{"id":7479,"date":"2009-10-27T12:22:07","date_gmt":"2009-10-27T16:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=7479"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:16:30","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:16:30","slug":"informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/","title":{"rendered":"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hauntedhouse3\"<\/p>\n

In late September, I had the privilege of sitting in on one of the walkability studies<\/a> that are taking place in conjunction with the City’s Tower Renewal<\/a> pilot project. The studies enable residents of the tower neighbourhoods that are part of the pilot project to show how they walk in their area and what the barriers are to walking, with a view to discovering potential improvements. They have been developed by Jane Farrow of the Centre for City Ecology<\/a> and Prof. Paul Hess of the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

The site was a set of four towers organized around Cougar Court<\/a> in Scarborough Village, just off Eglinton East near Kingston Road. The first thing Jane Farrow showed us when we arrived was a classic piece of suburban unwalkability. Just east of the four towers, which house over a thousand people including many children, there is an elementary school and a park on Gatesview Ave. But a string of houses along Cedar Dr. were built along the east side of the towers complex blocking direct access to these amenities (full satellite map<\/a>). Residents of the towers would have to take a roundabout route (especially for those in the north towers) through a pedestrian-unfriendly alley to the south to get to them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"satmap\"<\/p>\n

Fortunately, though, one of the houses along Cedar Dr. is abandoned (where all the trees can be seen). A hole has been cut in the fence behind the towers…<\/p>\n

\"fence\"<\/p>\n

…and a very well-trodden path has been created to provide the tower residents with a direct route to the school and the park.<\/p>\n

\"hauntedhouse2\"<\/p>\n

When they were participating in the walkability study, the\u00a0 local children all said the house is haunted, and the adults too often referred to the house as “the haunted house.”<\/p>\n

What’s remarkable, though, is that although the path is informal (and technically illegal), the volume of pedestrians crossing Cedar Dr. at the end of this path is so great that the City put a crosswalk there — at the end of an unofficial path — to enable people to cross safely on their way to the school and the park. (You can see the end of the path and the crosswalk in the close-up satellite photo<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"satmap2\"<\/p>\n

Obviously what the City needs to do is expropriate this house and create a formal pathway and little linear park linking the tower neighbourhood directly and safely to the places its residents (especially children) want and need to go.<\/p>\n

\"crosswalk\"<\/p>\n

It’s not just for convenience — not only were the children a little intimidated to use the pathway (for good reason — it is potentially dangerous for mundane reasons, in addition to possible haunting), but the adults expressed reluctance to use it because they knew it crossed private property and using it was therefore trespassing. They should not be subjected to this kind of ambiguous situation when a solution exists (and when the City has already essentially acknowledged the need for this path by putting in a crosswalk).<\/p>\n

I don’t know what the situation is with the ownership of the house — possibly the City doesn’t know either. (Apparently, if the property owner hasn’t paid his property taxes for three years, the City can issue a warning and, if they’re not paid off in a year, seize the property, but then it has to auction it off (and pay the owner the difference), which wouldn’t bring it into the public realm, where it should be).<\/p>\n

In the meantime, someone has quixotically repaired the fence. Already resourceful locals have build a kind of ladder to get over the new fence — Paul Hess calls this kind of thing “informal infrastructure.” No doubt a hole will reappear soon.<\/p>\n

\"later-ladder-jane-sm\"<\/p>\n

Bottom photo by Jane Farrow. Satellite photos taken from Google Maps. Other photos by Dylan Reid.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In late September, I had the privilege of sitting in on one of the walkability studies that are taking place in conjunction with the City’s Tower Renewal pilot project. The studies enable residents of the tower neighbourhoods that are part of the pilot project to show how they walk in their area and what theContinue reading “Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,20,6],"tags":[8807,13472,13471,639,8818,1109,13475,5550,3835,13474,13473,89,6261,75,270],"class_list":["post-7479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neighbourhoods","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-centre-for-city-ecology","tag-close-up-satellite-photo","tag-cougar-court","tag-dylan-reid","tag-elementary-school","tag-google","tag-informal-infrastructure","tag-jane-farrow","tag-paul-hess","tag-satellite-map","tag-satellite-photos","tag-scarborough","tag-scarborough-village","tag-suburbs","tag-university-of-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInformal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In late September, I had the privilege of sitting in on one of the walkability studies that are taking place in conjunction with the City’s Tower Renewal pilot project. The studies enable residents of the tower neighbourhoods that are part of the pilot project to show how they walk in their area and what theContinue reading "Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-27T16:22:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T20:16:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dylan Reid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/\",\"name\":\"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough - Spacing Toronto\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-27T16:22:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-21T20:16:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/\",\"name\":\"Spacing Toronto\",\"description\":\"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b\",\"name\":\"Dylan Reid\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dylan Reid\"},\"description\":\"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough - Spacing Toronto","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough - Spacing Toronto","og_description":"In late September, I had the privilege of sitting in on one of the walkability studies that are taking place in conjunction with the City’s Tower Renewal pilot project. The studies enable residents of the tower neighbourhoods that are part of the pilot project to show how they walk in their area and what theContinue reading \"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough\"","og_url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/","og_site_name":"Spacing Toronto","article_published_time":"2009-10-27T16:22:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-21T20:16:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Dylan Reid","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spacing","twitter_site":"@Spacing","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dylan Reid","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/","name":"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough - Spacing Toronto","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg","datePublished":"2009-10-27T16:22:07+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-21T20:16:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/network\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2009\/10\/hauntedhouse3.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/10\/27\/informal-infrastructure-and-haunted-house-in-scarborough\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Informal infrastructure and haunted house in Scarborough"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#website","url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/","name":"Spacing Toronto","description":"Canadian Urbanism Uncovered | Toronto Architecture, Urban Design, Public Transit, City Hall, Parks, Walking, Bikes, Streetscape, History, Waterfront, Maps, Public Spaces","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/5db677dc17e5329d01b88dfb319d259b","name":"Dylan Reid","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/196165a3da8aa047d1d3816d24de1d3a?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Dylan Reid"},"description":"Dylan Reid is a senior editor at Spacing Magazine. He has also written articles for NOW magazine and the uTOpia books. He was co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee 2007-2010, was one of the founders of the Toronto Coalition (now Centre) for Active Transportation, and is a co-founder of Walk Toronto. Dylan is also a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/"],"url":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/author\/dylan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4006"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7479"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39942,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7479\/revisions\/39942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}