gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

Stinky Leslieville update

So, I finally found some answers on the east end stink problem, and the news is not good. It would seem that the smell in Leslieville is indeed sewage, and it's not accidental - it's institutional, and it's here to stay, for a while.

The issue came up at a meeting of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre last night, where the problem was on the agenda and discussed. Here's what they had to say:

Item 4. Sewage Odours MOE

We have had many complaints starting on Friday and through the weekend about sewage smells. The City has $220 million allocated for odour controls over the next 10 years. They have a plan but it will take time. The problem seems to be that they can’t get rid of the sludge fast enough. Historically it went to farms and landfill. Michigan is now closed and fall is better for spreading on farms. Then there were consecutive Canadian and American holidays where trucks weren’t operating. We are looking at issuing an order to get the city to deal with the sludge. They know there’s a problem.

The good news is that the City no longer burns the sludge and the new pelletizer should be operating for the first time ever this week to replace some of the trucking. It is a facility that dewaters and dries the sludge for use as fertilizer pellets. Comment: The City need to get its act together, they produce 10 trucks and ship 6. They should belooking at mine tailings and tree plantations not just agricultural land application.

Great... so now we're going from stockpiling sewage sludge to stockpiling sewage pellets. And no answer to why it suddenly smells here but not in the Beach.

It's just what this up-and-coming neighbourhood needs, you know. Every week I read articles in the major papers about the great new shops and coffee shops and restaurants opening up in Leslieville, such as neighbourhood cornerstone Joy Bistro's new B-side outdoor patio/lounge. Nothing brings in the customers like the smell of dried sewage sludge pellets.

And of course I was speaking to a colleague about how we had both finally made an effort to go green, opening windows instead of using the air conditioning (she, again with more gumption, went so far as to buy a bunch of window fans for the purpose.) Now it's back to shut windows and AC for the forseeable future. Again, just what Toronto needs.

Blinded by the light

Last week I warned you that stuff was falling from the skies all over town and that, proof positive that gravity is increasing, it’s time to invest in hard hats.

But would the people who make Toronto tick listen? Noooooo. Instead, they are proceeding to put even more stuff up in the sky, foolishly hoping it’ll stay there.

At lunchtime yesterday, I looked up (bravely) to see several platforms dangling from the top of the World’s Dangliest Dang-doodle – the CN tower.

These appear to be platforms for fixing the tower, or maybe scrubbing off the bird poop, lightning scorches, or graffiti (double dog dare you, Poster Child!)

You couldn’t pay me enough to go up there, though I bet if they could reel ‘em out quickly it’d make a ride that would put the Demon Drop to shame. Anyhow, while I was eating lunch I read that there are big plans for the venerable Pointy Thing – they’re going to light it up like a Christmas tree.

"Like the Shanghai Tower, Empire State Building and London Eye, the CN Tower will also be ablaze at night with light and colour.

"Toronto's internationally known landmark and the world's tallest freestanding tower is to be outfitted with 1,330 brilliant LED lights that will shoot up the elevator shaft, over the "bubble" and straight to the mast."

And you thought the tower’s phallic imagery was in your head.

I guess there’s no harm in adding a little Vegas-on-Front-Street, and officials are quick to point out that the LEDs are more efficient than the washing-machine sized lights they used when the lit it up 10 years ago. Plus, they promise to turn them off during bird migratory season, so nothing gets impaled on the huge pulsing shaft (oh, man…)

Still, does our city really suffer from a lack of light pollution? We’ve got 16,000 streetlights (which are being replaced.) Our skyscrapers blaze through the night, the Air Canada Centre paints the sky with its giant klieg lights, as do those portable kliegs used every time there’s a high school prom or a Winner’s opening. Never mind Symphony of Fire, police helicopters and the Blade Runner monstrosity at Dundas Square.

Once upon a time, I saw a supposedly-funny postcard, all black with the subtitle “Toronto at night.” It was way off the mark then, but now it’s just ridiculous.

It’s been said before that the Toronto skyline has already been turned into a giant screen saver, obliterating the stars and frightening dogs for miles around. I’m not sure that turning the CN Tower into the World’s Largest Thermometer is going to help (though maybe the United Way can put it to use in their next campaign.)

The Star article says the whole thing is going to be controlled by a desktop computer. I really, really hope that guy who hijacked the Go Train pixelboards to make them say "Stephen Harper eats babies" gets his hands on it.

I can look directly up at the tip of the CN Tower from my desk across the road at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre (fun during a lightning storm, unsettling on September 11.) But it’s getting harder to see – the CBC windows are filthy. And now, in another lesson of things going up and falling down, we know why.

Here’s part of a message e-mailed to staff yesterday:

Replacement of Roof Anchors

In recent months, we've had regular requests to wash the outside windows of the Broadcasting Centre. We have been unable to do so because the original roof anchors on this building no longer meet approved safety standards, making it legally impossible for window washers to operate here.

After several unexpected delays (including the first strike in 20 years by the union of roof anchor installers), we can now begin the process of removing the existing anchors and installing more than 270 new, government-approved replacements over the next three months. Our goal is to be able to wash the outside of the building in September.

First, did you know there was a union of roof anchor installers, or that they went on strike?

