The new Sunnybrook Military Hospital. Toronto Star, April 17, 1948.
In 1928, the City of Toronto received an enormous gift: Sunnybrook Farm. The farm was a reported 70 hectares of mostly undeveloped land located just north of the city limits, stretching from Bayview to Leslie across a picturesque section of the Don River. The donor was Alice Kilgour, and Sunnybrook Farm represented part of the estate on which she had lived with her husband, Joseph, until his death a few years earlier. Alice Kilgour’s gift was conditional on the City maintaining the property as a park and opening it to the public for recreation. “In order to give the citizens the fullest enjoyment of the park,” she wrote, “it should, I think, be definitely understood that none of the roads in it be used as public thoroughfares for public conveyances or commercial traffic.” “It will make one of the finest parks the city has,” predicted Board of Control member and future Toronto mayor Bert Wemp in the Globe. “The scenery up the Don Valley is wonderful, and it will be a grand place for the children.”
I don’t need to tell you folks what kind of crappy week it’s been. On Tuesday night, to the surprise of everyone, our friends south of the border elected a fear-mongering, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic hell-clown as the next President of the United States. A hell-clown who, within his first year of presidency, promises to undo everything President Obama accomplished in his eight years.
But hold off on the self-assured scoffing there, smug Canadian friends. Trump’s victory can only embolden the people who hold on to similar values as he does and that means we’ll be getting more poison rhetoric soon. Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch, who plans to screen immigrants and refugees for “Canadian values,” said this week that Trump’s victory is “an exciting message and one that we need delivered in Canada, as well.” Meanwhile, here in Toronto, or at least in my neighbourhood of Scarborough, the drums of Ford Nation beat gently with approval. Things seem tense to say the least.
But let’s face it, the events of this week have been just one addition to what has been the darkest of years. I know we all joked about it earlier this year, but it does seem like David Bowie and Abe Vigoda were the ones who kept this reality intact and now that they’re gone we get…well…2016. And hell, just as I write this, Leonard Cohen has died. Folks, I think it’s finally time to face the fact that this reality is slipping and we are, at the moment, in a dark timeline.
So this weekend, let’s get together with people we all care about and, over conversation and, (hopefully) laughs, raise a glass to each other and drink a beer as dark as this year has been.
We have a mystery on our hands, Toronto. This piece of graffiti, consisting of 72 alphabet playing cards, squiggly lines, and a series of symbols, is presumably hiding an encrypted message! It could be anything! A map to buried treasure, the location of where Elvis is living out a long and healthy existence, the meaning of life, who knows?! It’s up to you, dear readers, to suss this out!
Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. Find something great? Email vandalist@torontoist.com.
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