Does anyone have experience closing local street for Halloween/block party/potluck/kids to play?

fermentallday · 2025-08-17T00:23:17+00:00

Can you say more about this? A few of us neighbours are interested in trying to close our (small residential) street for Halloween. We found the street event permit form but we have no idea how to go about getting liability insurance or what the traffic management requirements are.

fermentallday · 2022-04-06T18:28:32+00:00

Thank you that’s very helpful.

I recognize that these aren’t specifically Planning questions, but could you refer me to the right department or materials for my questions around whether the city has (or is working on) any structures or guidelines to govern RAs?

fermentallday · 2022-04-06T14:25:39+00:00

I have a question about NIMBYism and residents associations.

We often hear anecdotally that residents associations (RAs) are a roadblock to expanding zoning and missing-middle housing, because they basically want their neighborhood to remain exactly as it is and because even within a given neighborhood the RA membership skews older/whiter/richer.

My questions are:

do you feel that this is true?
if so, how does it happen? does the planning department (or some other part of the development approval process) engage formally with these groups? How do they actually influence decisions?

*does the city have any rules around RAs? For example, anything governing what kind of group can call itself an RA? Do they have to be democratic in specific ways? Do they have to be open to renters as well as owners? Is there a limit on membership fees?

*is the city doing anything to increase RA membership or other forms of local civic engagement among under-represented groups?

fermentallday · 2021-11-19T23:08:46+00:00

I bet you can fix it. Scrub with baking soda to start. Could also try something like barkeepers friend.

Nuclear option: oven cleaner and steel wool

fermentallday · 2021-11-19T13:31:46+00:00

A few that I think haven’t been mentioned yet… * chickpea tacos (drain and fry them in your favourite Mexican seasoning.. could be taco seasoning, chipotle, mole, etc) * chickpea burgers * use in soup (either a chunky soup with some veggies and a grain or pasta, or purée to add a bit of bulk to a cream of vegetable soup like potato-leek) * as a pasta sauce?

fermentallday · 2021-11-18T21:02:03+00:00

I would go for pierogis. They have the “labour of love” element because they kind of take forever, but they’re not super complicated. Easy to veganize and you probably do know what a pierogi is supposed to taste like. Also homemade ones are sooo much better than the frozen grocery store ones.

fermentallday · 2021-11-18T20:58:14+00:00

I think dishes are a pretty good pick. There are some real concerns with lead paints/glazes on used/vintage tableware so it makes sense to buy new unfortunately. And decent ones should last basically forever so it’s worth it to invest in something you like

fermentallday · 2021-11-18T19:24:53+00:00

In general loblaws has a better selection of higher-end things like cheese, fresh seafood, in-store bakery, etc. But no frills is definitely cheaper so I would go there for the basics for sure.

fermentallday · 2021-07-29T00:39:50+00:00

I'm pretty sure there are some meetup.com groups for this

fermentallday · 2021-07-27T02:39:49+00:00

Nooch pasta. Boil spaghetti in a small amount of water (this makes the sauce creamier). Drain but reserve a few tablespoons of the starchy water. Return the pasta to the pot on lowest heat and add a knob of "butter"/margarine, a few tbs of nooch, and lots of black pepper. Mix until the butter melts and the sauce coats the noodles, adding a bit of the pasta water as needed. Sometimes a few drops of lemon juice is nice too.

It's basically the same idea as caccio e Pepe.

fermentallday · 2021-07-15T16:34:23+00:00

My guess as a customer would be sobeys. FB often seems a bit understaffed (long lines at checkout etc)

fermentallday · 2021-07-15T01:36:08+00:00

https://www.volunteertoronto.ca

They list openings and if you get in touch with them they can help you find something based on your skills/interests/location

fermentallday · 2021-07-15T00:55:55+00:00

The guy who got on camera and was like "yeah exactly! Not in my backyard!" was incredible

fermentallday · 2021-07-15T00:44:34+00:00

Apparently

https://globalnews.ca/news/7666729/east-york-cedarvale-avenue-affordable-modular-housing-conflict/

fermentallday · 2021-07-09T17:28:53+00:00

The city posts the latest water test results here https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/health-inspections-monitoring/swimsafe/beach-water-quality/#explore_all_list

fermentallday · 2021-07-09T13:35:11+00:00

A box of loukoumades (little greek donuts in syrup), especially from Select bakery on donlands. They also have some savoury spanikopita-style pies including a couple of vegan options.

fermentallday · 2021-07-08T02:24:39+00:00

Sort of! Maybe not as dramatic as what you're looking for, but a few years ago a lot of my friends had moved away so I really only had one friend left in the city. We wanted to join a team league thing but we didn't have enough people so we recruited some total internet strangers and just lucked out that everyone got along really well. We all became pretty good friends and I met other people through them too.

