An ad for Polar Ice on the side of a bar on Church Street near Gerrard. It also had a couple of other mural ads like this one. {January 25th, 2006}

Looking at the towers of Falstaff from Wilson Avenue. These three buildings are directly beside Highway 401 on the south side at Jane Street, impossible to miss. The neighbourhood is blessed with a KFC, a McDonalds and a Sunrise Restaurant across the street but that's not always such a good thing {January 25th, 2006}

A dinner boat docked at The Harbourfront Centre {January 21st, 2006}

Toronto's skyline from the lake at The Harbourfront Centre {January 21st, 2006}

The 161 bus and graffiti art

Jane and Alliance, south of Eglinton West in York, Toronto. I took the 161 Rogers Road bus from here to check out the area along the route the bus took. It venutred through Rogers Road, Oakwood, past Caledonia, Dovercourt, St Clair, and finally Ossington, through Portuguese, Carribean, Italian and all sorts of mixed communities. In the hour it took me to get from Jane Street to Ossington station I fell in love with this community. Its dense housing, unique topography, interesting people and its efficient walkability convinced me to consider buying a house here once I can afford it. In the summer I'll be all over this area taking pictures. People from the 'burbs would probably consider this area too congested, dense and unsatisfactory but what I saw it was too good to be true. {January 28th, 2006}

This area of Parkdale has one of the largest collection of graffiti art in Toronto. Not only is it widespread throughout the alley for blocks but most of it is well articulated and looks amazing {January 27th, 2006}

Art on all corners. Back here the artists don't have to worry about being caught nor do they have to expect their creations to be washed away later so they spend more time and effort making them worthwhile to paint and to be observed. {January 27th, 2006}

Toronto's skyline from Ryerson University {January 23rd, 2006}

January 28th skating

This is the best skating venue in Toronto. It's Lake Devo at Ryerson University. The new Continuing Education building is built partially over it, the view is amzing, plus there are giant boulders in the middle of the ice. {January 28th, 2006}

The bad boys of skating {Photo taken by JP, January 28th, 2006}

No comment... {Photo taken by JP, January 28th, 2006}

Khalij-Khazar {January 28th, 2006}

Buddies and I {Photos taken by Khalij-Khazar, January 28th, 2006}

This is what happens when you drive like a maniac. You swerve around corners, nearly miss a head-on collision and instead take out a bikestand, a lightpole, a tree, almost drive into a university book store, ruin the front end of your car, and probably get charged. {January 28th, 2006}

A downed tree. The best part is I don't think this guy was drunk {January 28th, 2006}

Police surveying the crash, two hours later {January 28th, 2006}

Me and my friend inspecting this rock {Photo taken by Khalij-Khazar, January 28th, 2006}

My buddies and I on Lake Devo, Ryerson University {Photo taken by Khalij-Khazar, January 28th, 2006}

Le Corbusier's Radiant Cities or Super Blocks

In th 1920's a French architect named Le Corbusier created a new concept of city building called the 'Radiant City.' He envisioned cities with large blocks of park or grassland with many buildings on that parcel of land. Each building would be extremely tall and even be entirely self-sustainable in terms of shopping, etc. This picture is Le Corbusier's concept of how he believed Paris should be. Paris is one of the world's most beautiful cities because it has maintained much of its efficient medieval form. This concept would have made Paris look like just another North American city.

This is Regent Park, a community built on the Radiant City concept. As you can see the buildings are set far from the street and create no interaction. Half a century ago Toronto planners and architects embraced Le Corbusier's ideas to an extent. Thus we see communities throughout the city designed on a city block with a number of buildings on the land and surrounded by grass. They are often given names that reflect their park-like setting like Moss Park, Regent Park, Don Mount Court or Parkway Forest. Today they are referred to as 'super blocks' because they have extremely high densities but barely any of the buildings embrace the streets or sidewalks. {January 13th, 2006}

This is Moss Park at Parliament and Shuter. It too was built on the Radiant City design. In Toronto the super block communities only exist for rental accomodation and rarely for condominiums. Not necessarily in correlation, these communities often become down and out neighbourhoods and become known for crimal activities. Sociologists would say these designs produce deviant behaviours {January 20th, 2006}

