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| Eye chart on Church Street |
Richmond Station has weathered the pandemic by providing take out orders and selling make-it-yourself burgers (you get the patties, the buns and the condiments to cook and assemble at home). They've staked out a car-lane-wide patio space on Richmond Street, so patrons can sit outdoors and enjoy diesel fumes and vibration with their food. We weighed the comparative risks of the virus vs vehicle exhaust when we chose to eat indoors.
Richmond Station has adopted a "no tips" policy and increased its prices accordingly. It has always been a pricey restaurant (especially the drinks) so we really didn't notice the change, and liked not having to add 20% to the bill.
Getting Along
It hit the news this past week that an Etobicoke woman who had just had a mural painted on her garage door received an anonymous note complaining that the painting made the street look like a ghetto and would reduce everyone's property values.
She shared her outrage at the obnoxious treatment on Facebook. Soon local artists rallied around her and volunteered to paint the garage door of every willing property owner in the neighbourhood for free. By October 5, the anonymous crank will have maybe a dozen or more garage murals to complain about.
Garage door murals, by the way, are common in Toronto. I photographed this one in Leslieville in 2012.
The plague year has really wrung a lot of people out. So much so that something as innocuous as a garage mural in a city full of them has sparked a massive reaction to an ignorant and ill-considered note.
The dispute has gone viral, with multiple ways to show one's support. Says Blog T.O.:
There is also a poster promoting the cause [to]... "let everyone know that hateful attacks will not go unanswered in our city — let's make our love heard!"
It could be the pandemic's effect on me, but I think the neighbourhood's over-the-top reaction has more to do with revenge than love.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great week!
Karen
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