I am happy to announce that the new Edwin Avenue Hydro Gardens in the Junction Triangle has been completed. With the help of local residents and volunteers, all plantings were finished in a single day, transforming a grassy boulevard on Edwin Ave into a beautiful flower garden with nearly 600 plants provided by the City of Toronto. Over the summer, I worked with residents and City staff to find a way to beautify this underutilized space and residents will be helping to maintain the gardens in the future for everyone to enjoy.  

Thank you to City staff, Toronto Hydro and all the volunteers for their hard work, along with a special thank you to our committed residents Kevin Putnam and Kendall Kennedy for working with my office to make this project a reality. I invite you all to enjoy this new space in the months and years to come!

As our community evolves and changes, it is important that we commemorate the rich industrial and railway heritage that defines many of the neighbourhood across Ward 18. Earlier in July, many of you joined me for a heritage walking tour along the West Toronto Railpath where we unveiled two new heritage plaques highlighting this history in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood.

The first plaque, located at the northernmost West Toronto Railpath entrance on Cariboo Ave, commemorates the significance of the former West Toronto Diamond and how this important confluence of railways helped spur a budding neighbourhood of industries, shops and families. A piece of the Diamond has been embedded within the concrete at the entrance to the Railpath solidifying its place and history in our community for generations to come.

The second plaque will be located in the under-construction Wallace Plaza at the base of the Wallace Avenue Pedestrian Bridge, helping to create a new gateway entrance to the Railpath. The plaque commemorates the importance of the bridge in linking communities bounded by rail lines, its continued prominence as a local landmark loved by residents, and its recognition as a rare example of local railway heritage architecture.

Thank you to the Friends of the West Toronto Railpath, Scott Dobson, and Heritage Toronto staff for working with me and our community to commemorate the unique heritage of Ward 18!

I am pleased to report to our community that Toronto City Council has approved a zoning by-law amendment allowing the proposed 299 Campbell Ave development to move forward after many years of community consultation and involvement. 

This development will be a significant addition to our community with the proposed expansion of the Perth-Dupont Toronto Public Library (TPL) branch being housed in the base of this building – providing a brand new and significantly enlarged library for our neighbourhood. The Perth-Dupont branch is currently one of the smallest libraries in the entire TPL system and this expansion will result in a significantly larger library, growing to approximately 10,000 square feet.

When I think back to four years ago, there was talk at City Hall of closing libraries and reducing library hours. At the same time those discussions were happening, nearly 100 people here in Ward 18 came together to support expanding the Perth-Dupont branch in our community. Together with many involved community members of the Junction Triangle Library Expansion Committee, we have worked towards achieving this important milestone and should be proud of how far we have been able to come from only four short years ago.

The TPL has embraced this expansion project and is supporting this innovative approach to renovate and expand other libraries all across the system. Toronto Public Library is the world's busiest urban library system with 100 branches, over 32 million items borrowed yearly, and over 18.5 million annual visitors.

Every year I host the Ward 18 Community BBQ in a local park as a fun event for local residents and to bring attention to a local organization's fundraising efforts. This year, we were in Campbell Park on June 21st supporting the Christie-Ossington Neighbourhood Centre's efforts to furnish the new community space at Ruskin Ave and the West Toronto Railpath.

Residents of all ages had a great time eating and meeting their neighbours. Everyone received free food, drink, ice cream for the kids, plus information on local organizations, issues and events. We had a phenomenal turnout with more than 400 people taking part.

Events of this magnitude are only possible through the generosity of the organizations and individuals in our community who dedicate time and support of this cause. I would like to thank the many volunteers and staff who made this day possible. 

With so much positive energy generated through this event and the great effort that it called attention to, I can hardly wait for next year's Ward 18 BBQ! If you have suggestions for an organization we can support in the coming year, please contact me and we can work together for the betterment of our community.

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At a cozy brew pub at Dupont Street and Campbell Avenue one wet evening, a clutch of residents from the betwix-and-between Junction Triangle area traded the sort of stories that have become standard fare for thousands of homeowners drawn to up-and-coming Toronto neighbourhoods: street parties, insane house prices and backyard vegetable plots.

Adam Charlesworth, a real-estate agent who moved in six years ago when prices were still affordable, recalled the first parent meeting at his daughter’s school: only five people showed up. But as neighbours networked, attendance swelled at parent meetings, movie nights and school fundraisers. “Now, every event is standing room only.”

It’s a tale told in many transitioning neighbourhoods. But while gentrification appears to be an implacable force in most older parts of Toronto, what’s helped matters along in this particular enclave is the fact that newer Junction Triangle residents, five years ago this month, decided to get a jump on the real-estate brokers and give their community an official name – as well as a louder voice on hot-button local issues, such as the use of diesel trains for the new Union-Pearson Express.

The industrial area, hemmed in on three sides by rail corridors, extends between Dundas West (as it bends northward) and the tracks west of Lansdowne Avenue, and stretches south of Bloor along Perth Avenue. Within two years, it will be further bisected by a 1.5-kilometre-long viaduct running between Bloor and Davenport Road. The bridge will raise the Barrie GO line over a busy east-west freight corridor.

