Basil Thai Kitchen has the best sole fish with okra and tamarind sauce, but you might never have stepped past the cacti in the window.
Joseph can sew your wedding dress into a cocktail outfit, but you likely have never noticed his shop Four Seas Fashion Tailor (2193 Danforth).
NaNa Florist specializes in Japanese ikebana flower arrangements and it delivers across the city for just $10. Have you ever ordered from them?
These are just a few of our neighbourhood’s hidden gems.
We want to celebrate them! And we need you to help us!
This Thursday, we are launching DECA’s inaugural Danforth Gems competition.
It will last a month. At the end, the business we crown as our neighbourhood’s hidden gem will win a free marketing prize pack, with designers, a PR and website specialist, professional stagers and photographers.
It could mean a whole new look for them, and new publicity, so they no longer remain hidden.
THIS IS HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS:
Nominate your favourite hidden gem within DECA boundaries. DECA’s borders are Main Street (east), Lumsden/Mortimer (north), Monarch Park, (west) and the train tracks (south).
Tell us why it is a gem, how it is hidden, and why it deserves this prize pack.
On May 8, we will choose the top four contestants.
Then a week later, our panel of celebrity judges will choose the winner.
What do we mean celebrity judges? Well, CBC music columnist Errol Nazareth, Spacing Magazine founder and publisher Matt Blackett, restaurateur and Guinness Record holding Oyster shucker Pat McMurray, Kim Mitchell Band keyboardist Ray Coburn, Danforth Mosaic BIA chair Billy Dertilis, DECA chair Sheri Hebdon & past chair Anita Schretlen. (The last two are celebrities to us.)
Get involved. Unearth your buried treasure in the neighbourhood!
We started these brief bios to introduce you, dear community reader, to DECA’s new board members.
Once we were done that, some of our veteran members started piping up. They wanted you to meet them too.
If you didn’t already know all about them, we thought we certainly would. We’ve worked together on the board for years! Turns out, we were wrong.
For instance: We knew Jane Davis-Munro owned local Pegasus Studios.
We did not know she married her grade 10 sweetheart and lived for decades in a nearby co-op housing. In fact, we didn’t even know there was co-op housing so nearby!
We don’t want to give all the sparkling surprises buried in this blog post away.
So, with no further ado, here is the beautiful, kind and soulful JANE DAVIS-MUNRO, in her own words.
Jane Davis-Munro (right) with her daughter Briar Munro. Jane owns Pegasus Studios in DECA territory and Briar owns Fly Girl Fitness, on Cedarvale and Danforth. Like mother, like daughter.
My name and age is… Jane Davis-Munro (maiden name and married name put together). I am 58 years young.
Two things people don’t know about me are… I have been with my husband, Dan, since I was 15. Dan is a vocalist and we met at a house party in Etobicoke where he was performing. He is still singing ‘The Blues’ in a band (for fun) and we love going to the Linsmore on Sunday at 5:00 to see a great R & B and Blues band – Perez and Dickie!
I also am the owner of Pegasus Studios which is a family-run, community arts centre started with my mother (who was a visual artist) 29 years ago in Kimbourne Park United Church. Our mandate is to teach dancers the benefit of giving back to the community. Our students have raised thousands of dollars by dancing for local and international charities. We also love to spread the joy of dance by dancing for many local schools, daycares, at the East Lynn Park Farmers’ market, Arts Fair and the Tree Lighting! Our dancers are learning the importance of sharing their gifts, empowerment and developing self-confidence, exactly what we want for our children.
I moved to Danforth East … from Mississauga in 1979 into Innstead Co-op Housing, a scattered housing co-op with over 52 properties between Jones and Coxwell, Queen St. and the railway tracks. We had two young daughters, I had just graduated from Ryerson’s theatre department specializing in dance and we hated living in a highrise apartment. We moved into a wonderful community that believed in co-operative food, housing, supportive child-raising and we had our third daughter. We lived in the co-op for over 20 years, which allowed me to start my own business and go back to school to become an early childhood educator. We are forever grateful.
