We have 10 great photos of our village taken by a professional photographer high above Bloor Street West. If you’d like a set for free, send us your name and email to info@bwvra.ca and we’ll send you a link to the image files. Enjoy!
Category: Media
Generally speaking, our neighbourhood is a walkers’ paradise. But surprisingly, a publicly available scoring system can add nuance from one street to the next; even from one house number to the next. You can learn more here and see how many steps you have to go.
Could be.  Click here for the City of Toronto study.
Bloor West Village is a special place but remains within a big city. The Canadian Urban Institute is a non-profit applied research organization dedicated to achieving healthy urban development. We’ve added a link to their web site, on the right. Check it out to see interesting stories and media about the broader urban community we’re part of.
…as the song lyrics go. Our BWVRA signs are starting to appear everywhere and they’re going fast. If you support our involvement with the Humber Theatre development, show it by getting sign. Just email us at info@bwvra.ca with your address. Thank you.
The Bloor West Village Residents’ Association is a group of resident volunteers committed to fostering a well-balanced and liveable community, both now and into the future. Our neighbourhood is currently facing an urgent challenge with a proposed development on the site of the Humber Theatre.
The Theatre sits on a landmark site with most of the stores now empty and windows papered over, awaiting development. Renewal of this block is urgently needed and the BWVRA supports responsible re-development that respects the existing scale and character of the immediate neighbourhood.
Jane Jacobs has inspired more than one generation to take action in defence of the neighbourhoods they value. If you missed the screening of Citizen Jane at the Revue Cinema, here’s a link to a review on Variety: http://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/citizen-jane-review-doc-nyc-1201916211/
Christopher Hume had a long piece about the renovated Runnymede library branch in the Toronto Star on June 2. Here are some excerpts:
TPL’s latest triumph, the newly renovated and expanded Runnymede Branch, reopens at 4:30 p.m. on June 8. The original building, designed in the 1920s by noted Canadian architect John Lyle, has been refurbished and a new wing added by Toronto architect Bruce Stratton.
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Libraries have changed, too. “They’re a little less precious now than they used to be,” says City Librarian Josephine Bryant. “We want people to come in and feel relaxed. We want them to see inside and out. We’ve learned that architecture is extremely important. We could build more cheaply, but this way we end up with a much better product.”
As TPL’s director of branches, Anne Bailey, points out, every time a branch gets a new or renovated building, membership increases by 30 to 40 per cent.
“Our buildings have to be functional,” she says, “but they also have to be visionary and responsive to the community. Here, we’ve tried to make the library much more open, airy, spacious and inviting. Even though we had to work within a restricted budget, we’re very happy with the results.”
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Read the entire article on the Toronto Star website (requires free registration)