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Next DECA Board meeting July 31 – you’re invited!

Thanks to Sarah K. for this post

What do you get when you combine passionate local volunteers with laughter, tears and votable motions? Well, that would be a DECA Board meeting!  Our next bi-monthly meeting will be on Tuesday, July 31 at 7:30 p.m., and we would love for you to join us!  (Just joking about the tears!)

What happens at a DECA Board meeting?  Our meetings are where we meet to chat, laugh, debate, brainstorm, share, and plan all of our neighbourhood improvement events and activities.

Maybe you don’t know us?  Don’t let that stand between you and DECA. We are your neighbours, and truly, we believe that more is merrier!

Once upon a time we used to meet in each other’s homes but DECA folk are just too much fun for even the most sizeable East York kitchen, so we moved to a local restaurant! That’s right – you can order food and drink at our meeting to tide you over to the very last motion!

Our meetings are open to all DECA members, and/or to anyone interested in volunteering or helping out in some way. If you’re interested in attending the meeting, or if you have any questions about DECA, please email info(at)danfortheastcommunityassociation.com.

By the way, have you “liked” us on Facebook yet?  Please click here to find our page!

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CornFest & Trees

Market this week: CornFest, Godelie Family Farms & Cooks
 
Time to celebrate all things CORN! It’s Cornfest at the East Lynn Park Farmers’ Market this week.   Toronto’s famed storyteller Dan Yashinsky will be telling his stories at 4:30 p.m.  and the music of Bad Dog will set the mood for market goers and picnickers alike starting at 5:00 p.m. Be prepared to sing along!  And don’t forget your toonies as there will be cobs of boiled corn for sale at the DECA table.

Speaking of corn, I spent some time chatting with Harry from Godelie Farmily Farm last week.  Godelie Family Farm owners Gary & Blanche Godelie have been one our market’s pioneers having been with us since the first year.  Harry leaves the Godelie farm in Otterville at about 10 a.m. each week with corn, beans, cucumber, potatoes and many other fresh goodies that are picked daily.  That means that the corn he sells at our market is picked at 6:00 a.m. and can be on your table at 6:00 p.m.  Amazing!  As people shopped last week Harry asked them how long they boiled their corn – most people said between 8-10 minutes.  Turns out you only need to boil it for two minutes as it keeps the sugars from turning starchy.  I can attest that the corn is scrumptiously sweet right now as Harry convinced me to try some raw last week.  It was surprisingly delicious.  Try it.

Volunteer cooks:  We have over a dozen volunteers who cook dinner for our farmers each week.   They do it as a way to say thank you to the farmers and makes it so they don’t have to drive home on an empty stomach.  We have one volunteer signed up each week but given it’s peak season for the market we are looking for some additional volunteers to help with meals over the next two months to help distribute the load.  If you are interested in helping contribute to a meal please contact Shelley  – shelleydarling (at)yahoo.ca.

DECA Tree Group

The new DECA TREE GROUP meets this Thursday July 19 at 7 p.m. at Relish (back room). New members welcome!  We are hoping to get the group started on some projects, big and small. If you have time before the group meets, please read Every Tree Counts: A Portrait of Toronto’s Urban Forest.  This will help us make a plan for enhancing the tree canopy in our fabulous neighbourhood. If you can’t read it in time, please come anyway. There are many ways to get involved. We especially need to get water to our newest local trees.  Hope to see you there!

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Market, TEGH Open House & Madness Party

Farmers’ Market this week: Cookstown Greens, Little Libraries and Kid Fun.

If you’ve ever wondered about the farms and farmers that bring you their produce each week, you’re not alone. We’ll be featuring snippets about each farm on the blog on a regular basis. Here’s some interesting facts about one of our vendors.

Cookstown Greens — The unique and rare array of organic vegetables from Cookstown Greens travel just under 100km to get to our market. Although they bring a different selection of produce each week depending on what’s in season, recently they’ve had Welsh onions, Roosevelt potatoes, baby fingerling potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes (which are apparently not from Jerusalem, nor are they artichokes), basil seedlings, pea shoots, micro-Asians, coriander seedlings, rainbow chard, baby salad greens and broccoli brassica. Cookstown Greens’ produce is available at a number of markets and retail shops in the GTA, but they love coming to our market because, as farmer Gilbert says, you can tell the community knows there is a market going on. So why not try some of their greens this week and let us know what you think?

