Community Food Flow project funded by OTF

Parkdale People's EconomyCommunity Food FlowLeave a Comment

We are thrilled to announce that PARC, as a lead organization of a collaborative grant, was awarded the grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to conduct a two-year community food assessment study “Community Food Flow” – how food gets to Toronto’s neighbourhoods, particularly to populations with food access challenges – and to incubate pilot projects to create more effective and sustainable flows … Read More

Report back – Dec 3rd PFN Community Forum

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On December 3rd 2012, Parkdale Food Network held its community forum to (re)engage PFN members and reflect on its current activities – bulk-buying/Neighbourhood food distribution; community land trust; and community engagement. Also the event welcomed the guests from Start Me Up Niagara, St. Catharines, too. The event began with the introduction by Ayal Dinner from West End Food Co-op, one of the founding … Read More

Map 5: North Parkdale’s use of land

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A while ago, we presented how land is used in South Parkdale. This time is North Parkdale. How land is used in North Parkdale shows a very interesting contract to its South Parkdale. Unlike South Parkdale, property sizes are generally a lot smaller; land use is predominantly low-rise single house. This may not come as a surprise. What is interesting, however, … Read More

Restaurant Study – Parkdale Community Consultation Meeting

Parkdale People's EconomyCommunity Land Trust, GeneralLeave a Comment

As most of you are aware, Interim Control By-Law to prohibit new restaurants and second floor expansion for one year on Queen Street West between Roncesvalles Ave and Dufferin St (Parkdale BIA area) was introduced on October 26, 2012 (link to the city council page). (and also see Inside Toronto article on this topic). Over the past few years, Parkdale area has seen … Read More

December 3rd: PFN Community Forum

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Since its official start, PFN has been working on three initiatives: neighbourhood-based food procurement/distribution (Bulk-buying); Community Land Trust; and Civic Engagement with Maytree Foundation. What have we done? What are some of the key outcomes? What have we learned from action? Where do we want to go from here? How can each of us collaborate better? This PFN forum is … Read More

The first step toward incorporation

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In mid-October, the CLT working group organized an information session for potential members for the first ‘transitional’ board of directors of Parkdale Community Land Trust. A Community Land Trust is a membership-based organization, as it represents community diversity through members and board of directors elected by them. Currently, however, we are not there yet to base our organizational development on … Read More

Map 4: How land is used in South Parkdale

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This map is a snapshot of how land is used in South Parkdale, while this is still work-in-progress. As we have seen, South Parkdale has a large concentration of rooming/boarding houses, hence they occupy a quite portion of land in the south. Public land – largely TCH properties – in the south have larger property sizes as they tend to … Read More

Map 3: Rooming houses in South Parkdale in the context of population change

Parkdale People's EconomyCommunity Land TrustLeave a Comment

Building on the previous entry that documented the change in the number of rooming houses in North Parkdale, let’s also look at South Parkdale (the south of Queen St W). As the maps in the previous entry showed (please click here; the previous entry will open up in a new window), seemingly there is little change between 1997 and 2012. Yet, the … Read More

Map 2: Affordable housing for 780 persons (Rooming houses in Parkdale)

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The second release is the map of “rooming houses and bachelorettes” in Parkdale. These housing types concentrate in Parkdale (there is a long history. Please see for example Tom Slater’s historical review) and they are recognized, both by housing providers, policy makers and academics, as an important affordable housing option for low-income populations. The map below is the excerpt from Tom Slater’s research … Read More

WEFC Alternative Currency project

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Since its official start of Parkdale People’s Economy project, this blog has somehow focused on the CLT initiative and various activities undertaken by Parkdale Food Network. The other strand of the PPE key activities is building alternative medium of exchange (such as alternative/local currencies). This initiative is led by the West End Food Co-op. Local currencies gives a platform for … Read More