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More Pop-Ups Coming To Danforth East

DECA’s extremely keen Renew East Danforth project is hosting another series of pop-up shops this December. All interested businesses, social and artistic enterprises are invited to submit an application to be considered for a one-month, free opportunity to create a pop-up shop on Danforth East from December 1st to December 31st. We will be accepting applications using the form at www.danfortheastcommunityassociation.com until Wednesday November 14th.

What is a pop-up shop?
Pop-up shops are temporary stores that pop-up for anywhere from a few days to a few months in empty storefronts. Landlords lend their space to enterprises for a short time free-of-charge and the impact is win-win. The enterprise gets the opportunity to try the space and the neighbourhood to see if it is a viable location to start something more permanent and the landlord gets their space cleaned, painted and staged for potential renters to consider it for future use.

Who needs to be involved in making a pop-up a success?
The key ingredients to a pop-up success are:

  • A landlord willing to lend their space for a month or more, free-of-charge
  • A business, artistic or social enterprise that wants to use the space and has a plan draw lots of foot traffic
  • A group of volunteers willing to help clean, paint and prep the space.

How can it benefit the community?
Pop-ups have proven wildly successful at revitalizing empty, lagging or struggling commercial areas. Stories from cities and towns across Australia, the United States, Canada, and the U.K. all demonstrate that pop-ups have the potential to take an area that has limited to no foot traffic, abandoned storefronts, and no competition for renting space and turn them into vibrant and successful commercial areas. More rented storefronts means more foot traffic, less vandalism and safer streets.

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Art Show, Neighbourhood Toy Store Day and a few other notes

Art Show & Sale

If you have an art lover on your holiday shopping list, or maybe you just need to get out of your house and away from all the Halloween Candy, consider visiting the 4th Annual Open Rhodes Art Show & Sale this weekend.  Rhodes Avenue is 1 block west of Coxwell Avenue on the south side of Danforth. Follow the purple “Open Rhodes” signs from 1:00 – 7:00 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday, November 10 & 11.

Click here for more info.

Celebrate ‘Neighbourhood Toy Store Day’ @ Silly Goose Kids!  

(note: one-day discount, prizes and lots of fun for the whole family…and TOYS!)

(P.S. – Check the inserts in your Mirror paper next Thursday, November 15, for the first-ever Silly Goose Kids CATALOGUE!)

Can there ever be too much pumpkin love?

We missed a few thank yous the other day when we published our Pumpkin Parade roundup post.  Here are a couple more, because can you ever have too much love?

Thank you to Ward 32 Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon and her office staff – yay Laurie! – who helped to promote the Parade and waive the permit fee.  We also want to acknowledge that the City’s Solid Waste Department stepped in to provide bins for the pumpkins, and then they hauled them away at no cost.

Last but certainly not least, a belated thank you out to our own volunteer extraordinaire, Tak Bui, who designed the awesome Pumpkin Parade poster.

Phew.  That feels so much better.

What happened to the weekly pop-up shop?

As you know, DECA’s latest off-shoot, Renew East Danforth, has been quietly gaining momentum over the past few months. After a successful two-week pop-up pilot project, expect more popping up yet to come!  Stay tuned.

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DECA Cocktail Party/AGM and Pumpkin Parade round-up

Your invited to the DECA Cocktail Party/AGM (Yes, our AGM is a cocktail party – we’re THOSE people) on Monday, November 12 – see below:

While we like to focus on the cocktail party aspect of the evening, the AGM part does require a teeny tiny sliver of time in order to get our new Board elected.  Unless an unexpected coup takes place, the business portion of the evening shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes or so.  For real!

The AGM is also a great chance for you to register/renew your DECA membership. For the low, low price of $10 per household, you can feel like a good citizen, and you will be filled with pride when we take your $10 and turn it into pop-up shops, the annual Arts Fair, the weekly Farmers’ Market, kids’ stuff sale, pub crawls, and so much more. Plus, you get to vote at our AGM and you can throw your clout all around town, for 365 glorious days. If you can’t make it next week, you can pay via PayPal be clicking on ‘subscribe’ at the bottom of our membership page.  Alternatively, you can drop off cash or a cheque at 48 Glebemount Avenue.

Once again, our boarders are Main St to Mortimer/Lumsden to Monarch Park, down to the train tracks.

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Pumpkin Parade Round-up

A message from our Chief Pumpkineer, Heather Bean.  DECA can’t thank you enough, Heather, for inspiring and organizing our most magical event of the year!

It was a bit drizzly and a bit windy, but his year’s pumpkin parade was still a delight. Kids big and small racing around the park in the dark; parents telling their little ones, “We can’t take pictures of ALL of them!”; couples wandering through, oohing and aahing; later, little clutches of teens pointing out their favourites. We had classic triangle-eyed pumpkins, scary pumpkins, a pumpkin snowman, Angry Birds and Dora the Explorer, Frankenweenie, John Lennon, and an enormous pumpkin, mercifully placed right next to the compost bin. (Thanks!) A special shout-out to Miss Curran’s Grade Ones and Twos, for their pumpkin-studded pumpkin.
A big thank you to our board members, especially Anita, Sheri and Shelley, for giving advice, handling pre-parade logistics and postering the town.
And especially, thank you to our Pumpkin Parade volunteers! Johanne Von Zuben has lit our pumpkins for two of the past three walks, cheerfully braving the cold. Our cleanup crew included Steve Wickens, Jeff Colley, Kathleen Peak and her mighty wagon, and Paul Haines and his cleanup crew of Matt, Jevon and Phil. We had that bin filled in record time.
See you again next year!
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Attention wagon owners and arts & crafters!

Wagon Owners – Did you find some pants in your wagon last night? 

The Pumpkin Parade was a delight again this year – thanks to all who came out! We will post a proper round-up soon, but first, a lost-and-found item of business:

Our parade volunteer Johanne, who’s been lighting your pumpkins for two of the past three parades, put her rain pants into the wrong red wagon last night. If you found a pair of black rain pants among your things, please contact Heather Bean at by clicking here.

And if you have photos of last night’s Parade, please post them to our Facebook page!

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Arts & Crafters Wanted!

Earl Beatty Public School is hosting a two-day Holiday in the ‘Hood craft fair on the following days:

  • Friday, November 23 from 3:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
  • Saturday, November 24 from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Craft fair table rentals are available for $40/1 day or $60/both days. To learn more or to reserve your table, contact Sheila Philcox at 416-975-4753 or by email.

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Make magic with us tonight in East Lynn Park

Don’t forget that you can stretch the spooky magic of Halloween a little longer by bringing your pumpkins to East Lynn Park, TONIGHT, (Thursday, November 1) for DECA’s third annual Pumpkin Parade.
The event runs from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. – bring a candle and we’ll light it for you there. The forecast says rain, but we’ll brave a little drizzle if you will. If it’s too wet to keep our jack-o-lanterns lit, then the magic will have to wait until next year.
P.S. – It’s not an actual parade, but only because those lazy pumpkins won’t march. It is amazing though, so if you’ve never been you really must come to see it.
P.P.S. – If you don’t have a pumpkin, you can still come!

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