Second, I’ve seen the guys who dangle from the 10th-floor roof to wash our windows, and they are like fearless squeegee gods. Even though the construction site next door has coated the TBC in grime, I can’t begrudge them something safe to tie on to.

And third, I’ve told my wife it’s my goal to wash our home windows by September too.

Nice day for a dip

Daydreaming again today...

(I think that little platform on the top of Roy Thompson Hall is there for window cleaning, but it sure looks like a diving board to me. On a scorcher like today, it's fun to imagine the whole building full of water... Splash!)

Spring has sprung – From the 416 to the 905

Cute alert!

This is what my brother-in-law Rob found under a pile of leaves in his Markham backyard. Actually, when he first found them they looked like little pink balls - eyes shut, ears pinned back - but a week later, they are full on, cute-as-a-bunny bunnies.

Rob was worried that he'd disturbed their nest, which was up against his townhouse wall beside the garden hose. But it turns out that mother rabbits only return once or twice a day to quickly nurse and then scoot off so as not to call attention to them. She's doing a good job - two weeks later, Rob's bearded collie Hoover has yet to notice the nest right outside his door. I don't know what's funnier - the idea of a great big dog taking a whiz five feet from the nest, or his great big master scouring the internet for bunny care tips.

I don't think of Markham as much of a wild kingdom, but you can catch the birds and bees doing their thing right downtown at this time of year. My perennial favourite is at this pond outside Roy Thompson Hall:

If you pass through the walkway seen at bottom right, you'll see a family of ducklings learning to swim right beside the glass.

They've been returning here for seven years now, despite efforts to discourage them - at various points, staff have fenced in the pillars where they built their nests, removed the pillars entirely, and asked wildlife experts to relocate them to more appropriate grounds - all without luck. So now, they've put out a ramp and a bowl of food, and you can watch them do their ducky thing any business day.

Even more fun is watching the business people watching the ducks, and cooing and making those "Awwwww! Nature!" faces so out of place in the city's business hub. Like Rob, they sometimes go back to their office computers to look up duck nesting habits.

I know this because I've encouraged it in the past. In June 2000, my sister Alison wrote a feature on these very ducks for the CBC4Kids website. You can still find it online via Archive.org's Wayback Machine. It included a Duck Journal on how the little ducklings grew, and a feature on duck nesting habits.

Those of you reading from rural locations will likely - and should - scoff at the urban fascination with any remnant of the natural world. But I still think it's a tiny miracle, and how many of those do you see at work?

Beautiful decay

Tim Neesam, a CBC.ca colleague of mine, takes photographs that are off the charts in terms of what Flickr calls "interestingness".

Tim's specialty is decaying buildings. He gains access to crumbling industrial facilities - Toronto's brickworks, the old Inglis factory - and takes stunning pictures of their eerie beauty.

It's a tricky business. The low light levels mean extraordinarily long exposures (20-30 seconds, in some cases) Then there are the more practical issues: crazy vagrants, tresspassing laws...

I've seen a lot of cool stuff on Flickr, but Tim's work is nothing short of spectacular.

Be sure to check out Tim's Flickr site, and his variations on the theme - his Twins series (double self-portraits amid the decay) and HDR photography, a new technique of merging over- and underexposed images of the same scene.

For those of you in Toronto, Tim is participating in Reconstructed, a group show that closes on Sunday at Gallery 1313 (1313 Queen Street West.) He'll be there all afternoon on Saturday, itching to hear what you think.

Junkhouse

Does anyone else live near one of those crazy houses that feature "junk art" on the front lawn?

I do. A few houses up the street, you'll find this place, at 68 Empire Ave. (And no, it's not snowy there any more.) This house features and ever-changing display of statues and decorations made from junk found objects. In the winter, it's augmented by intricate monuments and ice candles, which burn through the night with a rather magical quality.

The house was featured in the Toronto Star in 2004:

Some gardens inspire inertia. Kassa Dabreo's garden makes you think.

The 38-year-old Rastafarian, a native of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, came to Canada in 1985, bringing with him a love for the outdoors and a respect for the Earth. He's committed to environmental protection, and it shows in his front yard.

Dabreo also likes to laugh, and humour shines through many of his arrangements, which involve recycled household goods such as faucets and toys interspersed with wood, stone and other natural materials, such as sliced coconut shells.

At the front, at little-people level, Dabreo leaves an assortment of toys. "Kids come by and play with them. Sometimes they take them, but they always bring them back. I don't mind ... I leave stuff out, like plates, that people can take if they want," he says.

My little kids used to really enjoy those toys that Kassa left out - at one point they had names for them all. When the Star photographer was out taking pictures, he snapped a few of my little one playing with a crab-shaped sand toy that she called "Pinchy the Crab" (to my amusement, the young photog then asked me how to spell "Pinchy", then thought about it and retracted the question.)

Myself, I quite enjoy the junk statues (as opposed to the smattering of "junk piles", houses with broken furniture and garbage from the previous tenant tossed out on the porch.)

Amusement aside, it's probably not the best thing for property values - the house beside this one finally sold after about six months on the market; on our street, houses sell in around 10 days. But I'm not selling, so I'm still enjoying the creativity.

A few weeks ago, as I came home in the dark, I got a sneak preview of Kassa's latest creation: a junk-statue bicycle replete with a canopy, LED lights and spinning propellors! The junk art has gone mobile, and may be coming soon to a neighbourhood near you.