Ciros on Bloor near Lansdowne

[Hydrogen]

Okay, this is a little sweet spot of mine. Steps from my brother's place, Ciros is beer heaven. Plus, really good food for a low price and a kitchen that stays open late.

Nothing like watching the wild part of Bloor pass you by while sipping an absynthe infused brewski.

It has a patio if you don't want to gaze upon the nearby Adam Giambrone-induced street-thinning and tree-killing efforts on Lansdowne.

 

[JasonParis]

It has a patio if you don't want to gaze upon the nearby Adam Giambrone-induced street-thinning and tree-killing efforts on Lansdowne.

The amount of anti-Giambrone signs on Lansdowne is pretty crazy. I don't know that much about the project, but I sense the community may be a bit anti-change for the sake of being anti-change.

 

[Hydrogen]

The thinning of Lansdowne is a bit peculiar as it is an artery, was already congested, and will result in a considerable loss of on-street parking. The locals are a tad pissed as they were never consulted (although Giambrone insists they were - but can't prove so). Part of the rationale for carrying out this project was to "green" Lansdowne. However, residents quickly discovered that this meant the destruction of a large number of mature trees along the street (five were cut down right when the project commenced, which really whipped up the anger).

As no below-surface infrastructure is being repaired or replaced, the work being done is essentially cosmetic. Many residents along Lansdowne feel as if Giambrone has simply neglected them and their complaints about this effort, and that the whole thing was done in order to provide the appearance of local improvement. When it came to voicing complaints, Giambrone never showed at local meetings dealing with the issue, and the representative he sent to cover for him knew virtually nothing about the details. Even the local MPP has gotten into the act in complaining about how pointless this thing is. To many of his constituents, Giambrone has been lost to the TTC.

But all this is never an excuse to avoid having a cool one at Ciros.

 

[CDL.TO]

Checked out Lansdowne between Bloor and College yesterday on my bike. It looks really good though the fact that the street is now smooth and clean looking may have an effect on that opinion. They say that the narrowing required the removal of mature trees but for the life of me I can't figure out were there was room for more; the street is lined with mature trees.

It seems like all they did was remove a parking lane and widen the through lanes (there's no bike lanes but lanes are wide enough to feel comfortable). With left-turn lanes now installed at Bloor and College, I'd expect traffic flow on the street to be no worse than it was before with the typical Toronto 4-lanes/no turning lanes setup.

Can anyone in the east end tell us if Dundas Street east of Broadview became horribly congested as the locals predicted after a similar conversion was done on that street a couple years ago?

 

[Hydrogen]

Sure, all freshly paved roads look nice. No doubt about it. The question is whether this was the road to start with.

Five mature trees were removed, and it was the public outcry that stopped others from being cut down. The removal of the parking lane was extremely annoying to many local residents because on street parking is often the only parking available (the new layout also reduces available street parking, forcing more cars onto side streets). The other major annoyance was the Giambrone claimed that this work was done with public consultation, though no one in his office could report back when this consultation took place.

Chances are this will have to be ripped up in few years for sewer and waterline renewal.

 

[junctionist]

It's depressing to see nicely paved streets cut up and patched within a year or two of being redone. This is happening on Runnymede now. The stretch south of Annette has to rank high on the list of most patched roads in the city.