The successful Kensington Market Pedestrian Sundays are expanding to other neighbourhoods this year.
Both Baldwin Street Village and Mirvish Village (on Markham Street) will host three Pedestrian Sundays this year. They have chosen different Sundays from Kensington, so that there will be a Pedestrian Sunday most weekends of the month for both July and August.
• Baldwin should be 3rd Sunday of July, August & September
• Mirvish should be 2nd Sunday of July, August & Spetember
• Kensington should be last Sunday of the month from May to October.
photo by Himy Syed
11 comments
That leaves the THIRD sunday in July and August open.
Yo Toronto! How’z about stepping up and creating a Pedestrian Sunday beyond the downtown core, in Scarborough, North York or Etobicoke…?
There a very few places worth closing to cars outside of the old city of Toronto. I can only think of Weston, Eglinton West west of Allen Rd, maybe on Lake Shore and Royal York, in New Toronto/Mimico. There is nowhere in the inner burbs that can compete with the intimacy of downtown streets.
there are already neighbourhoods in all parts of the City that shut down for street parties and festivals, just because they are not branded/marketed/organized by the good folks at Pedestrian Sundays crews doesn’t make them less valid… so what is it about them that makes them different, if anything? I also think it’s important to recognize that the burbs are different and you can’t always transfer downtown style organizing to the burbs.
Hope this isn’t another April Fool’s joke.
P.S. I mean I hope it is TRUE.
Whenever I see a picture of Shamez, all I can think is, “Man, that guy cooks horse for a living.” Not that that fact at all bothers me (part of me thinks it’s kinda cool), but really… the dude cooks horse!
These pedestrian sundays are great! Here’s hoping they are laying the groundwork for downtown Toronto becoming a patchwork of “campus-ized” zones. They wouldn’t necessarily have to totally exclude cars. The latest idea seems to be to remove the demarcation between street and sidewalk so that vehicles could still nose their way through if they so chose but with the awareness that pedestrians prevail.
It would be nice to pave areas differently and make it so cars could drive east-west but not north-south.
The residents and business owners in Kensington put in a lot of hardwork organizing the entertainment. They should be congratulated. Where has all of the business opposition to these street closings gone?
Thanks for the congrats Hinley! The Pedestrian Sundays Working Group, led by Streets are for People!, has been doing it for the love for 3 seasons now and are thrilled to be moving into the 4th!
There have been no complaints from merchants for some time now thankfully. Though PS favours bars & cafes, most merchants now seem to feel that Pedestrian Sundays are good for the market and business overall. Any complaints received over the years from residents/merchants have been considered fully and have informed our decisions moving forward.
We couldn’t be happier that Baldwin and Mirvish Village have decided to give Pedestrian Sundays a try this year and we plan to continue spreading the initiative to as many suitable neighbourhoods as possible. Please get in touch if you’d like to see them in your neighbourhood – http://www.pskensington.ca.
There are some festivals that shut down the main streets in the suburbs. I know in Etobicoke that Lakeshore is shut down for a community event a few times a year. They have their own little Santa Claus parade. Bloor street from Prince Edward to Aberfoyle (that’s around Royal York Station) is also closed for a street festival.
They have festivals around High Park too. Also, Taste of the Danforth and the Beaches Jazz Festival are not right downtown but they close the street too!
We do need more of them though 🙂