My Toronto

(ckck)

While browsing the net looking for information on grime, my new favourite music genre ever, I came across an article on Intelligent Life magazine (from The Economist) website about Toronto. I know, right? I was probably 3 degree of separation from some article on hand walkers or, oh, I don't know, buggering? Nevertheless, it got me intrigued. I recently started to think about where to live and work for the next stage of my life, and I got to think a lot about Toronto and Vancouver. Having lived away from home for 4 years now (3 in Vancouver, and a year before that in London), I have enough distance to look back on Toronto with less of the needy attachment for the city I used to have and see how Toronto ranks as a livable city.

It used to be that on the visual scale, Vancouver came off much more readily beautiful - the mountains! the sea! the bridges! - but Toronto had lively neighbourhoods and its architecture wasn't all that much worse off than Vancouver's. After Paris though, coming back to Toronto, I realized how incredibly ordinary and quaint the city's constructed visual landscape was. The ROM was probably the most interesting architectural building we've put up in a long time? Of course, a pretty city doesn't necessarily mean an interesting one. Toronto makes up for its rather insignificant visual events with plenty of characters, right? With so much hate directed towards the city by people from other places though (I first became aware of the snide remark 'the center of the universe' in reference to Toronto from living here), not to mention criticisms by people living in it (only natural - also, our hockey team is doing its darndest to shame the city, ugh), I wasn't sure there was much of it left to salvage. But why refer to others' opinion about a city I know intimate details of when I can just reach in my memory bag for clues to its identity and presentation? Better yet, I'll just post what I've written about Toronto before and make smaller side comments where necessary, because I am averse to more-than-necessary work at the moment. Behold! Edited text!

Toronto is a living city, which means that it's more suitable for living than touring. It doesn't have much of a natural scenery, and compared to Vancouver, architecturally it is not as consistent - there are some really ugly stuff as well as some really beautiful stuff. Instead of a 'spot', I would recommend visiting 'streets' or 'neighbourhood.' So, here are some streets I think would worth your while:

01. Kensington Market

This pocket of goodliness (mostly JEWISH!) is lively and located right beside downtown Chinatown. It's very happening, very cheap, very hip. I love this corner of Toronto, and I spent many, many hours in a little shop called Courage My Love. It's bustling and full of interesting little shops. It's great for people watching to, especially in the summer.

Places to eat: There's a great dim sum (Chinese) place called Bright Pearl. It's GREAT for people watching on Sunday morning. You should inquire about 'Happy Hour', the cheapest time of the day to get food there. Alternately, you can try Pho Hung, a local favourite Vietnamese food - cheap and filling and exotic. Both are located on the main street, Spadina, close to each other. For a quick snack, try one of the Vietnamese sub places - VERY narrow space, but locally famous for their sub sandwiches.

Tacked-on visit: Chinatown, because, you're right there!

02. Queen St. E. / Queen St. W.

Get yourself to Queen and Spadina, and walk (it's BEST to walk) towards Yonge St. The stretch between Spadina and Yonge on Queen is full of life and ripe for HOT people watch. This is the preppiest YOUTHful place in town. The biggest downtown film theatre is steps away (Scotiabank Theatre). And tonnes of shops, shops, shops. This stretch is considered the main attraction of Queen St. W. (East and West is divided by Yonge St., which runs North/South). [You can see this street clearly in the new film, An Education!]

Places to eat: Cafe Crepes is right opposite of the famous CityTV building (also home to MuchMusic, Canada's national music television, and a hot spot for street concerts). I LOVE Cafe Crepes - it has a 50s Frenchie feel to it. Of course, who can resist chocolate crepes? NOT ME! :D It's a few doors down from East! which is also a great place for nice pan Asian food. There's a Mexican bar/casual eating restaurant, Tortilla Flats. [There are THREE Cafe Crepes in Vancouver, but the feelings are definitely different from the one in Toronto - they are a lot less friendly. The last time I was in one on Granville, the service was far from pleasant; they're just too busy to pay attention to correct food orders?)]

Tacked-on visit: The club district, around Richmond and John. It would be best, if you want to sample a bit of Toronto's night life, to come here Friday night, late late night.

Queen St. East - now, you should go all the way to what's called The Beaches area. It's a unique part of town where you can pretend like you're on the beach (Lake Ontario is huge, and this is the sandy part). There are so many things to see there I don't know where to begin. It's a SERIOUSLY yuppy town, but a curious one at that. This is where the famous Toronto International Jazz Festival takes place in the summer. And fireworks in July.

Places to eat: Be sure to visit Lick's Homeburger & Icecream. In the summer time, the line up is incredible. I haven't found other really good places to eat there, though I'm sure most would be fine. It's best to visit The Beaches when there's something going on there, which there often is.

03. Bathurst & Bloor

Actually this would be the stretch on Bloor between Christie and Spadina. Home-town feel. This part is very 'ghetto' (but not really), and home to very eclectic stuff. A part of it (stretching from Christie to Bathurst) is called Little Korean, a fabulous place to get Korean stuff, if you so desire (mostly food? lol though there's a supercute store called Morning Glory; I'm not sure if it's still around). Just before you hit Bathurst, there's Markham St., a very small street that's super super chic. Tucked in it is Suspect Video, probably the best video store in the city (beside the giant, famed one-off superstore Honest Ed's). It looks really 'suspect' but it's an awesome store with tonnes of off-kilter stuff and homely friendly staff. This Bathurst area is also called the Annex.

