Janey

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but I know in other places on this forum, people get upset if just a link is posted. So i'm putting both the link and the text in here. It hits the mark so much that I just had to start a thread about it!

I'm a Vancouverite who has been transplanted to Toronto, and therefore have a unique perspective on life here. Today I read an article in the Star, by a maritimer who actually wrote about her culture shock. I must say that I feel exactly like she did. Does anybody else have some toronto stories to share? Anything funny or bizarre? happpy or sad? At the moment, I am still constantly amazed at how hockey oriented this place is. At times I am exasperated by the rush of the rat race, then inspired by the friendliness and acceptance of the people who live here.

The story is here, it is very funny:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...d=968332188492

'The Second Cup is where?'
When you're from a place where there's only one coffee shop, and you move to a place with hundreds of them, the question really does make sense, you know


LINDSAY KYTE
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

I am a Maritimer, new to this city, in the throes of culture shock. Here seven months now, I still try to get out at the wrong side on the subway. I ask people, "How do you get to the Second Cup?" because where I come from, there is only one. I still pronounce the second "t" in "Toronto." Here's what I've encountered so far:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Language

Apparently, "supper" is "dinner" here and "dinner" is "lunch." You do not "get" a shower, you "take" or "have" a shower. And "The Danforth" is always referred to as "the" and never as "Danforth Ave." To misuse any of the above means you might as well have a badge and a cape embroidered with the word "TOURIST!"

There is no "double double for me and the wife" at Starbucks. There is, however, "a double-shot grande decaf non-fat latte with extra foam for myself and my life partner."

When giving directions, you never start with, "You know where the Pizza Hut burned down 10 years ago ..." Instead, you give directions in major intersections. "Go to Spadina, north of Bloor ..."

North and south? I'll buy myself a milkshake when I conquer left and right. I bought a compass to help me out, but when I pointed it west, it said north. When I walked north, it said east. Finally, someone pointed out that I was in a city of metal. And that I should put the compass on a flat surface instead of wearing it like a ring and throwing my hand at buildings like She-ra demonstrating my awesome power.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The People

I love my street, "The Danforth." Here, old Greek men sitting in lawnchairs call out what sounds like "Kook-la Moo!" and kiss me on both cheeks. This means "My cute little doll." Initially, I thought it meant, "You insane cow."

After first moving here, I thought all Greek people hated each other, which would explain the yelling in the grocery store. Turns out, the more you love in Greek, the more you argue.

The little old scarf-adorned Greek woman called Mama who runs my laundromat hates the way I do my two loads of laundry (towels and not towels). She frequently yells at me: "Put detergent in FIRST!" Though I stand a foot taller, I am terrified. Then I have to get change. From the change machine. That she sits in front of.

I put a $20 bill in. Upside down. Mama rips it out and puts it in the right way. Four million quarters come out. "I won the jackpot!" I joke. Mama glares. Every Monday afternoon, Mama's glares reassure me that I am not nearly as funny as I think I am.

Mary is the middle-aged Greek hairdresser who, when I asked timidly to make the freezing cold water a little warmer, looked at me with eyes like the hypnotic television test pattern from the 1960s.

"Hot-a water?!!! You make-a your hair-a dry!! Greeky Greek greek greek ..." She didn't actually say the "Greeky greek greek part." She was speaking the language. No good was meant towards me in it.

After getting water in my ears and shoving the towel so far up my ear drum that my leg started to twitch, Mary whipped out a stainless steel comb with teeth not even a millimetre apart and yanked it through my tangled hair. I started to pray to gods I made up.

Then in walked a Greek woman with dyed blonde hair who asked, "How much-a to get roots done?" I think perhaps Mary must hate it when Greek women dye their hair blonde, as she said, "$60" in a tone that implied she was selling her heritage for this mere amount.

The woman screamed, "$60! I can get it done down the street for 40!" Steel comb in one hand and my hair in the other, Mary screeched back, "Then GO down the street and get it done THERE!" My head was being yanked around like I was on the Scrambler at the midway and the stoned guy running it forgot about me.

Mary then angrily trimmed my hair in four seconds flat. As she rang it up, she smiled warmly. "You nice girl. Come back and see Mary."

I do often see Mary. In my nightmares. I sleep-moisturize my hair when I do.

