Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Water/Fall Festival: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1768

Episode Date: September 25, 2025

In this 1768th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Tim Kocur, the Executive Director of Waterfront BIA, Ilana Altman, Co-Executive Director at The Bentway, and Deb Wilson, VP Communications and Public Affairs at PortsToronto, about Water/Fall Festival and more. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, the Waterfront BIA, Blue Sky Agency and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hi, this is Ernie Witt. You're listening to Toronto Mike. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who leaves in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta

in Mississauga and Oakville. Toronto's Waterfront, BIA, Check out what's happening on Toronto's waterfront this autumn. Blue Sky Agency, the official distributor of Silen's quiet, comfortable, and customizable office pods. Create sanctuary within your workspace. Recyclemyelectronics.ca.comitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home, Pillars of the Community since 1921. today to discuss the inaugural

Waterfall Festival it's Tim Coker the executive director of Waterfront BIA Elana Altman the co-executive director at the Bentway and Deb Wilson VP Communications and Public Affairs at Ports Toronto I'm out of breath, welcome everybody

So I can't wait to get to know you better Deb and Alana, but I'm going to just open this episode by addressing Tim Koker on a couple of key things. One is, Tim, you're saying your surname incorrectly. It's not Koker, right? Well, I am quite often told by my Polish friends at Kucha is like large cat in Polish, but my family's been pronouncing a little different way for a couple generations now, I guess. Okay, well, you can pronounce it any way you like, but I'm thinking of Joey Kosher of the Detroit Red Wings. Any relation? Yeah, any relation to Joe?

No, big fan, though, even though he was on the Red Wings. The Murder City Dead Things. Okay, Tim, where in the world are you today? I wanted to get you in the basement. Where are you? Yeah, no, I'm actually in Washington, D.C. I promise I will be back Saturday morning for the start of the Waterfall Festival and all the series of events then.

But I'm in D.C. because I'm at the International Downtown's Conference where we're announcing this week that the conference will be in Toronto next year at the West in Hoverburg Castle on Queens Key and hopefully we'll be hosting more than a thousand people from downtowns around North America and around the world. So I'm being very nice to people encouraging them to come to the conference again next year in Toronto. That's amazing.

So I will just let the listenership know. If you drop in and out, it's because you're in a busy hotel in Washington, D.C. But congratulations that we're going to host next year. We're going to have the World Cup and we're going to have this downtown conference. Yeah, hopefully a good year to showcase the city of Toronto as a waterfront city too,

although we'll be hosting with all the Toronto downtown BIAs. They'll be doing tours of the Path in the Financial District in St. Lawrence Market now all over. Distillery District, great city to tour. Mason, I got married at the Distillery District. So let me know if you want me to make a keynote address or something. Deal. So I want to check in with Ilana and Deb. I love it when we have fresh meat, new people to chat up on Toronto Mike.

But I want to thank you, Tim, because, well, not just you, Tim. the awesome people at Waterfront, BIA, for your partnership this summer. Thanks so much, Tim. What a great summer I had talking up all the events on the waterfront in this great city. You're very welcome. Thanks for promoting us. And today, I mentioned this in the intro, we're going to really dive into the inaugural waterfall festival, but just before we get into those details, I'd like to learn a little

more about Alana Altman. So, Alana, hello, and welcome to Toronto Mike. Hello, thank you for having me. Give me a little vibe. What are you up to at the Bentway? I love what's happening at the Bentway. It's no secret on this show. I often meet fellow FOTMs at the Bentway. Just give us a vibe about what you're doing over there and how you ended up in that role. Well, today I feel like what aren't we doing at the Bentway this fall? Because it's just jam-packed with exciting events in the next little while. Many of you know the Bentway as the redeveloped space under the Gardner Expressway on the West. end of the city and we've had just coming off an amazing summer filled with art and recreation rollers we have our last roller skate party of the year coming up tomorrow as well as a whole host of workshops and tours but we are really looking forward to the fall because we have a number

of signature events that are launching in september and october really kicking it off with our event as part of the waterfall festival called the lake story which i know we're going to be talking a little bit more about. But equally, we have some fantastic multimedia presentations in October, a massive mural debuting underneath the gardener for the very first time. So lots of exciting stuff to come at the phase one site, as well as across the city. And we're also really busy working on our growth plans to try to bring more Bentway benefit to the larger seven kilometers of Gardner stretch. No, I love what you're doing at the Bentway. So kudos. to you and the team there.

Thank you. Deb, you've got this big title, VP Communications and Public Affairs at Ports, Toronto. What are you doing over there? And how did you end up in that pretty awesome role? In that role, yeah. Well, to be honest, I came out of the media world. So I came out of your world. But media is pretty small these days.

So I've been at Ports Toronto for just over 10 years now. Ports Toronto, for those of you that don't know, it's basically the Toronto Port Authority. We own the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, and we own the Marine Port of Toronto that's at the east end of the harbor. I'm kind of here as an enabler for a lot of the great stuff that's happening on the waterfront. You know, kudos to Tim and Alana, who sort of bring a sort of vibrancy to the waterfront. Ports Toronto has been on the waterfront for more than 100 years. We kind of built the waterfront with through landfill and other activities.

And then Billy Bishop Airport, obviously, I think most people know Billy Bishop have flown through Billy Bishop. And so I'm just sort of here as, you know, a supporter of some of the great work that's being done on the waterfront to make it a world-class destination and make sure that people come to it. And I think what's really cool about the waterfall festival is that it's purposely being done in an off-season. So I think it's a no-brainer to come down to the waterfront in the summer. It might be more of a stretch in the sort of fall in the winter. And I think that's what this is trying to do is to encourage people to come down on a you know, maybe not a hot summer day and just see what the waterfront has to offer.

