[URBAN NOTE] "Honest Ed’s memories to become part of new development"

[rfmcdonald]

Sarah-Joyce Battersby writes in the Toronto Star about an urban historian gathering stories of Honest Ed's, for later incorporation into its successor residential complex.

For Jay Pitter, it’s the barrels not the light bulbs, that make Honest Ed’s a special place.

Sitting on a Markham St. stoop, Pitter taps into a collective heritage when she says her mother once loaded little barrels with canned fish and toothpaste from the discount shop.

“And send it back home!” chimes in Akia Munga, who lives nearby in newly opened Sprott House, a home for LGBTQ youth.

Munga and a group of his friends were visiting Pitter on Sunday afternoon as part of her Honest Ed’s Project, which aims to capture memories of the place amid plans for redevelopment of the 1.8 hectare parcel of land.

“Most people would be willing to lose a building more readily than they would be willing to lose the fabric of their community,” Pitter said.