One change I’ve seen over the years…. is the many young families moving in and the revitalization of neighbourhood. I have been around long enough to see it come full circle. These are exciting times!
The thing I love most about Danforth East is… that everything we need is here. People know each other, hang out together, shop local and find entertainment and services all in our neighbourhood.
My biggest local pet peeve is… people who do not park respectfully. We need to walk more, and when you do need to take your car, make sure you don’t block driveways or take up more than one parking spot!
My neighbourhood secret is… Kimbourne Park United Church has just begun turning its lawn into a permaculture garden to grow local food and connect with the community. They want to create a space where people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds can connect with the earth, grow food and learn together. Find out more at www.gardenatkimbourne.blogspot.com.
The place I go in DECA’s stomping grounds that you’ve likely never frequented is… Fly Girl Fitness at 85 Cedarvale and Danforth (above Relish). You can see me there taking small group training, kettle bells and pilates classes. My daughter Briar is the owner. When she was young, she was diagnosed with Perthes disease — a degeneration of the bones in the hips. She decided that if she was never going to walk again, she should get her black belt in taekwondo! With the guidance of Desantos Martial Arts (Main and Danforth) she went on to get her second degree black belt between surgeries. Briar coaches people to reach their goals.
I also go to The Yoga House, which is nestled on quiet, residential Copeland Ave, with a view onto the ravine. The owner, Celeste Shirley, offers lots of classes, workshops and Thai massage. My favourite way to start my day is “Wake Up Yoga” on Tuesday and Friday mornings.
The thing I’ve done as a DECA board member that makes me most proud is… organizing two community flash mobs. One to launch the Pop-up shops at the Carrot Common and the second was to celebrate International Dance Day. Over 100 DECA families and dancers came together to dance in Robertson Parkette and in the Beer Store parking lot, to kick off a local Jane’s Walk. We had so much fun and hope to do it again next year or sooner.
This is a wonderful initiative and thanks to DECA member Diana Gibbs for sending this along:
The New Circles’ annual Prom Boutique Clothing Drive is now in high gear and they need your fancy clothes! The boutique is the largest in the city serving girls and boys and expects over 500 youth this year. Working with schools across the city, the program ensures that the financial barriers do not prevent students participating in the big day.
In This Closet (1765 Danforth) is kindly offering to be a drop-off site for east-enders and will accept your donations until April 17th. Don’t leave your fancy clothes to languish in your closet. Bring them to In This Closet and put them to work. Let’s make sure all our graduating youth can celebrate this milestone event in style.
Looking for:
New or gently used suits, shirts, ties/bow-ties, shoes
New or gently used formal or cocktail dresses, shoes, evening bags and jewelry
Free Creative Writing Workshop for 9-11 yr olds beginning April 25 (registration required)
Beauty Now April Promotion – 20% off April 14-30th
DECA Board Meeting
Sounds kind of boring, right? But it’s not! Our meetings are the main way that we regularly engage with members and guests and we’d love to see you there if you want to come. We’re meeting Monday, April 13 @ 7:30pm
The only bad thing about the melting of snow is the reveal of months worth of hidden litter. Fortunately the City of Toronto Community Clean-up Days are just around the corner. On Saturday April 18 and Sunday April 19 join your neighbours in beautifying our streets, laneways and parks.
Various parks groups have organized clean-ups you can be a part of or feel free to grab a bag and some gloves and clean up your own street. Garbage and recycling bags are available NOW at Pizza Pizza locations throughout the city and at the East York Civic Centre.
Regardless of where you’re cleaning up, all cleaners are welcome to stop by Arthur Potts’s Constituency Office at 1821 Danforth Avenue on Saturday between 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. for some hot chocolate and snacks.
If you know of another clean-up happening in the DECA boundaries, let us know in the comments and we’ll include it in our reminder post next week. And to see if there are community clean-ups organized for other parks in East Toronto that may not be in the DECA boundary, check out the City of Toronto’s sign up page.
