last monday, bob, dubravko and i were having lunch with the new project manager at bell, hart, and were discussing growing up in toronto (which only hart had).  toronto is a fascinating city where 100m can differentiate supremely expensive real estate from a neighbourhood in which you would never want to live.  bob mentioned that there is a vast revitalization initiative underway near where he lives under the auspice of the toronto waterfront revitalization corporation of the west don lands.  at the moment there is an enormous flat brown space essentially smack-dab in the middle of metropolitan toronto, on the brink of development.  bob was practically giddy about the prospects of beautiful parks, integrated shopping and living areas, abundant housing, schools, all in the space where nothing exists at the moment.  i remember walking through the old warehouse district in downtown edmonton 20 years ago, the site now of some of edmonton’s most in-demand condominiums, so it seemed a suitable passtime to have a walkabout in this nascent development to get a “before” picture of the site.

after breakfast at jane and bloor, i drove over to the area and parked near the distillery district, which is an adventure i’m leaving for better weather – i hear it’s a fantastic place in summer, replete with street performers, obliviously shop-happy yuppies, and unbeatable atmosphere.  to the east of where i was parked, i could see a 10’ board fence that stretched out along the entire length of the street, and i knew i had found the place.  i walked over to a gate that was ajar and looked in… acres and acres of nothing and sandpiles.  it was amazing to think that less than a kilometer away was the harbourfront, or the downtown core, or the st. lawrence market, and some of toronto’s trendiest east-side real estate and here was a massive, contiguous stretch of absolutely nothing.

my whole adventure was almost cut abruptly short though by “the man”!  i had happened to cross into the DMZ of the west don lands project at shift change for the “security guards” protecting this vast area of vacancy.  the “guard” noticed that i was taking pictures of the flat stretches of dirt and called out to me – “hey!  you can’t do that! you can't take pictures here!! ”  oh – right, because i might be some muck-raking tabloid journalist writing an expose on contributing sources to dust in metro toronto!  give me a freaking break.  whatever – i walked over to the don valley parkway and could see everything in the lot and took a whole bunch more pictures (which i’m not posting, because, well, frankly, they’re boring).

i started wandering around.  i walked up to the DVP to get those pictures of the lot and then started aimlessly walking back and forth across the streets, looking for something – anything adventure-like.  i noticed a high concentration of mercedes and bmws and lexuses (i don’t think i’ve pluralized any of those names correctly) around this restaurant – the canary restaurant.  the building is fantastic but somewhat divey on the inside with what appeared from the outside to be 1960’s kitchen-table style chairs and tables on the inside.  since i’d already had breakfast, i decided to pass, but i think it might be worth a visit, if all the rich people get into their cars and drive there for brunch. 

so anyway, the don lands was not perhaps the most exciting place to visit, so i fell back to plan “B” (“B” for bob's suggestion) which consisted of something called “corktown”.  corktown is another of these little old towns that has been assimilated by the growing imperial metropolis of toronto and lies between regent park and the gardiner expressway on the north and south boundaries and between berkeley street and the don river.  according to wikipedia, the name comes from a large number of irish settlers in the early 1800’s from country cork, rather than from the seemingly requisite demand for a corking industry in such close proximity to a “distillery district”… i guess the true answer to that riddle is lost to history.

it wasn’t until i walked past it that i realized that i had been here a couple of times before, and it was coolly ironic that this adventure would bring me back here.  when i first encountered lorelle almost a couple of years ago, she lived in a building in this very neighbourhood!  somehow, i had wandered and zig-zagged across this whole area to come back to the very start of this whole toronto adventure – the one that has consumed so much of my time and introspection over the past two years – come back to the very start.  i had to laugh at myself for not recognizing the area sooner. after spending this time on this adventure, i certainly understood better the appeal of living in this area!

i’m quickly discovering that one of my most very favourite things about toronto is its architecture.  at the base of sumach street, and something that is always visible as you enter the don valley parkway from the gardiner expressway is the cubie building.  i’ve driven past it many times (well, okay, several times), and always wondered at it.  it looks to me to be a highly experimental type of residence, and looking inside, i’d say that i’m right.  i don’t know how many people live(d) inside its 45-degree angled walls , and from the look of some of the walls and windows and the broken beams that are visible, i’d doubt it’s anyone anymore.  it’s become more of an odd signboard these days, and apparently is still embroiled in some kind of litigation.  such a shame, because it’s a wicked cool building.

not only is toronto architecture rich with history and variety (something that most certainly cannot be said of my hometown) but even their attempts to make real estate more modern and commercial are done with style and character.  for example, the 51st Division Toronto Police Service precinct station on parliament street has a very cool modern extension off an even cooler and much older building – it gives a very... constabulary feel – you would have to drive or walk by it i think to really appreciate it.

and it just goes on and on this way… i crossed into the st. lawrence market area where some of the best and hippest of toronto’s interior design and furniture shops seem to reside.  so many utterly fantastic examples of modern condominiums built right on top of existing historic buildings.  the strangest thing is that i’ve been through this area before, and i’ve never noticed how seamlessly the architectures have been integrated.  old and new don’t seem slapped onto one another – they’ve been given a unifying harmony that’s simply brilliant.

everywhere i go in toronto, i see this style of house.  i don’t know whether they’re victorian or some kind of gothic revival or something in-between – or if it has a name at all, but these houses are utterly ubiquitous around toronto.  sometimes it’s one unit, sometimes it’s been split into two…  i have a growing fantasy of buying one of these and fixing it up on the inside… but because i once again failed to win the 6/49, i may have to put that dream aside for a while longer.  torontonians customize and characterize these houses to no end… it’s hard to find one that’s pristine as opposed to having been painted purple or teal or mustard or some other abominable colour that doesn’t belong on brick.  but their shape and style is classic and i’d love to see myself in one one day.

well, adventures aren’t meant to be photo-essays on urban architecture, and it was at about this point in the adventure that i’d realized that that is what i had been doing today.  i started to head back across all different paths back to the car near the distillery.  i passed the cutiest graphic design place i’d ever seen and thought i should get one more picture of that for my friend bruce.  i crossed a bridge on the far end of queen street that crosses the don “river” (more of a creek, as i believe i’ve pointed out on my initial adventure), with a very encouraging message inscribed over top “the river i step in is not the river i stand in”.  this was a great take-away message for the adventure, and perhaps for the rest of the year. it was just the message i needed to hear.

as i let the river of my thoughts flow around me, i made my way back to the distillery district.  i had made plans to go there to sample the hot chocolate made from real chocolate that is exclusively available there.  those plans may still come about, but i went for a cup myself.  starting to enjoy my life the way it is now – being by myself – includes not waiting for anyone else to do things that i like to do.  like walking around toronto, going for runs, and drinking hot liquid chocolate.

- g