I’ve always had difficulty finding my rhythm in Toronto, heading back to Ottawa feeling like I’ve missed out on the best bits. Although this trip was packed with a conference and other meetings, I finally found my urban mojo.
I think four key factors shaped the positive outcome. First, I trained in so was car-free; the weather was unbelievably gorgeous; I stayed with a friend well outside the downtown core; and I almost exclusively walked and took public transport to get around.
I only missed my car once, the first night, when it was late and dark and I was tired. A $35 cab ride took me back to Long Branch, along the western waterfront of the city. It used to be summer cottage country but devolved into mixed residential, industrial and commercial. It is a surprisingly quiet enclave filled with beaches and parks and possessing, apparently, one of only two streets in Toronto with single family detached right on the water. I took Sheena the dog for a quick walk then popped in my earplugs and crawled into bed. Neither Sheena’s barking nor Patti’s repeated banging on the door alerted the sleeping me to the fact she was locked out of her own house. Bad guest! Bad! It took two days or so to find the amusing story value in that one.
Patti’s suggestion to ride the streetcar into downtown turned out to be an excellent one. It was a 45 minute milk run, stopping every few blocks to pick up a fabulously diverse ridership and I was pleasantly surprised by the kindness and patience of the TTA drivers towards their clientele. We passed through strip commercial, high-end single family, past High Park, then factories and new high rises under development. Crossing Roncevales marked the dense, intensive, eclectic start of the downtown. The ride along the entire length of Queen Street was a revelation. Gentrification had pushed farther and farther west but the mixed economic and ethnic areas were still prominent under this overlay.
On my second day I hopped off the streetcar and walked to downtown. As I’ve mentioned before I am not a shopper but I do collect handmade jewellery by Canadian artists. I was excited by the plethora of original one-off shops and restaurants which are such a welcome respite from the chains now dominant in smaller urban centres. The store windows were wonders of design unto themselves. I spent the better part of an hour chatting with multi-talented artist Lindsay Montgomery in Made You Look, a store representing about eighty Canadian jewellery designers. We talked jewellery, women in the trades, the crummy design of her artists’ loft space, graduate art studies, and the critical act of connecting with people from different disciplines. I kibitzed with others along the street and felt renewed and energized by these shreds of contact. Everyone was keen to chat, or at least smile and acknowledge, and no one looked at me like I had two heads. I think it would be possible to spend the entire day in fascinating conversation with complete strangers. The walk made for some great shooting and reminded me how vast and creative the urban eating, shopping and random people experience can be.
I did much the same in the Annex, had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner with friends in Rosedale and drank wine, read and people-watched from the O&B Canteen at the Bell Lightbox. So much to ogle and experience! But I was glad to leave some urban revelations for another day (and another trip). All recommendations are gratefully accepted.
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