In this week's Sunday Supplement, we take a closer look back at the Sutton Place Hotel, one of 1980s Toronto's ritziest addresses, and the auction of its contents taking place this weekend to benefit Mount Sinai hospital and Toronto Community Housing.

Also on tap is a slightly gross look at the polluted soil of the Port Lands and a fond farewell to Poetry on the Way, the underground project that brought lyrical verse to subway trains.

This week's lead photo shows a cluster of portable toilets at a prairie-like Downsview Park. The military base turned concert venue and public park has played host to numerous bands and even a pope, twice.Pope John Paul IIvisited in 1984 and 2002.

Selling the Sutton

The Sutton Place Hotel at Bay and Wellesley saw its fare share of glitz and glamour during its 45-year tenure as Toronto's favorite haunt of the rich and famous. Michael Jackson, Sophia Loren and Ted Danson (you decide if they're in the same league) all made the place their home away from home. According to theNational Post,Cheersstar had dinner parties at the hotel every Thursday.

This week, the building's new owners, Lanterra Developments, set aboutauctioning offthe hotel's furniture and other accessories primarily to raise funds for Mount Sinai hospital but also presumably to clear out some of the clutter before the hotel rooms make way for condos. Here are some of the items up for grabs:

• A grandfather clock
• Several ornate mirrors
• Countless framed classical paintings
• A slightly scuffed piano (just think who could have played it)
• Two end tables
• A red leather armchair
• Vases
• Carpets
• An entire setting of banquet chairs

The auction runs from 12-5pm today and on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 12-8pm at the Sutton Place Hotel, 955 Bay Street.

Sprucing up the Port Lands

This weekWaterfront Toronto released its latest plansfor the future redevelopment of the Port Lands. On the menu: two riverside parks beside an improved Don River mouth, plenty of flood protection, and two areas of mixed-use development.

Trouble is, the project could take at least thirty years to complete. Part of the problem is the quality of the fill used to create the400 hectare (988-acre)artificial plotthe Port Lands stands on. OnceLake Ontario's largest wetland,Port Lands is built on contaminated fill that contains, among other things:

• Coal ash
• 建筑垃圾
• Municipal waste
• Dredged lake sediment
• Foundry sand

Though not all of the material was contaminated when it was used (though some of it was), industry storage ofcoal, petroleum, salt and waste materialsin the area have tainted much of the land.

According to Sandra Neill and Angela Ploverfrom the Department of Physical and Environmental Science at the University of Toronto Scarborough,heavy metals, polycyclicand aromatic hydrocarbons, non-metallic inorganic compounds and volatileorganic compoundsare commonly found in the Port Lands' soil.A special processing plant这样能洗的吗il so it can be safely re-used.

Farewell to Poetry on the Way...

Poetry on the Way,a popular 14-year-old art project放置短诗乘坐地铁, vanished without a trace this week. The man behind the project, Denis Deneau, is also proving hard to track down.

Here's "Branch Line" by Gary Michael Dault, a poem that displayed by Poetry on the Way:

And finally...

Here's a video from 1995 advertising the CBC's first foray into online journalism. You can almost hear the dial-up connection screeching away in the background.

What we learned this week:

• There's an oil pipeline crossing the GTA[The Star]
• Urinating on someone is, rightfully, considered assault[CTV]
• Honest Ed's employs two professional sign painters[The Star]
• A Toronto company has made an ASCII overlay for Google Maps[Atlantic Cities]

Images:"Little Houses on the Prairie"by [dscphoto], "The Sutton Place Hotel" by TO-news-sports, "Aggregate View" by BruceK in theblogTO Flickr pool.