Fuzzy Boundaries

The Fuzzy Boundaries group has been covered in various forms of media since the group started. If you have any questions, or would like to feature us in your own publication, please contact us. Here is an ongoing list of our media coverage, newest at the top:

• Fuzzy boundaries no more, Globe and Mail, March 10 2010.
  residents behind the Fuzzy Boundaries project - so dubbed for the west-end neighbourhood's blurry demarcations - are down to 10 finalist names in a second round of voting, ending Sunday. But the mission to define this fuzzy hood has made its residents rethink just how they view where they live.
• Junction residents play name game, Toronto Sun, March 7 2010.
  Fuzzy Boundaries is almost halfway through a two-week voting period that is giving residents in the west-end Junction area a chance to vote on what their neighbourhood should be named.
  Starting last May, the group has moved from initial discussions — online and at public forums — to a shortlist of the top 10 names for the neighbourhood.
• CBC Television evening news, March 1 2010.
• The John Doe of neighbourhoods, Toronto Star, February 26 2010.
  There’s been a lot of name calling in this gritty west Toronto ’hood.

  Come Monday, the name slinging escalates when residents of this slice-of-pie land that lies east and south of The Junction — sometimes called the Junction Triangle, but not by all — begin voting on what to christen their neighbourhood.

  The Fuzzy Boundaries group has run three public meetings on the name change, sent out more than 13,000 mailings to 3,300 households, and distributed more than 7,000 information pieces through local business, car drops, the library and at neighbourhood events.

• Here and Now, CBC Radio, February 11, 2010.
• What's in a name? Quite a lot, apparently, National Post, February 5 2010.
  A west-end neighbourhood perched between the trendy locales of the Junction and Roncesvalles Village is closer to finding an identity of its own.
  The neighbourhood -- between the train tracks east of Dundas Street, west of Lansdowne Avenue, from Davenport Road to Perth Avenue -- is known to city hall as Dover-court-Wallace-Emerson-Junction, but no one thinks that's a catchy name.
• What's in a name?, Inside Toronto / The Villager, February 1 2010.
  The stage has been set for the final selection of a name for the West Toronto neighbourhood situated north of Roncesvalles Avenue and east of the Junction.
• When names and boundaries get fuzzy, Toronto Star, January 30 2010.
  Many people already know it as Junction Triangle, but it may soon get a new name.
  Or not.
  That moniker is still on a short list of ten names that residents of the west-end neighbourhood will get to choose from in a two-week vote, starting March 1.
  The short list, released Saturday, was whittled down from more than 230 suggested names, following a series of public meetings and a round of voting that ended Friday.
• CP24 News, January 30, 2010.
• Here and Now (MP3 Audio, 3.5MB), CBC Radio, January 29, 2010.
• Residents look to name their neighbourhood, The Villager / Inside Toronto, January 18 2010.
  Thursday's meeting was the culmination of an almost year-long endeavor, spearheaded by Perth Avenue resident Kevin Putnam, who initiated the community improvement project christened 'Fuzzy Boundaries.' Adopting a name, said Putnam early in the process, would provide a collective and cohesive identity and create a sense of ownership.
  Putnam called Thursday's meeting 'The Big One,' where all the name suggestions were tallied and everyone had a chance to make a plea for their preferred choice.
• Local residents ponder a new name for their neighbourhood, Neighbours, Winter 2010.
  The naming process proposed by Fuzzy BOundaries is well underway. A 120-day formal period for suggesting names wraps up on January 14, 2010, at a public meeting, when the final list of possibilities will be presented and the floor will be open for discussion.
• What do you call this place?, Town Crier, January 7 2010.
  I really just like hearing what people have to say and I like the idea of the community itself, deciding.
• What's in a name? (VIDEO), Global Television evening news, October 21 2009.
• 185 Names for a Toronto Neighbourhood as Group Chalks Suggestions Along West Toronto Railpath, blogTO / t.o.night, October 16 2009.
  To draw attention to their efforts, the group decided to chalk the names along a section of the West Toronto Railpath. Fuzzy Boundaries spokesperson Kevin Putnam says this "offers everyone a chance to see the names suggested so far and prompt additional ideas before a shortlist is drawn up in January."
  Suggestions are still welcome until January 14th and can be made online or via a suggestion box at the Perth/Dupont branch of the Toronto Public Library. Then, the community will get to vote and dwindle the list down to a final 10 before a selection committee of residents and experts make a final decision. The group believes that the ideal name will be one that's both unique and references some aspect of the area's history or topography.
• West Toronto Neighbourhood searches for an official name (VIDEO), S@Y News, September 8 2009.
• Toronto, our metropolis of small but proud villages, Toronto Star, August 30 2009.
  Let's start with the playful no-hopers. So, yes, there's Junction Pyramid – "like 3-D folks," writes the person who posted that suggestion on the "Fuzzy Boundaries" website. And Triangle of Power, "for all you Soul fans."
  They're among the would-be new monikers for the Junction Triangle neighbourhood nominated by residents, a list that more earnestly includes Black Oak Triangle, Railside, Harmony Crossing and Shedden.
  Oh, and P-Block, the rap-like ode (to Perth Ave.) dreamed up at a local summer camp for kids.
• Between Roncesvalles and Landsdowne, a neighbourhood in search of a name, National Post, August 28 2009.
  The question of what is in a name is an important one in Toronto, where each neighbourhood has a particular identity, said Matthew Blackett, publisher of the urban Toronto-themed, Spacing Magazine.
  “It’s important for a sense of place and a sense of belonging on a personal level,” Mr. Blackett said. “You want to be able to identify where you live and have some sort of local pride in it.”
  A name can also provide cachet, he said, for example, neighbourhoods like the Annex, Leslieville or Riverdale are regarded as established communities, said Mr. Blackett.
• A Nameless Neighbourhood Needs Help!, BlogTO, August 28 2009.
  A local group known as Fuzzy Boundaries is putting a decidedly neighbourhood-oriented spin on that age-old question: what's in a name? And they're betting that the community at large will agree with them that the answer is 'a lot.'
  Started by residents of a loosely defined area immediately east of the Junction, the quest is underway to find the perfect moniker for one of Toronto's few remaining neighbourhoods without an official designation. And, for so many reasons, I find the whole process altogether intriguing.
  