Some Toronto episodes have been pure magic. I've been at a downtown karaoke where during "I've Had The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing, the host ran on to the dance floor and yelled, "Lindsay! Do a lift!" Entrusting my life to a guy who knew all the words to "Danger Zone," I flung myself at him, and he lifted me high in the air.

Also, at this karaoke is Charles, a white-haired businessman who dances all night by the stage. If someone raps, he does the running man. If it's heavy metal, he headbangs. He plays air guitar, air flute and occasionally air triangle. When the night is over, Charles puts his tie on, picks up his briefcase and becomes a businessman again. In Toronto, you can be whoever you want to be: Jennifer Grey (pre-nose job) or even a professional air triangler.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transportation

In Cape Breton, the bus comes once an hour.

So I was shocked to encounter Torontonians running like they were being chased by Teletubbies for the sake of a four-minute wait for the next train. During my first rush hour, I mashed myself on to a subway where my feet didn't touch the ground. The subway slowed, then stopped long enough for incredibly pointy-toed shoes to start tapping and people to open their briefcases, looking for a solution next to their paper clips.

When it started again, one big lady with a jubilant smile threw her head back and said, "THANK YOU, FATHER!! LET'S HAVE A BIG AMEN FOR JESUS STARTING THE SUBWAY AGAIN!!!!" Torontonians take subway rides seriously.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Restaurants

I once went to a Cape Breton restaurant that listed Chicken Parmesan under "Ethnic Dishes." I was ready for some adventures in Toronto cuisine.

My friend John and I went to a restaurant with grills in the middle of the table for the "all-you-can-eat-barbecue," which John ordered. You get little trays of raw beef, chicken, scallops, oxtail, etc. to grill yourself. This vegetarian was torn between being disgusted and the childlike delight of being able to set stuff on fire right at your table. Soon I was happily sizzling a piece of salmon, chanting, "Burn, baby, burn!"

My years of being what seemed to be the only vegetarian in Cape Breton went up in flames my first week in the "Big Smoke."

I ordered a dish. The waiter offered hot sauce, but warned it was "really spicy." Thinking he was mocking me because I'm not Korean, I dumped it on like it was ketchup. Soon, I felt my retinas detaching. I told John I was "having memories of things I never did." Always trust your waiter at a Korean restaurant.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Predicaments

Yay to the LCBO for giving out Air Miles. As I get my card zapped, I think fondly of loved ones who would have seen every country, hot and cold, if the liquor store did this at home.

From drinking to drinking wear, I saw a dress shop on Yonge St. with a dressing room that had black lights so you can see only your clothes and your teeth. No one's outfit ever made their teeth look fat.

Sometimes, big-city Toronto is not really that big.

When I applied for a part-time job at a café, the owner stated he only hires artistic people, even though we're always getting conflicting gigs and forgetting about customers because we've just been inspired.

The planets aligned. I leaned over and said, "I would say I'm involved in the arts. In fact, I'm singing on your stereo right now." He was playing my friend Grant Tilly's Halifax-recorded CD, one a bunch of us sang drunken back-ups on at 4 a.m.


Other times, it doesn't seem like you'll ever fit in. Once I decided to take a stroll to look at the two feet of Toronto lawns on the Danforth. I followed my nose to a bakery packed with customers holding loaves of braided cinnamon bread tied up with ribbons.

Never having been domestic enough to know the "So and So Bakery" makes the best bread, I happily grabbed a loaf and waited with crowds of Greek people yelling and buying truckloads of decorated religious candles.

As I walked home snacking, I wondered why these Greek people were all buying the same loaf of bread. And why a bakery sold religious candles.

Then it hit me — this must be special religious bread for the Greek Orthodox Church. Oh my God. I was snacking on Greek religious bread on the Danforth. Can you imagine if Mama from the laundromat saw me? Or Mary with her shears?

As you can see, I'm still learning "Toronto-ese." I still wave thank you to cars that stop for me at crosswalks. I still talk to other people's pets.

And maybe one of these days, I'll start dropping the second "t" in "Toronto" and you won't even know I'm not one of you.

Except, of course, when I ask you for directions in "rights" and "lefts."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lindsay Kyte is originally from Reserve Mines, Cape Breton. Upon moving to Toronto earlier this year to study acting, she began writing to friends and family back home a series of e-mails she called her "Toronto Adventures." The e-mails have been forwarded to hundreds of people throughout the Maritimes. This story is a compilation of her adventures.

blitz.fenix

I remember living in Mississauga when I was young and whenever I would go to downtown Toronto I was always stupified at how the streets were so busy. Toronto was the first place I saw homeless people and at the time I never understood what it meant to be homeless and living on the streets. The Toronto Maple Leafs are my favourite team still and I love the ACC and I can't live without hockey. Toronto is a HOCKEY city for sure. Whenever I go to downtown Kingston I think of Toronto on a smaller scale.

