Category Archives: Tourist Toronto

Toronto for the visitor

05.20.13
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TORONTO – the lights are always on . . .

LIGHTSHOW6LIGHTSHOW7LIGHTSHOW5TORONTO, capital of Ontario, is multi-layered, multi-cultured, constantly in flux, noisy, quirky, fun and forever insecure.  It’s a sprawling city, but with a walkable, thriving centre, and a dependable public transit system.  What I especially like about T.O. is its unpredictability.  Parts of it are extraordinarily beautiful; other parts raw and ugly.  Architecture ranges from the sublime to the bizarre.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is home to over 6 million souls; the city proper – 2,790,000, making it North America’s 4th largest after Mexico City, New York City and Los Angeles.  Pearson International Airport is Canada’s busiest; the Toronto Stock Exchange is 8th in terms of market value worldwide; we have a vibrant arts community and a low crime rate; 50% of us came from outside the country; it’s North America’s new condominium capital, a media, theatre, movie-making, and university town.

My focus is on downtown – the inner city – and what I’ve learned as a tour guide, with an emphasis on arts, architecture, neighbourhoods and navigation.  I’ve also thrown in some of our bizarre local politics, and side trips to other worthy cities and towns.

The Big Smoke awaits!  Have fun.
DAVID MOORE

LIGHTSHOW - ‘A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer & City’/Peter Torpey for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

*******CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR ENLARGEMENTS ******

05.13.13
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National Geographic’s ‘Traveler’ gives TORONTO an A+++ review – May/2013 issue

TRAVELER1Those of us who live here know that TORONTO is a ‘happening’ town.  As urban guru and resident, RICHARD FLORIDA, puts it: “TORONTO is messy urbanism in action.  There are imperfect co-existences all around – man and nature, bikes and cars, religions and cultures atop one another – but always livable.”  Actress LISA RAY: “There should be something more romantic and fanciful and passionate to describe TORONTO than ‘livable’.  Can’t we call TORONTO sexy yet?”

Read the entire 10 page story in the May/2013 issue of National Geographic’s ‘Traveler’ magazine.  Writer KATRINA ONSTAD and contributing photographer SUSAN SEUBERT give Big TO a once over, and conclude that Canada’s largest city has gone from bland to bold.

It’s a tale of many cities in one – and we’re lookin’ good!

TRAVELER2

03.25.13
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DA MAO and ER SHUN arrive in TORONTO on board the Panda Express

PANDAEXPRESSThis is DA MAO, one of two giant pandas, on board the FedEx Panda Express last evening.  The pandas will spend 5 years at TORONTO’s Zoo; then another 5 in CALGARY.  They’ll be ready to meet the public on May 18.

And below, ER SHUN, the second panda.  After a welcome from the Prime Minister they were given a police escort to the Zoo.  <PHOTOS – Toronto Zoo and FedEx>

PANDAEXPRESS3

07.16.12
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The New York Times discovers TORONTO’s West Queen West . . . at last.

SARAH WILDMAN, writing in the New York Times Travel Section on July 15/2012, has some kind things to say about TORONTO’s eclectic West Queen West Arts District.

Ms. Wildman focused her article on independent, small businesses – in small spaces, off the beaten track.  “In another city, in this economic climate, opening such a shop in such a space – would not be ideal.  (But) not in TORONTO.”

She goes on: “Canada’s largest city has seen an explosion of small avant-garde neighbourhoods in the last decade, with slick bars, restaurants and boutiques nudging into immigrant areas.  But the origin of TORONTO’s indie streak is Queen Street West, a strip that a decade ago began filling with locally owned retail shops and has in recent years seen yet another influx of new boutiques that seamlessly blend in with older standbys.”

The article highlights these shops: VERSO, 1160 Queen Street West, rear, http://www.versocollection.com; INabstracto, 1160 Queen Street West, http://www.inabstracto.com; RUINS, 960 Queen Street West, http://www.ruinstoronto.com; DEVIL’s WORKSHOP, 890 Queen Street West, http://www.thedevilsworkshop.ca; LADY MOSQUITO, 1022 Queen Street West, http://www.ladymosquito.ca; ROBBER, 863 Queen Street West, http://www.robberstore.com; KOL KID, 674 Queen Street West, http://www.kolkid.ca: and A2ZANE, 753 Queen Street West, http://www.a2zane.com.

For tourists and locals alike, WQW is a must.  It contains the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art; Canada’s finest photography gallery; smallest cinema; 20 or more independent art galleries; several high end restaurants; high and low end drinking establishments; back streets filled with Victorian gingerbread; working artists; singular coffee bars; a sex club; and two beautifully restored railway hotels (the Gladstone and the Drake).  WQW begins roughly at Trinity-Bellwoods Park, and continues west to Gladstone Avenue.

