You may have noticed something different while walking or driving around Kensington Market. No, there isn't a brand new dispensary or outrageous ice cream shop (yet). Rather, the Urban Repair Squad changed a whole lot of the speed limit signs.
Kensington, as we all know, is super pedestrian and bike-friendly. It even closes down its streets to car on the last Sunday of every month. And to hammer this home, the URS took the neighbourhood's signs to the next level.
The URS cleverly reveals the meaning behind its intervention via a tongue-in-cheek note. URS, of course, writes that it's trying to protect cars who unwittingly try to drive 40 kilometres per hour through Kensington's busy streets.
"The risk of scratching your paint job by sideswiping a stroller or staining your hood with the blood of a longboarder has become too high," reads the printed notice.
"Our posting of 10 km/h is merely a harm reduction measure meant to normalize what has already come to be. Perhaps one day many chain grocery stores, clone hipster bars and big business pot dealers will finally board up the rag tag ma and pa shops of this smelly cyst on the carscape of Toronto. Until then, you have been warned," it continues.
So remember, slow down in Kensington Market.
Check out photographer Martin Reis's full set of images from the urban intervention in this album on Flickr.
by Amy Grief via blogTO
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