This is St Jamestown on Wellesley Street between Parliament and Sherbourne in Toronto. It is one the most extreme examples of Le Corbusier's Radiant City design. This neighbourhood has the highest population density in all of Canada. Such neighbourhoods create problems for residents such as not having a street address or because traffic does not travel through the neighbourhood it blocks out the outside community from such a large and diverse population. The roadway in this picture is not a public street, it is only a driveway leading into the community which leads to each individual building {January 13th, 2006}

The ally behind Ryerson University's new Engineering Building looking towards St. Mikes church {January 16th, 2006}

Queens Park and Bloor West. The hotel in the background was built in an 'L' shape around the old church {January 23rd, 2006}

The new condominium at College and Bay, College Park, and an office tower to the left {January 23rd, 2006}

This is the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the University of Toronto on College Street. This building cost $13 million dollars which was donated by a retired lawyer, Terrence Donnelly. {January 23rd, 2006}

This building is attached to an older one beside it so you see the facade of the building beside while you're inside the new one. The compounded with trees in between adds an aesthetic bonus {January 23rd, 2006}

The architects and designers of this building were extremely creative, innovative and thought outside the box, something more need to do {January 23rd, 2006}

The vegetation in this building is strategically placed {January 23rd, 2006}

These plants are real, no fake stuff here {January 23rd, 2006}

A corridor in King's College, University of Toronto {January 23rd, 2006}

The Pallisades on San Romanoway, this landmark is the tallest building on Jane Street at Jane and Finch, Toronto. This building was featured on The Real Toronto video. {January 14th, 2006}

A manikin in a beauty school in Yorkville, Toronto {January 23rd, 2006}

Street vendor packing up at the end of the night on Queens Park Drive, in front of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto {January 23rd, 2006}

Okay, when I said VOTE, I meant vote for a good government, Canada!!!

People waiting for the Wilson west bus {January 21st, 2006}

The zamboni cleaning the ice at The Natrel Rink at The Harbourfront Centre. Excellent skating venue and a nice neighbourhood. {January 21st, 2006}

St James Park at Jarvis and Adelaide, Toronto {January 20th, 2006}

VOTE TODAY!!!

Captain John's Seafood boat on Queens Quay, Toronto {January 21st, 2006}

South Regent Park and St Jamestown as seen over townhouses near the Queen Street bridge. {January 20th, 2006}

The Esplanade in St Lawrence neighbourhood, Toronto {January 20st, 2006)

The Harbourfront Centre on Queens Quay. {January 21st, 2006}

This dude was just begging for my friends to take a picture with him {January 21st, 2006}

A restaurant on Cherry Street at Front Street East, Toronto. This area, just east of downtown, has been nearly abondoned. It is slowly coming to life due to the success of the Distillery District down the road. {January 20th, 2006}

South Regent Park, Toronto. All of Regent Park, the first public housing community in Canada, will be demolished to make way for a new community that includes people from all income levels. Whether this will work to make a better community is uncertain, but it did work for St Lawrence in the 1970s. Learn more: Regent Park Revitalization {January 20th, 2006}

The sun setting, as seen from Cherry St, Toronto {January 20th, 2006}

Yesterday provided such ideal weather, I couldn't have passed up this opportunity to walk around town and take pictures. Myself and two friends walked to 660 Queen Street East to check out the In Transit exhibit at the Toronto Free Gallery. I highly recommend taking a look there.http://spacing.ca/intransit/. Here are just a sample of the pictures I took on this warm January day. For more pictures from this day check out Nima's Sermon. Don't forget to vote on January 23rd!!!

South Regent Park off of Shuter St {January 20th, 2006}

Jane and Wilson at rush hour {January 20th, 2006}

Downtown Toronto from the Queen Street bridge. {January 20th, 2006}

if you are a Canadian citizen and above the age of 18, VOTE ON JANUARY 23rd!!!

The three middle buildings of Exbury at late afternoon {January 6th, 2006}

Looking out of the bridge between The Bay and the Eaton Centre through a translucent advertisement. The tower on the right is Old City Hall. {January 19th, 2006}