Richard Mongiat, a set designer and artist, moved in 13 years ago because of the rock-bottom house prices – a symptom of the crack problem in the Bloor-Lansdowne area, as well as the presence of an especially dodgy peeler bar. “It was a bit like the Bermuda Triangle,” he muses, “an odd bit of land stuck in the middle.”

The locale was also known for the horrific 2003 slaying of 10-year-old Holly Jones, abducted while walking to a friend’s home in the neighbourhood. The tragedy cast a heavy pall over the community for years.

The upbeat naming campaign surfaced in 2010, not long after the opening of the West Toronto Railpath, a park that runs along one of the Triangle’s edges. Organizers allowed online voting and held a parade to announce the winner. (“Rail City” was a close contender.) “That’s the moment the neighbourhood turned the corner,” Mr. Charlesworth says. “Without a name, you’re a nebulous thing.”

The Portuguese, Italian and Ukrainian working-class families who made this formerly unbranded community their home for generations – and are now moving out – may feel otherwise, although local politicians such as Davenport MP Andrew Cash insist that ethnic and social diversity continues to exist amid the $650,000 fixer-uppers. “It’s important to note that there are a lot of working-class people in this area and that has not changed.”

What does set the Junction Triangle apart from some other real estate friendly neighbourhoods is the fact that the community has seen a surge of new employment activity alongside the usual renos, restos and condos.

It’s an evolution well suited to a wedge of Toronto that was historically home to the sorts of industrial-age factory buildings that sprang up near rail lines, but are very much an endangered species in the contemporary city.

The new jobs tend not to be blue collar, of course. Davenport Councillor Ana Bailao points out that the video-game developer Ubisoft moved 300 employees into an old factory on Wallace Avenue a few years ago, and has seen its staff at that location expand to 800. Meanwhile, 30 per cent of the former Viceroy plant, at Dupont and Dundas, is leased to artists as studio space, while Planet Storage occupies the rest.

And council last spring approved an ambitious mixed-use plan by Castlepoint Numa to redevelop an eight-acre former aluminum plant just south of Bloor, off Perth and Sterling Road. The staged project calls for four towers, two of which will have 560,000 square feet of office space. Phase one is the restoration of the 1919 Tower Automotive Building for arts-and-tech industry tenants. Some smaller industrial buildings in the vicinity are already filled with start-ups.

The city “negotiated hard” to keep those employment lands, Ms. Bailao says. The planning rules ensure the Nestlé factory nearby doesn’t face pressure from condo development. “We wouldn’t entertain offers unless we could save employment and protect Nestlé.”

Other parts of the Triangle, however, are following a much more familiar trajectory. While the Bloor and Dupont retail strips inside the Junction Triangle are far from Leslieville-grade upscale, a few quirky merchants, such as a puppetry shop on Dupont, have appeared amid empty storefronts. The parks department clubhouse in Campbell Park, long a grim concrete box, has been transformed into a Dufferin Grove-like hangout, with donated gear and freshly made snacks.

Wallace Walk, a townhouse development off Dundas West, is going up on a smelly old paint plant site. Closer to Lansdowne, a low-slung warehouse on Dupont will soon be torn down to make way for an 18-storey condo.

Kevin Putnam, one of the Junction Triangle co-founders, points out that the newly formed residents’ networks succeeded in pushing the city to get both developers to add community amenities: a daycare centre and service hub at Wallace Walk, and a 10,000-square-foot library in the podium of the Lansdowne-Dupont condo tower – which, by no coincidence, is just one block from a new supermarket opening in a former warehouse.

“Before, nothing was happening in the community,” says Mr. Mongiat, who insists the new moniker has brought more than just hipsters and gentrifiers. “It’s a feisty neighbourhood. The change in the last 10 years has been incredible.”

Originally posted in the Globe and Mail on March 27, 2015

I am very excited to bring forward a major victory regarding the proposal to expand the Perth-Dupont Library. Over the past two years I have been working closely with the community to identify opportunities and strategies to improve library services in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood.

Since our first public meeting back in August, 2011, with nearly 100 community residents, I have been investigating every opportunity available to expand the Perth-Dupont library. This opportunity has come with the development at 299 Campbell. Through negotiations with the developer, and Section 37 contributions from surrounding developments, the new development will have 10,000 ft2 reserved specifically for the new library - even when including the 2nd floor of the existing Perth Dupont Library, this will be 4 times larger!

To date, I have successfully added this project to the capital list of the Toronto Library Board and ensured the necessary zoning changes at City Council. I look forward to working closely with the community as this exciting project moves forward!

When negotiating with the developer at 362 Wallace Avenue, I knew that community space was a major priority for the area. For this reason, I succeeded in bringing a brand new 7,000 ft² community building to our community as part of this development application.