I just love Toronto in its amazing diversity. In addition, its been amazing we've been able to keep crime at a minimum. The only thing bad I have to say is the poverty levels, the government has to step up and take some action on this issue.

Charlatan

I read that article as well... I thought it was charming. I live on "The Danforth" so I can identify with her experiences in Greek Town.

I haven't been accosted by rabid hairstylists but the WASP in me is always a bit taken aback by the boistrous charm of some of the greek shopkeepers.

It's funny that you mention Toronto as a hockey town... I pay about as close to no attention to hockey as one can in this town. The respite from Hockey this winter has been kind of nice actually.

Does that make me less of a Torontonian?

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

james t kirk

Interesting stuff.

Myself, I was born and raised in Hamilton. Just 40 miles to the west, but 40 light years away. Growing up, I was bred to despise all things Toronto. Toronto was the land of the tory, the land of fat guys in blue suits who took advantage of us working class heros. It was hogtown to us. (Hogtown because they "hogged" all the government money as it was explained.) We used to go to Argo / Ticat games looking for Argo fans to harass. When we were in high school and feeling even more adventurous, we'd make the drive to CNE stadium to the heart of beast. One thing was clear to us Hamiltonians - Toronto sucked.

Then a funny thing happened whilst in 3'rd year University - I got a job in Toronto for a summer. Live here, nah, I would drive back and forth every day. But it was a begining. My first "neighbourhood" I discovered was Bloor West Village where my then boss invited me and my fellow students to her house for a party one evening. I parked my car at Yorkville and took the subway (for the first time in my life) to the High Park Station. I remember walking along Bloor Street and thinking that it was suprisingly alive with a real sense of feel to it. I tried to compare it to somewhere in Hamilton, but couldn't do it. (There is nowhere in Hamilton like it really.)

That summer, I was hanging around a bunch of Waterloo Students who used to go to "Wat-pubs" or something like that all over the city and as the the only McMaster Student at my office, they dragged along as some sort of mascot or something. I learned that everyone talked this mysterious language of North South East and West and you were really screwed if you didn't know which way that was. I soon figured out that "the lake is south". (Whereas in the real centre of the Universe - Hamilton, the lake is north.) Eventually I began to figure out where Bathurst Street was relative to Younge Street and how to get around to find these mysterious places. (Though dammit, why hadn't these fools in Toronto figured out that Hamilton had all the answers with their one-way streets!)

As a result, I had a very real introduction to the City of Toronto, and the wonders within. There was the Diamond Club one week, and RPM the next. Then there was a little place on Queen West. I met a girl who took me to this mysterious place called "the beaches" and to this really neat hamburger joint I had never heard of called Licks. Who knew there was a beach on Lake Ontario that didn't feature heaps of coal and Iron ore 6 stories high.

My hatred of all things Toronto was beginning to ebb ever so slightly I had to admit.

When I finished University, gasp, there was no jobs in my field in Hamilton. I looked, but couldn't find anything that paid more than 22 grand a year. Then I found a job in the wilds of Mississauga that paid 28 grand. Fine, I will work in Toronto I figured. (Note I said Toronto, not Mississauga, because to me back then, Mississauga was Toronto. As soon as you passed the Ford plant in Oakville, you were pretty much in Toronto as far as I was concerned.)

That job lasted 8 days before an even better one came up in some place called Etobicoke. Where the hell was Etobicoke I wondered? I remember thinking that I didn't want to take the job because it would have meant a further commute from Hamilton to work.

As luck would have it, by accepting that job, it opened my eyes (slowly) to what an amazing city Toronto really is. I began to discover more interesting areas of town like "the Annex" or "Riverdale", and "Parkdale" and "the" Danforth. You can find anything you want here. I really doubt there is a more diverse city in the world. Toronto truly is a big collection of small towns. It's got a real neighbourhood feel to it. I find the people here very friendly. You will often hear outsiders say that Toronto is a cold city to which I reply, you just have to get to know it. Like I did. I often times find myself being greeted by perfect strangers that I pass walking down one of the side streets from my house to the subway. My neighbours are a great lot of people (Mind you of all the houses on my street, only 1 guy is Toronto born and raised. Everyone else is from somewhere else.)