Amazing. So we're going to get Tim to kick us off because I've got Waterfall Festival questions and I want to hear all about it. By the way, for the listenership, you can go to Waterfallfestival.ca and you get a full map there. All the events, we're going to talk about a bunch of them now, but the markets, the art, the activities. It's all right there. Waterfallfestival.ca. But since we're talking about the waterfront, and it's September 25th, we're talking in the afternoon. This is not for you, Tim, because you're in Washington, D.C., so you get to miss this. But I just want Alana and Deb to know, I have an event, TMLX20, the 20th Toronto Mike listener experience. It's happening at the GLB Brew Pub at 6 o'clock today.

That's Jarvis and Queens Key. You could probably walk there. All right. Hop, hop, skipping and jump away. Tell Troy we said hi. I said hi. So Troy was just here to record an episode of between two fermenters. He was just here.

And he is going to pop in. I think he's popping in because he likes to talk to Steve Paken. And Steve Paken has, he's going to be there. So I think that's why Troy is going to be at the TMLX20. But no pressure, but I'm just letting Deb know and Alana know that if you showed up, you get a beer and some food for free. All right. I'm in.

Yeah, that's a pretty good input. We had Deb at free. Free beer. And also, Tim, just before we get back to you, I just want to let the listenership know, before I press record, I'm wearing my Toronto T, but it's not like, it's a faux retro, like they recreated it. This is not my tea from the 80s, I wish. And we were talking about Ziggy could spot me wearing my Toronto tea. She could give me a prize pack. And then Deb said something about CFNY.

And I realize, Deb, you should be listening to Toronto mic because we talk so much. about the old 299, Queen Street, West, City TV environment, and we talk so much about CFNY. You need to subscribe and listen to this podcast. Absolutely. Anything from the 80s is my jam. I feel so sorry for the kids today, having never been a child of the 80s and all the great stuff we got to do and the permissions we got and the dangerous things that we did. And yeah, for sure.

CFNY and City TV were institutions. Were you a big fan of the spoons? Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we had a great, well, we still have a great Canadian music scene, but I think certainly during that day and age, we had some really platinum blonde. I still love platinum blonde, guilty pleasure. So, yeah, Queen Street West was a great vibe then.

Oh, my God. So you've come to the right place. Just going to shout out, birthday boy, Rob Pruse. He's the keyboardist for the spoons. He turned 60 yesterday, and Rob will be here in early October for toast. So happy birthday to Rob Pruz. Deb, I bet you had a poster of Rob in your bedroom wall. Probably.

I think more Duran Duran, De Peshmo, but certainly the spoons were a favorite. All right, now that I've got my birthday wishes to Rob Pruz, I want to hear how the waterfall festival came to be. Tim, tell us, this is the inaugural festival, so a lot of Trontonians listening aren't familiar with this. what is the waterfall festival and how do I say it? Do I say waterfall festival or do I say water slash fall festival? Let's hear from you, Tim.

Someone on TV yesterday did use the slash, but we've been saying waterfall festival, but I guess you can say it however you want. I just want people to visit. I mean, well, I mean, the quick description of what this is, it's a number of different waterfront partners, programmers, sponsors, doing things at the same time, mostly over the next two weekends. So this weekend, September 27 and 28, and the next weekend, October 4th and 5th.

And if you come down to, it's primarily on Western Queens Key. But there's also like major, Ilana's like biggest art work that they're doing for the Bentway is actually in the Eastern Harbor. So it really is like kind of a waterfront wide event over multiple weekends in a way that we've not really seen before. And it's really just to be honest, building on what a lot of the great partners here are doing already. But we're finding that, like in the fall. season, as we see more events popping up in the fall, that's great. But visitation drops significantly, usually after Labor Day. So we thought that as a way to hopefully increase the perception of what to do on the water in the fall, if we all did everything together, it would

give us a better chance to co-promote it as multiple things going on at the same time, hopefully encourage visits from further away, and just give us something to build on for the future, because we think that the waterfront is growing at an astronomical rate. I mean, the Portland is just starting to be developed, and that's a whole different thing. You saw a huge new park open there where Alon will be active this weekend. And so we think that in the future there's possibility to have like 10 kilometer long waterfront events. Like if you go like a revitalized Ontario place, exhibition place,

all the way through the central waterfront, Harborfront Center passing the Billy Bishop Airport. And then into the eastern waterfront and the portlands, which is still developing. Like there will eventually be this 10 kilometer opportunity. And I have to give a little bit of credit just to back up into how this came up. There are Waterfront Toronto who's also involved with a number of events during the next two weekends. they have a they have a man named Jeff Ross who works there who's kind of an events expert and he had been sort of doing some research we'll call it into like what are the best events in the future how can we utilize all this new investment in like new parks new buildings and leverage that into events wins and so he brought this concept the kind of gold standard for a fall shoulder season event to draw like international visitors from other countries is this event called vivid Sydney in Australia where post their Olympics they were looking for ways to keep bringing international

people to come during the off season. And they now have like a 10 kilometer long harborfront wide event. Like they light up the Sydney Opera House, but they also have like, they bring down, they have all kinds of performances and light markets and things like that. There's also artists. And then they'll even do like a think tank type of events. So for instance, in Toronto on Monday, we're co-promoting the board of trades doing a waterfront symposium with the Minister of Tourism speaking because that's the sort of thing. We want to have like so many different types of events during a period to really make people think about the waterfront as a destination and fall differently. this is a bit of a test. This was really just us building on that gold standard in 10 to 15 years.

Hopefully we have something as big as vivid Sydney. That's like a three or four week long event. In this case, this was a collaboration of all the great partners that are already doing things on the waterfront and just trying to build on what was already happening. Well, in honor of 80s girl, Deb, I just want to say, this sounds totally radical. So, Tim, I love it. You said that in the 80s. I feel like everything was gnarly. I don't know.

I used gnarly a lot in the 80s. I don't know if you did. We used it. I didn't think. I feel, okay, maybe it was late 80s when the surfer stuff started showing up in the... Yeah. It's a little valley girl thing in the radical. Oh, gag me with a spoon.

