Shamez Amlani on Pedestrian Sundays Kensington, Toronto

Shamez Amlani describes how Pedestrian Sundays Kensington was and still is organized: “Some dude who runs a restaurant puts in a permit and rallies the neighbourhood.” He is half-joking. “I had lived in Europe for five years and when I came back, I thought, ‘There is something wrong with my city,’ ” Amlani, 40, says from La Palette, his cozy bistro in Kensington Market. “Streets are the stage where you live the theatre of your life.” One day, Amlani and some friends fed the parking metres on Augusta Street but used the parking spaces for bicycles and roller skates. In one spot, people made gazpacho and doled out free helpings; in another, a samba band played while people filled the lane and danced. And so Streets are for People, a small group that also organizes annual parades on World Car-free Day, was born. PS Kensington officially launched in 2004. The following year, merchants fundraised and gathered $8,000 to have a car-free day four times during the year. Amlani, who helps organize the festivals and pays for insurance and permit fees upfront, hopes to one day pass the torch to the city. The event has been emulated by Mirvish Village and Baldwin Village. “When neighbours and merchants get together to throw a party for their neighbourhood, there’s this bridge-building process. There’s a permanent care of your community that gets created.”

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/
http://torontoist.com/2008/05/tall_poppy_inte_56.php