The Annex Residents' Association

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Read the minutes of the May 2009 Board meeting.

Click here for the March 2009 Voice of the Annex

Next Board Meeting

Check back here for the date of the next
ARA Board meeting at the
Annex Retirement Residence
123 Spadina Road
7:30 p.m.  - All Welcome

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Jane's Walk Sandra Shaul (right) and Bobbi Speck

Jane's Walk entitled The Annex and Community Activism
on May 2 & 3 2009 was a smashing success!

Over 50 people joined Sandra Shaul, chair of the Annex Residents’ Association Heritage Committee, for a walk through a special part of the East Annex and visited the places and met the people that contribute to the character of this neighbourhood

The Annex neighbourhood of Toronto originated in the late 1880s as the City’s first planned urban suburb. It is home to a unique architectural style, small urban parks that are maintained by local residents, and neighbourhood pubs, restaurants and other small businesses that are popular with residents throughout the city. It is also home to Toronto’s oldest and one of city’s most active residents’ associations. .

Read Bobbi Speck's story, the Annex leader of the fight against the Spadina Expressway, who organized our efforts with Jane Jacobs and many others. The group walked along Madison Avenue, the other potential victim of the proposed expressway, to see its unique architecture, and learned how it has been so well preserved through adaptive re-use. While touring the streets, the group met  Ecology Park volunteers, during their spring clean up, and learned about the origins of the park, an Annex Residents’ Association project.

The last stretch of the tour was along Bloor to see the contrasting architecture of our past and present, including  the site of One Bedford (Bloor and Bedford), the condo tower development, which once again raised questions about how planning is carried out in our city.  The tour concluded by heading north on Bedford to see Taddle Creek Park, another Annex Residents’ Association project, and then headed east along Prince Arthur, to numbers 10 and 14, where activism in the Annex began, and is focused again. Participants then had the perfect opportunity to have lunch in the neighbourhood and to visit the ROM, Gardiner Museum, and Bata Shoe Museum.

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Projects to preserve the distinctive character of our neighbourhood the ARA is undertaking and participating in are:

• A Bloor-Corridor Visioning study for the area bounded by Avenue Road, Dupont, Bathurst and Bloor and the areas immediately south of Bloor, in cooperation with our fellow residents’ and business associations and cultural and educational institutions. The study will look at assets such as parks, schools, public transit, parking, and built form so that our heritage can be recognized and intensification in our area can be rationally planned; For more information, please email Robert Brown.
• an Annex-wide Heritage Conservation District study of our most important continuous streetscapes;
• upgrading our limited parks and producing an open space and parks study and strategy

Join us  to learn what we have done, what we want to do, and how you can play a role

All are welcome (owners, residents’ tenants, students, and business operators). 

News and Updates

Residents can now track the progress of major development applications on the City’s website at www.toronto.ca/planning/developmentapplications

• Read about Annex planning issues.
• Primarily through Section 37 and Section 45 funds, plans are shaped for the improvement of several Annex parks. Find out how to get involved.
• Work continues on the Madison Avenue Heritage Conservation District after a successful fundraising event. Read about our progress and get involved.

• 2008 Neighbourhood Beautification  Program Community Projects Initiative. For application form, click here.

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