Don’t forget to stop by the DECA booth. This week you can hear about the Little Free Libraries project. Maybe you’ll be the next person to open a library in Toronto?

For the little ones:

  • Kindermusick with Nadia will start at 3:30 p.m.
  • Crafts with Ms. Darling will take place at 4:30 p.m. This week Mrs. Darling is hosting a velvet art colouring party. Kids can make beautiful vivid, fuzzy greeting cards or bookmarks. Supplies generously donated by Silly Goose.
  • the gang from Silly Goose will be back at 5:30 p.m. for some fun park activities.
craft

TEGH Open House

And if you are looking for even more to do on Thursday evening, Toronto East General Hospital will be hosting a Community Open House from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Click here for more details.

Main Square Madness Party this Saturday

If that’s not enough community activity for you then you’ll want to check out the Main Square Madness Party on Saturday, July 14th hosted by Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon. The party includes bike tune up lessons from 32 Spokes & Bicycle Commons and the opportunity to help a gardening crew beautify the area, a local artist paint a mural and clean up litter with the councillor herself. Check out the flyer for more information.

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DECA Parks – Exciting developments from east to west

Thanks to Sarah K. for this update from DECA Parks!

There’s a lot going on in our DECA-area parks this summer and we wanted to provide an end-to-end update for our park-loving readers.

East-End DECA – Stephenson Park

First up we have Stephenson Park (one block south of Danforth and one block west of Main) a little-known green haven just inside of DECA’s eastern border.  This recreation space has a baseball diamond, a great playground, and a wading pool – there is as much fun to be had here as we would find in our beloved East Lynn Park.

DECA Board Member and renowned illustrator, Tak Bui, recently orchestrated a painting project on the wading pool surface, for which he generously volunteered his own amazing illustrations. The result is an ethereal watery illusion of sea creatures under the little ones’ feet – a perfect destination on a hot summer day!

This past winter, Tak also dreamed up a plan to transform a barren bit of tree-lawn on Stephenson Avenue into a mini-urban garden. The garden is now ready for planting, thanks to all the hard working volunteers who got down and dirty to make this project a reality.  See the before and after pics below. Props go out to Danforth Lumber for donating materials for the project!

Before
After

West-End DECA – Monarch Park 

On DECA’s western border we find the beautiful and busy Monarch Park (at the south end of Monarch Park Ave). The biggest news of late is that the water slide has finally re-opened after lying dormant for many, many years. As the mercury rises, folks from other ‘hoods in Toronto will be jealous of our local attraction. If you are 43” or higher, this super soaker will have you cooled off in no time!

Speaking of Monarch Park, a group of local residents have organized a Friends of Monarch Park group that will be spearheading future improvements within the park. After two community meetings, a Steering Committee has been formed and a number of sub-committees have been created. If you are interested in volunteering with this group, please visit the group’s Facebook page and let them know. You can also email them at friends.monarchpark(at)yahoo.ca.

And we bet you’re wondering what’s going on behind Monarch Park Collegiate, right? Last year, the TDSB approved the lease/sale of their athletic field for the construction of a state-of-the-art athletic facility for both students and the community. Monarch Park Stadium will include a field, track, clubhouse, field lighting, and a winter dome – click here for more information. Tentative completion date is fall 2012.

Please leave a comment telling everyone about your favourite DECA neighbourhood park!

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Big week of changes along the Danforth

It’s been a big week on the east end of our stretch of the Danforth.

It was hard not to notice a big hole in the ground where the former “Glossy” building stood days ago at the south-west corner of Danforth and Patricia/Gledhill. Rumour has it that Honda bought the property and will use it as another lot.  We also have it on good authority that they will be adding some trees!

Many of us have heard by now that there was a fire last weekend at the shwarma place on the south side of Danforth (formerly “G-Spot” and “The Danny”).  CityNews reported that one person was treated at the scene.  It appears that the damage was pretty extensive so we are glad that nobody was seriously injured. We also hope that folks living above were not impacted.  Nothing has been reported about what caused the fire, and we have no news about what will happen next in the space.

The spot that housed “Runway Plus” on the north side of Danforth (across from Value Village) was vacant for only a few weeks before a Wind Mobile store popped up this week.  Not only are they open, the sign in their window says that they are hiring!

