Medical Response on Queen St Streetcar

Both the Toronto Fire Department and the Paramedics respond to a medical emergency on a Queen Street TTC streetcar at University Avenue. The large articulated streetcars started to pile up as passengers were forced out of the car and onto the street to await transport by bus.

Cleopatra

Elizabeth Taylor had a long and full life bursting with excitement and she left a legacy of films when she recently passed away. She was a movie star of the past and like many old memories, some people do not know who she is or even what movies she acted in. It's like when we tried to find the original True Grit movie starring John Wayne - when we asked if Wal-Mart carried the old movie, the sales associate did not even know who John Wayne was.

A poster is pasted to a pole on Queen Street West advertising a showing of the movie 'Cleopatra' which was one of the bold spectacles that made headlines in it's day for the extravagance that went into making the movie.

STOP Graffiti Vandalism Now

The Mayor of Toronto wants to stamp out graffiti vandalism, which is an excellent idea, especially since it explicitly excludes art murals, "One or more letters, symbols, blah, blah, blah, that disfigure or deface a structure or thing, blah, blah, blah, does not include an art mural". The blahs are mine, if you want to read the information check the city website.

Devil baby breathes fire!

Saying you want to get rid of graffiti is like saying you want to cure the homeless problem. It is very expensive, will cause much debate over who/what can stay in the streets and in the end won't cure the problem.

Fresh Homelessness

But I agree bad graffiti is either vandalism or gang markings and should be removed from city streets and alleyways and art murals should only go up on buildings with the owners permission.

See more graffiti after the jump.

Sandals and cherries - Bell Sucks!

I am without home internet as my Bell wireless modem (2wire) has again crapped out because of their failure prone power supply. When a new power supply finally gets to me, hopefully within a month, I will celebrate my fifth unit and hope its lifespan is far greater than the previous units. Something must be in the air because when I was still on my third power supply Bell sent out a new one in a general mailing saying that they have had a problem with the ac to dc conversion units and here you go.  It didn’t take me long to need that new unit and now that replacement has gone to a better place.

I hate dealing with Bell and I hate getting hosed by Bell and I really hate when they tell me, once again, that I am not listed on my account. PS my name is James Hamilton and I am addicted to the internet and Bell Sucks!

Toronto Clean Up Day - 20 Minute Makeover

Toronto’s annual community clean up day is this Friday, April 15 at 2:00pm. The 20 minute makeover helps to get rid of the winter garbage, long dormant under a bed of clean, white, then grey and finally black snow and it is a nice way to welcome Spring back into our lives. You can visit the City’s website to review the information but the date to register is passed.

I like the big yellow caution sign they have placed on Queen Street West just in front of City Hall – the mop they are will have to use must be gigantic!

Election Fog

Today was a mixture of fog, rain and snow which perfectly reflects the ongoing election campaigns - partly confusing with a chance of victory. Polls continue to favour the Conservative party so people wait for a game changer or we head into another Conservative minority or maybe even a majority government this time.

Sometimes we have a vague idea that we will probably vote for a certain party and will only change our mind if they say something that makes us mad, or if the other party says something so great that it completely changes our mind about the candidate.

I don't really understand the commercial that says "A vote for the Liberals is a vote for Michael Ignatieff" because I am pretty sure that's the way it has always been. You vote for both the local representative and the leader of the party when you cast your vote. Conversely, a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Stephen Harper. If that's the most negative advertising that's going to happen I will be impressed by how civil the election is being run.

We need everyone to jump on the streetcar, or bandwagon, and get out there and vote on election day May 2nd, 2011. You can pick one of the five main parties (Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc Quebecois or the Green Party) or chose an independent or other registered political party like the Pirate Party of Canada or the Rhinoceros Party.

Remember, you can't talk about the election without talking about parties!

Condo Newspaper Boxes

The City of Toronto has introduced a new, sexy type of newspaper box - a community type of box with multiple newspapers living together in harmony, a sort of hippie newspaper commune or a condo-box for a condominium city. The grey structure I found at Queen Street West and Bay Street is branded with the City of Toronto Logo, holds eight different papers with up to four paid editions possible (yeah, like that will be necessary in the near future). Maybe they can remove the coin slot area and stick in more free editions as necessary. This design was actually released to the media in 2008 and shown in this Torontoist article but this is the first time that I have seen it in the wild.

The other newspaper boxes are scared of the beautiful lines of the new box and fearful of a future where they may have to go to for recycling. You can see the City's logo on the side of the box.

This sleek new baby replaces the long line of multi-coloured newspaper boxes that fill many street-corners and which many people consider an eyesore. I didn't mind the old individual boxes because they were sometimes the most colourfull objects on a downtown street. You can see that they must have just taken the wrapping off the installation as the dull grey finish is yet untouched by stickers, graffiti or posters. I will check back later this week to see if the finish remains virgin.

The old boxes in front of the Starbucks wait for the transfer of the paying editions to the new box. They are remarkably clean with very little marks added by artistic citizens. Both the Star and the Sun boxes have small stickers which mention agendas and lies.