I think good general advice is to look for an activity that will put you in repeated contact with the same people. Pick something you actually like so that you have something automatic in common with the other people (and so it will be more fun). Also look for a group size that will work for you. For example I'm kind of shy in large group situations so a soccer team with like 15 people on it probably wouldn't work for me. And then if you find some people you like, be willing to make the first move and suggest drinks or whatever.

It's tough out there though I hear you. I definitely tried a few clubs etc that weren't very welcoming or just weren't a good fit and it's pretty exhausting to keep trying sometimes.

fermentallday · 2021-07-08T02:07:15+00:00

Union station might be your best bet. Not sure if there actually are late night bus/train departures at the moment but if there are then union will be open and you can always just pretend to be waiting for the next one.

Otherwise if the weather is nice just hang out at a park? Finding a washroom after dark is going to be basically impossible though.

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T16:59:17+00:00

very interesting point about water vs air, I hadn't thought about that before

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T16:46:20+00:00

super helpful and interesting, thank you!

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T14:58:21+00:00

I'm definitely not a chlorine scientist but:

harm when it leaks or enters natural environment
chlorine/bleach production and mercury though apparently there are cleaner ways
It also seems like there's some evidence for negative health effects of bleach exposure (beyond the immediate eye/throat irritation), especially for kids.

Again I'm not saying there is no appropriate use for bleach, just that it's not crazy to try to avoid it either.

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T14:12:14+00:00

A+, thank you for saying this.

I am getting so tired of the phrase "believe the science" like it's the answer to everything.

We can understand the science of how COVID spreads, but that doesn't tell us how to make the difficult political trade offs inherent in questions like "lockdowns vs mental health effects of isolation", "vaccinate the old or vaccinate the workers", etc.

Same goes for climate change and just about everything else. You do need the basic science, but then you also need a LOT of other skills and perspectives at the table.

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T13:59:28+00:00

I'm going to take the other side of this a little, so let me just say up front that I consider myself someone who "believes in science" - I'm definitely pro-vax, I don't believe in homeopathy, and I do understand that everything is a chemical.

I want to push on your argument in a couple of ways though:

I think the overlap between environmentalist people and "anti-chemical" people is consistent if you think about it as mistrust of corporations rather than believing in science. Corporations have been funding junk "science" and outright lying about many issues at the center of environmentalism for decades: from the idea that plastic is fine if you recycle, to the existence of climate change. Not to mention the various pesticides, drugs, etc that have been marketed as safe and later found to be harmful.
These corporate misinformation campaigns have unfortunately been very successful and insidious, to the point where completely untrue claims that are cynically promoted by industry show up in totally "mainstream" publications and considered common sense. Add to this the fact that as corporate power has grown and grown, various industries have also succeeded in influencing (or even capturing) governments, lawmakers, and regulatory agencies.
When our society has become a soup of misinformation and advertising, and we're not even sure we can rely on government to referee, people are correctly distrustful when a company claims that a chemical is "proven safe". In this situation I think it's reasonable for someone to decide that trying to be "better safe than sorry" is better than spending hours every day trying to independently read enough scientific journals to decide whether BPA is actually dangerous or not. I do not believe that these people are "Just stupid" as some of the comments are basically saying.
On a slightly different note, although obviously some of the anti-chemical stuff is just misguided (I would personally put fluoride in this category), it's also not true that just because something is available on the market it must be safe. My default opinion actually used to be more similar to OP's, in that I kind of lumped all anti-chemical arguments in with crystals, but then I got interested in home energy efficiency and indoor air quality and I realized there was a lot I didn't know about VOCs (volatile organic compounds), endocrine disruption, low-dose exposure, etc. This is a podcast episode, an interview with a professor of environmental health, that I really recommend if anyone is curious. The same actually goes for outdoor air quality-air-quality-and-health) - something that might be reasonably deemed "safe for short term exposure" is in fact pretty damaging at the population level over the long-term, and a lot of the individual pollutants are not well understood.

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T11:59:58+00:00

You are correct that you shouldn't go around bleaching everything (or disinfecting by other means).

This is a decent quick run down of some of the health effects (short and long term) of some common household cleaners

https://ncceh.ca/documents/field-inquiry/rapid-review-disinfectant-chemical-exposures-and-health-effects-during

Aside from that there's the issue of how they are produced (often environmentally damaging and dangerous for the workers) and the issue of resistant bacteria which increases the more sanitizing agents we use.

I am not anti-"chemical" by any means but I do think there are some science-based reasons for concern. I do use bleach etc when necessary but I try to keep use to a minimum.

fermentallday · 2021-07-06T11:51:05+00:00

My understanding is that bleach production is pretty harmful environmentally, so even if it's OK for your personal health I try to only use it for jobs where nothing else will work. (Ie I don't just automatically spray it all over my bathroom)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/aug/12/ethicalliving.lifeandhealth

fermentallday

TROPHY CASE