David J. Widmann

In the summer heat, Toronto’s downtown can seem like a sun-baked, arid domain of asphalt and glass. Scattered throughout the concrete desert, however, are a few oases of green. The Downtown Discovery Walk links the squares, parks and parkettes that can be found in the city’s busy core. And don’t worry too much about the heat; there are plenty of places to duck into for shade, refreshments, and air-conditioned comfort along this route.

One of the jewels of downtown parks is Cloud Gardens. This Richmond Street spot features a tropical greenhouse overlooking a well-treed spot with a relaxing waterfall. Nestled in a little space of the Bay Adelaide Centre, it’s a favourite outdoor eating spot for nearby cubicle dwellers.

St. James’ Park is the biggest patch of green on this walk. It’s a combination of mature trees and well-manicured flower gardens; a good place to relax in the shade, picnic in the sun, or play with the kids and pets.

There are plenty of other little patches of green in the city where you can find respite from the bustle of the downtown core. This is also a great walk to take with out-of-town visitors. The CN Tower, City Hall, St. Lawrence Market, the Flatiron Building — all of the downtown tourist destinations can be found along this Discovery Walk. And while you’re downtown, don’t forget to check out Fresh Wednesdays and Tasty Thursdays at Nathan Phillips Square.

One point about this walk: currently, construction is blocking access between Simcoe Park and Metro Hall Park. You’ll have to find an alternate route, either on John or Simcoe Streets to get around this obstacle.

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Occasionally Torontoist gets bitten by the camping bug. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the extra vacation days or access to a vehicle required for a Kawartha Lakes getaway. Then, of course, there’s the environmental irony of loading the minivan full of camping gear and burning dozens of litres of gas in order to enjoy nature.

Luckily, there’s a quick camping fix right here in town. The Glen Rouge Campground is accessible by bicycle (about two to three hours from downtown, depending on your route and speed), and is a quick jaunt from the TTC or GO Transit. Oh, and it’s an easy drive, if you’re into that sort of thing.

The campground is a good place for a change of pace, whether you’re looking to spend a few days exploring Rouge Park, or are just looking for a day away from the condo construction across the street. It’s also close to the zoo and the beach, so there’s plenty to keep the kids busy. If you’re cycling, Glen Rouge is a good first stop on a trip east along the Waterfront Trail.

It’s hardly an idyllic backwoods camping spot, but if you’re the type of camper that likes to have flush toilets and laundry facilities as part of your outdoor experience, Glen Rouge is for you. Shopping is nearby as well, so you can travel light and buy your food when you get there. So pack up your tent, bring some marshmallows for toasting, and enjoy Toronto’s campground this summer.

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Garrison Creek once ran through Toronto from its tributaries near what is now St. Clair West, to what was once the shore of Lake Ontario, past the northeast side of Fort York. Development polluted the creek as Toronto began to grow, and in the early 1900s, work began on the burial of Garrison Creek. Long since converted into a sewer, Garrison Creek has completely disappeared from view.

It has not, however, been forgotten. Evidence of the creek’s former path can still be seen, the deep ravine it once followed now lined with homes and park lands. The Garrison Creek Discovery Walk follows the path of the lost creek from Bloor Street to the waterfront, connecting neighbourhoods and green spaces with historic Fort York.

Getting to the beginning of this walk is easy, as it starts right across the street from the Christie subway station. Christie Pits Park is busy in the summer, with baseball diamonds, basketball courts, bocce, a public pool with a waterslide, and lots of room to walk those rambunctious pets. It is also home to the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club.

Across Bloor, the Garrison Creek ravine continues into Bickford Park. After that, the walk follows Crawford Street, which curves along the former path of the river. Crossing through a few smaller parks, the walk makes its way to Trinity Bellwoods Park. This is another popular spot for dog walkers, and also has a pool and recreation centre, making this a hotbed of summer activity in the West Queen West area.

