Green Committee

Our goal is to create a greener neighbourhood by sharing our knowledge and resources to establish a healthier community. We invite your comments so please enter them in the text entry field.

We have started a garden plot at the Fort York Community Garden! 
 
There are beets, strawberry popcorn, heritage potatoes, beans, lettuce, chard and even a little room to plant one or two more.....   If you would like to help us garden!

Please join us Tuesdays 5:30-7:30pm and Thursdays 6-8pm. or contact Andrea Jackson (416) 551-1146
                Have a Great Summer:)
                The Green Committee Gardeners!

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Green Committees in Your Home
Many buildings in our community have Green Committees that are encouraging green practices and are developing exciting initiatives to reduce our ecological footprint. By sharing ideas and resources we hope to support and help develop Green Committees in individual buildings; as well as pool resources to save volunteer time and energy. We would like to have committee representatives from every building in our neighbourhood - please contact us if you are part of an existing Green Committee or would like to create one in your building

Neighbourhood Gardens

(Please send us a notice of your community garden)

Community Gardens & Market 25 Bishop Tutu
Our community founded a garden in the Bishop Tutu courtyard three years ago. The project began as a way for people to supplement their diet and be part of the community in a more tactile way. It has grown to a two layer planting area and we are in the process of developing a community compost area under our Norway Maple. There is also a greenhouse on the rooftop of 679 Queens Quay to grow seedlings and more sensitive plants. Each year our garden space produces many vegetables and herbs; seeded, and planted by community members; tomatoes, carrots, chard, lettuce, squash, oregano, basil... the list goes on and is always open to suggestions. We welcome anyone to participate that feels they don't have a gardening outlet. Join us every Saturday at 12noon. Weather permitting: to weed, water, trim and reap the harvest. We still have not finished planting for the 2009 season so there's lots to do.

Fort York Garden

About our garden: Established in April 2008 with 26 new 4’x8’ raised bed plots – some are individual, some are community group plots and a few are communal plots. After our first successful year, we built an additional 12 plots, and this garden will continue evolving according to the garden participants.We began some restoration of the adjacent slope by planting more than 200 Native wildflowers and grasses this fall. In 2008 we had a mid-summer community pot-luck, a September Harvest Festival, a few work sessions, and met weekly to share food, harvests and experiences. There are opportunities to participate in historical garden and cooking programs at the Fort, as well as workshops throughout the summer for garden participants. Priority to participants or groups that are from within 3 km of the garden and with limited garden access.
Contact:
Rebekka Hutton
Community Development Program Manager, Evergreen
355 Adelaide Street W, Suite 5, Toronto Ontario m5v 1s2
416-596-1496 ext244
www.evergreen.ca
rhutton@evergreen.ca
or:
Tara Ramkhelawan (if you wish to join the ongoing plot with 25 Bishop Tutu)
tara39@sympatico.ca

Issues of Concern in Our Community

Please send us a notice of other issues that are a concern for our neighbourhood. Light Pollution Sound, air and light pollution are serious concerns of local residents. Light pollution issues that need to be addressed in our area include:

1. Billboards
2. Pillar advertising ie: 2 four-sided pillars at the perimeter of the Omni TV parking lot.

The two above items often involve bright lights that are kept on throughout the entire night wasting energy. They are also unsightly, and promote a consumerist paradigm which is unsustainable and is at the source of environmental and health degradation in many ways. Excessive lighting from such advertising also has an invasive affect on local residents – in and out of their homes.

3. Items 1 and 2 are compounded by floodlights from local construction sites and cranes.
4. One BQNA member mentioned that some street lighting is on during the day and that this needs to be corrected
5. In the past there have been some lighting issues from the island airport affecting residents. Any updates/monitoring and reporting of this issue would be helpful.
6. Downtown office towers unnecessarily lit during the night.
7. Add other items of concern to this list. Wasting energy in these and other ways in Toronto, and across the province, leads to pressure to build unnecessary and deadly energy capacity that can be avoided (from nuclear or local gas plants that create smog and illness in Toronto, and other hazards). One useful resource in addressing such concerns is www.illegalsigns.ca in addition to city council, other local politicians, city departments and the advertising companies involved.