Haven't seen the planters in person yet but they look great in these photos.
I love it when the city delivers these (relatively) out of the blue street-scape improvements without a lot of fuss or fanfare. (Softens the spirit crushing disappointment of TLS.)
I see no activity at Joey's at all.
The planters look terrific and the workmanship seems fine. I really like the larger than usual young trees that were planted and that the surrounding edges of the planters double as sitting areas. Unfortunately the plants are dying, they really need to get the water feeds working quickly or the perennials will be gone within a week.
After finally seeing the completed work today I really hope that the City considers continuing these planters along over to Bay Street. Not just for continuity, but because the existing brick/tree planters west of the new planters are not holding up well at all. The bricks are sinking and uneven, the surrounding concrete is breaking/cracking & deteriorating and with the high volume of bikes in this area the trees are being used as bike parking stations and the thin bark is being stripped by bicycles and/or bike locks.
In the end, this stretch continues to improve. Think back just 5 years ago at how desolate and neglected this area was and how it looks and feels today. Such a dramatic improvement in most every regard.
I saw those when I was there adminiring them, but there is no water to them yet. The soil is bone dry and plants are dying. You can see the condition of the plants compared to last week in those photos.
I saw those when I was there adminiring them, but there is no water to them yet. The soil is bone dry and plants are dying. You can see the condition of the plants compared to last week in those photos.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.
On a positive note the new planters have been topped up with quality soil/mulch mix and the few perennials that managed to survive look like they might make it. The sides of the planters make for very popular sitting areas which is wonderful.
Now hopefully next summer the planters (shown above) will be extended to Bay Street to replace the collapsing and damaged bricked areas with the sorry looking trees in the middle which double as bike locking devices. These are located in front of Ryerson, Best Buy and Canadian Tire.
Indeed, bicycle racks need to be re-thought here. Up until about 5:30pm forget getting a rack anywhere near this corner, I lock up over on Dundas East or around HMV/World's Biggest, I don't even try to get a space near Bay & Dundas.
It's a great thing that so many people are cycling so it's a good problem.
The problem here is the city. No if ands or buts about it. I emailed them saying more posts are needed on dundas over 3 weeks ago and they just forward me their single bike post installation form. wtf. They need to get their ass in gear and do their own work and thank me for pointing out the issue. Pathetic.
Well, it'll have taken seven years, numerous political stumbles and $32 Million dollars (which is pure insanity) but Toronto's 311 information/repair line should be up and running by early next year.
In the meantime screw the form, get on the blower or email Kyle Rae's office. He (and his Assistants) are very good with issues like this.
Well, it'll have taken seven years, numerous political stumbles and $32 Million dollars (which is pure insanity) but Toronto's 311 information/repair line should be up and running by early next year.
In the meantime screw the form, get on the blower or email Kyle Rae's office. He (and his Assistants) are very good with issues like this.
Several weeks ago I saw a guy biking down Centre St on a clunker racing bike while holding onto a brand new silver folding bike--a Brompton, perhaps? Anyhow, he's hoping to make the corner when the lights change (@Dundas), forcing him to stop. Hilarious to watch him fall off and hurt himself, then spend the next 20 minutes trying to fix the folding bike--I left via TTC before I saw what happened next.
Lesson learned: Don't steal a folding bike if you don't know how to use it! (Nobody seemed to want to stop the guy, a scary-looking Regent Parker I'm guessing.)
Why did I recount this tale? Cuz only fools would lock their bike to a tree...chainsaw's are cheap.