If Trinity Bellwoods’ indoor pool isn’t what you’re looking for, keep going south along the Garrison Creek Discovery Walk to Stanley Park. The outdoor pool here may be small, but it’s a good place to cool off while catching a few summer rays.

The next stop along the walk is the main point of historical interest along this walk: Fort York. It’s a place where most kids who grew up in the GTA spent many a field trip exploring, but very few can actually give directions to. Take this walk, and the exact location of Fort York will be forever burned in your mind. Before Garrison Creek was buried and Toronto’s shoreline was extended, small boats used to moor where the Bathurst Street bridge now runs over the railway tracks.

It’s here where one can get a sense of what urban planners and public space advocates mean when they tell us that Toronto is a city cut off from its waterfront. Faced with six lanes of Lakeshore Boulevard and the concrete monolith that is the Gardiner Expressway, it’s easy to think of Fort York as being the end of the city and the end of this Discovery Walk. If you’re willing to brave the traffic and the agonizingly long wait for pedestrian crossing signals, the walk continues on to the waterfront and Little Norway Park. Nestled between the (in)famous Canada Malting Company silos and right across the channel from the Toronto Island Airport, it’s not the quietest park in the city, but it is a good place to enjoy some of the cool air coming off the lake.

Garrison Creek may be gone, but its memory lives on. The lost river shaped the landscape and laid the foundation for the Town of York to grow into the City of Toronto. Next time you’re playing baseball at Christie Pits or walking your dog through Trinity Bellwoods Park, imagine what life must have been like along this once-busy riverbed. Pick up the Garrison Creek Discovery Walk map at City Hall, your local library, or download it here.

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You’ve probably seen them dotting the city: those Discovery Walk signs that seem to pop up when you least expect them. Torontoist has always wanted to explore these intriguing city strolls, and this summer will be taking readers along some of these routes that connect the city’s parks, green spaces and historical sites to the neighbourhoods we live in.

A good place to begin is the Uptown Discovery Walk, partly because this route is so accessible. Museum, Yonge/Bloor, Wellesley, College and Dundas subway stations all lie along its path. Bounded by Cumberland Street to the north, Sherbourne to the east, the Ryerson campus to the south, and the University of Toronto to the west, the Uptown Discovery Walk meanders through some of the busiest parts of the city, but contains some surprising oases of tranquility.

One of the points of interest on this walk is Paul Kane House. Set back from the street behind a small manicured parkette, the house was once owned by Paul Kane, a prominent Toronto artist. It was designated a historical property in 1979, and the parkette is a popular spot for the brown-baggers from the local office buildings.

One of the city’s oldest parks, Allan Gardens is home to plenty of shade trees, making it a great place to take in some shade in the middle of a hot summer stroll. While there, don’t forget to take a tour of the famous Palm House. This Victorian-style greenhouse is home to many exotic plants, and changes with the seasons — a great place for photographers to add some colour to their portfolios.

Tucked away from the Winners store and the College TTC stop, it’s easy to forget that there’s actually a park at College Park. While condo construction around the edges of this patch of green space is evident, there’s still some peace to be found around the park’s fountain and reflecting pool. The proximity of Dominion and a well-stocked food court also make it a good spot for an impromptu picnic. If you happen to be taking the Uptown Discovery Walk on a weekday between 8:30 and 4:00, take a few minutes to walk through the Police Museum and Discovery Centre across College Street from College Park. It’s free and, if nothing else, good for a laugh at the old cop uniforms.

A highlight of this walk is the route passing through both the Ryerson and U of T campuses. It’s on the university grounds where the official Discovery Walk map gets a little confusing, especially for those of us who never attended these institutions. While this no doubt adds a little time to the walk, the intrepid explorers among us will welcome the opportunity to find a piece of public art or grove of trees that wasn’t on the sanctioned route. Both universities also conduct guided walking tours of their respective campuses for those who’d like to see more.

