronto
There is, fittingly, a Coffee Time at the end of Toronto. It's in Parkdale, where Queen, King, Roncesvalles and The Queensway terminate in an impossible urban tangle of streetcar tracks and wires. Somewhere up in Vaughan -- or, worse, Aurora -- the city starts to come together, rolling south, getting thicker and less suburban, acquiring subways, streetcars, more people and then suddenly nothing. A freeway followed by Lake Ontario wilderness.
It's a good place for the Katyn Memorial, a monolithic slab of steel cracked in half, just east on King. It was built to remember 15,000 Polish prisoners of war who vanished in 1940 from camps in Russia. Over 4,000 were later discovered in mass graves at Katyn, murdered by the Soviet State Security police.
Parkdale wasn't always estranged from its lake. Building the Gardiner resulted in the destruction of 170 homes, as most of Parkdale's north-south streets ended as wharves on the lake. Parkdale was posh and mansion-filled (and many streets are slowly poshing up again through gentrification). Adjacent was the Sunnyside Amusement Park -- "the poor man's Riviera," complete with dogs dressed up in girls' clothes and horses that dove head-first into the lake -- which was also removed to make way for the Gardiner.
All that's left of this era is the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion and the Palais Royale, a lonely lakefront outpost despite being only a two and a half minute walk from two major streetcar lines over the Roncesvalles pedestrian bridge.
Built in 1889 as Dean's Sunnyside Pleasure Boats, the original frames for the boat doors are still visible in the Royale's basement. When it was converted into a dance hall in 1922, all the usual big band names came -- Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Count Basie -- and the place was regularly packed. In 1988, Basil Dolan recalled, "There were so many people here that you weren't allowed to break into jive. You had to stay close or the bouncers would come over and warn you. 'No breaking or you're out.'"
But big bands fell out of style, and the place went downhill with only occasional shows, like the "secret" Rolling Stones gig in 2002, when a temporary air conditioner was installed on stage to keep the millionaires from overheating.
Palais Royale is currently undergoing $3 million in renovations, though, and it will reopen in June with regular live-music bookings and a huge lakeside patio. The renovation has also busted one of Toronto's long-held myths: the legendary sprung dancefloor wasn't sprung at all -- the floor just "gave" a little. No matter, legends aren't always built on the truth, and it will be good to have the Palais Royale back.
SHAWN MICALLEF IS AN EDITOR AT SPACING MAGAZINE, NEW ISSUE IN STORES NOW. STROLL APPEARS EVERY TWO WEEKS.
E
Ed007Toronto
Guest
Included in this year's Doors Open event, in which the public can tour numerous historical buildings around Toronto for free, the Palais Royale Ballroom will be opening it's doors on Sunday May 28th from Noon until 4:00pm. Visitors can see the new renovations completed within the last year and how such great care has been taken to preserve certain historical elements. The Palais Royale first opening in 1922 as a combined Dance Hall and Boat Building facility. Such notable musicians as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington as well as most recently the Rolling Stones have performed at this historic venue. We will be bringing back the Big Band, Swing and Jazz evenings as well as more contemporary entertainment. The venue is available for rental and now hosts a fully equipped kitchen and catering facility.
For further information, contact:
For further information, contact: