Karen comes from a ‘green’ background, having a Bachelors degree in environmental science, and then a Masters in urban planning – both quite useful skills in a city councillor. She worked, earlier in her career, for the City of Toronto’s forestry department and then moved on to working on other issues.

It was hard to find some part of municipal life she hadn’t worked in as she mentioned topic after topic that she’s had some interest or been a part of including Heritage Toronto, Good Jobs for All Coalition, the Toronto Open Budget Initiative and many others. Most recently she’s been the Executive Director of the Toronto branch of a non-profit human rights organization, Chinese Canadian National Council which helps build links between the Chinese community and others within the City of Toronto.

Her interest definitely was in parks as the topic came up numerous times, including discussions about Trinity Bellwoods, and some ideas on revitalizing the stretch of Bloor Street around Christie Pits. Outside of this particular Ward, she discussed working on a city-wide parks plan.

We talked quite a bit about last year’s restaurant moratorium, pushed through without debate by our current councilman and Mayoral candidate, Joe Pantalone. In her walks through the community and door-knocking, she says the topic comes up regularly, and many didn’t know what had happened, but knew that something had. She expressed to me that there were many ways to have solved the problem, and the outright ban, without community consultation, wasn’t the right approach. It also didn’t address the specific issue – which was the noise being created on the side streets to Ossington by people leaving bars at closing time and she presented some excellent ideas, some more challenging to implement than others, to address this. It was clear she had been talking to the residents in the neighbourhood, and had a pretty good grasp of this particular challenge.

I also learned a good deal about how the local election process works, and the party politics which are inevitably involved in these type of races.

As the campaign progresses I’m certain Karen will keep us updated on her positions on local issues, and we’ll pass along key information as it comes. If you want to follow what she’s doing, keep an eye on her FaceBook page and her Twitter account, or if  you’re old school just sign up for her email newsletter.

It’s exciting that Ward 19 has some young and energetic candidates looking to change the community. Keep an eye here for more candidate profiles to come.

We are excited to see another place in the neighbourhood opening up. This place has been long awaited (any minute, as of February). We heard they have had issues getting their licenses accepted and all their permits approved. We don’t know whether they will open to the public right after the pairing night, or whether there are further approvals required. Let us know if anyone knows more.

Here’s the sign that’s in their window:

Goed Eten used to be in Kensington and had some great reviews for their excellent food.

While the decor hasn’t changed much since Semolina left, Johan explained that he will be growing into the location. Right now the menu is still quite limited, although there is a range of coffees, from very short espressos, to longer Belgian style.  The sign on the front explains that it’s a two step process, with them starting out serving some easier to prepare foods such as fresh made Belgian waffles, house made ice cream, and locally baked breads and pastries.

In a few months he plans to expand his offerings to prepared and packaged meals, as well as selling organic produce from local farmers.

You can keep up with their new offerings on their Facebook page here.

Our coffees this morning were excellent, and we welcome them to the neighbourhood.

This morning “Crafted” opened in the location where Get Real used to be at 135 Ossington.  It is the newest location for the entrepreneurs behind Te Aro Roasted in Leslieville.

We stopped by this afternoon and tried a few of their blends – an iced tea which had a delicious peachy flavour and a cold filtered iced coffee. The people behind Crafted enjoy experimenting with different ways of brewing coffee and have a very funky machine which looks a bit like something I might have played with in a university chemistry class for making the cold filtered coffee. (I’m hoping there won’t be too much caffeine in it or else I’m going to be up all night)

Although they are still shopping for some furniture the interior is already comfortable with warm unfinished wood paneling and a nice table where people can congregate and work – and they even have free WiFi. There’s also a back patio area with a herb garden as a place to enjoy a coffee outdoors.

If you want to buy some of their specialty roasted coffee to take home, you can pack it up and take it with you.

They promised to be teaching some classes and having specialty coffee tastings and they’d tell us about. So keep an eye on the blog for upcoming events at Crafted.

In the meantime, stop by and welcome our newest business to the neighbourhood.

The Cardboard Brains - by Vincent Carlucci

Vince Carlucci is a long-time Toronto musician, having co-founded the band Cardboard Brains back in 1976. Back then he was also taking pictures of his favourite bands, Iggy Pop, The Ugly, The Ramones, Blondie and others. Toronto, along with New York and London, was pivotal in the late 70s punk movement and many of the best musicians the the time came and played.

There are shots from Patti Smith’s show at Seneca College in 1976, (price of entry: $7.50) as well as Lou Reed playing Massey Hall.

Recently Joe Fuda connected with Vince and put together an expo of some of the shots he took which went up recently at the Oz Studios at 134 Ossington. It’s a cool little show to walk around and remember the era.

In the meantime a number of other Ossington businesses have joined the twittersphere and the community, Ossington Village blog included.

The community has grown.