Places to eat: Futures Bakery is quintessential Canadian, if there's such a thing. It's best to visit the place at night, order a drink and get some piece of cake and plop down in one of their more comfortable chairs in the corner. In Korean 'town', there's a secret place that does not bear English labels - it's upstairs, near Christie and Bloor, all in Korean. BEST cheap Korean in the city. It's where the Korean kids go to eat. You just point at the pictures and order - that's what I do! The must-eat local restaurant, though, has got to be New Generation Sushi. It was burned down a few years ago but it's sprung back, still bustling with people the last time I was there. Sometimes, the line up extends outside the place. It's super cheap and good, and one of the most popular places for college kids. Close to Spadina is a FANTASTIC place called Mt. Everest, you MUST try for the food is FABULOUS. It's Nepalese. If there's one thing that Toronto is really well known for (amongst many other things) it's the sheer number and variety of restaurants it boasts. [Apparently, this is true according to other people too! Seriously, Vancouver disappoints me in this area; the price is way too high for the kind of food offered. It could be that I've been completely spoiled by Toronto's cheap-and-good restaurant scene? But the more expensive stuff isn't all that much better. I was at the Water St. Cafe the other day, and the fish of the day order was about as fresh as disco pants; it was also dry, completely overcooked, and cost way too much for what it was.]

Tacked-on visit: Walk a bit further beyond Spadina (when you're on Bloor) and you'd hit University ground. See below.

04. University of Toronto, St. George Campus / ROM

My breeding ground!! It's modern AND old. It's hard to explain how it works, so check out the map.

U of T is really, really big. I recommend King's College Circle, because it's more interesting for a visitor. The building for University College, for example, is a really old, castle-like building. It's a popular spot for wedding photos. There's a shoe museum there but not even I would pay to go in? lol

Places to eat: There's a Cafe inside Hart House, where students go for a quick bite before heading upstairs to the great peaceful library.

Tacked-on visit: Actually, you should really visit the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) that's close by, a gorgeous building with interesting glass architecture.
Walking a bit further from Avenue (where the ROM is), you can hit Bay St. and Yorkville - it's like Toronto's Soho (not that I've been to Soho!).

05. Toronto Theatre District (King St. from Spadina to Yonge)

Where major theatres are - Princess of Wales, Royal Alexandra Theatre. It's good for a look see, and there are many good restaurant spots there.

Places to eat: Wayne Gretzky has a restaurant with his namesake in this district, so you can visit if you'd like. It's usually busy, especially on game night.

Tacked-on visit: If you head far enough on King St. to Church St. and start moving away from the water, you'll hit BOYS TOWN (Church and Wellesley). Once you're there you can visit Woody's (gay) and/or Tango (lezzie). FUN!

Other areas of interest: St. Clair W. between Dufferin and Yonge for a little taste of little Italy (visit Vanipha Lanna on St. Clair St. W. for to-die-for Laotian food, probably the only great one of its kind that I know of in Toronto), Chester and Jones Ave on Danforth Ave. for a taste of Greek Town, College St. stretch between Spadina and Dufferin for some good shopping (including tonnes of computer shops), and the Distillery District.

~/~

EDITED TO ADD: Tourist information aside, what I love about Toronto is exactly what was mentioned in one of the comments on the original article: it feels safe. I never felt like I was in any kind of danger, even walking in dark parts of the city late at night. There's nothing like the downtown Eastside here in Vancouver, where there seems to be no viable solution to the homelessness and drug use problems (they're just going to be jailed for the Olympics, right? Why this isn't a priority for every city council, I have no idea). I mean, you don't want to be walking around Jane and Finch where random shootings occur way too often for comfort, but it's an anomaly and even tame compared to what could really go down in a big city. I didn't realize how big Toronto was until I lived elsewhere? For a big, metropolitan city (it makes Vancouver seem like a small city in comparison), it feels quite homely. The city itself has some sort of a working/middle class face, a somewhat sophisticated but never too showy face. It's a city for ordinary folks wanting a peaceful existence, even if it means sacrificing showmanship or edge.

Considering the huge, diverse population, it is amazing that there seems to exist minimal overt animosity between the different groups. Sure, racism and sexism exist where there are humans, even in Toronto (where humans occur on a regular basis). But I think we love our diverse food culture too much to fight each other. The city's left-leaning political standing means something like homosexuality as a movement is almost child's play compared to what goes on in most of the rest of the world (Europe aside). Raising taxes does not bring out the hatred in people like it may elsewhere down south. We love our socialized healthcare, education, pubic transit and other social services too much to be disgruntled about the money spent maintaining them. That doesn't mean people don't complain. We complain all the time, especially about the weather. Even though I love the four distinctive seasons, it's true that Toronto got some of the harshest weather this side of Antarctica. The temperature spans no less than about 80 degree Celsius range in a given year!

That's neither here nor there. The city has its problems, and I would be worried if there weren't complainers who wanted to see more improvements. The mishandling of the city's face to Lake Ontario is shameful. While it is a lively city full of opportunities, it needs to stretch itself further in attracting global brains and more sophisticated cultural endeavours. I love Toronto for its 'ordinary people' texture, and it's entirely livable in so many aspects, but I wouldn't mind more risky adventures and investments.

I know people have pointed to the well educated cab drivers as evidences of the city's misusing its foreign talents, but this isn't a solely Torontonian issue. The differences in training and cultural expectations mean that the process of integration is a bit more challenging. It doesn't mean it can't be done - opportunities are there to be pushed and taken. Some careers are inherently more translatable than others across vastly different cultures. There are plenty of out-of-work educated, born and raised Torontonians too. It would be worth the city's effort to invest in steps necessary to harvest the imported brains so their talents can be matched to their job description, including warnings regarding what to expect in a different culture and resources available to help them adjust so reality can be met with hope and pragmatism. I'm convinced that the attention given to different neighbourhoods can go a long way to help foster a community feeling that is healthy for just about anybody, native Torontonians or not.

Having said that, I'm also convinced that all would be better if the Leafs would just WIN some games! *fists*

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