I now live in Bloor West Village myself (Ironic, it was the first neighbourhood I ever visited.) I really couldn't see myself living in any other city now. I have been living in the big smoke for 9 years, and a couple before that in Mississauga (note, Mississauga, not Toronto anymore.)

JJRousseau

Good story Capn Kirk. Many of our strongest perceptions are based on misinformation and other people's prejudice. I've been to TO a few times and honestly tried to like it, but it's just a bit too "Urban" for a west coast burbie like me. Montreal too.

I did have a hell of a lot of fun at some bar beside the CN Tower one night, but it's not a story I repeat anymore

martinguerre

nice stuff...you have a good eye for the details of the place.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

Janey

I love your story Tiberious (!). You do have a real sense of place. It's funny how people gravitate to the familiar. I ended up in The Beaches area of toronto, and mostly because of its connection with the water. And it's feel. I lived in Kitsilano while in Vancouver, and while going to Queen's I was in the lakefront area of Kingston. To me The Beaches brought back all of that, except that there is more of a neighbourhood feel here than the impersonal-ness of Kitsilano, and much more of a cross section of activity than there was in the (primarily sophomoric) environment of the Queen's student ghetto.

The neighbours on my street actually party together. We convene for impromptu verandah parties or BBQs where much booze and pot goes around. Many kids of all ages ( toddlers through university) live on the street, so it is very vibrant, and the parents are a cross section of blue collar (school custodians) throught to white (laywers and film producers). There are two gay families, one with adopted children, and three mixed race families (chinese/white, black/white, chinese/philippino). Last July 1, we collected over $500 amongst us, and put on a fireworks display with pulled pork BBQ in the middle of our street for Canada Day.

I couldn't think of living anywhere else where I can go windsurfing and tobogganing on the same day (i really did this!!)

Charlatan

That must have been some very chilly windsurfing! Were you on Ashbridges Bay or off Cherry Beach?

I must have seen some of your street's fireworks last year as my son and I were out on the Leslie Street Spit looking back at Ashbridges Bay for the fireworks. We were treated not only to the "official" fireworks but also to all of the various neighbourhood fireworks as well.

Kirk... great story.


I myself, grew up in the furthest reaches of Scarborough and spent a lot of my teen years taking the TTC into the city to hang out on Queen West and Yonge Street. Overall, I hated the 'burbs and by extention ended up hating Toronto. When I moved to Ottawa for University my loathing for Toronto grew.

When I moved back to Toronto (followed my girlfriend, now wife back to the city because she had a job) I made a deal that I would return so long as we never lived in the suburbs. The closest I came to breaking that vow was living in an apartment above a store on Yonge St. just south of Finch... definately uptown but right at the subway stop so I had access to the city in an instant.

To make a long story short... it wasn't long before I discovered just what Kirk discovered... Toronto is made up of all sorts of little areas that each have a different flavour. I fell in love with Toronto and as I've travelled the world on business, I have come to have an even stronger appreciation of this great city.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Janey

Near the filtration plant (Neville Street & queen est)

It was chilly, but i have a dry suit that I use for just those occasions, as well as sailing at the cottage (Haliburton - my hubby's family's cottage) in the spring & autumn.

I never did hate TO. I was just indifferent to it because of where I lived before. now I love it here...

james t kirk

We have parties on my street too, though I couldn't imagine my neighbours passing dubes around!! Usually in May all the neighbours are invited over to my next door neighbour's and in December to one or another neighbour's.

I am hoping to have my renovations done by next summer so I can invite them over.

The thing I love about living in an urban environment is the sense of neighbourhood, and the feel of the areas. I love the sound of the street cars, or the far off rumble of the CPR pulling out of Toronto West Junction at night. From my bedroom window I can hear the freights as they pull west along the track into the night. There is a very real sense of comfort in that sound.

What also amazes me about Toronto is how alive its inner core is. You can drive the length of Queen Street and there are literally thousands of shops with maybe three that are for rent. Same goes for Bloor, College, Dundas and all the rest of the inner city streets. In Toronto people WANT to live in the inner city, in an urban environment. I like how I can walk down to Bloor Street and the world is at my beckoning. I can find it all, and it never sleeps.