Connecting the neighbourhoods of Cabbagetown, Yorkville, and Church and Wellesley, passing through two university campuses, Queens Park, Allan Gardens, College Park and nearly a dozen neighbourhood green spaces, this is a great walking route whether you want to check out some parks, discovery new city hotspots, tour a little history or just do a little shopping.

Just one little note about the Discovery Walk map (which can be seen on signs along the route, or can be picked up at City Hall, libraries, community centres or here): Cawthra Square, a favourite place for dog walkers in the Church and Wellesley area, is marked as a thoroughfare on the route. Currently, however, there is some construction going on in the park, making it impossible to exit from the east side. You can get around this by skipping that part of the walk and taking Wellesley straight to Jarvis.

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There are things that go on in this city at night that are far weirder than the leather-clad teenagers on Queen West. Did you know that vampires stalk High Park? Or that Toronto Police Services crossed into another dimension to investigate a suspicious death? No? Then you should check out Karen Bennett’s Fantastic Toronto project.

Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing drew our attention to Bennett’s labour of love. Bennett, a writer, photographer, panelist, and fixture in Canada’s speculative-fiction community has posted the results of a literary survey she’s been working on for the past four years. For this survey, she has combed hundreds of novels and stories of the sci-fi, fantasy and horror genres for any mention of our fair City of Toronto.

The results are, well, magical. The list of authors alone is impressive, but Bennett has gone far beyond that by including publishing information, plot synopses, and descriptions of Toronto’s place (whether the city is the centre of the action, or just mentioned in passing by a secondary character) in the story.

The project is still ongoing, so if you have any suggestions for stories or books Bennett might have missed, submit the info. And if you’re looking to read some of the books listed in Fantastic Toronto, check out the Merril Collection of Science Fiction at the Toronto Public Library.

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Have you ever marvelled at the sheer partying power of a group of drunken bridesmaids? Now you can join those elite ranks without all the expense and bother of a wedding.

Funkless.com presents the fourth incarnation of Bridesmaidmania this Saturday, May 5. Billed as “the city’s weirdest and most entertaining pub crawl,” Bridesmaidmania IV participants (both male and female) will deck out in frilly, tacky, thrift-store bridesmaid dresses and descend upon a myriad of secret locations around the city. This year’s Bridesmaidmania is extra special due to the fact that Funkless.com’s venerable party host Cynthia Gould is going to be a bride herself next month.

The Bridesmaidsmania phenomenon started as an off-handed comment Cynthia made to a friend and ballooned into an annual event. “The first Bridesmaidmania was a total gamble,” Cynthia confides. “What if nobody showed up? What if nobody had a good time? Half an hour into it, we looked around at the giggling ladies and ‘ladies’ and knew we were on to something fantastic.”

Dinner, dancing, sipping drinks with little umbrellas in them, and travelling with one of the freakiest packs of party-goers you’ll ever see are just a few of the events planned for this monumental evening.

And how do people react to having their favourite watering holes invaded by a band of drunken bridesmaids?

“Strangers are afraid of strange things, but who can be threatened by a gaggle of people in pastel dresses?” Cynthia says. “People honk, wave, take pictures with their cell phones, and accept our offers of candy. If you haven’t given candy to strangers while dressed like a doofus, you really need to get out more and live it up!”

In order to participate in this event, you have to sign up in advance on the super-secret email list (it’s Bridesmaidmania-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Shh!). On Thursday, directions to the staging area will be revealed.

As with all Funkless.com events, Bridesmaidmania IV is fragrance-free.

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From pristine wetland to industrial transportation hub and the confluence of major urban expressways, the Lower Don Lands area has gone through many changes throughout Toronto’s history. The mouth of the Don River is about to change again.