This was the moon Zappa? What was their moon unit? Or is it a dweasel? We're hijacking. We're hijacking your thing. We're now going to turn this into an 80s retrospective show. But I, so Tim, one last thing from you. And then I can't wait to get to Alana because I have biked to be Dossigay.

See, and it took me a while. Like, I wanted to pronounce it properly. I practice and practice because it's such a cool park. So I can't wait to talk about Lake Story with Alana. But I just realized like a light bulb going off in my head, Tim, that the name waterfall. Yeah, there's a waterfall. But, you know, I don't think there's any waterfalls in our waterfront. But there are waterfalls.

But this is water slash fall because it's on the water. And the season is fall. Right? So clever. Tim's speechless because it's such a great observation. Okay, Alana, let's hear your voice for a little bit. And would you mind sharing with me some more detail on what I understand is kicking off this inaugural festival? It's a lake story.

Yeah, I couldn't be more excited to tell you about this project, which has come together in a really short period of time. but I think is one of the most ambitious projects that Toronto has ever seen. You know, at the Bentway, we really believe in the importance of connectivity. And normally we're doing that by trying to remove physical barriers like the Gardner and stitch together Toronto's city to the north and its waterfront to the south. But we also really believe that programming can play an important role in connecting people and partners and places. And so that's why we were so compelled by Tim's vision and, you know, truly are really inspired by the work like that people. people like Tim and Deb do, they are the great connectors of our city.

We can't underestimate the importance of connecting people. It's not always the physical improvements that you're making. It's the way that you're uniting various partners. And that's what this waterfall festival is really doing so successfully. It's bringing all the people who care about our waterfront and work day to day to make it special to really showcase its possibilities. But I think, and Tim, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but based on the Bentway's track record, of delivering large scale successful public artworks and knowing that we really believe in the power

of public art to play this connective role. A number of waterfront partners approached us about doing a large scale project for the waterfall festival. And of course, I was bold enough to put up my hand and say, well, if we're going to have a festival on the waterfront, we've got to do something on the water proper. Like the water, it's got to be the creative canvas, knowing nothing about delivering a project on the water so um i have learned that it is a complicated canvas but i still believe that it is one of the most inspirational places that we can be working because because of the incredible work that people like ports and the waterfront bia and waterfront Toronto have done to make our waterfront more beautiful and accessible and welcoming we are

waking up to the fact that we are a city on the lake and our identity like really stems from from from the lake itself. And so knowing that that was something that we wanted to try to express to the greater city, we reached out to an artist who we had been following for some time by the name of Melissa McGill. And we first became aware of her work because she did this incredible project in Venice called Red Rigada, where she sailed with 52 Venetian sailboats, all carrying red-colored sales, to draw attention to this very, um,

important tradition of sailing in Venice, but a tradition that was slowly being erased by climate change and over tourism. So it was really a project about giving visibility to this tradition. And knowing that she did these incredible participatory works and was a water storyteller, we really wanted to see how she would understand Lake Ontario.

And so she has come. She came for her first visit to Toronto in January. The lake was frozen. It was the depths of winter. And between then and now, she's conceived did this incredible project called the Lake Story, which really brings the identity of Lake Ontario to life through color and community. So she's worked with a local dye maker by the name of Jason Logan from the Toronto Inc Company, and they have foraged materials from across our waterfront,

natural materials like algae and golden rod, materials also like clay and rust, and they've turned them into these gorgeous natural dyes and use them to create silks that range from about 12 feet to 15 feet in length. And collectively, about 500 volunteers are coming together in 120 canoes to paddle this beautiful color field across Bedazake's new river and into the eastern harbor. And so we'll be able to see Lake Ontario in a way we've never seen it before. But I think the thing that's most special about this is that it's as much about the people who are in those boats who are, you know, giving of their time and their energy to making this project possible as it is the colors themselves. Very excited. No, Atlanta, I've got to say, I spent a lot of

time. I live near the lake, more in the west, shout out to New Toronto. But I bike that waterfront, I bike that Martin Goodman Trail every day. I'm about to go bike to the GLB brew pub at Jarvis and Queens Key right after this recording. I love the lake. Jeez, I spent, you know, Fun fact, because I'm curious where we go to see this pretty awesome choreographed canoe performance. Like, it sounds amazing with the colors and everything. But coincidentally, while I'm hosting this event at GLB Brew Pub, Sloan is playing Sugar Beach.

Like, right beside, that's where chorus is. And for 102.1, the edge, Sloan is, like, competing with my event tonight at the Sugar Beach. That's tough competition. But Sugar Beach is one of the places you can come and see. a lake story. This is it. So I mentioned I got to visit the wonderful new park, the B-Saudigay park. And it sounds like there and Sugar Beach, this is where you would go to enjoy a lake story. Those are two of the best places, as well as the George Brown Waterfront Campus,

exceptional views. The amazing thing is this is a project of scale, right? 120 canoes is carrying, you know, significant number of these beautiful silks. So you'll be able to see it from quite a distance. But I think Sugar Beach is a great place to see it as well as Badazakey Park. And there's lots of opportunities to see it this weekend. We have two performances a day on the Saturday and Sunday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. But in case you're out of town this weekend and you can't miss it, there's going to be a film of The Making of a Lake Story that is going to be

shown at Harbourfront's amphitheater on Neue Blanche. So you can come down to the central waterfront the following weekend and learn more about the project and see gorgeous drone shots of the paddlers making their way across the water. So the start times on September 27 and 28, we're talking 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. for a lake story. That's right. Okay, here's another mind blow for you. And then I got some questions for Deb. So I mentioned Sloan is competing with my event tonight at the waterfront because that's the coolest spot in the city. And, of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out, Sloan's in this very basement I'm sitting in right now tomorrow.

So I know. Well, when I say Sloan, I'm getting Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy, which is half of Sloan. But I think this is the more vocal half I'm getting. So that's tomorrow's episode of Toronto Mike, Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy from Sloan. and I can, you know, shake my fist at them for competing against my event, the 20th Toronto mic listener experience. So there you go. Fun facts.

I was reading recently on the Ringer Sports and Culture website, their music critic thinks that Sloan is the greatest rock band of all time, and he's not joking. Is he Canadian? You know what? I don't disagree. I have multiple Sloan records. He's not.

I think he's very American. Because that's an amazing. That's a mind blow. that an American rock critic would say Sloan is the greatest band in the world. That's awesome. Well, we also had Rush. I mean, we may have the second and first best rock bands of all time being from Canada, to be honest. So, sorry, that conversation.

I'm getting on topic. No, I like the, I just had Paula Cole on, and I said I should call this tangential mic, is what I told her, because of all the tangents. But I hate to say this, because I'll get, some people will be angry at me, especially FOTM's Rush Mike. I can see James Edgar and others getting mad at me. But Rush is an acquired taste. Deb, are you a Rush fan? I also think it's a bit of a guy band. So I don't dislike Rush, but I can't say that I have had this like existential experience

listening to them the way that most guys I know have. So if you're a guy of a certain age and you didn't like Rush, that is an anomaly. But you don't find a lot of girls that passionate about Rush. You said it, Deb. I was afraid to say it, but you came right yet and said it. It's like Raging Against the Machine, right? That's another guy band that you don't see a lot of girls loving Raging Against the Machine. I'm a steely Dan.

I don't think they've had a female fan ever. So I don't dislike Rush, and I think Edelie is great, and Neil Purt was amazing. And I still listen to them when they come on the radio, but I didn't have a passion in the way that most guys have a passion for it. Okay, the listeners are yelling. at me if I don't ask you a quick question, Deb, which is, are you familiar with the song subdivisions? Yeah, I was just going to say subdivisions. When I said, listen to them on there, I was going to say subdivisions. I wish you had, okay? Because, you know, it's like we rehearsed this,

but we did not. But this is a, I'll be, I'll be brief listeners. Lauren Honnickman was just over here, and he said I spent too much time on this topic. And then I timed it with a stopwatch, and I determined I spent a whole six minutes on this. So I'm going to give you 60 seconds to say, there's a voice you hear in this. the song Subdivisions that goes like this. Subdivisions. I might have it here. I dare I have it here.

I know exactly what you mean. Okay, do I have it loaded up? Do you think I'm that organized? Okay, I do. This will be 11 seconds. Okay, here we go. Subdivisions. In the high school halls,

in the shopping malls, conform or be cast house. In the basement bars. So that's like AI removing the instruments and just bringing it. the vocals. Yeah. I believe with all my heart that that is a sample from a city pulse newscast and that

is the voice of Mark Daly. 100%. Now that you, once you said it, it's like, now that you've said it, I hear it. As soon as you said city TV, I was like, yeah. I'm weep, Deb, I'm weeping over here. Oh, I think you're right. Well, the official word from Rush is. Listeners, tune in again next week for the waterfront.

Yeah. Music opinions. Well, how did we find out? Well, the official... Do you look at liner notes? No, because the official line from Rush is that that's Neil Peart, okay? But I believe because that was a Moses property, Chum City property that they sampled,

I think they've decided to that their story and they're sticking to it is that that's Neil Peart. But I do not believe the official stories. So dare I say, I'm a subdivision's truther. Yeah. You notice that all conversations today have gone back to City TV. All roads. It's my T-shirts.

Andrew City TV today. It's my t-shirt. Okay, so back to the inaugural waterfall festival, and it's the kick-it-off. This is amazing, so great work, the good people at the Bent Way. Elani, you should take all the credit there. A lake story, this, I can't wait.

This Melissa McGill story about Venice and everything and the colors, like, I promise you, I will bike over and witness this for myself and report back. I can't wait. I love what they did with B.Daw-C-Gay Park. I think that developed. is something we need and I love the improvements in the portlands.

I know that you guys are partners at the waterfront, you know, BIA, but I mean this anyway. You know, give me a truth detector test or something. I'd pass it with flying colors. But let's hear a bit from Deb that's not City TV related, if that is even possible at this point. I got nothing. Sorry.

I'm out. Port's Toronto. And then we will get back to, I want to talk about some of the other cool stuff happening with this inaugural festival. But ports Toronto, just what is your perspective on? the Waterfall Festival, this inaugural event, because you're a long-time supporter and sponsor of Waterfront events at Ports Toronto.

Yeah. Well, I think the perspective I have is what the Waterfront used to be, which was a place you didn't necessarily want to go. So, you know, the Waterfront absolutely has an industrial past. And, you know, again, bringing everything back to the 80s. In the 80s, this was not a place you wanted to spend a tremendous amount of time.

But the waterfront now is having a moment. I mean, there has been significant. investment in parks and green spaces and entertainment and so you know my role in all of this is very much as an enabler i'm i'm not the creative force not by a long shot i i am just the person that represents the organization that sees what the bent way is doing and what waterfront bia is doing and wants to be able to do more of it so you know it's just about trying to be a community partner and getting these kinds of activations working and i think that um you know i I do think it's genius to think that let's invest in something in the fall when people aren't necessarily thinking of the waterfront.

And then they'll see that it actually can be a great destination year round. But I think, you know, overall, I do believe this is one of the best neighborhoods in Toronto, which, again, you couldn't say a couple decades ago. And there's been so much work put into making this a truly world-class waterfront. And when you look at the really truly world-class cities, they always had to be. great waterfronts and ours was forgotten about for years and years and now we're seeing that that renaissance sweep across the waterfront so it started in the west and now it's going towards the east with the new parks and what's happening in the portlands and there will always be an industrial component to the portlands i mean there is a vibrant functioning port there that is a

great economic impact and driver for the city so that's not going anywhere but not unlike the airport, there's an ability to have these commercial or industrial uses weave together with other creative, residential, experiential pursuits on the waterfront. So the one thing that I'll say about the Toronto's waterfront is it's a mixed use waterfront. So it's not exclusively parks. It's not exclusively businesses. It's not exclusively airports. It's a bit of everything. And I think that's what makes our waterfront so interesting is it's animated by so many different uses. And they all work and balance. And I think that, you know, just the people you have on this podcast today represent this

idea that, you know, I work for an airport. We're not a big creative force, nor should we be. But we see creative people like Alana and go, like, we want to do more of what she's doing and what the Bentley is doing. So, and then, you know, kudos to Tim, who, you know, does yeoman's work hurting the cats on the waterfront because we are, we're a diverse. group with passionate interests, and he gets to try to organize us. So he, on a regular basis, is trying to build bridges and make connections.

And so, like, credit to him for the patients to herd the cats. Well, speaking of building bridges, are you familiar with Josh Matlow's plan to have some kind of a gondola get you to the island? Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about getting to the island. I mean, you know, our ferry system, the city's ferry system is. you know, in need of some, some, you know, a deep look in terms of deficiency and what have you. So I know there's a lot of different approaches. There's a bridge again across the eastern gap.

There's a gondola. There's all sorts of things. So I do think it would be nice to have some sort of, you know, I guess reliable access to the islands because the fairies challenging in the winter and the fairies are old and aging. Because the Toronto Islands are just a stunning, stunning space. and not always easy to get to. I'm digging this gondola idea. As long as I can fit my bike on that gondola. That's the deal.

Some cities do have them. So they're, I mean, during the C&E, we get them. We have them. They're equally talking about a gondola from the new X place station to Ontario Place. So maybe this is our primary way of public transportation in the future. Yeah. It sounds like it would be environmentally friendly, right? I think this would be something we need to explore.

I know this is more of a topic. I have Ed Keenan on every corridor, and we kind of cover this kind of ground. But, yeah, let's not laugh away this gondola idea. It sounds pretty cool. Mike? Yeah. Actually, like on the conversation of getting people around the harbor,

as the harbor expands as a destination and more people are living all around the harbor, including the Portland's, I think one thing that I actually like to hear Deb's perspective on is like Marine Transit, Because there's actually a plan, it was in the paper recently, so I think it's public that there's a hopeful plan to have like another place the water taxis can dock at the portlands. So basically for events like waterfall, that would actually make it way, way, way easier to get between Harborfront Center or the malting silos near the airport to Budasca Park where Alana is because that new park will be better connected in the future. Like in 2027, 2028, Waterfront, Toronto and the city are building a new pedestrian bridge from Queens Key straight to that new park on the port. lands. But with that not being there, you know, I have to go like an extra

kilometer to get there. So yeah, I guess I should be throwing this to Deb for her opinion about how people are going to move around the water in the future. Yeah, no, it's good point because we've, in the last couple of months ports Toronto's been pretty active in trying to encourage the city and other waterfront

stakeholders to look at the harbor a little bit more closely. I think we've done a tremendous effort on the land side of the waterfront in terms of developing parks and other spaces. but the harbor is still fairly underutilized. And yes, we have ferries that run back and forth to the island, but we don't really have, with the exception of water taxis,

we don't really have a marine transit system. So that's something that actually ports Toronto speaking at the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Monday, and that's one of the things that our CEO, RJ Streensler, will be talking about is like using the harbor more efficiently and utilizing it better. So there's so many harbors that, you know, Sydney Harbor and harbors in Hong Kong and even Vancouver that do a great job of having, you know, sea buses and water taxis and marine nodes that connect neighborhoods. So, you know, you're in the West End. You could potentially jump in some sort of a sea bus that would get you downtown and you would bypass. I mean, we're, as a city, we're absolutely trapped right now with the congestion and the traffic.

I mean, it's, it's, I've never seen it this bad. I mean, it's what we all talk about. I mean, we as Canadians are no longer talking about the weather. We're talking about traffic all the time, right? So it gives, I mean, for no other reason, it gives us something to chat about it at cocktail parties, but it is debilitating the city. And we have this beautiful harbor that could be a source of great connectivity

to all sorts of things, including activities. Well, I was talking about Venice earlier. And when you go to Venice, you take public transportation, because it's one of the best ways to see the city. Like, it is the destination, it is the attraction in and of itself. And that's the promise of a system like this. It's not just for people who live here to get from A to B. It's a draw to the waterfront to really get out and to look back at the city

and to recognize ourselves from the lake. I have to say, you know, I grew up not, I grew up, I was younger in the 80s, I think that maybe some other people on this call. That's for sure. But you were alive, right? But I was alive. And I, you know, I remember that, like, you didn't swim in the water in the harbor. And as Deb said, it wasn't like the big attraction to go down.

And the amount of change that we have seen is staggering to the point when when we put out a call, like I'm just starting to really learn about everything that happens on the waterfront as a Trontonian. And when we put out a call for 500 paddlists, the response we got was amazing. We had more people volunteer than we even had. spots like the paddling community is real the people who get out and experience recreation participating recreation on the waterfront is a huge and growing community like we are really i think we're really starting to embrace the harbor in many ways and the transportation system is is the next obvious um opportunity now this and then we have FIFA coming next summer

which is going to be a real point for us i think to to really get some of these systems and programs were up and running, because the whole world will be looking at us. See, I like it when we host the world because I remember the infrastructure we got for the 2015 Pan Am Games, for example, like as a cyclist and somebody who loves going to the waterfront with his family and everything, I mean, Trillium Park, I think might have been part of that. I don't know, but I love Trillium Park. So kudos to whoever designed and implemented that there at the Beside Ontario Place

there. But yeah, one quick note about the 80s is 100% we were told don't swim in the lake. Like I grew up, I think at some point we've corrected whatever was dumping into our lake that was making it dirty or whatever. And now I hear we have very clean beaches. And I do swim in Marie Curtis, which is actually the very west end. And then Sunnyside Beach, which we had a great Jeremy Hopkins episode of Toronto Mike to about. We celebrated his birthday recently. and shout out to the Great Lakes Beer, Sunnyside IPA, which is coming back next spring, and I like very much. But, yeah, the Queens Key bike trails and Trillium Park

and what's happening with the portlands now, with the new bridges and the new paths and the new park that we've been talking about, man, the waterfront is so much more accessible and available to Torontoans than I remember growing up in the 80s. big difference can I ask you a question Alana real quick about

so you mentioned the artist Melissa McGill and you talked about her work in Venice and everything and she's basically responsible for this a lake story

just bold public art performance what does did you speak to Melissa at all like what does Melissa McGill who is not a Canadian like what does she think of Toronto's waterfront Well, I would say that she's really fallen in love with Toronto generally in terms of the people that she's met here, the willingness of everybody to collaborate.

I mean, we haven't really talked about what has enabled a Lake Story to come together in such short order. And it's the fact that we are working with the Waterfront BIA and ports and Waterfront Toronto and George Brown and Redpath, like the number of Newport, number of partners who have gotten behind this project is pretty amazing. And that doesn't happen in all that many cities. So I think, you know, it's great to hear somebody from outside Toronto comment on what we're able to do here together. But I remember her very first impression when she came. And again, it was like in the depths of the winter. But she couldn't believe how protected our harbor was. Like the fact that you really, the islands create this beautiful backdrop.

And so you, even though it's huge, you can kind of get a sense of the scale because you can see its edges in a way that you can't with a lot of other water. bodies and for her that like meant it was such an amazing stage like the perfect kind of proscenium to be able to do a show like this i think that also everybody uh including mcgill melissa um has been so inspired by what's happening at the portlands and the fact that not only has water from toronto the city the province that's gotten behind the creation of a beautiful park but it's solving this flood flooding issue you know that point that park is unlocking huge amounts of property to be able to deliver housing and to really ensure that the eastern part of our city can thrive. And the fact that our approach to that

wasn't building hard sea walls or, you know, like hard protections against flooding, but solving that with a park that is inviting people in and serving this double benefit, you know, we shouldn't take for granted how special that is, what Toronto has created, because very few cities can say that they've done something that bold and ambitious. Very cool. Now, I went to waterfallfestival.ca. You can see the various events. So we've spent a lot of time talking about a lake story,

but there's so much more going on. Who can tell me about this celebration of indigenous culture and beauty that's happening at Union Station? Yeah, so no, I appreciate the opportunity because there's obviously quite a few partners from the waterfall festival that can't have 12 people on this call. So that's at Union Station. The Tukharanto Open 3 is an indigenous dance party that's going on this Saturday.

And so Union Station has programming both weekends, too. So we're actually co-promoting with them because we assume that most people coming down to the waterfront for events are coming through Union Station. So we thought it made sense to start co-promoting with them too. So we appreciate them being active these two weekends. And what about- Do you want me to mention a couple other things going on? Well, I'm going to, you know, I did my homework, Tim. come on, but things that caught my eye. So I saw there were, I love music.

I love live music, even though Sloan is stealing my spotlight at Sugar Beach tonight, that's unrelated to the waterfall festival. But there's music garden concerts, and I was checking it out. And I can shout out at least one FOTM. So FOTM means friend of Toronto mic, and all three of you are now FOTM. So welcome to the club. Put, pat yourself on the back. But I did see Sean Jones, for example, just to random.

randomly pick one guy who's been in this basement. We had a great chat. But Sean Jones, great singer, is going to be performing a music garden concert on September 27th. That is Saturday night, if my math is right, yes, at 7.30 p.m. So this is all at Waterfall Festival.ca. But can you speak to these music garden concerts? Yeah, so that was something the BIA was able to add because Music Garden is between

where Okad will have a maker's mark this weekend on Saturday and HTO Park and Hartford Center where there will also be programming. So yeah, the concerts are great. I mean, we're doing them twice the day. I believe it's at one in 70. Yeah, and I know Begonia is also one

that people are talking about a lot is going to be performing. But that's actually under, actually I want to give a shout out to Dorsa on our team at the BIA. She got these lights installed there where it like reacts to sound. So we actually kind of hold those

for the fall winter and have been testing out like how it can, like how we could do concerts and hopefully draw bigger, crowds in both the fall and the winter. So, yeah, there's two concerts per day, both weekends of the Waterfall Festival. Okay, and one more, and then I want to hear greatest hits that aren't on my list here. But, you know, I'm an English major.

Of course, I want to hear about Gatsby Redux. What is Gatsby Redux? Yeah, that's a ticketed event at a harborfront center, which I guess you're expected to dress up like you're at the Great Gatsby's parties. And it's a big dance concert. Yeah, so yeah, that's a ticketed event. I mean, check on, I know they're selling fast. So if you want that one, go on today to the website and book some tickets.

Okay, now this is your chance, Tim, obviously there's a lot going on. So it's two weekends, just to reset everything. So this is happening on the waterfront, various locations, go to the website. You can see the map and everything. But we're talking about this coming weekend. We're talking on a Thursday. And we're talking about September 27, 28, 2025. And then again, October 4th and 5th, 2025.

All three of you, free for all, if you want to shout out any other cool events that are a part of the water. Sorry, yeah, the waterfall festival. Others first. Okay. Yeah, just in terms of a couple we haven't mentioned yet. One thing that one of the ticketed events is the Toronto Society of Architects is doing boat tours of the waterfront for the first time. So that's kind of a pilot in the fall. And we're hoping that in the future that becomes sort of a standard Society of Architects project because most people are familiar around the world. If you go to Chicago, pretty much everyone does their architectural boat tours. So we approach the Toronto Society of Architects. They're very interested in doing it. So they're testing out like their scripts and how they deal with audiences

and how they do boat tours for the first time as part of this. Those are also ticketed. So please go get them quick. So I know they're almost sold out. And then another one, well, I guess I should just mention the kind of things are going to be changing for the second weekend too. I mean, really one sign of successful weekend, do we see people coming back for a second time? And so at HTO Park, both weekends, there will be street eats markets. We'll have a harvest market. And then the second weekend, Ontario Culture Days is doing, I believe the artist is named Natalie King is going to be painting the pathways. I believe it's interactive. Like you can go and actually help her paint. And so over the course of the second weekend, there'll be extra things going on

HTO Park. And then at the malting silos at Bathurst Key, like where you go into the island airport, that's where Ocad's programming both weekends. I think I already mentioned this weekend they have a sustainable makers market and then both days. In the next weekend for Newie Blanche, they're going to have a massive light show starting at 6 p.m. on the silos. It's going to be awesome. Yeah, that'll be worth seeing for sure. Yeah. No, it all sounds great. Go ahead, Alana. No, I, you know, the thing that I'm really excited about with regards to this festival is that it's not a one-off. And I, you know, I really appreciate the way that Tim and the folks at the BIA, the way they approached this, that they didn't, it wasn't like parachuting down a new festival.

It was about lifting up all of the partners who are working on the waterfront already to draw attention to what they're doing. I think that that's the secret to success of a great, long-lasting festival is that you're working with the people who are there and are invested and who know the place and the community is best. And the lighting of the silos, this is the second year that O-Qat's coming back to do this amazing projection. And I think that whole idea of like starting to build new traditions in our city and marking our calendar, we know that the late September, early October window is the window to be at the waterfront. I have no doubt that this festival, we're going to see that same sort of attention and, you know, eager and

anticipation of these great events and you know hopefully every year we see those silos lit up with beautiful projections at this time of year this is really cool now tim do you mind if i steal a couple of minutes here at the end to just ask alana and uh deb some questions related to their prospective organizations there because i i realize i have someone from the bentway and someone from ports toronto here so i can hijack this tim first okay good so alana I just need to, I just, could you share for the listenership the mandate of Bentway? Like, I read Under Gardner Corridor Public Realm Plan, which rolls off the tongue. I feel like that title.

Can you tell us what is Under Gardner Corridor Public Realm Plan? Yeah, we call it the Undergarner PRP for short. That's helpful. So hopefully all of your listeners know and love the Bentway. obviously we're an organization that has been created to guide the development of the spaces below the gardener transforming a transportation corridor into an integrated part of our city and a public realm and a destination in its own right but the bentway i'd like to say that the bentway was the largest pilot project that Toronto ever took on because it was really a bit of a leap of faith nobody knew if things would grow under the gardener

nobody knew if people would want to spend time there and eight years on I think we can say that that pilot project was an enormous success and that we want to see more of it in Toronto our what we call our phase one site the site on the west that runs the frontage of Fort York runs just over half a kilometer in length but the Gardner corridor is elevated for seven kilometers end to end from Dufferin to the DVP so there's a lot more a more highway to address and so with that in mind And knowing the sheer level of investment that the city and private developers and partners like Debb and Waterfront, Toronto are making into this part of the city, we wanted to ensure that the improvements that we've proven out at the Bentway could be extended across the larger seven kilometers. So we worked collaboratively with the city to develop this public realm plan, which is a vision for improvements along the full stretch of the Gardner corridor. wayfinding and lighting and connective trails and improved intersections, which I'm sure everybody listening is applauding for because I think everybody can agree that those are some of the trickiest parts of the city, those lakeshore undergarner intersections. And we've been lucky enough to work with Tim at the BIA, as well as the city's BIA office and the Fort York City Place BIA to make some near-term improvements, including a lighting pilot that's

popping up at Dan Lucky Way later this fall, which we're very excited about. But slowly but surely, we're transforming that underside of the gardener. And I hope that one day soon, when people say, what do you want to do when you come to Toronto, we don't just point them to the water's edge. We point them to the undergarner's face as well. We'll call it the northern edge of the waterfront and say that, you know, this is one of the best places to experience Toronto. Very cool.

So I can call this the U-G-C-P-R-P. No C. Where does corridor go? They did corridor leave? Under-Gardener Public Ground Plan, but we call it the Gardner Corridor. Because the first step in identifying something as a place is giving it a name, right? It's like a non-place right now, but it's actually a really important corridor in a spine in our city that's connecting so many civic priorities. And the name the Bentway has stuck.

I mean, I won't, after the recording, I'll tell you a custom we have in the TMU community, the Toronto Mike universe. But Deb, ports Toronto. Yes. Please, what is the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport's Neighborhood Integration Vision? Oh. That also rolls off the tongue. Yeah, you know, there's a nice little acronym there. I mean, I think the important thing about Billy Bishop Airport that makes it different.

different than every other airport you've probably ever been to is we actually want to be part of the community. And I know that sounds motherhood and it's not meant to be. It really is we want people to come to the airport, whether they have a boarding pass or not. So unlike Pearson, where no boarding pass, no service, we actually want people in the community to come into the airport. My favorite thing in the world is on a Saturday morning watching the parents and little kids on the ferry because the ferry is free. And, you know, anyone who's a parent, which I think is most of us on this podcast right now, it's like, you wake up Saturday morning, you're like, what am I going to do with this kid until nap time? And I love that on a Saturday morning, our ferries filled with families who are looking to kill time, and this is a free thing for them to do. And we're okay with that because we want people to come to the airport.

We want them to ride the ferry. We want them to sit on our dock wall, which, by the way, if you haven't sat on the dock wall on the airport side, it's got the best view of the city possible. So our dock wall is the western gap and we put Muscoca chairs or Adirondack chairs along the dock wall because we want people to come and sit and have a coffee and look at the either best sunrise or best sunset you'll ever see in terms of the skyline. We want them to come in and have a booster juice or whatever. So I think unlike most airports, we really want to be integrated into the community. We have amazing public art that we've invested in the terminal partner Newporty Aviation. has done a great job of bringing art. So, for example, just today, like literally minutes ago,

they unveiled this massive First Nations mural on the side of our terminal, which is stunning. There's all sorts of indigenous art and sculpture. We have a perspectives program in our tunnel, so I don't know if anyone's ever taken the tunnel to the airport. It's the way 90% of our passengers arrive and depart. We put a huge public art gallery in that tunnel. So as you're walking the 400 meters down the tunnel, you can look.

And that's a call out to artists in Toronto. So we have a actually Tim's one of our is on our curatorial board. And so he's among the people that choose this artwork. And it's all just local artists and a great place to showcase your art with, you know, two million people coming and going a year. It's a great place to get your art out there. So I think that, you know, the integration, it's not certainly not a sexy name, but it really does speak to the fact that unlike every other airport,

which is secure and cloistered away and, you know, no ticket, no service, Billy Bishop is about, like, come in. And if, whether you get boarding passes are optional. You know, Deb, I honestly don't think I knew that you were welcoming people who didn't have a ticket to fly out of Billy Bishop. Yeah, I mean, you can only get, I mean, you're not, obviously not going to get near a plane without a boarding pass, but there's lots of other fun stuff to do. tunnel itself is an architectural wonder.

Go ahead, Tim. The airport side of that. The airport side of the channel is basically a public park. You can see the artwork there when you look over before you're on the island. So I go over there sometimes. Yeah. So we do this doors. Go ahead.

Go ahead. No, I was going to say. I was going to say we do doors open every May, which is a city of Toronto initiative. And we get like 20,000 people that come to the airport. Now, that day is a bit of a special day because we do open up secure areas and allow people to sort of climb the maintenance equipment and go inside a helicopter and do all sorts of neat stuff. But I think that just sort of speaks to people's fascination with airports. And it is a great place to just come and watch planes take off.

I love this so much. Go ahead, Tim. I just ask Mike, Deb, how many cruise ships came into the harbor this year at the other end of the harbor on the east? Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, so this is a little known fact. So you're listening. So we're here at here first. We have a thriving cruise ship business out of the harbor.

And these are not the like Harbor cruises, like the Little Boos cruises that you see in the inner harbor. These are big international cruise ships. So they're not, you know, Royal Caribbean big, but they're still very big. And we have five different cruise ship companies. So this year we had close to 50 cruise ships come in. They bring in thousands of passengers, which are tourists who, and we're also Toronto's the turnaround point for these Great Lakes cruises. So they come down the St. Lawrence. They cruise around the Great Lakes.

Toronto's the turnaround point in the sense that it's where the passengers get on and get off. So the impact to Toronto is that all of these passengers go and eat at our restaurants and shop at our malls and take in all these attractions. So, you know, it's kind of interesting. I mean, the reason we're called Port Toronto is because there's a port on the east end, which is, you know, a shipping port, but also a cruise ship port. And then we've got Billy Bishop on the West End, which is an airport. I learned so much. I learned so much from this chat we all had. So not just Waterfall Festival, where I can go to Waterfallfestival.ca and learn more about that.

That's happening this weekend and next weekend, but just chatting with you, Alana, and you, Deborah, like, and Tim, we had a couple of dropouts. I'm not going to lie, but overall, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, Wi-Fi held up there in Washington, D.C. We just filled in the gaps. You know what? You know, there'd be moments, probably, I'll see you guys said nice things while I was off. Well, you're here, like, you'll drop, you dropped out for like, I don't know, one and a half seconds, so you sort of like. just like we just pause and see what's going to come after that it's like it wasn't so bad but i want to thank you all thank you tim again for partnering with toronto mic i loved it you you got to come

back that's how much i loved it are you going to commit that you're coming back tim well thank you mike yeah no i think it was great we appreciated that your podcast was promoting visiting the waterfront all the different parts of the waterfront that are so great through the summer so um yeah hopefully we'll talk about it again for next year too okay i think that's legally binding okay and deborahela debor Let's start with you. We had a good chat about subdivisions, which I appreciated. It was great to meet you and find out what's going on at Ports, Toronto. You ever do a podcast on 80s music?

You know, I'm happy to come back. I would totally, I would totally do that. It's like growing up in the 80s. I would totally do that, okay? And Alana, I love the Bentway. Thank you. We love that you love the Bentway. And hopefully all your listeners do too.

And I am totally down to do an 80s costume-themed episode if we ever do it again, too. Because I definitely, I may have been young, but I definitely dressed up with neon hair for many Halloweens. I bet you you dressed up as Cindy Lopper for Halloween. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There were many a Cindy Lopper-inspired costume. Love this very much. So thank all three of you.

Thank you for doing this. And I hope all of Toronto. And you said it was, Tim, you said this is international, right? Like we have people coming from other countries to check out your waterfall festival. Well, I don't know what. that yet. I mean, that's the long-term goal. Like, we know that vivid Sydney is an event. Think big, Tim. I think they're going to come. To be quite frank, I mean, a lot of the collaboration, I think, for all of us partners on this call plus the others is to see how this goes and see how we can do

it better in the future. Because to do the really big events that attract the international tourists, you usually have significant government investment. And so I think we're trying to, like, show evidence that there's like investment or event potential to continue investing in for all of us, but also for other hopeful partners as well in the future. Awesome. I hope Toronto gets their butts out and checks this out. Something to do on the waterfront this fall. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our 1,768th show. Go to TorontoMike.com for all your Toronto Mike needs.

Much love to all who made this possible. That's patrons like you. Go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mike and become a member today. I'm actually posting inside info there. I'm finally doing it, so check it out. Great Lakes Brewery. They're hosting us in a couple of hours at the GLB brew pub at Jarvis and Queens Key. Can't wait to see everybody at TMLX20.

Palma Pasta. They're hosting us at TMLX20. Palmer's Kitchen, November 29. That's a Saturday. At noon, noon to three, be there. Toronto's Waterfront, BIA. You know what you're doing the next couple of weekends. You're checking out the Waterfall Festival. Go to waterfallfestival.ca to learn more. Recycle my electronics.ca. Blue Sky Agency and Ridley Funeral Home. I recorded a new episode of Life's Undertaking with Brad Jones, just yesterday. I hope to see Brad at TMLX20 tonight. See you all tomorrow when my special guests are Jay Ferguson and Chris Murphy from a little rock band you may know called Sloan. See you all then.

I'm going to be. We're going to be able to be. Thank you.