Sunday, November 22, 2015

Aw, shucks

Derek Flack of blogTO just posted an article on The 5 strangest streets in Toronto, and Craven Road gets top billing:
Craven Rd.  
You have a fence on one side, a mess of old and new homes on the other, and just that vibe, that weird vibe that is Toronto at its most odd and wonderful. No one planned this place; it built its character over time. Craven Road might be the most interesting street in Toronto.
Yup.


As a bonus, here's another blogTO post from a year ago, with a glimpse of What Little India used to look like in Toronto. Ah, fashion...

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Craven Railroad?

The TTC's Downtown Relief Line is in the news again, with a new poll calling it Toronto voters' highest priority, topping even the Scarborough subway and the Smart Track proposal that was John Tory's mayoral platform keystone last fall.

A series of public meetings will be held starting March 3 to explain a new Relief Line project assessment study and ask the public for feedback on potential station areas. More info at:


We've been here before – one hundred years ago.

After the widening of Erie Terrace (now Craven Road) in 1916, the street saw one more burst of newspaper coverage. Five articles between 1919 and 1921 mention a plan for a "Hydro radial," a railway radiating out along Ontario Hydro-owned rights-of-way from the city centre to the suburbs, one branch of which could have run right along Erie Terrace.

Who knows – perhaps one day it actually will! If the city needed to expropriate, Craven Road is still probably the least expensive real estate in eastern Toronto. [Edit: The March 3 Relief Line public meeting clarified that they'll be tunnelling rather than expropriating. And if I had to guess, the closest station we'd be likely to get is at Pape and Gerrard – you can still give input on potential station areas here.]

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.