Walk and discover your city- Jane's Walk May 6th, 7th, and 8th

May 6th, 7th and 8th is the date for Jane's Walk festival , where free city tour is being offered around the city, in the spirit of exploring and encouraging conversations. There are more than 150 walks scheduled in Toronto alone. In the spirit of the coming festival, I would like to share with you my thought on a recent reading.

When a Torontonian get asked about taking picture in his own downtown Toronto, here is what he wrote - "And what’s so bad about being a tourist? What is a tourist, anyway, but an explorer, a discoverer? Why should there be any negative connotations to behaviour that would be perfectly normal in a new place, just because it’s done in one’s own home? I think we could all benefit from acting like tourists in our own cities. For one thing, it keeps the place (and by extension, our lives) fresh and exciting. It makes you think about the place where you live instead of just inhabiting it."

This is an excerpt from a piece I just stumbled upon, written for Jane's Walk Blog, titled "A Tourist at Home"

The piece resonates with me...

Paris, Egypt, China, South East Asia, Cuba... As human, we travel a lot. Just count the number of blogs on backpacking, on traveling on a budget, on travel+volunteer. Yes, we travel far and wide. Yet there is one place we don't often travel or explore - our own home town. Not everyone know their own hometown very well.

While in a foreign place, we takes pictures of anything remotely interesting. But in our own home town, we don't usually notice and appreciate the beauty in the immediate surrounding, in our own home town (Sure we take pictures of our own outing, but often not of the locations, the quirks,and the beauty). Let alone getting to know the history, the culture of each place. We are too busy with life, work, and vacations.

Sunset on Harbourfront Skating Rink

I have lived here, in Toronto, for a while and also explored occasionally. But I have come to realize that there are a lot more to explore. Just last year, I discovered the Beltline trail and Evergreen Brick Works, thanks to Jane's Walk.

"The city is huge and full of stuff, and even if I ever got through all the things that are already here, there are always new things being added: new murals, new parks, new buildings. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll be playing tourist here forever.", the author wrote.

"So don’t be afraid to go out and explore your own hometown as if it were a foreign land. Your life will always be richer for the experience." I couldn't have put it better myself.

So go out and learn about where you live - there is always a story waiting to be told.

The Don Dialogue – bold, inspiring, and exciting

Just last week, I had the opportunity to volunteer at The Don Dialogue panel on April 21th and listen to inspiring panelists talking about changing the Don River watershed.

A view of the River Valley Park, looking south from the Brickworks. 
(Brenda Webster Tweel with Felipe Avila, The Globe and Mail)

The aim of the panel was to discuss the future of the Don Valley River, the possibility of converging the space into a park, spanning from Pottery road (North of Bloor) all the way to Corktown Common at the mouth of Lake Ontario (details here). 

What striking and inspiring about this panel is the vision painted by Geoff Cape, CEO of Evergreen (Evergreen Brickworks locates just next to Don River Valley, on Bayview) and the panelists – including architechtures from USA, and City of Toronto managers. (details on speakers here)

What did I take away?

The thing I learn from this panel is the thousands of green spaces built and being built at this moment. In the US, there are Chicago’s project 606 (building public space with garden and bike trail on existing elevated railway) and Brooklyn Bridge Park (park space on piers, on the wasted old industrial space) – two I was most impressed with among many others.

Credit: The 606 Chicago

Brooklyn Bridge Park (credit: Urban Omnibus)

These projects not only re-purpose the old, wasted structure/ land, but also bring green spaces to urban city, giving people a community space, separate from the concrete and cement roads. It brings people in the heart of the city closer to nature.

For me, these are proofs of incredible things we can achieve. These are the basis for my renewed faith and hope in humanity, in the power to do good. The proofs that we can do anything, we can contribute positively to climate change, if we all put our mind to it.

It is now Toronto’s turn. The wheel is now in motion for a Don River Valley park, among others ideas and plans all over Don River, from north to south – a cable car, bike lanes, bike trails, connecting bridges, renaturalizing the mouth of Don River,… With all the inputs and proposals, now is the opportunity to reshape the Don River Valley space. What is needed is the input from passionate people, from all walks of life.

There is two coming events at Evergreen Brick Works about the Don Valley, a film screening of documentary Accidental Parkland on May 10th, and an ecological panel on May 25^th. Registration is free at evergreen.ca

Learn more about Don River Valley Park, visit its website.
Watch Accidental Parkland trailer here

Fresh Start

Hi myself,

It has been a while since I write anything on here. It is a constant problem of mine, a good writing habit.

Not that I have nothing to write about. I have tons of things I want to write down and share - adventures, pieces of knowledge, thoughts ....that I've collected. Someday I think - this is a good day to start. But... I did not.

It went on for a while... then...

I thought, to hell with a good day to start, any day is a good day. But... I still couldn't start. There were so many things, where do I begin?

So today I just want to get this feeling out. It is a way to start again.

I am participating in Start-A-Blog challenge from Live Your Legend. It is a good accountability strategy for myself. I hope this time, I stick to this and finally have a great blog running.

Happy Day