Back in February, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation announced a competition to redesign a 40-hectare area located at the mouth of the river and the entrance to the Port Lands (pictured right). The teams invited to compete were Stoss (Boston), Brown and Storey Architects (Toronto) with Zas Architects (Toronto); Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (New York), Behnisch Architects (Los Angeles) Greenberg Consultants (Toronto), and Great Eastern Ecology (New York); Weiss/Manfredi (New York), with du Toit Allsopp Hillier (Toronto); and Atelier Girot (Zurich), Office of Landscape Morphology (Paris), and ReK Productions (Toronto).

The teams were given 8 weeks to come up with designs that would naturalize the mouth of the Don River, create a riverfront park system, enhance the Martin Goodman Trail, prioritize public transit and promote sustainable development. At that briefing, the teams received input from a number of stakeholders including the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA); City of Toronto planning, parks and transportation staff, the Toronto Port Authority and a community advisory committee established by the TWRC.

At a media briefing this morning, the design teams revealed their visions for the Lower Donlands. From April 16 to 24, the public can view the images of sweeping boardwalks, naturalized marshlands and recreational facilities at the Allan Lambert Galleria, BCE Place, beginning with a public forum on Monday at 6:00 p.m. A jury appointed by the TWRC will announce the winning design in mid-May.

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While “citizen journalists” can immediately broadcast breaking news to millions of people through blogs, online communities, free podcasts and webcasts, how do traditional media outlets compete, both from an editorial and business perspective? This Thursday, April 5, the Canadian Journalism Foundation asks (and attempts to answer) the question of journalism’s place in a wired world. Join Mathew Ingram, Business and Technology Columnist for the Globe and Mail; Mark Evans, Operations VP of b5media inc.; Hugh Dow, President of M2 Universal media planning and buying, and moderator Amber MacArthur, New Media Specialist for CityNews at the Robert Gill Theatre, University of Toronto (214 College Street, 3rd floor) from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for a panel discussion, with a reception to follow. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited, so if you plan to attend please register at info@cjf-fjc.ca or visit the website to register online.

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“Use more — waste less!” That’s the motto of the new barter-community web site known as SwitchPlanet.

SwitchPlanet is now open to the public as a beta version (which might explain why the interface is a little less than intuitive). The site facilitates trading DVDs, CDs and video games with an online community of people who create lists of the items they want and the items they wish they had. The currency of SwitchPlanet is known as SwitchBucs, which are equivalent to one US dollar each. When you post an available item, you decide how many SwitchBucs it’s worth. If someone “switches” (the site’s euphemism for purchasing) your item, you can use the SwitchBucs you’ve earned to “switch” things with other users on the site.

While the site is a little clunky and confusing, the philosophy behind SwitchPlanet makes it worth a look at the very least. Espousing the ideas of reducing, reusing and recycling, the site also aims to become a philanthropic hub. The site encourages people who receive an item from a fellow SwitchPlanet user instead of buying a new item to donate a portion of their cash savings to charity.

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Listen up doodlers, animaniacs, and true believers. This month, Max the Mutt Animation School wants to give you super powers! Well, super-artistic powers, anyway.From Saturday, March 10 to Sunday, March 18, Max the Mutt will be open to the public. If you’ve been considering animation as a career, or if you’re just curious about how all those neat-o pictures come to life, this is your chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the animation process. The school teaches everything from classical animation to state-of-the-art 3D graphic design, so whether you’re into Felix the Cat or the latest incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you’re bound to find something to make your eye stalks pop out of your head.

For those who like to do more than just watch, Max the Mutt will also be hosting free weekend workshops during their open house. On March 10 and 17, cartoonist, character designer and Max the Mutt animation director Tina Seeman (Polka Dot Door, Bookmice) will host the “Let’s Animate!” animation workshop. On March 11, veteran comic book artist Richard Pace (X-Men, Terror Inc.) will present “Drawing Comic Book Monsters.”

Max the Mutt Animation School is located at 952 Queen Street West, near Shaw. For more information, or to sign up for one of the workshops, call (416) 703-6877.

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