Answer: less than 25 years.
Blondin Avenue was a short street in southwestern North York running northwest for one block between Wilson Avenue in the southeast to Weston Road in the northwest. I know it for purely transit geeky reasons: the Weston Road trolley bus used to loop at Blondin Loop. Until the route was extended to the new cloverleaf at Weston Road and Albion, the rollsigns and the transfers referred to “Blondin”.
In 1950, it was a new road being laid out on a farmer’s field. By 1959, a row of suburban houses stretched its length. By 1983, it lost its connection with Weston Road. By 2006, all of the houses had vanished. Indeed, today, in the whole block, there is one house left.
Two years ago, the Flickr user Lone Primate (the blogger behind City in the Trees walked this abandoned road, and gave us this photo set. It’s hard to tell when the area will see redevelopment, but it’s only a matter of time when the abandoned pavement itself becomes just another memory.
Lone Primate also has other sets of abandoned roads in and around Toronto. Be sure to check them out!
Moon Movie
Coraline (reviewed here) was the first movie we saw in the theatre in about three years, despite the fact that we have easy access to willing babysitters. I guess we got into a cycle. We got so far out of the loop that we have no idea as to what new films are generating buzz, and what upcoming films we might be interested in. And meanwhile the coupons for two-for-one tickets, popcorn and drinks are piling up.
But this might be a cool movie, if a little spooky.
And I’d be very surprised if Dan doesn’t physically drag us to see the upcoming Star Trek.