Just north of our apartment in Corktown, the development at the corner of Dundas and Parliament continues. Yesterday, I noticed these harbingers of gentrification:
As promised, as of 7:00 this morning, the diversion of Queen streetcars is over. That means no more screeching.
Perhaps now I can get a proper night’s sleep.
Peter’s Corner (“Profile of Excellence”) is now officially open for business on the Northeast corner of Queen and Parliament. Hope to try it out soon, if I can wean myself off Pete’s Cajun. I’ve not yet stepped inside, but judging by the menu boards, it has to be better than the previous tenant, Mr. Tasty.
Yup, the screeching is back, as of this morning:
The TTC has scheduled streetcar service to resume along the Queen Street East bridge across the Don River at 5 a.m. today. Construction at Church and Queen Streets continues to disrupt streetcar service.
Via Transit Toronto
The horrible streetcar screetching at Queen and Parliament that I wrote about? For the past week, we’ve been spared. It seems that the previous diversion has been diverted by more construction on the Queen East bridge. So until August 27, the 501 will take this convoluted route:
501 Queen Streetcars will divert eastbound, from Yonge St.; east on Queen St., south on Victoria St., east on Adelaide St., south on Church St., east on King St., north on Parliament St., east on Dundas St., south on Broadview Ave., east on Queen St. to route. Streetcars will divert westbound, from Coxwell Ave.; west on Queen St., north on Broadview Ave., west on Dundas St., south on Parliament St., west on King St., north on Church St., west on Richmond St., north on Victoria St., west on Queen St. to route.
Laura and I tried to get to the subway today via the 501, and boy, was it confusing.
The other day, Jenna and I awoke to the sound of screaming steel at Queen and Parliament as TTC streetcars diverted south. Streetcar after streetcar made the turn, and I thought, “I wonder what’s wrong. I wonder how long long they’ll divert traffic.”
Turns out we’re in for more than a month of this. From TTC.ca:
Route diverting during watermain replacement
Starting 6:00 am, Monday, July 20 until 7:00 am, Tuesday, September 8, The City of Toronto and the TTC will conduct watermain replacement and streetcar track reconstruction affecting Queen Street East, between Berti Street and Jarvis Street. During construction, route 501 QUEEN and 502 DOWNTOWNER streetcars and 301 QUEEN route all-night streetcars will divert eastbound via Victoria, Adelaide, Church, King and Parliament. Westbound streetcars will divert via Parliament, King , Church Richmond and Victoria.
The stops on Queen Street East, between Victoria Street and Parliament Street will not be served.
Want to know what it sounds like? I made a quick and dirty recording. Make sure you listen all the way through before reading on:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
One more thing: the 501 passes by our corner often. From 6am to 11pm, it comes by about every ten minutes. In both directions, east and west. So if we’re lucky, we hear this once every five minutes.
How long before I go crazy, I wonder.
[original image by mattjiggins]
My favourite pizza place in Toronto, Peter’s Cajun Creole Pizza, is expanding. The former Mr. Tasty location, adjacent to Pete’s Cajun at Queen and Parliament, is now Peter’s Corner. They installed the sign tonight:
The sign promises:
But the best part? Their slogan is “Profile of Excellence.”
I’m not quite sure what that means, but I’m keen to eat there.
Photographer Margaret Mulligan took portraits of people with their ukes at last week’s Corktown Ukulele Jam, and they look terrific. Here’s the whole photoset on Flickr, and here are two of yours truly:
If you attend only one ukulele-related event in Corktown this week, make it this one. Steve and David of the Corktown Ukulele Jam have arranged for the uke action to move to the front room of the Dominion on Queen, and the whole night will be captured on video and uploaded to YouTube.
The Best of The Corktown Ukulele Jam, 8pm
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Dominion on Queen, main room
500 Queen Street East (at Sumach, 2 west of the DVP), Toronto, ON
I’ll be there, reprising (at Steve’s request) my ukulele cover of “She’s Dead” by Jim’s Big Ego. Video to follow, if it’s any good.
See you there. Or not, as the case may be.
My pal Tom gave me a ukulele for Christmas. To me, it’s wonderful. To Jenna, it’s irritating.
So then, I can’t tell you how happy I was to discover the Corktown Ukulele Jam. It started about a month ago, and is held every Wednesday at the Dominion pub on Queen (a five-minute walk from our apartment). Last night, I went for the first time with Jenna and Rae.
Steve and David, the organizers, were welcoming and knowledgeable. Someone played a Jonathan Coulton cover (Re: Your Brains). It was kind of, sort of, like going to ukulele heaven.
I’ll be back next week, and I hope this thing keeps going. It’s terrific. Sometimes I am very glad to live in a city large enough to support something like this.
Latest Tweets