One of the great pleasures of living in Toronto is our utter disregard for keeping major arterial routes open and, perhaps coincidentally, our love of street parties. This week its the "Taste of the Danforth" festival on Danforth.

1. More like “Waste on the Danforth”. I have lived near the Danforth for the past 27 years and know a number of shopkeepers in the area. Many of the non-food retailers would rather just close up shop during the Taste weekend. They need to put on extra staff due to the increased potential for shoplifting. Sales are often less than regular weekends. My favourite Danforth pizzeria, used to complain about having to sell slices for $2 a piece to compete with other food outlets. That worked out to $8 to $14 less than their regular delivered price. Add to that a 60-70% drop in regular phone in orders and you can see why they didn’t like it. They stopped participating and have recently moved. There was also Taste advertising fees payable to the local business association. I suppose that some have to suffer for the prosperity of the many. My biggest beef, not the kind found on a stick, is with the gas generators, spewing fumes throughout the neighbourhood. The thought of fighting my way through shoulder to shoulder crowds, breathing in noxious air, to pay a dollar more than I normally do for a tasty treat has lost its appeal. I spent most of the weekend down at the Beach, now that the Jazz festival is over.

   Posted by Chris  on  08/07  at  11:17 PM

2. I think shutting down roads to be used by people is generally a good thing, although most of what TotD was offering wasn’t too appealing.

   Anyone with children try to ingrain into them that they are never ever allowed to go on the road without explicit permission. Because my 3.5 year old son knows this, he referred to TofD as “The place where we’re allowed to walk on the road”

   Posted by Sean  on  08/08  at  04:04 PM

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