The Residents Association is wishing you all a safe & happy holidays.
This year’s Holiday Card is designed by Joanne Pettigrew Design – a Cabbagetown resident!
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Olympic Torch in Cabbagetown
The Olympic Torch relay is expected to be passing through Cabbagetown at the corner of Parliament and Gerrard on Friday December 18th at 7:06am.
Come out and show your support.
More info www.toronto.ca/mie/olympictorchrelay/pdf/olympic_route_map.pdf
During a windstorm at the beginning of October this year, a huge branch split off a tree and straddled Spruce street until work crews hauled it away. It was then that we noticed that the center of the tree seemed to be rotting.
People in our neighbourhood and around Toronto have been noticing the slow but relentless decrease in our tree population. This decrease is due either to the trees reaching the end of their natural lives or to illness or disease. Most severe storms these days are now accompanied by falling branches which can cause significant damage.
Part of the charm and beauty of our neighbourhood here in Cabbagetown is the existing canopy of mature trees. The DVCRA would like to address this issue by forming a committee to draw up an action plan to tackle this issue. Our first step would be to complete an inventory of our trees, assessing their health and approximate age and making plans for their replacement where necessary. Other neighbourhood associations, such as Roncesvalles, Leslieville and Withrow Park, are already tackling these same issues. Many resources are available from the City and other organizations to help us with this task.
We need your help, however. We are therefore looking for those among you who feel strongly about protecting our beautiful tree canopy and would volunteer your time to sit on this committee. You don’t eed to have any prior knowledge of trees, although an arborist among our midst would be a bonus.
If you are interested, please contact one of us.
Thank you
Judy Trogadis, jtrogadis@gmail.com , 416-975-9878
Garnet Siddall, gsiddall@mac.com , 647-298-9228
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Cabbagetown Nuit Blanche
The DVCRA is proud to be supporting: CABBAGETOWN NUIT BLANCHE YEAR II
For the second year the neighbourhood of Cabbagetown will be creating its own unique all night art event as an independent partner with Scotiabank Nuit Blanche.
Building on last year’s success, for 12 hours the neighbourhood will be transformed into a canvas of spectacle and interactive contemporary art.
With Will Hudson’s iconic gateway sculpture, art will literally spill from a pedestrian friendly Parliament street into all corners of Cabbagetown. Classic mediums, such as Someone’s one of a kind letterpress collide with the futuristic technologies of Hilary Martin’s kiss bots. Participants will interact with Kelly Roger’s Time Tunnel, follow an invisible creek, and hunt the Cabbagetown Monster. Cabbagetown Nuit Blanche boast’s a strong programme of multimedia, immersive works including Brian Moore’s Cube Unity, Jason lever’s Mobius, and Francois Aubrey and Jen Kalinowkski’s 3-Deep.
We are very excited about the variety of installations and work this year. A visit to Scotiabank’s Nuit Blanche would not be complete without a sojourn through Cabbagetown.
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President's Letter 2009
Dear Members,
Over the past few months the Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association
(DVCRA) has been busy on several fronts and we would like to highlight some of the new initiatives upon which we have embarked.
The DVCRA helped residents alleviate some of their garbage woes during the Municipal strike by renting two large dumpsters on July 13th and 27th.
After paying for the cost of the bins we were able to raise $1,000.00 to donate to the Cabbagetown Youth Centre (CYC). This money will go towards the CYC’s Recreational Infrastructure Canada fundraising campaign and will be matched by contributions from both the Federal and Provincial governments. The CYC intends to use the funds to make badly needed capital investments in its facilities to help ensure that it can continue to provide its valuable programming to members of our community.
At our last monthly board meeting, held August 18th, we met with Doug Fisher from the Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area (BIA) to talk about the Sunarts Parliament Street Revitalisation plan. As many of you are aware, due to strong resident opposition, the BIA board voted at their last meeting to defer implementation of bench seating for two years. Other parts of the plan, such as hanging flower baskets and decorative brickwork will be phased in as finances allow. The DVCRA has agreed to help facilitate and support forums to allow residents to provide input to the BIA as it progresses with its efforts to make Parliament Street a more attractive commercial venue.
While the bench controversy is no longer an issue, the larger issue of personal safety remains for many of our members. We are looking to create a working group comprised of concerned residents, with assistance from the police, the BIA and the local Constituency Office, to explore ways that we can ensure all residents continue to feel safe and secure. If you would be interested in possibly being part of this group, please contact us at info@donvalecra.ca.
Finally, don’t forget that the Cabbagetown Festival starts on Friday, September 11th. There are events for everyone from garage sales to Blair’s Run, a film festival to the Arts and Crafts in the Park. As always, it will be a wonderful weekend for our community.
