TORONTO has long been a city of novelists, poets, playwrights, old bookstores, writer’s fests, poetry slams and devoted readers. One of my favourite literary corners is the Glen Road wooden footbridge – its parkette and birdhouse dedicated to MORLEY CALLAGHAN (1903-1990), our country’s ‘Chekhov’. He authored 18 novels and 100 short stories about Canadians – most of them set in the city – and often appeared on radio and television.
MORLEY CALLAGHAN moved to Rosedale’s Dale Avenue in 1951, after living in Paris and New York City, and mixing with the literati of the day. Almost daily, he and his wife (Loretto Dee) and faithful dog (Nikki) crossed the wooden bridge; then he crossed with just the dog; then alone until his death in 1990. The Footbridge (B & W PHOTO – as it was in 1880-90) spans Rosedale Valley Drive, a branch of TORONTO’s ravine system. It links posh Rosedale with not-quite-so-posh St. Jamestown.
Best known to Torontonians as the church with the noontime bells, ST. BASIL’s was built in a neighbourhood once called CLOVERHILL. The architect was a Scotsman – WILLIAM HAY. In 1856, this area was all open countryside, but today it’s filled with high-rise condos. As more buildings go up, the neighbourhood has been fighting to save a small park with mature trees at the corner of St. Joseph and Bay – and they’ve succeeded.
In the Distillery District, surrounded as it is by condominiums, the eye-beam has been disconnected, and the head is off limits, but this is the “Frozen North” not Black Rock City. BELOW – another Distillery District sculpture, “Still Dancing”, by Dennis Oppenheim, 2009.
JULIUS DEUTSCH spent much of his working life bringing unionists and environmentalists together to create green jobs. He’s remembered by folks in the Cecil Street and Huron neighbourhood, for a charming green outdoor gym, with a play area for children, a rowing machine, butterfly weight machine, eliptical trainer and a set of Tai Chi spinners. It’s one of several similar parks in the city. 40 Cecil Street @ Huron.
There’s a move afoot to clean up CHINATOWN WEST, in the Dundas/Spadina/Kensington Market neighbourhood. These laneway murals are a hopeful sign of things to come.
SPADINA is a schizo street if ever there was one.
Once the centre of Jewish life in TORONTO, home of the (fast disappearing) Garment District, delis, tailors, bookstores, cinemas, Chinese markets and restaurants, the University of Toronto, upscale art galleries, excellent restaurants, old brick warehouses, Cinecycle, tattoo parlours, hat shops, Grossman’s Tavern, the El Mocambo, Kensington Market, the Underground Cinema, a backpacker’s hotel, outlet stores, fur stores, Rush Lane, bridal shops, a streetcar line, and booze cans – old SPADINA pretty well has it all.
Toronto Savvy 