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CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
City names laneway after Black woman who made difference to early Toronto
Toronto has officially named a laneway in the city's east end after a Black woman who made a big impact on her community in the early 1900s. Coun. Paula Fletcher, who represents Toronto-Danforth, unveiled the new street sign for "Luella Price Lane" on Friday. The laneway runs east of Greenwood Avenue and north of Gerrard Street E. in Leslieville. Fletcher said the location is near where Luella Price, a pioneering woman, formed the Eureka Club in her home on Redwood Avenue in 1910. In a Feb. 20 letter to the Toronto and East York Community Council, Fletcher said the Eureka Club, composed of less than 20 women, aimed to offer aid to low-income Torontonians on an individual basis. Many of the spouses of club members were railway porters. The motto of the Eureka Club was "not for ourselves, but for others." At its 70th anniversary in 1980, it was said to be the oldest Black women's organization in Ontario, according to Fletcher. "We're very proud of the work that Luella and her club did on Redwood," Fletcher told a small gathering before the unveiling. "They established a club that did good things for the entire neighbourhood." Fletcher said the naming of the laneway honours Price and recognizes her contributions to Leslieville and Toronto. She said the Leslieville Historical Society, East York Historical Society and Gerrard East neighbourhood pushed to have the laneway named after her sooner but the COVID-19 pandemic ground their efforts to a halt. "We can see what an important moment this is, not just for our neighbourhood, but for the city to recognize someone of this stature and what she did. I think the motto, 'not for ourselves, but for others,' does really speak to our whole neighbourhood. That is how we try to live our lives in the east end," Fletcher said. Joanne Doucette, a founding member of the Leslieville Historical Society, told the gathering that Price was a free woman of colour in Maryland. Of humble origins, Price married Grandison Price, a man born into slavery in Kentucky, in 1875. They had a baby that died, and headed north to Toronto, where they worked a number of jobs to survive. They bought a house in Toronto. The Eureka Club was formed to aid anyone who needed it without fanfare, Doucette said. It came about after they heard about a pregnant young woman who didn't have anything, including baby clothes, and needed help. The club was a member of the Congress of Black Women of Canada, an organization that still exists, Doucette said. "Their work goes on. I am so glad that we are finally recognizing Luella, and by extension, Grandison. They certainly had the support of their husbands," she said. "This is history that has been lost. In these times, when there is a pushback against human rights and diversity, it is so timely that we are here today." Rosemary Sadlier, former president of the Ontario Black History Society, said the work of the Leslieville Historical Society in bringing forward the story of Price is critical because so often the lived experience and reality of many Black people in many places in Canada has been erased. Sadlier said rediscovering and reimagining Price is an opportunity for city residents to "become even more engaged in the diversity and the complexity and the nuance" of early Toronto. "I think it's a wonderful reminder and a tangible expression of the early Black presence in the area," Sadlier said in an interview after the unveiling.
Global News
13-06-2025
- General
- Global News
‘It's never quite worked properly': Toronto's fading Luminous Veil in need of repairs
Aside from the CN Tower, the Luminous Veil, which spans the Bloor Viaduct, is one of the most recognizable landmarks in Toronto's nighttime skyline, but the public art display isn't functioning the way it was intended to and the lack of dazzling lights on the horizon is prompting many to call for improvements. Unveiled in time for the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games, the Luminous Veil added hundreds of LED lights that react to changes in wind direction and temperature shifts. On top of the shimmering light displays, the installation adds a public art element to the safety barriers that were installed years prior. But the lights haven't been functioning as intended and a jaunt across the bridge connecting Bloor Street to Danforth Avenue at night reveals several portions sitting in darkness while others twinkle around them. 'It's never quite worked properly because there's always sections of the lights that are out,' said Coun. Paula Fletcher, who has been hearing complaints about the issues for quite some time. Story continues below advertisement This week, Fletcher put forward a motion at the city's Economic and Social Development Committee asking city staff to come up with a solution. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Fletcher also points out that when the lights were originally installed, there wasn't a mechanism included to report malfunctions. Due to this oversight, the city often doesn't know there are issues unless residents phone 311. 'Let's get this back up and running a hundred per cent and not rely on the public to phone in and say it's not working,' Fletcher said. A Toronto spokesperson told Global News that in 2021, the city entered into a two-year service agreement with a company tasked with maintaining the Luminous Veil. But even with coordinated monitoring, the system continued to experience malfunctions. At the end of the $36,200 contract, the city was told the custom lighting elements were reaching the end of their life cycle and would need to be replaced. 'For years now … panels fade constantly to the point now they're more black panels than illuminated panels,' said Albert Stortchak outside his antique lighting shop on Broadview Avenue. Stortchak, chair of the Broadview Danforth BIA, said its members called in a lot of favours and raised $25,000 to help get the display up and running. He said the city tends to initiate projects with lofty goals and objectives, only to let them decay over time, disappointing those who advocated for them. Story continues below advertisement 'In this case, the luminous part of the veil was a metaphoric and literal light to be shed on the issue of mental illness and suicide prevention, and what message are we sending when we let the lights go out?' he said. Fletcher's motion at committee will now have staff reporting back in September with potential solutions. The Toronto-Danforth councillor said she wants the display back up and running in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Stortchak and his BIA membership want the city to ensure that when sports fans vacate the city this time, the Luminous Veil is properly maintained.