Well, it seems our little introductory sketches of new board members were popular… at least with our veteran board members, who pleaded to be interviewed too. Okay, that might be a small exaggeration. But, they liked the bios and they wanted them to continue…
The good thing about that: DECA’s veteran board members are just as interesting and talented as our new board members.
Take, for instance, Steve Wickens. You might know him as the Jane Jacobs aficionado who leads our local Jane’s Walk, called “The Death and Life of the Upper Midway.” If you haven’t been on this guided historical walk along the Danforth, be sure to sign up for one of this year’s walks on May 2 and May 3 at 10 am. You’ll soon see why.
Steve Wickens leading his Jane Jacob’s walk along the Danforth. Photo courtesy of Gay Stephenson.
Here is Steve, in his own words….
My name and age is… Stephen Wickens, age 57 (until April 25).
One thing people don’t know about me is … I’ve been fascinated by the Danforth for more 50 years. Unlike the sleepy Beach area, where I was raised, the Danforth seemed like an exotic real-world place, often in the news, and with a subway under construction. John’s Hobbies (yep, the same one) was exciting for a small boy and Stan Lane Sports (on the south side at Cedarvale) was the first place I knew of where you could buy a curved hockey stick. When I saw My Fair Lady at the once-grand Prince of Wales, (now known as Valu-mart), I remembered the theatre more than the movie. No wonder I like hanging out at the archives and leading an annual Jane’s Walk.
I moved to Danforth East because … In late 2001, my wife and I decided we wanted a house walking distance to a subway station that wouldn’t require an onerous mortgage. At first we weren’t sure how long we’d stay; now we know the East Danforth is where we want to be, even if we downsize for retirement.
One change I’ve seen over the years … There’s energy and optimism now. Twice in the early 2000s I attended meetings aimed at getting a community association going. Both groups failed. Somehow, I missed out on the start of DECA, but it seems that the people who founded it also kickstarted a momentum that’s still building.
The thing I love most about the East Danforth is … I have great neighbours and it’s already a walkable, unpretentious commercial strip on the rise after a half century of decline.
My biggest local pet peeve is… Litter pigs: Whether it’s fast-food detritus or cigarette butts, it tells me too many people don’t care. Let’s make this a part of town where you’re more likely to get odd looks from people for dropping litter, rather than for picking it up.
My neighbourhood secret is… We have a largely overlooked history as a rural zone within the city until the 1920s, then with a diverse local economy when it was a blue-collar industrial area into the 1950s. The Canada Bread plant east of Greenwood bestowed a wonderful aroma, and it’s employees packed the Linsmore on shift changes. Shoppers World was once Ford’s main assembly plant and the eastbound streetcars were packed in the morning as people arrived for jobs in our area. There were brickyards, quarries, small factories, coal and lumber yards and car dealerships. The John Wood plant on the south side of Hanson was Canada’s biggest producer of hot water tanks. When we had lots of jobs, lots of people were on the sidewalks at different times of the day, and the shops and restaurants thrived.
A place you might not have visited on the Danforth is … Len Duckworth’s (just east of Main and the DECA boundary) may be the oldest fish and chips shop in the city. It has thrived since 1930s, in part because halibut in their crisp, decadent batter is unbeatable. The gritty old Linsmore Tavern (1298 Danforth Ave) has new life and brings in great bands on Friday and Saturday nights (some such as the Neil Young’uns are so popular they sell out a week in advance). If you like my haircut (and, really, who doesn’t?), it’s “the poeta,” courtesy of No. 1 Sam (Sam’s Hair Styling, 1696 Danforth Ave).
My dream plan for the next year as a DECA board member is…. Working with our visioning committee to ensure the neighbourhood is well represented when the city launches its Danforth Planning Studies. We need to make the place more pedestrian friendly, in part by ensuring that when density comes, it includes office jobs to replace some of the industry we lost after World War II. We need to ensure that when sites such as the Coxwell TTC lands and the parking lot behind Valu-mart are redeveloped (and they will be) that they add to the livability of the area.