High Rise Fire Unit on Queen St West

A Toronto Fire Department High Rise Unit blows past a TTC streetcar on Queen Street West as it goes into the Yonge Street intersection. Not too much slows down the pace of Torontonians so everyone goes about their business, including climbing into the streetcar.

mmmm donuts

It's like an army of yummy donuts getting ready for war. They roll out of the hot oil and get drenched in liquid sugar. Of course they don't give out the free ones anymore at the Krispy Kreme donut store, but they are fun to get every once in a blue moon. I think that the designers of the entrance to Old City Hall had donuts on their mind when they did the rails.

Reflection of Justice

After some rain in the morning the sun decided to come out today and blue sky provided some welcome sunshine on the last day of February 2011. Old City Hall, which is now a courthouse that turned 100 years old in 1999, is reflected like a fun house mirror in the Simpson Tower windows.

Untamed Queen Street West

The lush texture of Queen Street West begins with the high end clothing and shoe stores and a crazy mix of some wild and wonderful stores like Condom Shack and the Cannabis Culture Shop and is followed, and always overshadowed, by the old CityTV/Much Music building with that SUV blasting out of the side of the wall, high above the parking lot. Stars and celebrities still wander through out the studios and people wait to catch glimpses of the famous. Wonder Woman engages in a wild fight with evil, phallic shaped MAC cosmetics in the store window above.

There is always colour and a vibrancy about the street coming from the area's desire to be something other than a staid business strip of typical merchants. That and the constant posters and graffiti everywhere.

Roommate wanted posters

"This wall looked better with graffiti" - I'm pretty sure it still has graffiti.

After the snow the sun returns

Afternoon sun reflected onto Union Station.

Half the working population of Toronto stayed home during Wednesday's predicted blizzard. Toronto was protected from the full fury of the storm, probably because of Groundhog Day, and the next day dawned bright and sunny.  No massive piles of snow blocked pedestrians or cars; we survived Toronto, we survived.

Queen Street West Hot Dog trucks look okay.

Some pigeons huddle for warmth at the entrance to the PATH system at City Hall. They really want to crap on some weather forecasters.

Looking down Bay Street

Bay Street is the heart of Toronto's financial district, a mixture of old buildings or skyscrapers with a few suits and ties walking around. You can't go very far before tripping over some investment banker or a lawyer ready to sue you for tripping over them. I was surprised to find out that Bay Street used to be called Bear Street because, believe it or not, they used to see bears around the area many moons ago.

I think when they built the road they wanted to have it go right through old City Hall, just to show who was boss, but instead they built a jog in the road around the old Credit Valley Stone stucture at Queen Street. These pictures were taken from the steps of old City Hall looking south towards Lake Ontario, just past the row of condos, the railway structure over Bay Street and the Gardiner Expressway.

The section of Bay from Queen Street to Union Station is one of the most popular locations for the homeless. Several seem to live permanently at the busy intersection and in the winter the stacks of sleeping bags help to keep them warm. There are a number of Toronto resources, and organizations like the Salvation Army, who to try to help those who live on the streets.

Number 5, Number 5, Number 5.....

Chanel No 5 Fragrance advertisement on the side of the Queen Street West Bay.

I also found a sign war going on a Ryerson University Campus stop sign. Someone had placed a sticker that read "Eating Animals" - when read with the sign it said "stop eating animals". Someone else had scratched out the "ing" part and added "and" to make "stop and eat animals". Pure genius; those crazy university students. Now I have to go to dinner, I am having a veggie burger but instead of buns I am using sirloin steaks.

TRON Legacy 3D - graffiti

On the side of a comic book store on Queen Street West I find the wall now covered with an advertisement for TRON Legacy 3D by Artchild from TorontoGraffiti.com.

I found a YouTube Video from the Key of Awesome guys, which was awesome.

Then I also found some more graffiti and posters in a few Queen Street West alleyways.

Streetcar on Queen Street West

If you don't take public transportation the TTC streetcars are a pain in the ass, the tracks make it hard to drive, the constant stopping and pedestrians in the road are a safety concern. But they are interesting red rockets, travelling down the roads, getting people to where they need to go and they look good. How do you know you are in Toronto? Look for the CN Tower and the red streetcars. And check out the TTC's Toronto Points of Interest for some ideas for sightseeing in the Big Smoke.

In a shocking turn of events a streetcar and a bus collided on Dundas Street and 17 people were injured.

Skipping in TO

Swiss Natural had a double dutch skipping team out on Queen Street West - if you skipped they would donate $1 to Breakfast for Learning. It was fun to see people stop along their busy day and start jumping and some, like this lady, were very good and I think it brought back some happy memories of younger times.

A stroll along Queen Street West

The Queen Street West stroll takes in an area with lots of character and it is always fun walking along and seeing the different stores and their sometimes funny advertising (who can forget the camel toe window), ever present graffiti and the occasional chair to relax your weary bones.

At the John Fluevog shoe store you can finally realize that it isn't them, it is you - you're weird.

While not on Queen Street West you can catch a glimpse of the OCAD art school on stilts. The Ontario College of Art and Design building reminds me of the alien space craft in the Tom Cruise movie War of the Worlds. Big alien tentacles will reach down, pick you up and deposit you in an art class.