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April 2005 Newsletter ~ Toronto Public Space Committee
1) ANTI-POSTERING BYLAW
~ Update
2) CBN SPEAKERS SERIES: CHARLES KOMANOFF
~ Tuesday April 19
3) NEWS ITEM ~ Cars, Trucks
Protest Against Pedestrians
4) TTC TV ~ Update
5) PARIS ~ Car-Free in Seven
Years.
6) PUBLICity ~ Exhibit Closing
Party: April 21
7) TPSC MONTHLY MEETING
~ Wednesday May 4th
8) LOST RIVERS EVENT~ Planning
Meeting on Wednesday April
9) CBN POSTER PROJECT 2005
~ Women and Cycling
10) JOHN BARBER ~ Our Response
to his March 16th Column
11) ALLEY JAUNT 2005 ~ Call
for Submissions
12) CYCLEMEDIA ~ No Thanks
13) NOW MAGAZINE: "And
They Wanna Ban Postering?"
14) GUERILLA GARDENING ~
Help us Plan the Season
15) WEBSITE OF THE MONTH
- Wooster Collective
16) SUPPORT the TPSC ~ Every
Dollar Moves us Forward
______________________________________________________________
1) POSTERING UPDATE: Vote
delayed until May.
The proposed anti-postering bylaw was approved on March 7th by the City's
Planning & Transportation Committee and will be debated at a special
City Council meeting on May 17, 18 & 19. If passed, the bylaw would
ban community postering on 98% of the utility poles in Toronto.
Opposition to the bylaw has been growing, including voices in the mainstream
media. In a recent editorial the Toronto Star wrote that "the proposed
rules are nonsense, and city council should toss out this misguided effort
at urban beautification."
If you haven't contacted your City Councillor yet, please visit our postering
webpage and click on "What You Can Do."
Download our "Lost Persons" posters at: www.publicspace.ca/poster-lostpersons.htm
______________________________________________________________
2) CBN Speakers Series: Charles Komanoff
~ Tuesday April 19
Free event, open to the public
"Safety In Numbers: The Beijing - New York - Toronto Connection"
Charles Komanoff is a Transportation-Justice Activist & Energy Economist
from New York City.
Komanoff reviews the status of cycling in Toronto, Beijing and New York,
emphasizing connections among the three cities. He will outline the emerging
cycling paradigm known as "safety in numbers" and explain how
carbon taxes, road pricing and Critical Mass can promote both civic sanity
and climate stability.
Charles Komanoff is a transportation-justice activist in New York City
and an internationally known energy-economist. He 're-founded' NYC's bike-advocacy
group Transportation Alternatives in the 1980s, co-founded the militant
pedestrian-rights group Right Of Way in the 1990s, and wrote the landmark
reports Subsidies for Traffic, The Bicycle Blueprint, and Killed By Automobile.
This 45-minute panel discussion will be followed by a question, answer
and discussion period with the audience. Join us for this ninth session
of a series of lectures hosted by the Community Bicycle Network (CBN).
for bio & links visit: http://communitybicyclenetwork.org/?q=speakerseries
Tuesday April 19, 2005
7:00 - 9:00 pm (doors open 6:30 pm)
Innis Town Hall (2 Sussex Avenue)
______________________________________________________________
3) Cars, Trucks Protest Against Pedestrians
~ April 1st news story from PPS
The U.S. based Project for Public Spaces released this hilarious news
item on April fools. It's a great read and also features photos of Toronto's
own waterfront!
"Fearful of losing their long dominance of the streets, millions
of autos have staged massive park-ins in public spaces around the USA
to protest pedestrians and alternative modes of transportation.
As more communities successfully reclaim their streets for people, cars
are taking to the sidewalks in protest, honking loudly in support of automotive
autonomy. The protesters, who also include pick-up trucks and tractor-trailers,
claim that they are the rightful kings of the road and refuse to share
street space with pedestrians, bicycles, and other modes of transportation."