• Kids participate in neighbourhood name game, The Villager / Inside Toronto, July 15 2009.
  "Nobody likes to be called 'Hey You!,'" said Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club Outreach Coordinator Tony Palermo, addressing summer campers participating in a project to name their West Toronto neighbourhood north of Roncesvalles Village and east of the Junction.

  The same goes for their neighbourhood, Palermo told the kids, between seven and 16 years old.

  Before heading to High Park for a day of sports, the club put its collective head together at its Perth Avenue outreach location, to brainstorm some potential names. The kids, who live in the currently nameless area, put their spin on what's being called a community improvement project by an ever-growing group of residents who live in the undefined area stretching from Davenport Road to the base of Perth Avenue encompassing the area between the train tracks that run east of Dundas Street West and west of Lansdowne Avenue. They call themselves - for obvious reasons - 'Fuzzy Boundaries.'
  

• What’s in an area’s name?, Town Crier, May 27 2009.
  Some will tell you they live in the South Junction Triangle.

  Some will tell you they’re in the Junction, or near the Junction.

  And some are just plain confused.

  A group, calling itself Fuzzy Boundaries, called a meeting of residents to discuss the area’s history and to try and instil a strong sense of community in their neighbourhood.

• Nameless neighbourhood seeks an end to its shame, The Globe and Mail, May 13 2009.
  Once it was the heart of a thriving factory district, with trim worker housing clustered as close as possible to the job-spinning smokestacks, railways on three sides and spur lines everywhere. No name was necessary. Now that the factories are almost all closed, it is a rail-bound nowhere - south of the CPR tracks, west of the GO Newmarket line, east of the Georgetown line - badly in need of identity.

  Newspaper accounts of anti-pollution activism in the last days of the factories referred to it as the Junction Triangle. In official parlance, it is part of the nebulous Dovercourt-Wallace Emerson-Junction. A past effort attempted to name it the Wallace Junction.

  But none of those names stuck, which is why a committee of local activists convened a public meeting, to be held this evening, to launch what promises to be the long and controversial process of naming their orphan slice of the west end.

• Metro Morning with Andy Barry, CBC Radio, May 13 2009.
• CBC Television evening news, May 11 2009.
• A neighbourhood to call their own, The Villager / Inside Toronto, May 7 2009.
  A small, but ever-growing community group is about to find out. They are the residents who live in the undefined area stretching from Davenport Road to the base of Perth Avenue and encompasses the neighbourhood between the train tracks that run east of Dundas Street West and west of Lansdowne Avenue. It is one of the last neighbourhoods in the city that remains nameless.

  As they embark on what they are calling a community improvement project, the group of eight so far, has christened themselves - for obvious reasons 'Fuzzy Boundaries.'

• The Star unveils unique map of neighbourhoods, Toronto Star, March 8 2009.
  Kevin Putnam knows exactly where he lives. The problem is he can't quite put a name to it.

  He doesn't live in The Junction or High Park. Those neighbourhoods lie to the west. Nor does he live in Roncesvalles or Parkdale, which are further south. He also has to rule out Brockton and Wallace Emerson, neighbourhoods just to the east, and Carleton Village, to the north.

  Such namelessness makes Putnam a relative rarity in a city of fierce neighbourhood loyalties. "I've been living here for five years now and I'm tired of trying to tell people where I live," he says.

  So these days find Putnam among a small group of residents trying to coin a name for their nabe, since a one-time moniker – The Junction Triangle – seems to have fallen into disuse. It's that important.