I could never see myself living a 905 existance now. Mini vans, freeways for streets, desolation, green fencing, and dust are that exists in the outlying burbs. Everything you do is predicated by the extensive use of an automobile. (At least Hamilton is a city unto itself (mind you a city that needs a whole heap of fixing, but that's another story)).

So many North American cities, in particualar in the USA, have suffered urban blight. When I meet Americans and I tell them that I live right in the city, they think I am nuts. To them, the American dream is a big house in the suburbs with an SUV in the double driveway and a huge green deck out back. To me, this isn't the American dream, it's the American nightmare.

Toronto has managed to avoid this urban rott half by luck and half by foresight. At one time the fools in local government had in mind extending the Gardiner Expressway right through the Beaches (it was going to be called the Scarborough Expressway). This is why the old Gardiner (before they tore it down) had an elevated stub at Leslie Street. They figured that the American model of living in the burbs and using expressways and interstates to "wisk" commuters home was the way of the future. God, if anything could be further from the truth. In truth, the development of expressways and urban one way streets leads to the death of a street and eventually the area. Streets become freeways complete with high speeds, noise pollution, and dust and grime.

Toronto right up until the 80's was also planning to build the Spadina Expressway. That's why when you are heading eastbound on the Gardiner right before Spadina, the lanes get reaallllyyy wide (where they planned the exit) and at one time they ripped out the old Spadina Street Car line (only to replace it in the 90's). They were going to loop that baby right overtop the Gardiner and right up Spadina. Can you imagine an elevated expressway running right up the middle of Spadina and another one cutting through the beaches to "wisk" commuters home to Scarborough and north to whereever?

Toronto could quite easily have ended up like any other American big city.

The last thing I would ever want to see in Toronto would be more expressways. Subways yes. I would love to see a Queen Street line from Vic Park to Sherway Gardens, and an Eglinton line from York City Centre to Laird, and another north south line on Keele and Vic Park. But expressways, nope. I wish that they would bury the Gardiner under the lake and build a nice green belt in place of what's there now.

Charlatan

I don't think there will be subway lines for a long time, they are too expensive... I do like the idea of more dedicated streetcar lanes like they have on Spadina.

One idea for trains would be some sort of rail line that connects the Sheppard Subway to the GO railline that runs through the Don Valley... it woud be an express that would have stops connecting at the via duct and Union station.

Kirk, you are right that Toronto has avoided much of the horrors of urban expressways but unfortunately planning outside the city borders is for shit. The sprawl that continues to expand throughout the GTA is going to be what brings Toronto to its knees if we don't get a better transit system in place.

With so many people living in the sprawl and working in the city the traffic on the existing feeder expressways is horrendous. There will be many more battles in the future about building more highways or expanding the ones we have...

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Averett

That's pretty insightful, kirk I live in an American suburb and travel the highway every day from my place, right by the city, to my place of employment which is yet another suburb. Albany isn't a large city, nowhere near the size of Toronto. There are some really nice sections though, but when I hear about people living in Albany city-proper, I wonder why.

I think the only city that doesn't have the stigma of crappy city life would be NYC. Maybe Boston. Other than that, most large American cities just aren't where most people would choose to live. Work, yes. But come 5pm they climb into their SUV and get back to their double driveway.

I understand why you'd consider it the American nightmare. Living in a city and loving it must make you recoil at the horror of suburban living. But for us, it's what we've somewhat been programed to go for.

I'd like to live in a city for awhile. I love the feel of NYC. But I don't know that I'd want to live there forever. I've just become too used to the idea of having a nice 4 bedroom house with a big grassy backyard and the two car garage.

What can I say, I am an American after all


Hmm... thread jack? Sorry guys!

To get it back on track, I have a story about Toronto. I went there for a Jays game years ago. It was fun. The end

__________________
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

OFKU0

I lived in Toronto for five years.

Some of the good things were the ethnic diversity in markets, restaurants, festivals etc.

I ordered a pizza once from a pizza joint on St. Clair W. and it didn't have any tomato sauce on it, just the ingredients. (with cheese on the bottom. that's not the way I like pizza) I took it back and the guy said that's the way they make them so I took it home and put ketchup on it. First and last time I put ketchup on a pizza.

Of course the first year I didn't have a car and rode the 35c Jane bus up to Wilson. At first being called "white bread, vanilla, honky" etc by the majority of black folk heading up to Finch bothered me but then I became desensitized to it and ignored it.

