http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinreis/sets/72157606733589660/
http://www.eyeweekly.com/blog/post/36352
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifindoubt/2764191089/in/photostream/
http://podcast.cbc.ca/w6_20080814_2100.mp3 

Blackout Anniversary
Three Parties - One Celebration
8pm to 10pm.

Thursday August 14, 2008 is the 5th anniversary of the great blackout,
when our city rediscovered itself as “Toronto the Good”.  Remember when
life spilled out into the streets; remember talking to strangers; remember
when magic zapped out the mundane.

Join local merry-makers Streets are for People!, New Mind Space, Promise,
Reclaim the Streets, Drummers in Exile, Bike Pirates, Take the Tooker,
Bells on Bloor, Urban Repair Squad, Samba Elegua and the Kensington Horns
for three parties and one big celebration.

PARTY OPTION #1 - PARADE
8pm - assemble Central Tech bleachers, (Harbord just east of Bathurst)
BRING - horns, drums, instruments of all kinds, noise makers, lanterns,
costumes (anything silly)
9pm we depart

PARTY OPTION #2 - CRITICAL MASS BIKE RIDE
8pm - assemble - Bloor and Spadina
BRING - the usual fun
8:15 depart
9pm return to Bloor and Spadina

PARTY OPTION #3 - SILENT STREET RAVE
8PM - assemble - 666 Spadina (at Sussex Ave.)
BRING - music player, glo-sticks, costumes, the usual fun

9:30 - Don’t miss the Secret Grand Finale when three parties become one.

This Sunday marks the 5th anniversary of the day our consumptive society blew the fuse on our own power supply.  Come and celebrate this realization and the relive the acts of community that this day inspired with all acoustic music, kid-powered games and a special evening theatrical performance in the streets of Kensington Market!   www.pskensginton.ca  Out with the lights, in with the music!

We can still some spare hands for a few hours each to help make this Pedestrian Sunday as amazing as it can be–please call Kelsey to volunteer (416)841-8549.

An unsuspecting Bathurst Street in Toronto was treated to a civic make-over  one Sunday by merry pranksters Streets are for People. The four-lane artery is under repair and traffic is reduced to one slow-moving lane.  This leaves three lanes available for public fun.  “In legal terms, the street is called a public right-of-way.  Construction stops on Sundays.  We have every right to occupy the unused space” explains co-organizer Michael Louis Johnson.

Walking north through large pylons and broken pavement, the scene unfolded like some surreal post-oil dreamscape. Many strangers gathered around a giant 3 x 3 metre scrabble game, further up, an antique pedal organ, in a lane freed from cars, with more people singing together around it.

Further still, where the pavement was completely broken and there was only dirt, the perfect place for a game of croquet – “under the cobblestones, the beach!”

Up on a patch of new concrete beside suspended steel tracks, revolution rockers the New Kings played to a happy crowd of 50 who danced with children, in the middle of the street.

In the song Street Fighter, Michael J.  dreams of  a possible future “in a world of peace and tranquility, we’ll find the time to take it slow, without the rush, the noise,  the crush of the cars,  and the go, go, Gooooooo….”  And this was it, temporary as it was, that world we all want to live in.

“When streets are given back to people as an extension of their living room, not just a place to move and store cars, amazing things can happen,” said Shamez Amlani of Streets are for People. “That’s what streets have been for many thousands of years.”

After four hours of fun and games, Toronto Police responded to one complaint that “kids were playing in the construction site.”  The party was disbanded peacefully until Johnson began heckling the cops for blocking the road and causing a traffic jam.  They put him in handcuffs and drove him home.  No charges were laid.                                                                                                                                                                     

As evening fell the front window of the Keep Six Art Gallery became a movie screen and a few dozen people spread blankets and pillows over the road and passed the popcorn as they watched Le Depart, a short comedy about guerrilla bike activists the Urban Repair Squad, followed by the 1938 Frank Capra classic, “You Can’t Take it with You”.

Every bus-rider and car passenger traveling up Bathurst St. that beautiful Sunday saw the mundane concrete road temporarily transformed into a community playground.  For those who took the opportunity to step into the street and join the fun, even when Bathurst is returned to four lanes of choking, congested traffic, they will remember that one day when the space was liberated, returned to the people, and how much fun freedom can be.

 See photos on flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/ttyrtle/2665257893/

Construction has forced Bathurst down to one lane of traffic leaving three lanes open for play!

Join us on Bathurst (Bloor to Dupont) 2pm ’til late for:

giant games - bike races - life-size Bathurst re-design charette - the New Kings live! - films featuring the latest from the Urban Repair Squad.

Bring your bike, blanket, picnic basket, friends, family, sweetheart, snacks, beachballs, hoola-hoops, instruments, and anything you can fit in your bike basket to spend a summer evening well.

Follow this link for an indepth Torontoist interview with Shamez Amlani about the founding of Streets are for People! what Pedestrian Sundays are all about, and reclaiming our city form cars.

http://torontoist.com/2008/05/tall_poppy_inte_56.php,

Last week Shamez and Michael J attended the Towards Carfree Cities Conference in Portland Oregon.  The conference was hosted by the World Carfree Network based in Prague and featured activists and urban planners predominantly from the western hemisphere all working towards building cities of the future around people instead of cars.
First, Portland is amazing, great transit, bike lanes everywhere, great cycling community.  June is their Bike month.  It’s called Pedalpalooza and features something like 240 amazing rides, parties and events–

http://www.shift2bikes.org/cal/viewpp2008.php

The presentations were good, but most of the inspiration came in getting
to know each other while sampling the great microbrews of Oregon.  We
became great friends with Tiago from Apocalipse Motorizado in Sao Paolo,
Brazil  http://apocalipsemotorizado.net/2008/07/09/festa-na-prefeitura/

and got to have dinner with Chris Carlsson from San Fransisco.
He is one of the founders of Critical Mass and has a great new book called
Nowtopia.  (We are hoping to get him to Toronto in September.)

After our presentation, (Wednesday morning at 9am.  Imagine Michael J and Shamez at 9am.)  someone suggested they’d like to do a direct action with us before the week was out.  That day we met for an hour at lunch and came up with an idea.  this little film was made by people from Toronto, Ithica NY, Santa Cruz CA, Mexico City, Tulsa Oklahoma, Honalulu, Washington DC  and Portland.  Shot in an hour, edited in two.  you can see it here.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/pdx-park-or-nap/1857898815?icid=acvsv1
 

For more on the conference visit carfreeportland.org  There will be video of our presentation available soon.
Peace,

 MLJ

PS, special thanks to Pam and Rob for giving lending us bikes and giving Shamez a place to sleep for three hours a night.

Tuesday, June 3rd - Bicycle Polo in the Round
Ladies and gentlemen of the Greater Toronto Area, and esteemed guests to our fair city are cordially invited to a civilized evening of sport.

Meet in the pit at Trinity-Bellwoods Park the evening of Tuesday June 3rd at a half past six.

Here are a few recommendations to ensure the evening lives up to it’s full societal potential:

Attire: formality and civility go hand in hand.  Wear the nicest clothes that you don’t mind getting a little dirty.  (The fancier you dress, the more fun you’ll have, we promise.)

Bring:

 - a sturdy bicycle, one that’s easy to ride with one hand. (we play in the circle of dirt near the gazebo.  it can be a little bumpy on the skinny tires of a fast road bike.)                                                                                  

-snacks and discreet beverages.  (easier to make friends between matches…or matches between friends)

-a pen and paper in case you are inspired to write a poem or a love note to another player.

-your wit, your charm, your competetive spirit; your grace, your manners, and above all, your sense of humour.

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3rd Annual Streets are for Picnics!       –Postponed ’til July–
Breathe the life of civility into a space normally dominated by automobiles.
Music, dance, giant games and an evening of films at the “Bike-In theatre”.

Secret Time - Secret place.  Stay tuned for details.

UPCOMING EVENTS - Check out our Calendar for a full season of actions to get involved with!
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Sunday, May 25th - P.S. Kensington

Join us for our first Pedestrian Sunday of the year - Our Grand Opening Spring Pedestrian Sunday! Festivities include a Maypole for adults, a giant pinata for the kids, a grand ceremony recognizing Kensington’s history and the people that make it what it is today, and a whole day full of music, dance and fun celebrating spring and the beginnings of new life, the world coming outdoors, the birds and the bees, and as always, community, culture, and ecology.

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P.S. Kensington needs volunteers! Come be part of the magic–make music, play games, build props, give rickshaw rides, keep the cars at bay, paint labyrinths, and help bring our streets to life.  To volunteer email: kelsey or call (416)841-8549

Spread the word! See you in streets!

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Join STREETS ARE FOR PEOPLE! Drop us an email info

or if you’re so inclined…join our facebook to keep up on actions and events

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