Save The Quarry

Posted on April 25, 2010 by The Lazy Photographer

I live in a little residential neighbourhood filled with single family houses in east Toronto (a.k.a. Scarborough) that is under threat of a major highrise condo project. They want to construct seven 24 story buildings on a patch of land a couple of short blocks long and if the plan goes through it will increase density in the area seven fold. Simply put, one company is putting profits ahead of all else, including the decimation of an entire neighbourhood. Well, today the neighbourhood, brought together by The Concerned Citizens of the Quarry Lands Development (ccqld.blogspot.com), held a rally on the old quarry lands in support of stopping these highrises. We are not asking that the quarry not be developed at all, only that it be done so smartly. Lowrise, six story max height buildings with retail and some green space would be a nice fit and the congested streets would probably be able to handle the extra traffic (barely). Anyway, I trotted over there to take a few photos for practice and I sort of like how this one came out, after I played with it a bit. Sorry for all the political talk on a Sunday. Once you get me started, though…. 🙂

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4 Responses to Save The Quarry

  1. milkayphoto says:
    April 25, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    Nice to see the neighborhood joining together to make a difference. IT might actually work! Many, many years ago, on our street, they wanted to widen the siedwalks which meant taking down over 50 trees. I fought for the trees in front of our house and WON! They stayed and so id many others. The people who DIDN”T fight lost their trees and it was sad. Politicians and cities make stupid decisions at times and it is up to US to set them straight. What is so wrong with a little bit of unused land, eh?? I am soooo tired of developers wanting to put buildings up on every scrap piece. Then they wonder why the deer and coyotes have no place to go. I hope the neighborhood voices are heard!

    • davecandoit says:
      April 26, 2010 at 6:04 am

      Well said, Tracy, thanks. The quarry near me is filled with wildlife and old trees and such. Sadly, no matter what it’s going to change, but it doesn’t have to me a neighbourhood wrecker. The zoning dates back to 1968 and was based on the density of the day and the fact that an expressway was being proposed to Scarborough. The expressway never happened and density is of course much higher today than in 1968. But the builders simply don’t care.

  2. aswirly says:
    April 26, 2010 at 9:20 pm

    7 24 story buildings? gosh 😦 How reasonable of the rally to ask for a smarter developmental plan. I hope it works. I like the image. Very powerful in bw.

    • davecandoit says:
      April 26, 2010 at 9:43 pm

      Thanks Amber. It’s funny but in colour it really doesn’t do much for me. Once I dialled up the black & white with a bit of vignetting it seemed to turn into something else, like a witch burning or something, I don’t know — but I do really like it.

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