New community association

By Hedy Korbee

The activist spirit is alive and well and living in Birch Cliff.

A meeting will be held to organize a Birch Cliff Communication Association on Thurs. June 4 at 7pm at The Kingston Social, a new business venture at 1427 Kingston Rd., just west of Warden.

Polina Privis. Photo credit: Morgan Gallagher.

The drive for neighborhood renewal is being spearheaded by Birch Cliff residents Polina Privis and Anna Dewar.

It was Privis who launched The Kingston Social as a community space featuring a farmer’s market, workshops and arts and cultural events.

Privis, who bubbles with enthusiasm for the neighborhood, looks at Birch Cliff and sees incredible potential.

“I’ve lived in the Beaches. I’ve got a business in Little India but it’s totally not as community based as it is in Birch Cliff.  Everybody is so into community.  It’s not like the Beach. It’s very rare actually, to see this. There is such a driving force,” says Privis.

Started at Jane’s Walk

Earlier this month Privis and Dewar organized a successful Jane’s Walk that encouraged neighbours to “imagine a revitalized streetscape, an improved parks infrastructure, new cultural and health amenities, and more.”

Birch Cliff Jane’s Walk, May 2, 2015

The walking conversation attracted dozens of people who shared concerns about the lack of a viable small business culture in Birch Cliff, dangerous traffic on Kingston Road as well as local parks improvements.

“My personal main goal is to figure out how to turn this into a walking community again,” says Privis. “Revitalizing the street and improving the streetscape is a main item and obviously the parks. Not having a facade improvement program here is a problem because we don’t have a BIA (Business Improvement Association).”

Ward 36 Councillor Gary Crawford attended the Jane’s Walk and says he’s looking forward to working with an organized community association.

“I was very pleased to learn that Birch Cliff residents are organizing a new Community Association for the area. Birch Cliff has a long history of active residents who helped shape many of the positive features you see today. Toronto has been called a “City of Neighbourhoods”, and Birch Cliff is one of the most interesting and welcoming of the bunch.”

Birch Cliff’s long history of activism

To understand the impact that a community association could have on Birch Cliff one does not need to look very far.

The Birchmount Bluffs Neighborhood Centre, Taylor Memorial Library, the Bluffs Monitor and the Birch Cliff Mural Project are all wildly successful initiatives that started at the grassroots level.

The first Birch Cliff Community Association was founded in the late 1950s and by the time they disbanded in the late 1990s they had racked up an impressive list of achievements.

The original Taylor Memorial Library

Taylor Memorial Library

In 1967 Birch Cliff residents were appalled to learn that the Library Board had decided to tear down Taylor Memorial Library despite the fact that the former private home was donated to the community by Fred Taylor “for the purpose of a branch library and no other purpose”.

Birch Cliff residents rallied with the Community Association and saved the library, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012.

In the 1980s when concern over the age of Taylor Memorial led to redevelopment, the community stepped up again to provide local input into the design and asked for an intimate library that respects its origins as a private home.

That’s why there’s a lovely fireplace in the centre of the library surrounded by comfortable furniture as well as a back patio and garden. They also preserved the beautiful stained glass window, which was a treasured part of the Taylor homestead.

Community Centre

Lee Graves, publisher of the Bluffs Monitor who moved to Birch Cliff in 1979, recalls that at that time the Community Association had 17 urgent issues on its agenda, including the need for a community centre.

Birchmount Bluffs Neighbourhood Centre

“We needed a community centre and the city wasn’t listening to us,” said Graves, who recalled that the fight lasted decades.  “The Birch Cliff Community Association decided they would make their own community centre in the basement of churches and empty storefronts.”

It was named the Phyllis Griffiths Neighbourhood Centre, after the long time Birch Cliff resident and legendary journalist who broke the gender barrier at the Toronto Telegram in the 1940s.

In 1994, The Phyllis Griffiths centre, operating from a storefront at Kingston and Warden was replaced by the 5,791 sq. meter Birchmount Bluffs neighborhood Centre.

“We embarrassed the city into building one,” said Graves.

Birchcliff Theatre

Another campaign involved the site of the former Birchcliff Theatre, which was torn down in 1977 and the lot left vacant.

“It was a bit of a mess because there was really nothing there.  And we were saying we would like something to go in there.  And what we got was those lovely townhouses,” said Graves.

Opened in 1949 and torn down in 1977

Townhouses now occupy the site of the old Birchcliff Theatre

“They achieved fantastic success,” says Graves.  “Phenomenal.  I’ve never seen anything like it. We had really good people on it.”

Bluffs Monitor

Bluffs Monitor established

There was so much community activism in the 1980s that it was decided a community newspaper was needed to effectively communicate to the residents of Birch Cliff, and that’s how the Bluffs Monitor (originally named Birch Cliff News) was born.

“There was something to do with the Bluffs erosion and they got the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority onto that, said Graves. “The Scarborough Expressway was a hot item at that time. There was an association called Scarborough One that had been looking after that but they needed more voices to back them up.”

The list goes on and on and you can read Graves’ account of the period here.

Individuals doing their part

Since the community association disbanded individuals have taken up the cause of making Birch Cliff a special place to live.

Birch Cliff’s “gateway” signage

Former community association members Hedi Greenwood and Barb Brown are no strangers to the office of Councillor Crawford as they continue to lobby all these years later for improvements to the neighbourhood.

Whether it’s organizing a Kingston Road clean-up or pushing for the flower planters that now grace the sidewalks, Brown and Greenwood’s handiwork can be seen in many places.

How many people were driven crazy by the brand new gateway signage to Birch Cliff that nobody could read?

Barb Brown finally had enough and headed to Kingston and Warden with a can of paint and did the job herself. Take a look next time you drive by.

And there’s more

Concerned Citizens of Quarry Lands Development, with hundreds of members, is still going strong twelve years after the group first formed to fight an atrocious development proposed by the Conservatory Group for high-rise towers at the Quarry at Gerrard and Clonmore.

Just last night former Birch Cliff Public School students representing eight decades at the school held a lively meeting to plan for the school’s 100th anniversary bash in September of 2016.

Birchcliff Cliffside farmer’s market. Photo credit: Tamara Hermann

And next week the Birchcliff / Cliffside Community Market is starting up again in the parking lot at the corner of Kingston Rd. and Birchmount on Tuesdays from 3 – 7pm.

For several years there was a farmer’s market at St. Nicholas Church run by Gail Ross (now working in Councillor Crawford’s office) and many Birch Cliff residents are happy to see that Megan Ahmed is picking up where Ross left off.

A new community association

The community spirit and history of activism in Birch Cliff is not lost on Polina Privis who, along with Anna Dewar, wants to re-establish a formal Birch Cliff Community Association because there’s power in a collective.

“There’s a lot of young families and there’s a lot of stay-at-home moms who are chomping at the bit to get involved and do some sort of initiative in the community,” says Privies. “The community members have been at it for a long time.  Now it’s a different crew that’s willing to take it on and do their part.”

Randy Bentley, a long time member of the former Birch Cliff Community Association and president when it ended in 1997, says he welcomes the new ideas and enthusiasm. “I’m really happy to hear that the new generation of people in Birch Cliff want to revive it.  I think it’s wonderful.”