Back from Toronto

Four days, 1500 air miles, 612 driving kilometers and a funeral later, I'm back in DC.

My return drive to Buffalo yesterday afternoon and the flight from Buffalo to Baltimore were both leisurely and uneventful. I'm largely caught up on laundry and personal e-mail although I have a horrendous stack of backlogged work-related items. And tonnes of LJ to read. :-)

Back from Toronto

Four days, 1500 air miles, 612 driving kilometers and a funeral later, I'm back in DC.

My return drive to Buffalo yesterday afternoon and the flight from Buffalo to Baltimore were both leisurely and uneventful. I'm largely caught up on laundry and personal e-mail although I have a horrendous stack of backlogged work-related items. And tonnes of LJ to read. :-)

I Miss Toronto

So much has changed in Toronto and Canada since I last visited, and yet so much is still the same. The Toronto skyline has more condos than before, and still many being constructed; I think only Vancouver might have more towers inserting themselves into the cityscape at such a pace. And yet the view is still dominated by the same tall office buildings and CN Tower as before. Change and stasis combined.

There were no high-occupancy commuter lanes when I lived in Toronto, but there are several now, typically requiring three occupants in every vehicle. The QEW is still under reconstruction, just as it has the past several decades. Traffic on the Gardiner Expressway still sucks, no matter the time of day. The 401 has the same old chokepoints.

When I lived in Ontario, six character license plates were the norm; seven character plates were a novelty. Now the expanded plates are common on personal use vehicles. The Toronto Transit Commission’s fares are higher but my old TTC tokens still work. And the TTC is still the best way to get around town.

I thought Licks, my favourite local burger chain, had vanished years ago with the demise of their Beaches restaurant and their flagshop spot at Dundas & Yonge. Yet I was delighted to discover a Licks at Pape & Danforth. I ate there twice. Never did get to Harvey's, Swiss Chalet or Pizza Pizza. Toby's is still defunct.

The (in)famous steps of the Second Cup at Church & Wellesley are no more, as is the Body Shop across the street and a number of other restaurants and bars in the area. The 519 Community Center, however, officially opens its new expansion June 15.

The memorial in Cawthra Park has new name plates commemorating people lost to AIDS, but the lists for 2000 through 2006 combined are much smaller than any year from 1993-1999; it’s progress, after a fashion. I will celebrate when we have an annual plate under which no names are listed.

I spent a half-hour reading through the names and remembering people I knew: Grant K (my accountant), Michael "Patsy Recline," Steve R, and many more. Especially Rod T. He was my ASL instructor at the Canadian Hearing Society through several courses some 15 years ago, but I had such a crush on him that it was difficult to actually absorb the material he was trying to teach. Rod passed away in December of 1993. Occasionally, I still have dreams about him.

The CN Tower celebrates its 30th anniversary this month.

I didn't make it to the lakeshore in this visit, but I did spend a lot of time walking through the downtown core and my old stomping grounds at the University of Toronto.

There’s something about Toronto I love. It has a certain air of purpose, a drive towards some indefinite goal which I find mildly intoxicating. Walking through the streets makes me feel energized. I suspect a part is my familiarity of the downtown and east side: it feels comfortable and supportive. Another part is the architecture: traditionalist Victorian grandeur of manor houses & portions of U of T, Casa Loma and Old City Hall, nouveaux stylings of the current City Hall, monumental construction of the major office towers, open spaces of the islands and parks, green space of the Don Valley and Queens Park, the industrial earnestness of Ryerson, the near-rustic, former blue collar areas of east Eastern Avenue neighbourhoods and so on. And still so much is happening: old Varsity Stadium is gone, new condos are being assembled, older warehouses and brownland properties are being converted into studios and offices, the Royal Ontario Museum is expanding and a new pharmaceutical sciences building will be opening at U of T shortly.

A major part of my happiness with Toronto is simply being able to see the people: this is a city which loves its pedestrians. There are plenty of cars to be sure, but I never owned one when I lived there. Everything I could want was within walking distance or easily accessed via the transit system. Sit in a street car, a commuter train or the subway car and you’ll see single mothers, middle class workers of blue & white collar varieties, upper class matrons, tourists & retirees, kids and caretakers, lawyers and construction workers.

Walking in Toronto, I feel buoyant. I have the same sensation of safety and familiarity in my home town in Northern Ontario, but the geography there is so vast and the population so sparse that one sometimes struggles to feel more than a mere wisp of the community. Schizophrenic DC simply leaves me drained: it’s a city with two self-absorbed governments trapped together in a toxic marriage without any hope of divorce or separation. Vancouver and Seattle had a similar air of opportunity & possibility but being a visitor to each for only a weekend, I was too overwhelmed by novelty to absorb the full effect. New York City gave me a similar boost but the lack of greenery outside of Central Park made me feel a little unbalanced; I’m sure I could adapt but the feeling didn't come as naturally as it does with Toronto.

