Palmerston Avenue, in the Annex, is the most beautiful stately street. At night, walking down past the old-fashioned globed streetlights always makes me feel wistful. Man, I'd love to live on this street one day.
The great thing about Toronto is that its always changing. Almost 20 years ago, I lived in a neighbourhood that was just starting to feel a Korean influx. Now, it's Little Korea. I find that ebb and flow, and the fact that the neighbourhood doesn't decline, just changes, special. Right now, you're seeing collisions and gentrification in two neighbourhoods close to my heart, Roncesvalles and Parkdale. It makes for an interesting urban collision. Those little back and forths and old residents smacking against new, that's the feeling and the vibrancy of urban renewal.
Streetcars. They're annoying when you're driving and get trapped behind them. But man, I'm glad we have'em.
The Palais Royale. On the Lakeshore, this venue has been around since the 1930's. It was a DanceHall. Duke Ellington played there. You move around and you can feel the history, and then go outside and you can stare into the Lake Ontario night. I've only seen a few shows there, and I've never been to a wedding there, but I bet it's special. Between the Palais Royale and Massey Hall, all my concert going needs would be covered.
Sigh. I still can't talk about it.Well, this was never meant to be a definitive survey. There's so much more I love about the city, but I guess we'll just leave it there and add one more thing I love about Toronto.
Our Mayor is a MAD twitterer. How cool is that?
Happy Birthday, T.O.
10 rumbles:
Happy Birthday, indeed, T.O. Personal favorites also include Bloor at Brunswick on Santa Claus Parade day (as long as you aren't at street level) - it's got this small-town vibe that I never expected, and savour every year. The diversity and community that Toronto harbours - the Zombie March, a rockin' Pride (although, sadly, more commercial than not nowadays), and the CNE/Royal Winter Fair... Our subway system is vaguely embarrassing, our drivers are typically ignorant and oblivious, and our passion for Tim's is a brutal stereotype (but true, nonetheless). However, as much as I love to travel, it's always nice to come home to Toronto.
Christie Pits. I dunno, something about an old quarry turned park, the skating rink, the way you can stand anywhere on the edge and look down into the whole thing ... plus they has some mad riots there back in the day ...
I even shredded it once. It snowed like a bitch and I was homesick for BC so went out and rented tele skis. Up, down, up, down, up down for hours. This old Portugeuse dude standing there shaking his head and smiling ...
I'm in my mid-30s and I used to go dancing at the Palais every Friday night, just like my grandmother did when she first arrived in Toronto in the facility's heyday.
But then there was the fire. And after the repairs, it became more of a special events venue for one-offs. Which is great for concerts, but isn't fostering any continuity of use like it used to.
Hopefully at some point the Palais will again become folks' habitual haunt. It's a great location, what with the walkway over Lakeshore.
I agree with Shannon, I love to travel too but nothing beats the feeling when you land in Toronto. Ive been here for 20 years and it feels like home. First lived off of Ronce, where the Korean grocer spoke Polish and you could watch a movie at Revue for 2 bucks. Then in the Annex where we'd get tasty baking at Dr Cheese & The Cake Lady, and pizza at 3 am at Pizza Gigi. Danced at Komrads (my first gay bar!), drank at Brunswick and went for Chinese at 3 am to Happy Palace. Toronto Island during the cruel summer, High Park in the fall. Too many great restaurants to mention. Yeah, I feel lucky to live here, no matter how retarded the subway.
Aww. Sam the Record Man. I miss that storefront - it's so sad to see it going down.
And believe me - the streetcars are annoying when you're on them, too, but they're still awesome. It's brilliant.
Personally I'm a big fan of the fact that Covenant House is in the old Women's Temperance Union.
Dude. This city has history.
I'd heard something to the effect that the Sam's Sign was going to be refurbished and reinstalled. That plan's still in effect, I hope?
My most recent visit to TO was just in time for the Closing Sale then in progress. I managed to get a good look around the place, and even as just a visitor for the first and last time, I got the idea that this was - hopefully will still somehow be - a part of Our History.
Here's to another 175!
Seeing that Sam's sign just makes me sad. Cuz it reminds me of Ernie's awesome hotdog stand just around the corner...near the guys always playing chess.
Eglinton and Yonge holds a special place in the heart as well.
The Sam's sign was taken down in October, immediately after being briefly 're-lit' for Nuit Blanche.
It's now in storage in Vaughan at the facilities of the company that had been hired to dismantle it, Gregory Signs & Engraving.
And we're talking long-term storage, at least three years, while Ryerson builds its new learning centre on the former Sam's premises and then figures out exactly where it's going to reinstall the sign.
In what may be a first for Toronto, the sign was given heritage designation while the building wasn't. So the sign had to be saved, but the steel structure that held it up was demolished along with the rest of the building.
That being the case, reinstalling it (even indoors, as may be Ryerson's choice) will be a difficult challenge in itself ....
Sorry to read about the demolition. I was hoping the whole building could be saved as well, as a kind of live music/theatre/museum complex.
One more missed opportunity. Let's keep an eye on Ryerson to see that no more of that happens, hm?
"I was hoping the whole building could be saved as well, as a kind of live music/theatre/museum complex."
Well, that would be up to some other new owner. But given that Ryerson bought the building, it will no doubt be developed quite differently.
That real estate is so expensive, it really can't be any of the things you suggest. Look due southeast to Yonge-Dundas Square where the Olympic Spirit museum was attempted; it quickly closed and I believe is still vacant until CityTV, Omni and a handful of other Rogers media properties move in.
Live theatres? There seem to be more than enough of those in the area and along King West to sustain all the big shows that come to town. Sometimes the Mirvishes even have trouble filling that one on Yonge south of Bloor (formerly The New Yorker).
What Ryerson will do with the former Sam's building is probably going to be similar to what it's done with its other recent acquisitions; lease out the first few floors to retail and offices, then run its own administrative offices, classrooms, etc. on the top few floors.
I'm okay with that. Yonge/Dundas has long been a shopping area first and foremost. And compared to my youth, it's great to see more of that shopping taking place outside the Eaton Centre itself, getting more folks onto the sidewalks.
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