Full story: www.pps.org/info/newsletter/april_first_2005/cars_protest
______________________________________________________________
4) TTC TV ~ Update
The TPSC is doing whatever we can to prevent the installation of video
advertising in TTC subway stations and inside subway cars. Hundreds of
our supporters have e-mailed the TTC directly through our website and
their voices are being heard. Howard Moscoe is now calling the new screens
"inadequate" and said he has received "a wave of criticism"
about the pilot project. On April 6, the TTC adopted three recommendations
from the Toronto Public Space Committee, but delayed the vote on whether
to "roll out" the video advertising screens into all stations
until Wednesday May 11.
We can win this one! Let's keep the pressure on.
There is no room for televised video advertising in the TTC. Let's keep
the Better Way TV-free. Please visit our website for more details and
what you can do!
publicspace.ca/ttcvideo.htm
______________________________________________________________
5) PARIS - Downtown core is going car-free
in seven year plan
"The traffic-choked heart of Paris is to become a car-free oasis
under a radical scheme drawn up by
Bertrand Delanoë, the city’s flamboyant Socialist Mayor.
By 2012 — when Paris hopes to stage the Olympic Games — only
residents, buses, delivery vans and emergency vehicles will be allowed
inside a three square-mile zone of the Right Bank, from the Bastille to
the Concorde squares. The area, enclosed by the Seine and the grands boulevards,
includes the Louvre, the Opéra, Les Halles and the Ile de la Cité,
with Notre Dame cathedral and the Palais de Justice."
Meanwhile in Toronto, funding for Car Free Day has been cut as the city
continues to drag its feet on implementing their own bike plan. When was
the last time we saw a new bike lane in this city? Paris bans cars while
we can't even figure out how to draw white lines on the road.
read more at: timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1525727,00.html
______________________________________________________________
6) PUBLICity exhibit closing party
Spacing magazine would like you to come by the Toronto Free Gallery (660
Queen St. East) on Thursday April 21 (7-11pm) as we wrap-up this highly
successful show with a little closing party.
Toronto’s photobloggers are some of the most popular in the world.
Each day, over 20,000 people visit the websites of the photobloggers taking
part in PUBLICity. Come check out the work of Sam Javanrouh, Matt O'Sullivan,
Rannie Turingan, Davin Risk, Gayla Trail, Jonathan Day-Reiner, and Adam
Krawesky. Their images have graced the pages of Spacing, or your computer
screen, but now you have the chance to examine their beautiful photographs
up close.
spacing.ca/gallery/
______________________________________________________________
7) TPSC MONTHLY MEETING
~ Wednesday May 4th
We hold open public meetings on the first Wednesday of each month. We
discuss our strategies, plan our timelines, propose new campaigns and
update old campaigns.
Get Involved! All welcome. Juice and cookies will be served, of course.
Next General Meeting:
Wednesday May 4th, 6:30 PM
City Hall, Committee Room #2
publicspace.ca/getinvolved.htm
______________________________________________________________
8) LOST RIVERS EVENT~ Planning
Meeting on Wednesday April 20th
Toronto has a hidden network of creeks, rivers, valleys and bridges that
have been buried to make
room for an ever-expanding city. The TPSC is collaborating with the LostRivers.ca
to plan an autumn celebration of our hidden waterways.
Want to get involved? Our first planning meeting is on Wednesday April
20th at 6:30pm. The meeting will take place under the gazebo in Christie
Pits, just a few feet above the buried Garrison Creek. (Follow the path
down from Bloor & Christie)
Resource: www.lostrivers.ca/
______________________________________________________________
9) Community Bicycle Network ~ 2005 Poster
Project
Community Bicycle Network (CBN) is looking for creative people to submit
an art piece for this year's Poster Project theme: Women and Cycling.
Selected artists will have the opportunity to see their work in a 30"x40"
poster which will be exhibited at various locations in Toronto during
Bike Week and throughout the year!
This year’s theme of Women & Cycling was born from the desire
to explore the unique and endless means of expression that spring from
individuals who make cycling their passion. With a focus on women, this
project goes further to create, inspire and challenge perceptions.