Toronto has a life which doesn’t just fill your sails, it lifts you into the sky like a glider in an updraft. In Toronto, I feel I can fly.

I Miss Toronto

So much has changed in Toronto and Canada since I last visited, and yet so much is still the same. The Toronto skyline has more condos than before, and still many being constructed; I think only Vancouver might have more towers inserting themselves into the cityscape at such a pace. And yet the view is still dominated by the same tall office buildings and CN Tower as before. Change and stasis combined.

There were no high-occupancy commuter lanes when I lived in Toronto, but there are several now, typically requiring three occupants in every vehicle. The QEW is still under reconstruction, just as it has the past several decades. Traffic on the Gardiner Expressway still sucks, no matter the time of day. The 401 has the same old chokepoints.

When I lived in Ontario, six character license plates were the norm; seven character plates were a novelty. Now the expanded plates are common on personal use vehicles. The Toronto Transit Commission’s fares are higher but my old TTC tokens still work. And the TTC is still the best way to get around town.

I thought Licks, my favourite local burger chain, had vanished years ago with the demise of their Beaches restaurant and their flagshop spot at Dundas & Yonge. Yet I was delighted to discover a Licks at Pape & Danforth. I ate there twice. Never did get to Harvey's, Swiss Chalet or Pizza Pizza. Toby's is still defunct.

The (in)famous steps of the Second Cup at Church & Wellesley are no more, as is the Body Shop across the street and a number of other restaurants and bars in the area. The 519 Community Center, however, officially opens its new expansion June 15.

The memorial in Cawthra Park has new name plates commemorating people lost to AIDS, but the lists for 2000 through 2006 combined are much smaller than any year from 1993-1999; it’s progress, after a fashion. I will celebrate when we have an annual plate under which no names are listed.

I spent a half-hour reading through the names and remembering people I knew: Grant K (my accountant), Michael "Patsy Recline," Steve R, and many more. Especially Rod T. He was my ASL instructor at the Canadian Hearing Society through several courses some 15 years ago, but I had such a crush on him that it was difficult to actually absorb the material he was trying to teach. Rod passed away in December of 1993. Occasionally, I still have dreams about him.

The CN Tower celebrates its 30th anniversary this month.

I didn't make it to the lakeshore in this visit, but I did spend a lot of time walking through the downtown core and my old stomping grounds at the University of Toronto.

There’s something about Toronto I love. It has a certain air of purpose, a drive towards some indefinite goal which I find mildly intoxicating. Walking through the streets makes me feel energized. I suspect a part is my familiarity of the downtown and east side: it feels comfortable and supportive. Another part is the architecture: traditionalist Victorian grandeur of manor houses & portions of U of T, Casa Loma and Old City Hall, nouveaux stylings of the current City Hall, monumental construction of the major office towers, open spaces of the islands and parks, green space of the Don Valley and Queens Park, the industrial earnestness of Ryerson, the near-rustic, former blue collar areas of east Eastern Avenue neighbourhoods and so on. And still so much is happening: old Varsity Stadium is gone, new condos are being assembled, older warehouses and brownland properties are being converted into studios and offices, the Royal Ontario Museum is expanding and a new pharmaceutical sciences building will be opening at U of T shortly.

A major part of my happiness with Toronto is simply being able to see the people: this is a city which loves its pedestrians. There are plenty of cars to be sure, but I never owned one when I lived there. Everything I could want was within walking distance or easily accessed via the transit system. Sit in a street car, a commuter train or the subway car and you’ll see single mothers, middle class workers of blue & white collar varieties, upper class matrons, tourists & retirees, kids and caretakers, lawyers and construction workers.

Walking in Toronto, I feel buoyant. I have the same sensation of safety and familiarity in my home town in Northern Ontario, but the geography there is so vast and the population so sparse that one sometimes struggles to feel more than a mere wisp of the community. Schizophrenic DC simply leaves me drained: it’s a city with two self-absorbed governments trapped together in a toxic marriage without any hope of divorce or separation. Vancouver and Seattle had a similar air of opportunity & possibility but being a visitor to each for only a weekend, I was too overwhelmed by novelty to absorb the full effect. New York City gave me a similar boost but the lack of greenery outside of Central Park made me feel a little unbalanced; I’m sure I could adapt but the feeling didn't come as naturally as it does with Toronto.

Toronto has a life which doesn’t just fill your sails, it lifts you into the sky like a glider in an updraft. In Toronto, I feel I can fly.