One Hell of a City Night

NXT CITY NIGHTS  

I was lucky enough to attend the after party for the NXT City Public Space Symposium on Friday. NXT City connects young leaders with city builders to create, activate and program public spaces. The ideas this year were so creative and I can see how every one of them could add to and improve the city I call home.
​This year’s winner came from Wysp Creative, of which Luca DeClavasio and Andrew Patterson are co-owners. Their idea was to prevent cars & bicyclists from speeding through the road space where TTC patrons enter and exit streetcars, which I have to admit, I myself have had a couple of close calls with cars and bikes “skimming” right by me, it’s a frightening reality for a day to day TTC user. Their idea was to create loud, bright streetcar safety murals on the roadside stops. This way it can provide extra visibility to drivers and cyclists to make them aware of the safety zone where cars and bikes are not supposed to enter when the streetcars doors are open. 

Not only does it improve the safety of pedestrians and driver’s alike, it also adds beauty to the city streets. All in all, this idea receives a BIG thumbs up from me! I can’t wait to see it on our city streets. To see the runners up (and examples of these beautiful murals), be sure to visit www.NXTcity.ca  

​Now onto the After Party: NXT City Night! I was so fortunate to receive passes for myself and my boyfriend from one of my favourite Toronto publications, NOW Toronto. It was my first time visiting the venue space District 28 in the heart of Toronto’s studio district

The event was broken into three rooms, which housed two DJ’s, an open bar, dance space and a black lit  room filled with fake snow that you could make an ‘snow angel’ or two in if you donned a safety suit (you read that right). After my boyfriend pulled me away from the snow room we were sure to sample the food and drinks they had available.
I really enjoyed the delicious cocktails that Tequila Tromba were slinging out from behind the bar, and I’m not even a tequila person, but wow, they were delicious. They were set up right next to a favourite restaurant of ours, Pai Northern Thai Kitchen, who we were very excited to see! They were serving up Kanom Jeen Num Niew which is braised pork rib curry soup with vermicelli noodles, and don’t ask me how but it seemed to work perfectly with the tequila cocktails! If you haven’t tried Pai out before, I would highly recommend it, I’ve never had a bad experience there and you can taste the love and skill that goes into their dishes!
​Passing the main bar in the lobby that was serving up wine from Fielding Estate winery, we hit the Oyster Boy oyster bar. I have to admit, that night at 30 years of age, I tasted my first oyster (with the encouragement of the Oyster Boy staff) would I try them again? Heck no, but my boyfriend who is an oyster enthusiast couldn’t get enough. At least I tried!
We danced to the DJ’s in the main party room while event goer’s added to a giant white board with their answers to the written question “What makes this city so great?”. We finished the night off with some Steam Whistle brews served out of the side of their keg van and ramen from Kan Pai.

​All in all, it was a really great night. Everyone in the room was radiating positivity and excitement for our city. We all mingled, danced together and talked about our love of Toronto.

All the idea’s brought forward this year made me feel really excited for what’s to come. Instead of looking at Toronto with uncertainty in the New Year (sometimes it really does feel like it’s getting harder and harder to live here) I looked around at all the creative people and groups working so hard to make Toronto that much greater….and I felt hope.  
​~Until Next Event!  X