The Free City of Leslieville finally gets proper due online at the hands of Joe Clark, whose recent fusillades concerning the lack of attention granted his underexposed part of town will be funneled into his new tribute portal. The social housing developments of South Riverdale are given particular attention, including their own dedicated Flickr set, as Joe and architecture critic Ian Beanlands engage in their own David Mamet-esque version of psychogeography outside buildings like 55 Pape Ave. (pictured). Labeling the area the "The Free City of Leslieville" is a nod to the Toronto-shot movie version of William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic – who applied the descriptor to beleaguered Newark, New Jersey – while development plans for The Foundry District, whose movie studios are slated to relocate to larger premises soon, should supply Leslieville with its own futuristic reinforcement. The west end bias statistically proven to dominate cheerleading Toronto tracts like Spacing magazine and the book anthology uTOpia has met its obsessively meticulous eastern match.
The Free City of Leslieville [leslieville.org]
The Spacers, who are already sending me hate mail, are hereby invited out to the Beach for coffee.
Love the critique of the neighbourhood critique of that dreaded “social housing”–of course, the whole irony for its critics is that Leslieville’s social housing tends to be the unapologetically *enlightened* (or should that be “enlightened”? asterisks vs quotes, hmmm) kind of social housing that prevailed in post-urban-reform 80s/90s Toronto. The spectre of Jack Diamond and George Baird and Jane Jacobs breathes upon it all…
Looked at the chart, which was interesting. But the writing about Spacing and utopia smells of jealousy. Calling them snobs seems a tad teenager-ish. Maybe Mr. Clark didn’t get an article published by either one and feels snubbed? And if he hasn’t proposed articles to either of them then he should eat some crow. Does anyone else think it is a little weird that a section of a community website is focused on deriding a specific book and magazine? It doesn’t sound like Mr Clark wants those publications to like or respect him.
About the east vs. west: Almost all of the west end’s major streets are vibrant and have a variety of ammenities. Thus, a little more street life exists there. In the East End, you have the Danforth and Queen East, and some small stretches on Gerrard. I know of only two good music clubs east of the Don. Maybe that’s why there are more articles on the west side of town.
I read Spacing regularly, and they are the only publication to both boost and criticize the city, while Eye and Now both whine, though Eye has been writing good stuff about the city for the last year or so.
Now that I think of it, mr Clark complains about Spacing being west-end centric. Well, with his new site, Mr Clark is doing exactly what he hates the “Spacers” for — focusing on the place he lives and thinks is important.
All that aside, the social housing commentary is good. Need more of it but there is little political will in this city do something about it. So sad.
i think the site is entirely self-serving. just look at the homepage, with only his name getting the boldface. not to mention the about page is the most extensive writing on the site. the fact that he uses leslieville.org as his url is a borderline con. as for the spacing bit, this is a man who defines himself by what he hates – making it’s difficult to accept his love of anything.
It’s a personal site, which I suppose equates to “self-serving” for an employee of a U.S. branch plant. No, I haven’t pitched Spacing for a story, and after 390 published articles, I simply don’t get upset if rejected (except for editorials, admittedly). It’s certainly true that the east end is bereft of decent bars to go to, unless you fancy the Duke of York. And of course I’m focusing on my hood: Somebody’s got to!
Really, it seems that Spacers and their friends view their project as so thoroughly just and proper that they cannot imagine how anyone not in the employ of a billboard agency could ever critique it. I like the magazine (check what I actually wrote about it) but recognize its deficiencies. Instead of sitting around, I’m doing something myself. I don’t see the problem.
Isn’t it cute how Josh doesn’t have enough space on his own branch-plant blog to insult me and has to do it on Weisblott’s site, too?
Lemme know when this-all gets back to issues, will you?
New housing critique out Monday. See you then.
I wouldn’t bellyache over Joe Clark’s “bellyaching” over East End Toronto being the Jefferson Memorial to the Spacingverse’s Lincoln Memorial, either.
Though if one reflects, the Spacingverse’s stereotypically “preferred” E End perhaps leapfrogs from the Don all the way to Wexford, Bendale et al…
Gee, Joe ‘n’ Ian tearing strips off social housing design? Given that these two don’t identify the architect (in their take on 126 Coxwell), the review amounts to nothing more than mean-spirited criticism of the homes of those without much choice as to where they live.
What next, tossing barbs at the clothing of those who can only afford Goodwill?
There is nothing but crotchety bullshit coming form that Leviville site, and I agree on the self-serving aspect that the previous poster made.
And what is your beef with Spacing? That magazine rocks!
Read the About section. Building owners were canvassed for architectural details and they refused to respond. Some buildings helpfully list the architects in their lobbies. We’ll get to those in due course.
If I wanted to serve myself via a Web site, I had enough properties already to do so. Sure, _Spacing_ rocks, at least some of the time and for some of the city. Sure.
From the aforementioned About page:
“This site is already vastly superior to any other neighbourhood site in existence.”
Words fail.
Thanks for selective misquoting. As the site explains, the *code* is better. (“Any technical deficiencies you note with the site can be reported, but are probably there because my friends and I couldn’t fix them. This site is already vastly superior to any other neighbourhood site in existence. How many lower-middle-class neighbourhoods with lead-contaminated soil have HTML Strict fan Web sites with RSS?”)
Please, fact-check my arse on that, Markus. Words indeed fail.
Remember: You visit Web sites; they don’t visit you. Use this awesome power responsibly.