Back in the early days, it was PizzaLibretto who was on Twitter. And they still tempt us with their daily specials, as well as their community interactions.

Delux lets us know the changes in their menu and new offerings:

Lab Consignment, out of Silver Falls Vintage, lets us know the celebs that are haunting their locale.

The ever-delightful Cindiloowho helps promote other businesses in the area, in this case @chefRoccoTO, of Pizza Libretto is opening Enoteca Sociale next week.

Our favourite tequila joint on Ossington helps out their neighbour at 134 by tweeting their next exhibits.

We do have to give some honorable mentions to neighbourhood locals and entertaining tweeters @whetmyappitite and @modernmod who keep us entertained and informed.

And let us know if there are other twitterers on Ossington, and of course, keep an eye on @OssingtonVil to keep up to date with us.

When you walk into this funky little bordello themed bar, food is not what comes to mind. Empty seats early in the evening, no kitchen or even prep area visible, crumpled plain paper menus, and prices which suggest that food is going to be pulled from a freezer in the basement all tell the unwitting visitor that you won’t want to sit down and eat.

But we suggest you do!

A few weeks ago we sat down at the bar early in the evening, and as time went by we decided it was time to get some food. We were about to head out to one of the many places on the strip, but were convinced to stay and try some food from the small kitchen. The recommended item? – Jess’ Dead Sexy Bad Ass Mother F**** Pulled Pork Sandwich. And was it ever great.

It turns out that The Painted Lady takes their small menu seriously. Put together by Jess, sister of owner Nicky, all the ingredients are prepped well in advance in a home kitchen, so they can be quickly put together in the small space in The Painted Lady. The pulled pork is cooked for hours on end using a tangy, vinegary sauce which makes it perfectly tasty. It is served on a fresh local Portuguese bun with fresh greens on a wooden board. It’s both rustic and delicious.

Other menu items include the One Love Vegetarian Corn Soup, served with cornbread; Gotta Getta Grilled Cheese, with honey and fresh basil; and the more famous White Trash Nachos, with beef chili and Cheez Whiz.

The amazing thing about all the food at The Painted Lady, is that they make everything fresh, with real ingredients. If you order a drink with sour mix at the bar, you can be assured that it wasn’t store-bought, but that the citrus was juiced by the staff. (we’re still not sure about the Cheez Whiz thing). Right now the food is the best deal in town – with the Pulled Pork sandwich being only $7.95. Get one soon, because we’re not the only ones who’ve noticed, and when more people figure this out, the price is sure to go up.

Devan, who writes a blog called Eat it or Leave it, and is obviously passionate about both food and art, took over the place for friends and onlookers to host his 26th birthday.

His mandate? To depict the relationship between food and art via various visual, edible and inedible exhibitions.

It was a well attended night with some great art and good food, both real and artistic.

The room was busy:

There was some cool food related art:

And these were my favourite pieces. A sushi dinner, all made with candy:

and this “stadium” made with watermelon, pasta, broccoli trees, and little gummi bears as the people – fantastic:

We love how the new Meta Gallery has evolved. Looking forward to more events like this.

It was one year ago that Joe Pantalone, our current mayoral candidate, annoyed me so much by blocking new restaurant openings on Ossington without consultation from the neighbours that I went home and started writing.

90 Posts later we are still going – and an example of Hyper-local blogging.

A lot has happened this year on Ossington.

• The opening of Bohmer, Paramour and Union restaurants.
• The launch of City Store, Crepes & More & Our House.
• Evan Bidell, of Project Runway Canada fame, showed his wares in the location next to Reposado.
• Angell Gallery moved up from Queen Street.
• There were the closings of Bar au Soup, Get Real, Rolly’s Garage and the final demise of the never-opened The Saint.
• Pizzeria Libretto not only got certified by VPN, but also got named by En Route Magazine as a Best restaurant of 2008

We launched our Twitter account only 2 months ago and are keeping the neighbourhood up to date with our shorter updates. Follow us on Twitter here.

We thought we’d celebrate with a new look! The fantastic graphic design of Ananuku Kolar and Better Art Design & Direction put together our first logo, and I spent a beautiful May afternoon in the backyard putting together a new format for the blog. It will continue to evolve and grow as will the neighbourhood.

We’ve had a great time getting to know all our neighbours in Ossington Village and hearing from you our readers. We appreciate everyone who commented and sent us feedback – even if we disagreed.

We love the way this neighbourhood keeps changing and love documenting the evolution of Ossington Village. Keep commenting, sending us feedback, story ideas, and other happenings in the area.

Robert Washburn, a journalism professor, asked me to write a piece about what we are doing here, which is, essentially, hyper-local blogging. We’re writing about a small piece of the city – of the world – and giving our perspective on the area.

Today that was published in J-Source, and online Journal of Journalism. (doesn’t that sound cool?)

Check it out here.

(read the whole thing- it’s how we got here)