Glen Rd, Rosedale, 18 Yorkville and Walk The Plank!

[Darkstar416]

Hey folks,

simply Dan and myself again took advantage of the great weather and did some walking and snapping this past weekend.

We started at the bottom portion of Glen Rd just north of St. Jamestown and just south of Bloor St. While the street boasts an entrance to the subway system (via Sherbourne Station), extreme close proximity to Bloor St and some decent Victorian housing, it remains derelict (in a very un-Toronto way).

Here are some pics...

Pretty much the entire west-side of the street is boarded-up. The east-side though is in o.k. shape.

The American-like neglect makes the small street extremely popular for movie shoots. In fact, a new Ryan Phillipe movie called Breach shot there just last week!

The fact that this entire stretch of fairly nice Victorian homes are now boarded (and locked-up) is quite disarming. Does anyone know if there's a reason why Glen Rd was never white-painted/gentrified (like its Cabbagetown neighbours were)? It may be next to St. Jamestown, but in many other ways it's a pretty ideal location.

More neglect...

And more...

The entrance to Sherbourne Station (basically next door to that streth of dereliction).

The pedestrian tunnel under Bloor St that connects the Rosedale "Glen Rd" to its south-of-Bloor distant cousin.

The Rosedale Valley.

Glen Rd continues in Rosedale on the north side of the valley. It's easy to forget that Rosedale isn't all big mansions, but actually boats more than a few low-rise projects.

Rosedale Public School.

Mid-Town through the trees.

A northbound subway from the Crescent Street bridge (overlooking Rosedale Station).

More Rosedale Station...

18 Yorkville and an art installation.

I believe this is done by the same artist who did the installation in front of La Bibliothèque nationale du Québec in Montreal. In fact, it's almost the same piece, just the Toronto version is much smaller.

Later in the day we happened to be walking across Nathan Phillips Square when the Walk The Plank fireworks extravaganza from the U.K. was doing their show as part of T.O.'s Winter City Festival. Here are various snaps (of varying quality) from that...

And that's that. Hope you enjoyed!

 

[dob467]

Re: Glen Rd.

From Toronto Life, www.torontolife.com/magaz...Ref_Num=81

Dear Urban Decoder:
What’s the story behind all the boarded-up buildings on Howard Street and Glen Road near Bloor? You’d think this prime piece of real estate so close to the Sherbourne subway exit would be used for some infill development. Instead, the block has been an abandoned eyesore for years. —Julie Jai, Bloor and Sherbourne

Believe it or not, it’s all in the name of heritage preservation. Many of these once-pretty Victorian houses and low-rises are listed on the city’s Inventory of Heritage Properties, which makes tearing them down or changing their historical character extremely difficult. While most people agree that protecting heritage buildings is a noble cause, there’s a wrecking ball– sized hole in the bylaws. Preservation Services, which monitors redevelopment or renovation activity, has no authority to force owners to take care of their properties. So anyone who can afford to pay taxes on an empty building is free to let it crumble to total decrepitude, at which point it can be legally torn down. A recently proposed amendment to the Ontario Heritage Act could fix the problem though a resolution is still months away. Even so, it may be too late for the poor, decrepit houses of Howard Street and Glen Road.

 

[boiler2000]

^ Interesting find. Anything would be preferable to the current situation re: those old houses.

I hope they soon close the legal hole which has allowed this and, obviously, include an addendum to the law which will proscribe summary execution to the exploiters up to this point.

 

[ganjavih]

Thanks for the tour, DS. 18 Yorkville just keeps getting better and better... great sculpture.

 

[shawnmicallef]

I take the Glen Rd. entrance a lot, and go by those boarded up houses on my walk through st. jamestown to cabbagetown, where I sort of 1/2 live. I think because Toronto has so few borded up anythings, when we do, it's almost cartoon, or museum like. That bit of road is neat, with the abandoned and the lovely apartment building across the way, and the T-intersection with Howard with it's cute little buildings, then st. jamestown towering behind. very neat and Torontonian.

 

[rdaner]

^Are all of the houses owned by the same person/company? I have a hard time believing that all of the owners would follow the same tactics.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

You should of called me. I spent the day all around St Jamestown.

 

[building babel]

I was once told by a long time resident of Cabbagetown ( east of Parliament ) that, back in the 1960's when he moved in there, more than a few homeowners were disappointed to discover that the days of building Regent Parks and St Jamestowns were over. They had been looking forward to getting a good price, over market value, for their homes - in what was considered a slummy area - but the expropriations and demolitions never came.

 

[Darkstar416]

^Are all of the houses owned by the same person/company? I have a hard time believing that all of the owners would follow the same tactics.

Maybe it's time to set up the Urban Toronto Real-Estate Corporation and buy the whole block! Joking...sort of.

You should of called me. I spent the day all around St Jamestown.

Crazy as we did some walking around St. Jamestown as well! We checked out the new community centre which I must say is being very-well used. Apparently the swimming pool edition will come in a few years.

Where's your photos Ed?

 

[Ed007Toronto]

I probably have some 6000-7000 photos on my hard drive from the last six years. Problem is they were never archived in any obvious manner. I'd go for a walk, take 100 pictures, put them on the computer and then forget about them. The last few weeks I've finally started the process of naming the images and organizing them by project or community. My photo updating here will be minimal (outside of obvious ones like Spire) until I catch up.

Found great shots of many downtown projects in my efforts this past weekend. Everything from 1 King to Waterclub. I even found one that I forgot about that will give me an amazing from above view of Trump and Bay Adelaide being built.

 

[3Dementia]

That little island will be a gem in the city one day. Someone with vision and deep-pockets will transform it.

Gazed lovingly at this block or two for many years (had a condo across the street).

Had the vision, but the pockets (then and now) had holes in them.

I love posting here.

 

[FutureMayor]

Loved the fireworks shots Jason! The first 15 minutes of the show was kinda boring. But the last 15 minutes were great!

I thought they did a spectacular job with launching the Wintercity Festival. The Ice Lounge was pretty damn cool. My visiting relatives from Chicago were impressed with Nathan Philips Square and the activities.

Louroz