CBC
16-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
As Toronto enters a new era of ferries, council hopes oversight shift leads to smooth sailing
Social Sharing As the Toronto carries out a complex and costly plan to welcome a new electric ferry next year with another to follow in 2027, oversight of the popular summer amenity is moving to a new department. At the city's last council meeting in March, councillors voted to take the service away from the parks department and give it to its fleet services division. The move stems from an operational review the city and a consultancy conducted beginning in the fall, after a summer of frustration and long lines on the waterfront. Coun. Paula Fletcher is welcoming the change — especially after she said the parks department initially "forgot" to figure out where the new electric ferries would be parked and charged, leaving staff scrambling to prepare for the new vessels. The city decided to go electric in 2019, but an estimated cost on charging and docking infrastructure wasn't brought forward until 2024. "It's a marine fleet. It really doesn't have a lot to do with parks," Fletcher told CBC Toronto in an interview. "So it's moved out from folks that forgot [the ferries] needed to be plugged in, to people that do that every day. And I think it will be in good hands." The shift in responsibility comes as the city works its way through a costly plan to replace its aging ferries, which allow an average 1.4 million annual visitors enjoy the city's island. WATCH | Long ferry lines frustrated many in the city last summer: Torontonians frustrated at long lines for island ferry 9 months ago Duration 2:54 There are renewed calls for the city to work toward building a bridge to the Toronto Islands following a weekend of long lines at the ferry terminal. As CBC's Britnei Bilhete reports, some Torontonias said wait times were up to an hour and a half. The city's current fleet of boats is beyond the average industry lifespan. A staff report from March says the first ferry should arrive in late 2026 and the second in mid-2027. It does not say when they're expected to be operational. The ferries will be constructed at Damen Shipyards Galati in Romania. The motion to transfer oversight of the ferries received a yes vote from 22 councillors. Councillors Mike Colle and Anthony Perruzza voted against it, while Jennifer McKelvie and Michael Thompson were absent. Fleet services will take over the ferries by the fall. The report recommending the move says it makes sense because the department "is strategically oriented towards enhancing the reliability, efficiency and sustainability of the city's entire fleet." Cost of new ferries has jumped from $25M to $92M The change in authority comes after after councillors learned last summer that the price of electric ferries is significantly more expensive than anticipated. During the March council meeting, Coun. Stephen Holyday was critical of that rising cost. "It's frustrating because it's gone from buying a new vessel, which I think most people understood needed to be replaced, to getting a really fancy one and tens and tens of millions of dollars later," Holyday said. In July, councillors on the general government committee heard the price of the two ferries had gone from $25 million in 2020 to $92 million, due to design changes. City staff have said the savings of going electric will cover the cost of the vessels within two decades. On top of that cost, comes the work needed to prepare the docking infrastructure for ferries that need to be plugged in. In September, a staff report said the shoreside infrastructure project to include charging would cost about $42 million. But a more recent report pegs it at about $50.2 million. The required infrastructure changes include the installation of charging towers in two locations, electric houses to store battery energy and electrical equipment, modified docks and locking systems, plus new in-water stabilization.