Last, but not least, The Thai Room has opened up on the south side of Danforth, just west of Woodbine. If you look closely at the picture, you will note the banner offering 25% off for take-out and eat-in, and 20% off for delivery.  Early reports are that the food is fresh, the people are nice, and the dining room is lovely.  What a great option on days when it is just too hot to cook, or on days that you’re too tired to cook, or on days that end in “y’…
On an unrelated note, we just wanted to thank our friends at Better Bulk for rescuing the Farmer’s Market sign left out on Thursday night.  Further proof that we live in a great neighbourhood!
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Have your say! Golf range petition, 54 Division community consultation

Beach Fairway Golf Range needs your help to stay open

How many of us east-enders like to shoot balls or play mini golf at the Beach Fairway Golf Range, on Victoria Park south of Danforth? (If you haven’t visited, you’ve probably passed by numerous times and made a mental note to check it out soon!)

The owners lease the land from the City, and their lease will not be renewed to make way for housing and retail development.  The whole place is slated to close for good on October 12, 2012.

The owners are meeting with the Mayor on July 16, 2012, and have asked that surrounding neighbours sign a petition ASAP to show that we want to keep the golf range and mini putt!  Here are a few reasons why you should think about signing:

  • This is the only driving range in the City south of the 401 (other than the Docks, which is a different type of facility)
  • They have over 60,000 visits each year including 5700 kids (for mini golf) and 2500 seniors
  • They offer special rates to a variety of organizations that otherwise would not be able to offer golf to their members for rehabilitation and/or social outings.
  • They give free golf lessons for inner city kids

For more info or to offer support, click here to get to the webpage, and then click on “sign our online petition”.

Proposed Changes to 54 Division – Community Input Wanted

There are some proposed changes on the table that could really impact our police services.  Please see below for details about a community consultation with Councillor Janet Davis on July 31, 2012, and a survey that you can print and submit by email or in-person.

Survey: to be submitted before July 31, 2012

BUILDING THE FUTURE FACILITY OPTIONS FOR THE DELIVERY OF POLICE SERVICES

In 2012, in response to significant current and anticipated future fiscal pressures, the Chief’s Internal Organizational Review (CIOR) was established to “engage members of the Service to conduct reviews of operations, infrastructure, administration, business processes and organizational structure with the goal to better achieve our Service’s Mission while increasing public value by becoming more effective, efficient and economical”.

As part of the CIOR, the process the Service uses to determine its requirement for police facilities and the eventual retrofit and/or replacement of these facilities is being reviewed. The objective of this review is to establish a framework to identify and evaluate facility options that will balance the needs of the community and our Service members, all the while ensuring the most effective, efficient and economical delivery of police services in the long-term. This review is focusing on 13 Division and 54 Division as they are slated for replacement in the near-term capital budget.

In addition, any framework must ensure that the transition, regardless of the option recommended, is seamless and minimizes any short-term disruption. Maintaining, if not improving, the current level and quality of service to the community is a critical decision point; as such, it is not anticipated that overall front-line staffing would be reduced as a result.

Considering the needs of your community, what do you think are the three most important things to consider when making decisions about police facilities and/or divisional boundaries?

1.

2.

3.

Building new police stations in a new location within the division has been the traditional response to aging and/or inadequate police facilities; the Review Team has identified the following options for addressing the replacement of police stations. The identified options are as follows:

Option 1: Build a new station in a new location, while maintaining existing boundaries

Option 2: Close the existing station, realign divisional boundaries of surrounding divisions to incorporate all areas of the closed division, reassign officers to surrounding divisions Amalgamate two divisions (with or without boundary realignment) and build a new station

Option 3: Close the existing station, realign divisional boundaries of surrounding divisions to incorporate all areas of the closed division, reassign officers to surrounding divisions Amalgamate two divisions (with or without boundary realignment) and build a new station

Consider each of the above three options for addressing the replacement of police stations.

What do you think could be the most positive result of each option?

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

What do you think could be the most negative result of each option?

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

If you have any further comments, concerns or suggestions (e.g. a different option), please note them below.

Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey.

Please return your survey to: the front desk of 54 Division at 41 Cranfield Road, Toronto Or Electronically to Helen.Dixon(at)torontopolice.on.ca by July 31, 2012.