We are holding an open call to all creative types to produce a poster
celebrating the diversity of women and cycling.
Deadline for submissions is April 22nd 2005
www.geocities.com/posterproject2005/
______________________________________________________________
10) Our Response to John Barber
On March 16th John Barber wrote a column in the Globe and Mail about postering
and about the TPSC. He called our campaign "pungently irrelevant",
carried out by a "handful of activists."
While we always welcome constructive criticism, Barber's column was an
example of reckless journalism, full of errors & false statements.
If you're interested in seeing his piece and our response, please visit:
publicspace.ca/barber.htm
If you happen to see him, ask him to be nicer.
______________________________________________________________
11) ALLEY JAUNT ~ Local
art in local garages (Call for submissions)
Alley Jaunt is Toronto’s alternative, urban, community arts event.
The event gives exposure to local artists, encourages public interaction
with art, and reaches out to a diverse community of all ages within the
Trinity Bellwoods Park neighbourhood setting.
Alley Jaunt specifically programs art exhibits, installations, and performances
that respond to the environment of the garage, the alley and the local
urban community.
Proposals should reflect this programming mandate. The 3rd annual Alley
Jaunt will be held on August 13 & 14, 2005
Call for Submission - Deadline: May 15, 2005
See website for submission requirements
info@alleyjaunt.com
www.alleyjaunt.com/
______________________________________________________________
12) CYCLEMEDIA ~ No Thanks
A new outdoor advertising company called Cycle Media has found a new way
to avoid Toronto's restrictions on billboards: they've attached them to
bicycles! They promote their ads as "100% guaranteed eye catching
double-sided billboards, which are backlit and have an onboard audio system
to attract lots of attention."
There website makes it even clearer: "Imagine taking two bus stop
posters and placing them right in front of the audience you're trying
to reach. This is literally the 'in your face' mobile advertising that
CycleMedia offers"
Thanks, but "in your face" advertising is really not something
we need more of on our streets. Diesel powered, or human powered.
resource: www.cyclemedia.ca
______________________________________________________________
13) NOW Magazine: "And they wanna ban
postering?"
Posters are 8.5 inches by 11 inches. Commercial billboards on the other
hand are 200 square feet while many corporate ads are even larger like
the murals on buildings or the Kool Aid ads wrapped on the
Island Ferry. It's hard not to notice the double standard at City Hall.
On April 7th, NOW magazine published a full page of photos depicting the
sad state of public spaces in Toronto. Outdoor advertising companies keep
thinking of new places to put ads "in our face."
Take a look at these great examples:
www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-04-07/news_insight.php
______________________________________________________________
14) GUERILLA GARDENING ~
Planning has begun for the 2005 season
Under the cover of darkness, we plant seeds and seedlings in all those
neglected corners of public space. The snow has melted and so the Guerrilla
Gardening season begins again!
On April 13th, we held our first meeting on the year. We decided to host
at least three GG groups (East, West and Central) and maybe more! Dates
and information are listed on our website:
publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm
Second Planning Meeting:
Monday May 2, 2005 6:30pm
Scadding Court Community Centre (Room #3)
Dundas & Bathurst
______________________________________________________________
15) WEBSITE OF THE MONTH ~ WOOSTER COLLECTIVE:
A Celebration of Street Art
This website has thousands of images of incredibly beautiful and brilliant
works of guerilla public art. From New York to Melbourne to Lima, Peru.
www.woostercollective.com/
______________________________________________________________
16) SUPPORT THE TORONTO PUBLIC SPACE COMMITTEE
The TPSC relies 100% on community donations. We receive no government
grants.
Please make a financial contribution today so we can continue with this
newsletter, maintain our website, run our campaigns and provide an alternative
voice inside City Hall. Thank You!
publicspace.ca/donate
==============================
Toronto Public Space Committee
~ Reclaiming the Streets ~
http://www.publicspace.ca
253 College Street, Box 372
Toronto, ON M5T 1R5
contact@publicspace.ca
416.654.TPSC
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