Unwin Avenue, Toronto

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The Hearn Generating Plant anchors the eastern end of Unwin Avenue.
Toronto’s International Marine Passenger Terminal, built in 2005, anchors the western end of Unwin Avenue.

Unwin Avenue is a street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[1][2][3] It is approximately 2.6 km (1.62 mi) long, running east-west south of the Turning basin, north of Cherry Beach. The Hearn Generating Plant, a retired coal fired electrical plant, anchors the east end of the avenue at Leslie Street.[4] Port facilities and the International Marine Passenger Terminal anchor the west end of the avenue at Cherry Street.[5]

The entrance to the Leslie Street Spit is at the intersection of Leslie and Unwin.[6]

On November 29, 2011, Leanne Freeman, a 23 year old woman, was found on Unwin Avenue, mortally wounded with a gun shot wound to her head.[7]

Shawn Micallef's Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto tells sightseers how to recognize the horrific crashes of David Cronenberg's Crash.[2]

Toronto's Portlands, including Unwin Avenue, was originally a large marsh.[8] After the marsh was poisoned by reckless 19th Century waste disposal techniques it was filled with landfill, that was also contaminated. Nevertheless the city plans to demolish most of the remaining industrial buildings along Unwin Avennue and Commissioners Street and replace them with parks or amateur sports facilities.

Environmental concerns

In 1988 Don Peuramaki published a natural history of the roadway.[1]

According to The Canadian Entomologist Cherry Street, between Unwin Avenue and the Keating Channel was the first recorded site of termite infestation in Ontario.[9][10]

In 2001 Les Termineaux Rideau Bulk Terminals Incorporated pled guilty to "discharging or causing or permitting the discharge of a contaminant, namely salt particulate" from its depot at 206 Unwin Avenue.[11] Similar charges were dismissed against its client, Sifto Canada. The firm was fined $12,000 CAD.

Unwin Avenue is the site of a repository for snow collected from Toronto's streets.[12] An article in the Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering described the environmental effects of runoff from the snow dump.

The nearby Leslie Street spit is an important habitat and stopover site for migrating birds. A report on Tommy Thompson Park's bird sanctuaries recommended Unwin Avenue as one of the possible locations for an interpretive center, explaining the importance of the spit to the public.[13]

Role in Toronto's Olympic bids

Toronto bid, unsuccessfully, for the 1996 and 2008 Summer Olympics. As a large and under-utilized block of land Toronto's Port Lands figured largely in both Olympic bids. In the 1996 bid athletes' housing was going to be built along Unwin Avenue.[14][15] In the 2008 bid the rowing facility was to be built parallel to Unwin.

In fiction and popular culture

Shawn Micallef's Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto tells sightseers how to recognize the site of the horrific crashes of David Cronenberg's Crash.[2]

Several novels have set scenes on Unwin Avenue.[16][17] In Lethal Rage: A Mystery Brent Pilkey describes Unwin Avenue as "the perfect setting for a horror movie".

Early on the morning of November 29, 2011, a passing motorist discovered mortally wounded Leanne Freeman, on Unwin Avenue, Toronto's 42nd murder victim of 2011.[7][18][19] Her murder captured the public's imagination and on January 8, 2012, an egraved 360 kg granite stone was placed at 450 Unwin Avenue, near where her body had been found.[20][21]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Don Peuramaki (1988). Unwin Avenue: Cherry Beach to Leslie Street : a natural history of the area in the 1980s.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Shawn Micallef (2011). Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto. Coach House Books. ISBN 9781770562615. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. 
  3. ↑ Mike Filey (1998). Discover & explore Toronto's waterfront: a walker's, jogger's, cyclist's, boater's guide to Toronto's lakeside sites and history. Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781550023046. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. 
  4. ↑ Joanna Lavoie. Residents clear on what they want for port lands, Inside Toronto, 2011-12-14. Retrieved on 2012-01-01. “Others inquired about marine usage and cycling in the port lands as well as future uses for the venerable Hearn Generating Station on Unwin Avenue.”
  5. ↑ Getting to The Port of Toronto’s International Marine Passenger Terminal, Port of Toronto, 2011. Retrieved on 2011-12-29.
  6. ↑ Club invites residents to walk off the holiday turkey, Inside Toronto, 2010-12-24. Retrieved on 2012-01-01. “Jan. 1, Leslie Street Spit: Depart at 1 p.m. from Leslie Street at Unwin Avenue at the gate at the entrance to the Spit. There is plenty of parking or walk south from the Queen streetcar. This an annual event promises to start off the new year on the right foot.”
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Winnipeg woman murdered in Toronto knew killer: police, CTV News, 2011-12-09. Retrieved on 2012-01-01.
  8. ↑ Port Lands Transitional Sports Fields Public Meeting, Waterfront Toronto, 2006-09-13. Retrieved on 2012-03-14.
  9. ↑ F. A. Urquhart. The Introduction of the Termite into Ontario, The Canadian Entomologist, 1953. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “the termite was introduced into Ontario from the United States between the years 1935 and 1938, and that the point of introduction was in the vicinity of Cherry Street between Keating and Unwin Avenue on the ...”
  10. ↑ C. S. Kirby. The Distribution of Termites in Ontario after 25 Years, The Canadian Entomologist, 1965. Retrieved on 2012-03-13.
  11. ↑ R. v. Les Termineaux Rideau Bulk Terminals Inc. / Sifto Canada Inc., Legal emissions, 2001-02-15. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “Les Termineaux Rideau Bulk Terminals Inc. (“Rideau”) pleaded guilty to one count of discharging or causing or permitting the discharge of a contaminant, namely salt particulate, at 206 Unwin Avenue, in the City of Toronto, that caused or was likely to cause an adverse effect, contrary to s. 14(1) of the EPA.”
  12. ↑ R. L. Droste, J. C. Johnston. Urban snow dump quality and pollutant reduction in snowmelt by sedimentation, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 1993. Retrieved on 2012-03-13.
  13. ↑ William G. Wilson, Edward D. Cheskey. Leslie Street Spit Tommy Thompson Park Important Bird Area Conservation Plan, IBA Steering Committee, 2001-07. “Establish nature centre facilities on the Spit in the least disruptive site, either on the baselands or Unwin Avenue (TRCA, SC)”
  14. ↑ Jim Byers, Laurie Monsebraaten. Olympic bid centres on new CNE Stadium, Toronto Star, 1988-08-17, p. A.1. Retrieved on 2012-03-14. “Henderson's plans call for low-rise units on the north side of Unwin Ave.”
  15. ↑ Jim Byers, Laurie Monsebraaten. Battle for 1996 Olympics heats up, Toronto Star, 1989-02-09, p. A.26. Retrieved on 2012-03-14. “Henderson's plans call for low-rise units on the north side of Unwin Ave.”
  16. ↑ Brent Pilkey (2010). Lethal Rage: A Mystery. ECW Press. ISBN 9781550229257. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “Instead of driving straight into the beach's parking lots, he hung a left on Unwin Avenue and plunged into the perfect setting for a horror movie. The narrow, two-lane road was paved, but it might as well have been dirt considering the condition it was in. Stunted scrub brush lined the road's southern flank, hinding a twiested warren of bike trails and footpaths, some officiel, most not. The other side of the road was a stereotypical slasher-film backdrop: old, shuttered buildings, mostely abandoned, poorly quarantined from the world by rusting chains and decrepite fences. Not far down the road, a solitary smokestack jutted into the night sky like a skeletal finger flipping off the distant city.” 
  17. ↑ Jake Brown (2009). Rick Rubin: In the Studio. ECW Press. ISBN 9781550228755. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “They were standing beside the car, a purple beetle with big yellow flowers on it, down near Cherry Beach. The Ambulances and fire trucks were still there and the first patrol car on the scene, driven by Anjilvel who said Brewski was off sick. "More like hungover," Levine said, and no one said anything about that. The Beetle was off the road, Unwin Avenue, across from the old power plant, and pretty well hidden in the weeds and trees.” 
  18. ↑ Woman, 23, found dead from gunshot in Port Lands, CTV News, 2011-11-29. Retrieved on 2012-03-13.
  19. ↑ Police warn sex workers after Winnipeg woman killed in T.O., CTV News, 2011-12-01. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “Toronto police said on Thursday that a young woman who died after she was found shot in the Port Lands area was working in the sex trade, but could not confirm her job had any connection to her death.”
  20. ↑ Noor Javed. Port Lands memorial to slain woman has magnetic effect on passersby, Toronto Star, 2012-01-15. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “It is an unlikely place for a memorial, at the side of a nondescript road flanked by factories and empty land. But this is why cars pull over to have a look, runners stop to read the inscription and it is almost impossible to pass by the engraved stone without at least a quick glance.”
  21. ↑ Jason Seputis. Remembering Leanne Freeman: Strangers honour homicide victim with permanent memorial in Toronto, CBC News, 2012-01-08. Retrieved on 2012-03-13. “Total strangers are helping to honour 23-year-old homicide victim Leanne Freeman by setting up a permanent memorial in Toronto, Jasmin Seputis reports.”
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