Yvonne Bambrick

Some folks recently decided to take out  their frustrations on one of our Kensington Market inhabitants – the (mostly) beloved Garden Car, aka: Community Vehicular Reclamation Project.

Just back from three days away in cottage country (my only escape this year), I went to resume my daily check on the only garden I’ve ever been responsible for – to my dismay, someone had smashed the rear windshield into fragments of tempered glass that were now seeded in the exposed soil and amongst the lush plants in the trunk. Not happy. Who would do this?

The Garden Car has certainly taken some hits over the years, but this time I found myself particularly upset.

Anyway, local artist Joshua Barndt and I quickly fashioned and applied a rough patch with the materials at hand – and today Jake & Sameena, a couple of lovely P.S. Kensington volunteers, joined me to remove the remaining glass shards, scrub off the graffiti, repair a tree branch, and install the windshield repair that should last through the winter.

From the photo below taken this evening, you can see that the leaves of the Burning Bush tree in the centre are beginning to turn. They’ll soon match the burgundy wall behind, and the duct tape window frame

All repair materials were sourced at Active Surplus!

I’m pretty unimpressed and frustrated with the editor that twisted this piece in such a way as to make my quote appear condescending towards the community I love and represent.  Thankfully they printed my full letter to the editor as a clarification.

Still waiting for the online piece to have an edit included so that the digital archive reflects my true statement and not some manipulated words for a self serving hack.  #NationalPostFail (Update from Sept 19 – link to letter to editor is now included in the original piece online)

Re: Kensington Gets Glimpse Of Potential Big Box Store, Sept. 16.

It should be noted that the quote attributed to me as co-ordinator of the Kensington Market Business Improvement Area (BIA) was very misleading and, in fact, the opposite of what I tried to clearly explain in my extensive discussion with the piece’s writer.

A big box store being proposed in such close proximity can certainly be seen as a threat to the thriving, open-air, multi-generational, and much loved Kensington Market area and business community. That said, this development is in its earliest phase, and a public consultation process, convened by Councillor Mike Layton, has just begun between the developer and the adjacent residential and business communities. I believe that if we have any hope of working together to invite businesses into this development that are complementary to the area, rather than in direct competition with existing businesses, we should all, developer and locals, act like good neighbours and try to work together in good faith.

The same applies as we try to address and minimize the additional impacts this mall will have on local traffic, noise and parking. But perhaps I’m being too optimistic in thinking there is any way to make this work – given the fierce independence of this long-standing community, and the vast number of citizens who will stand to defend it, we may simply end up with a battle to stop this development all together.

Yvonne Bambrick, co-ordinator, Kensington Market BIA, Toronto.

This week marks the start of my new role working with the new-ish (late 2010) Kensington Market BIA as their first Coordinator. I’ll be working with the community on a number of area projects (graffiti/murals – (possibly) a farmer’s market that complements rather than competes with local green grocers – BIA website – On-street bike parking – public seating – …), and will continue to serve as Coordinator of our now 8th season of Pedestrian Sundays, alongside Shamez Amlani, and with the help of several new BIA volunteer board members. There will be many opportunities to get involved in this much loved community celebration and I’d love to hear from anyone who’s keen to come hang out and help out!

Our annual Pedestrian Sundays Community Meeting (6:30 to 8pm) is coming up in late April (date TBC).

Follow @pskensington and join our FB Group for updates about upcoming street events in the market.

Really excited to now be working even more closely with my favourite neighbourhood in Toronto!  More info soon.