Impromptu Barbie parade on a hill of snow from first big snowfall

350 Bloor West - Public Consultation - February 23
Tuesday, February 23, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Make room next week for a public meeting on a 35-storey development project on the northwest corner of Bloor and Spadina! It will occupy the land east of Shoppers to Spadina, and north from Bloor to the townhouses. It will include an internal connection to the TTC station, retail, commercial, rental and condo units.

This meeting will be online and phone-in only. Join by going to this website
You can find more info at the community engagement site


Robert St. Field and Spadina-Sussex Residence Construction News
The University of Toronto will be finishing work on the Robert Street field and the Community Area this spring, aiming for completion by the end of May. Facade retention/stabilization and demolition at 698 Spadina will commence in March. Construction of the residence tower will begin this summer. Fences will go up around the site, and shoring and excavation will start. Trucks will enter and exit only from Spadina along Sussex to a new construction gate east of Sussex Mews – the north sidewalk on Sussex will not be accessible during construction of the residence tower. Completion of the building is anticipated for fall 2024, although much visible activity will be done by fall 2023. 

For more details, you can find a new website to keep the neighbourhood up-to-date here
You can also see a brief timeline overview here
 
 
PARA's Green Plan: Virtual Launch - February 11
Thursday, February 11, 7 pm
The Palmerston Area Residents Association's (PARA) Green Plan was developed by and for the PARA community, through their organization and action surrounding issues of climate change and environmental degradation. PARA is thrilled to have a plan that is both specific to their neighbourhood and in sync with the City’s TransformTO climate action strategy. The Green Plan contains many ideas, identifying potential projects and areas for advocacy. Councillor Mike Layton and HVRA’s Tim Grant will lead the presentation and take questions. (You can find info about HV’s own Green Plan here)
 
PARA has advised that there is ample opportunity for everyone to be involved, whether through individual and household actions, group community projects or participation in city-wide initiatives.  They welcome community members to join the PARA Green Committee, and are continuing to plan online activities. For more detailed information on the launch, visit their website here.
 

Save the Foundry - Respect Local Planning
For over a year, the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists (IRCPA), Corktown Residents and Business Association (CRBA) and Toronto City Council have been working together to regenerate the site into a thriving cultural community centre. In October, the Ford government issued a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) for the Foundry site, overruling the ongoing local planning and consultation.

Without any notification or announcement, last month a demolition crew arrived at the Dominion Foundry Complex, located at 153 to 185 Eastern Avenue. Built in 1917 to produce railway equipment, the properties were added to Toronto’s heritage register in 2004 to preserve architectural and historical significance to life in the city during the WWI and post-war eras. Today, that heritage stands precariously threatened by Premier Ford’s bulldozers.

After public backlash, an Ontario judge temporarily stopped the province from demolishing the buildings. The judge found the province was in contravention of the Heritage Act, and breach of Ontario’s obligations to the City of Toronto, resulting in an injunction. There will be a full televised hearing of the case on February 26 before a panel of three judges. Demolition is halted, by order of the Court, until the results of that hearing.

Local consultation is vital to proper municipal planning. Residents deserve to have a say in what’s happening in their community, but unfortunately that’s not always the case throughout Ontario, with heritage buildings and environmentally protected lands threatened by Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark.Today it’s Toronto’s heritage under threat, tomorrow it could be your community or conservation area. 
 
Newly formed group Friends of the Foundry invites all Ontario residents opposing arbitrary planning decisions without community input to sign a petition to stop the demolition. (Note: they have been successful in court so far, but at a steep cost. Please consider giving to the Legal Defence Fund.)


Treat yourself to a Lavish meal
Meet Lavish, a local on-demand meal kit service that provides elevated cooked components. You can check them out at thelavish.ca. Since opening their doors last week they have been eagerly trying to get to know the neighborhood by giving samples and chatting with residents going for a walk near their location at 195 Harbord. See what you think!
 
 
Harbord Village Neighbour Profile: Rose Laki Rodrigues
This HVRA e-newsletter provides us with an opportunity to recognize  people in Harbord Village who might not make the news, but who create the neighbourhood we know and love. Where better to start than with Rose Laki Rodrigues? You probably already know her by sight as the friendly lively woman who works in her bounteous front garden and chats with people who walk by, introducing them if they don’t already know each other. She’s also front and centre in local events that require willing hands and cheerful commitment, as in this scene from a Harbord Village Gardeners Plant Fair.  And her life exemplifies changes in the neighbourhood since she came here as a child.
 

 
Now that you see her name, you may realize that the laneway between Major and Robert is named after her father Louie Laki. The city’s citation described him as having a “generous, hospitable nature” and contributing to the community in many informal ways. Rose takes after her father!
 

Rose will tell you if you ask that she has lived on Major since 1960, after starting on Lippincott when her family first arrived from Slovenia, and that she brought up her own family in the family home on Major. You can follow her story in the richly detailed interview she gave our Oral History project and the photos that accompany it.

(Early 1960s) The Laki family and friends on the porch of 159 Major, which they bought in 1960. Rose (standing front row left) still lives in the same house. The bench is still there too, though the leaded windows were broken later in a teenage chemistry experiment.

She remembers long-disappeared businesses on Harbord and College because she shopped and sometimes worked in them, and she knows local schools inside out because she taught in their daycare programs. She knows how immigrants kept their cultures and how they adapted to Canada. She can tell you about making wine and sauerkraut, looking after a large garden, and having joyous parties. She has seen houses fill up, empty out, and get renovated, and she has welcomed and said goodbye to many residents.
 

(1980s) Rose’s parents Louie and Ana Laki making wine in the back yard at 159 Major, with Rose's son Christopher and daughter Danielle. Rose and her husband Jack Rodrigues lived with her parents and brought up their children there.
 

If you take a few minutes to say hello when you see Rose in her garden or out shopping, you’ll find for yourself that she is a knowledgeable and generous neighbour. She’s one of the reasons Harbord Village is an interesting and welcoming place to live.

(Profile by Margaret Procter)

- Message prepared by Anne Fleming