Not being able to open my apartment window because of street noise and pollution wasn't a thrill. Good thing for a/c.

It was nice that things were close to walk to but driving just took too long, too much traffic.

I liked the fact that on any given night a major touring music act could end up in town. Living in Ottawa now sucks since most acts bypass Ottawa between Montreal and T.O.

If I had the chance to live in Toronto again I would decline. Five years was enough. And if I want to get out of town, rather than the 4 1/2 hour drive to T.O, I add on an extra 2 and go to Boston, another city I lived in for about a year. Nothing really bad about T.O but Boston just does it for me. I would live there again if the opportunity presented itself in a heartbeat.

__________________
" In Canada, you can tell the most blatant lie in a calm voice, and people will believe you over someone who's a little passionate about the truth." David Warren, Western Standard.

james t kirk

Very true.

I can tell you that the Sheppard Subway cost $150,000,000.00 per kilometre.

Tha'ts one hundred and fifty million dollars per km.

The majority of the cost is the stations themselves. The Sheppard / Younge Station was around 200 mill.

Bayview, around 160 I believe.

The tunnels themselves were about 100 million.

They have plans to extend Sheppard to Scarborough town centre I believe. I have often thought that some sort of arrangement could be reached with the greedy developers to give them the rights to build overtop of stations provided they build the stations.

Or sell the right to build over some of the existing stations.

At one time they couldn't decide whether to build a Queen Street line or a Bloor Street Line. They chose Bloor, but not before they built a Station at Queen / Younge. It's down there, all boarded up, but it's there.

Same with Bay Street. There is another station that was built below the Bay Station. All you see on the Bay Street Station is this mysterious door that leads down to a second Bay Street Station below the one that everyone uses.

Paying for the Subways would be possible if the feds and province helped out a bit. Keep in mind that every year 9 Billion dollars flows OUT of Toronto proper to the other parts of the country never to return, and 8 billion more from the so called GTA for a total of 17 billion dollars.

Imagine what we could do with that.

http://www.bot.com/ContentIslands/Pu...01_16_2004.asp

james t kirk

I am most sorry for you.

When I was in University I was dating a girl who's family lived out in the country. Farm country, not too far from Hamilton. I remember they had this huge 4,000 ft2 house, a couple of barns, 25 acres, etc. Big everything. I remember at the time thinking that it was a life that I might like.

Now, if you were to suggest a lifestyle like that, I would consider it hell on earth.

I have visited quite a few American cities and would agree with you that come 5:00 pm, they empty out (except NYC, now that's an exception. I read somewhere that after the election someone described NYC as "an Island off the coast of Europe. I would agree with that. NYC is the exception, not the rule.)

One time I drove to Pittsburgh a few years ago and had a hotel room right downtown. We arrived around 9:00 or 10:00 pm and I asked the girl if there was a good restaurant nearby that she would reccommend. She looked at me like I was on crack and said, "Now?" "Nothing will be open NOW"

I remember thinking she didn't know what she was talking about. My friend and I walked for about an hour or more up and down deserted streets to no avail. The place was boarded up, barred up, or closed. We were about the only 2 people on the street. I felt like Charlton Heston in the Omega man or something.

Even LA doesn't have the alive inner city feel to it that Toronto has. It's sort of spread all over the place with life here and there.

I was watching a documentary on PBS about the decline of the American city and it was interesting because it all started after WW2 when a few things started happening. One, they started to build interstate highways that cut huge swaths through inner city neigbourhoods (they were using Detroit as an example and how I-75 destroyed a good part of Detroit) and there was the GI program of giving out very very cheap mortgages to returning soldiers, and war workers to build houses in the suburbs, the so called first tier suburbs. (But no blacks could get these mortgages.) So the institution was inherently racially segregationalist.

This combined with the urban modeling of planned communities at the time, and the automobile caused residential city dwellers to "move out" and the tide has never really turned. Somehow living in the burbs was the sought after life in America.

There are now cities in the US that are trying to rejevenated their inner cities and one example they used was Portland Oregon. It's coming slowly, but some people are deciding that living in the inner city is desirable.

Interestingly, there is a consulting firm from Toronto that was hired by the City of Detroit to try and re-establish the inner city in Detroit. This firm, I forget their name, is of the opionion (and I would agree) that in order to have a thriving inner city, you need residential before you need commercial. If you have the residential base, the commercial will follow, not the other way round. Once you loose your residential base, everything else goes to hell. So many US cities have tried "the big fix" to re-establish an alive inner core. They have tried building large sports complexes downtown, or in the case of Detroit, they tried building the Renascence Centre, or entertainment complexes thinking that this will lure people back to the inner city.