This will be a city-owned building and a Request for Proposals was put out for youth and family services to operate at this location. With the growing number of children and families moving to the area, I felt it was very important to secure these community benefits which will be a tremendous impact on the surrounding community.

The Christie-Ossington Neighbourhood Centre was selected by the City as the building operators with Greenhere coming in as a tenant as well.

This will also be a great addition to the West Toronto Railpath, which has an entrance nearby. As I continue to work on the final design of this new space, I look forward to working with local organizations to activate this public space and maximize the exciting potential of this new community hub. 

For the last three years, I have been working hard to deliver a positive community plan for the 158 Sterling site by bringing all parties together – including the developer, local residents, Nestle and City staff. After so much work to negotiate a solution that worked for the local community, I am pleased to announce that a plan has been approved! This development will include:

• A brand new park
• A new 36 space day nursery for infant care
• New affordable housing
• 40% of units are 2 & 3 bedrooms designed families
• Restoration to the Heritage building
• Three new buildings dedicate to employment space
• New entrance to the West Toronto Railpath

This project will bring new residents, new businesses, new jobs and new services to our community. The community and I expressed concern about the need to keep employment opportunities in the area. As a result, this project also includes three buildings dedicated to employment to ensure that our community is well-served with jobs and opportunity. A further community concern I was able to address was development height, which will now be significantly lower than the existing heritage building on the site.

The combination of affordability, community services, residential and employment will make this a great new neighbourhood for residents to live, work and play in our community.

I will continue to work hard to ensure this project represents the best possible planning for our community.

On November 5th, I held a public meeting at Casa da Madeira to ask the community whether to move forward on our proposal to integrate a new library into the TAS development project at 299 Campbell Ave (Dupont and Campbell). That night, our proposal received overwhelming support from the community, it received overwhelming support from the Library Board on November 18th, from Planning and Growth Management Committee on November 21st and yesterday it received Council approval. 

Thanks to the Junction Triangle Library Expansion Committee, TAS Design Build, Library Staff and the Junction Triangle community for working together and making our area a better place to live, work and play.

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Originallly posted in Bloor West Villager By Lisa Rainford

This article is a follow up to Perth/Dupont library could make new home in 10,000 sqft space, which was posted after Planning and Growth Management Committee approved the item. 

Toronto City Council approved a plan to build a new, 10,000 square foot library as part of a condominium project at Dupont Street and Campbell Avenue at its meeting Tuesday, Dec. 16.

“This was the last major hurdle in the approvals process,” said Junction Triangle Library Expansion Committee co-founder Kevin Putnam in a statement. “It’s an awesome development made possible by (Davenport) Councillor Ana Bailao. She has delivered something really great for our neighbourhood.”

Throughout the following six months, the condo developer, Tas, will complete the building’s final design and construction will begin when the project has been approximately 70 per cent sold.

“The library should open in about three years if all goes well,” Putnam said.

The library will move from its current location at 1589 Dupont St., just west of Perth Avenue, to the 10,000 square foot space at 299 Campbell Ave. Currently one of the smallest branches in Toronto, the Perth/Dupont library has been ranked as one of the city’s lowest circulation branches, however, there are waiting lists for almost every program. Those who frequent the library know it’s overcrowded. And so, as the city contemplated closing libraries in response to an independent consulting company’s report a few years ago, Junction Triangle residents rallied to create a public-private partnership to fund an expansion of their library.

“Residents came together and worked with the councillor, who worked with the developer,” said Putnam, crediting Bailao, who secured $1 million in Section 37 funding (money allocated for community use by developers), specifically from an impending condominium development on Lansdowne Avenue.

Mazyar Mortazavi, president and CEO of Tas, says it’s part of the company’s DNA to be “community builders” first.

Tas has agreed to sell the space to the library board for $1 million – even though it’s worth $3 million, Putnam said. And, that money has already been allocated through Section 37 funds. The remainder of the money needed to finish the interior will be made through the sale of the old library, said Putnam.

Posted by Aubrey Jax /BlogTO/ DECEMBER 17, 2013

The Perth/Dupont Library in the Junction Triangle is set for a makeover - or, better, a complete overhaul. Last night Toronto City Council voted to approve a motion that will see a 10,000 square foot library replace what is currently Toronto's tiniest (except for the Toronto Zine Library at the Tranzac, but that doesn't count). As our Mayor once said - "libraries, libraries, libraries!" - wait, that's not how it went.

In the wake of libraries being threatened across Canada, this news seems like a holiday miracle for Junction Triangle residents, who've been fighting for the branch for over two years.

The miracle (this was one of the libraries briefly slated for closure) comes via an unlikely source - namely condos, condos, condos. Property developer TAS are working on a development at 299 Campbell (at Dupont) which will host the new whopper of a book depository in their space a mere five minute walk from the library's current digs at 1589 Dupont Street. Will the new condo be called "The Book Depository," and will this make you finally shell out for a glass box in the sky? If the condos sell and the story plays out as planned, the library could be complete and open for business in just three years.

Photo by dalmond on Flickr.