Jane's Walk: Between the New River and the Movies

The mouth of the Don River has been renaturalized and the area is now protected from floods, ushering in a new complete community. The McCleary District will evolve into an area housing thousands of residents and will feature a new park, school and other community services.

Join staff from the City of Toronto, CreateTO, Lassonde Art Trail, SpruceLab, and Shelby Riskin (University of Toronto).

Highlights along the walk include:

• Learning about the Indigenous and natural history at the mouth of the Don River, a former marsh.
• Walking the newly opened Don Roadway – a complete street which includes riverside trails, bike lanes and lush planting.
• Hearing about the planning study underway for the McCleary District, including recent Indigenous placemaking design work by SpruceLab. Review the four private development applications in the area.
• Visiting the newly installed public art work ‘Trajet’ by Caroline Monnet and Dean Baldwin Lew on the banks of the new Don River. This is the first work along the forthcoming Lassonde Art Trail, opening this summer in Biidaasige Park. The artwork commemorates 11,000-year-old footsteps of Indigenous ancestors that were found during the excavation of Toronto’s harbour in the early twentieth century.
• Meeting Shelby Riskin, a scientist from the University of Toronto who has been studying the ancient seed that sprouted during the excavation of the new Don River, as well as microorganisms that came back to life.
• Exploring the existing creative film cluster in the area and discussing how the new neighbourhood will protect and enhance this cluster with new commercial spaces to support creative uses.

A post-walk social gathering is being organized at Reids Distillery, 31 Logan Ave. Children welcome. Food and non-alcoholic beverages available.