Nope, never works.

You need to get people to live downtown, to want to live downtown.

Toronto is an example of how that can be achieved.

In the old parts of Toronto you have a very well balanced commercial and residential component of the city. What often amazes me about Toronto is how you can just turn a corner off of Younge Street, and you are into a residential neighbourhood complete with single family homes. This is something that is missing in the US cities I have seen. Toronto has also the lake at one end of it which effectively prevents the downtown from being ringed by suburbs. Further Toronto was a huge magnet for European immigrants who are used to living a more tight knit urban lifestyle than north Americans. Toronto is a very tolerant city where people for the most part get along pretty good. The immigrant culture combined with the neighbourhood layout of the city has helped maintain the inner city a great place to live. Add to this the way the city is planned and the local rate payers associations who monitor development in the area and you have another effective way of maintaining a sense of community.

Where Toronto sometimes loses it in my eyes is when they tear down old buildings and allow the construction of boxes. I realize that boxes have their place, however, I wish that the architecture was a little bit more interesting than what it is. Other than the CN tower, most of the highrises are fairly nondescript. Toronto lacks an Empire State Building or a Chrysler Building.

Charlatan

One thing that has always amazed me about Toronto is that there is no "other side of the tracks". To be sure there are areas that have poverty but, generally speaking, they are quite mixed in with the more affluent areas.

For example St. James Town is surrounded by Cabbagetown, Rosedale and the Gay Village... My own neighbourhood, Riverdale, is a mix of ethnicities and levels of income. Whenever I travel in the states I find that there are clear divisions.

A note on the subway... The purpose of the Lower Bay station was to let the Yonge/Univerity line work as a loop. It became too confusing for many transit riders so they discontinued it in favour of the current format. The Lower Bay station is used as a set for many film productions and commercial shoots.

As for the station below Queen, it was actually supposed to be a station for a streetcar line rather than a subway. They ditched the concept in favour of the Bloor line.

A report was released this morning that attempts to map out the future of the TTC. They clearly state that Subways are not in the plans and that they will be leaning towards more dedicated streetcar lines like the Spadina line and the forthcomming St. Clair line.


I'd have to disagree with you on this... while I will never live in the suburbs, I would be willing to live in a rural area or a very small town. It has to be one or the other and no inbetween.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Janey

I worked a contract in Pittsburgh, and lived for several months in the William Pitt hotel, which would be comparable in style and location to the Royal York in Toronto. But you correct JTK, i asked where i could walk to to go to a nice restaurant, and they said: DON'T. Stay here, where it's safe. They told me that there are black areas and white areas, and I shouldn't go to the black areas.

A foreign concept for me, as there is no real delineation in Toronto. Plus, they have a tough time categorizing me, except one guy thought i was a mexican.

It's a small cute city by day, but the rush to leave (the mass at the buses at 5:15 outside Mellon Plaza) at the end of the workday is startling.

james t kirk

Absolutely correct.

It was built and apparently 6 mos. later, it was shut down. Can't imagine how much money it cost to build.

(I was just down there recently. Amazing.)

Charlatan

How did you get down there? I was there once years ago... we walked off the platform at Museum and walked underground.

I understand they now have cameras in the tunnel and you will get caught.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

james t kirk

My work required me to be subway rules trained.

It's a one day seminare put on by the TTC for those required to be rules trained.

At the end of it, you go for a tour of the tunnels. The guy from the TTC took us down there, we walked toward museum, then waited as a train passed about 12" from the end of my nose. (Face the oncoming train and look at the train, do not look at the train at 90 degrees or you will feel a little woozy.)

Never stand on any areas in the tunnels painted with yellow stripes. You'll get whacked. Ironically, the 3'rd rail wood crossings are also painted yellow and you have to step there to step over the third rail (600 Volts DC)

And the tiles at the edge of the platform are painted yellow. (Lots of yellow paint)

I learned that anyone can kill the power to the subway. Wherever you see a blue light, there is an emergency power shut off.

Charlatan

I was watching Space the other night and Johnny Nuemonic was on... It was shot in Toronto and sure enough... there was Lower Bay. Made me smile.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke