Alley Art

Working on the “Flusher” project for Ryan, we have gotten to see a lot of Toronto that we probably would not have visited if we were just up for a visit. We rented a car and spent two days visiting neighbourhoods in the east end and two more in the west end, leaving the central core for later when a car is a nuisance. The app is built around the city parks and their public washrooms, and most neighbourhoods have a couple of city parks in them.

Yesterday as we moved closer to the core of Toronto, we discovered that it was becoming increasingly difficult to find parking places, so sometimes we found a spot to put the car, and walked to a park nearby. I noticed at one point that there was another park close to the one we had stopped to inspect, and decided to walk there instead of driving. On the way back I came across this great collection of street art.

Neighbourhoods were once build with alternating streets and alleys. Houses always had a street in front where you showed your best side, and in the back was an alley where deliveries were made, garbage was collected and where you stored your car. Cars were then utility vehicles that got you from one place to another, so they were stored out back instead of today when you want to park your Porsche, Tesla, Audi, Mercedes, or BMW out front to impress your neighbours. This neighbourhood retained this back alley and when I walked through it, I discovered that all the garages out there had their door beautifully decorated by talented street artists, creating a beautiful display.

You will also notice that most of the garages down the alley have a different construction design, making the display even more interesting.