We love to hear from our members, therefore please be in touch. We can be reached via email at info@donvalecra.ca. If you have any questions or concerns, suggestions for future events or would like to volunteer, we look forward to hearing from you.
Kind Regards,
Lee Matheson
President
Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association
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Garbage Dumpster
The DVCRA has arranged for a large garbage dumpster to be placed at the north east corner of Winchester and Sumach Street on Saturday July 11th from 9:00am until it is full (no later than 5pm). You may drop off a maximum of two bags of garbage or green bin material (please no recycling) at a cost of $5/two bags. It will be on a first come-first serve basis so come early if you are able.
The dumpster is intended to help Cabbagetown residents so please let your neighbours know. Any monies collected over and above the cost of the dumpster rental will be donated a local Cabbagetown cause.
Please email info@donvalecra.ca if you have any questions.
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Parliament Revitalization Plan
The Old Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area (BIA) commissioned David Orsini of Sunarts Designs to do a “revitalization plan” for Parliament Street. The Final Report of the Old Cabbagetown BIA Streetscape Revitalization Plan 5 June 2009 (34MB) is now available.
Many members have contacted us to express their concerns over some elements of the plan, as well as to express many positive comments on it. The BIA has assured us that no part of the revitalization plan will be implemented in the near future, nor will it happen without community input. A forum is being arranged with the BIA to provide an overview of the revitalization plan and solicit input on it.
We will keep you abreast of information regarding the revitalization plan through this website. Please feel free to email us at info@dvrca.ca with any comments, questions or concerns. Due to the high volume of email regarding this issue, we are unable to respond to each individually, but please know that we do read each and every email.
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Arts & Crafts and Other Things Sale
For two years during the Cabbagetown Festival your Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association has held its highly successful Arts & Crafts & Other Things Sale on Sumach and Winchester Streets. It has both supported the Association and added a colourfull Festival event with more than 30 vendors and exhibitors.
Of special benefit has been the clean up around the perimeter of the
Necropolis cemetery where un-permitted gypsy vendors used to set up shop in an unsightly jumble, and then leave piles of garbage behind. We thank the many residents and Necropolis management who have expressed their appreciation.
We are again planning for the 2009 Festival, which we expect to be bigger and better than ever. Anyone in our community and beyond with an arts & crafts (or other things) business who are interested in having a booth at next fall’s show, please download the entry form below and send it to Doug Rowlands, 360 Wellesley St. E. M4X 1H4 or email it to us at info@donvalecra.ca.
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Annual General Meeting 2009
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF MEMBERS
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual General Meeting of Members of the Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association will be held on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 at the Meeting House, Riverdale Farm, at 7:00 pm for the following purposes:
1. To receive the report of the President, Lee Garrison, on the Association’s activities;
2. To receive the financial statements of the Association for the year ended December 31, 2008;
3. To elect the Board of Directors of the Association for the ensuing year (see Board Nominations);
4. To transact such other business as may properly come before the meeting.
Our Guest Presentation will be an update on Phase Two of the Regent Park Revitalization by Project Director, Liz Root, and John Gladki, Planner, GHK International.
Don Vale Cabbagetown residents are encouraged to come out, meet your neighbours and support your Association. If you are not a member of the DVCRA, you may get a membership form here and sign up at the meeting. Annual fees are a nominal $5 per person or $10 per household. Any member wishing to examine minutes of the last AGM, may do so by contacting the Secretary at info@donvalecra.ca prior to the May 6th meeting,
Dated at Toronto, the 21st day of April, 2009.
By Order of the Board
Lindsay Whitfield
Secretary
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Speaker Series – April 7
SPEAKER SERIES – Greening Your Cabbagetown Home
with Chris Chopik “the green realtor”
Date: April 7, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Location: St. Martin’s School, Salisbury Ave.
Free Admission
Join us for the first in our new series of Speaker Events as ‘green realtor’ Chris Chopik presents a community workshop on the relationships between energy-efficiency, ‘greening’ your home and the real estate market.
Click Here to get a copy of the flyer.
Chris Chopik, is a Toronto Realtor, vice-chair of the Toronto Real Estate Board’s Green Task Force, and is also the Director of EvolutionGreen. EvolutionGreen is a service organization that helps people create a sustainable lifestyle for themselves, especially by focusing on making their home a central part of their sustainability plan.
Many topics will be addressed, including:
• energy efficiency,
• conservation
• the use of renewable resources
• grants available for sustainability retrofits.
The format for the evening will be a 45 minute presentation, followed by discussions that respond to the interests of participants.