It’s about time the Times spent some time up here.

   

   

<PHOTO ABOVE – the Drake Hotel, by SimonP/Wikipedia>

<PHOTO ABOVE by J. Adam Huggins for The New York Times>

06.30.12
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Over a million attend Gay Pride/2012 – one of this city’s largest summer festivals

Church, Wellesley, Alexander and Dundonald Streets, Saturday, June 30/2012.  TORONTO (1.2 million attendees) has the third largest Pride celebration in the world – after SAO PAULO (3.2 million) and RIO DE JANEIRO (1.5 million).  TORONTO will host WORLD PRIDE in 2014.  Way to go!

   

   

   

   

   

05.17.12
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Driving in TORONTO? Navigating this city, you need p-a-t-i-e-n-c-e.

A young longboarder died this week in TORONTO, after tangling with a taxicab.  Again, Torontonians are made aware of the often lethal competition for space on our roads, freeways and sidewalks.

At the moment, this city is one big construction site, which puts pepper in the pot.  On city streets, you’re competing with taxicab drivers, joggers, cyclists, construction workers, sewer pipe installers, jaywalkers, streetcars, sidewalk bicyclists, skateboarders, street festivals, parades, 10k’s, 5k’s, marathons, walkathons, tow-away zones, and all the rest of it.  Parking is limited and can be expensive.  Parking tickets – a downtown cash grab – are dispensed without mercy.  Downtowners find that public transit is the better way to go.  Take a cab, or try walking.

   

   

04.18.12
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One of TORONTO’s new walk-through subway trains . . . more on the way.

Nicknamed the Toronto Rockets, these trains will eventually replace all rolling stock on the Yonge/University/Spadina subway line.  Late next year or early in 2014, 70 new trains, 420 cars in all, will be in service between Finch and Downsview.  They’re equipped with a public-address system (that actually works), route maps that light up, and you can walk the entire length of the 6-car trains.  They’re also much quieter.

04.12.12
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Navy blue ovals mark our city’s heritage sites . . .

They’re beginning to appear all across the city centre.  Navy blue ovals, planted by the Toronto Heritage and Legacy Project, Cabbagetown Preservation Association and Heritage Toronto among others, designate significant places where “something did happen”.  They’re easy to spot, and easy to read.

<PHOTOS BELOW – Celia Franca (1921-2007), founded the National Ballet of Canada after moving from London in 1950.  From 1958-1962, she lived in a highrise building on Carlton Street, opposite Allan Gardens.  Ms. Franca was invited by interested parties to create a classical ballet company in Toronto, which she managed to do in a very short time.  The National Ballet of Canada opened with its first performance on November 12, 1951.

Colour photo, bottom right: Karen Kain (current artistic director of the National Ballet), Celia Franca, and Veronica Tennant (former dancer, now a film producer and director)/National Ballet of Canada photo.

   

   

E. J. Lennox (1854-1933), designed TORONTO’s Old City Hall, Casa Loma, Postal Station G in South Riverdale, the West Wing of Queen’s Park, and the Stewart Building on College Street – as well as another 65 important structures.  He lived in the Sherbourne – Wellesley neighbourhood, where today’s modern community centre and St. Jamestown Library stand.


   

Daniel Lamb (1842-1920) was a businessman, City Father, and a founder of our first zoo.  His home stands at the corner of Winchester and Sumach Streets, kitty-corner to the former site of the old zoo itself (now Riverdale Farm).

   

03.24.12
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Iconic Redrockets are scorned by our SUV-loving mayor . . .

“People hate the St. Clair. They hate these streetcars. Call them what you want.  They don’t want these damned streetcars blocking up our city,” shouted the mayor at Thursday’s city council meeting.  Barreling along our narrow downtown streets, His Worship obviously hates being stuck behind a trundling tram.  But with nine lengthy, fully functioning streetcar lines, he’ll just have to suck it up like the rest of us.  Besides, those red and whites – to be replaced by a brand new fleet in 2013 – are TORONTO icons.  There’s even a coffee shop and laneway named after them.

The NATIONAL POST says “With nearly 25 kilometres of track, the 501 Queen Street is the longest tram route operating in North America.  Many of the 40,000 passengers who ride it between Neville Park in the east and Long Branch in the west, like to criticize the never ending delays during rush hour, and unexpected short turns up Roncesvalles.  But most have a soft spot for the 501, too, perhaps because it’s such a perfect representation of TORONTO’s diversity.”