Astrid Idlewild | ACCOZZAGLIA, Page 2

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Astrid Idlewild, Page 2

Figure 10. “People tend to sit where there are places to sit” — William H. Whyte on the social life of small urban spaces. A daytime view of The Steps during the early 1990s [Andrew Stawicki, Toronto Star].

Small stoop, giant armature

“Meet me at The Steps”: commanding normativities in Toronto’s gaybourhood, 1984–2005

Figure 3. View of Village Green apartment tower complex behind razed lot and older housing stock, facing east on Maitland Street, between Church and Yonge Streets, Wednesday, 31 March 1971. [City of Toronto Archives: item 69, file 61, fonds 1526 (Harvey R. Naylor Fonds)].

From Molly Wood’s Bush to the gaybourhood: a historical narrative

“Meet me at The Steps”: commanding normativities in Toronto’s gaybourhood, 1984–2005

Steps: gay pride parade” [Kids in the Hall (season 5, episode 5), aired 7 December 1994. New York: Broadway Video].

An introduction: “Meet me at The Steps”

Commanding normativities in Toronto’s gaybourhood, 1984–2005

1996.04.01-Premier-Mike-Harris-Elmira-ON-photo-by-Mike-Bellis

Same as it ever was? A dozen years for reflection and conclusion

Hostile Homewood: on Toronto’s Victoria Day ’96 murder spree and articulating erasure

Figure 6. Wolseley Street, dusk, about four blocks north of where Brenda was murdered, is representative of the area’s historical built form. Defensible spacing (the line between public and private space) is clear, but the street, with no sitting activity or pedestrians, or has low proprietor surveillance. [Idlewild, 12 July 2008]

An act of not-so-safe streets: regulating femininity away from public space

Hostile Homewood: on Toronto’s Victoria Day ’96 murder spree and articulating erasure

Figure 5. Location of The Clarke Institute of Psychiatry’s Gender Identity Clinic, later the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Gender Identity Clinic, on College Street at Huron. [©© Mateen Mahboubi]

Predation and the culture of institutionalization: impacts of perception and placement

Hostile Homewood: on Toronto’s Victoria Day ’96 murder spree and articulating erasure

Figure 4. Toronto Star, page A7, Monday, 27 May 1996.

Sensationalizing disempowerment: kick ’em when because they’re down

Hostile Homewood: on Toronto’s Victoria Day ’96 murder spree and articulating erasure

Figure 3. Adjacent the laneway of 61 Homewood Avenue. This was where Deanna Wilkinson was murdered by Marcello Palma shortly after midnight on 21 May 1996. [Idlewild]

Introducing “Hostile Homewood”: truly dark and stormy

On Toronto’s Victoria Day ’96 murder spree and articulating erasure

Figure 10. Pending condo development at 50 Wellesley Street East, August 2008, with visible remnants of a just-demolished, four-storey brick office building. As of 2012 2015, this development is not yet built. Branded both as “Plaza” and “50 Wellesley East”, its developers still have a positive opportunity to inscribe the “Plaza” (or “Plaza at 50 Wellesley”) name permanently to the tower and to enhance legibility of the streetscape along Wellesley. Owing to its extended presence for at least four seven years, the “Plaza” name serves already as an effective, if ephemeral, toponym. [Idlewild]

Conclusion of “Mnemotechny in Toronto”

Ephemeral toponyms, streetscape illegibility, and gendering the territories of condo development

Figure 9. One St. Thomas Street, built 2007–08, is an exceptional case where a new-build condo tower not only preserved a visible toponym as a permanent fixture, but also utilized a cut stone façade reminiscent of early 20th century American architectures, setting its presence apart from its glass box contemporaries. Its only drawback is that St. Thomas Street is not an arterial, and the condo’s permanent awning is only visible by those who find themselves wilfully on the hidden side-street. [Idlewild]

Discussion on “Mnemotechny in Toronto”

Ephemeral toponyms, streetscape illegibility, and gendering the territories of condo development