I caught my first glimpse of Toronto as the plane banked steeply left on it’s descent into Pearson Airport (YYZ). Damn, that’s a big city, I thought. Followed shortly by Damn, that’s a flat city.
Not to come across as a country bumpkin from the wilderness of Seattle, visiting the big town, but Toronto is much larger, much flatter, much taller, has a larger urban/highrise centered Downtown, and sprawls out without the geographic restrictions that make Seattle a mass of oddly angled roads, bottlenecking bridges, and steep hills. These are easy conditions to plan a build a livable city in, and Toronto has taken advantage of them.
Though it’s a big city, it feels much smaller. Most of this is due to the well thought out and ubiquitous public transit. On paper, it doesn’t look like much. A long East-West subway line, with a North-South loop that crosses it twice in the center of town, plus two auxiliary lines serving a couple of far flung suburbs. Those two main lines cover all the major urban centers of Toronto though, from the extreme East and West limits of the city, through the Waterfront and Financial Districts, around the University and major shopping districts, and out into the gentle hills to the North. There are also streetcar lines that run on every major street that’s not served by Subways, and buses cover pretty much everything else. Not only are you never more than a block or two away from a transit stop, but you’re also rarely more than 10 minutes away from the next train or streetcar, including many main lines that run 24 hours a day. As a complete newbie to the city, I never needed to look at a transit map or timetable. Just go to the nearest stop, wait up to 10 minutes or so, and catch the first train in the general direction you’re heading, get off at the right intersection, and walk a few blocks. Every neighborhood in this sprawling city was accessible in under 30 minutes.
Of course, it helps that the entire city is laid out in an almost unbroken grid pattern, making it easy to navigate. And since the city is so flat and the CN Tower (like a taller, re-proportioned Space Needle), is visible from everywhere, it’s easy to find out what direction you’re facing at any given time. There was never a single moment where it seemed like a car would be a more convenient way of getting around. I can’t imagine wanting to have a car in this city.
Beyond that, there’s plenty of character here at the street level. Each neighborhood has some unique character, architecturally or otherwise. There are definitely “typical” Toronto buildings, like the 2-story duplex houses that fill the Annex neighborhood and other areas of the city, with their split paint jobs and basement apartments. And there’s plenty of flash, from the old Victorians of Cabbagetown, to the ultra-modernist, conforntational new addition to the Royal Ontario Museum.
It also feels like the town never stops. Most nights presented multiple options for entertainment, and I ended up attending a fashion show, a dance club, a stand-up comedy showcase, and an avant garde rock show, while also stumbling onto a zine festival, a bluegrass performance, a singer songwriter show, a Punjabi street fair, and a Hardcore punk festival. It’s worth mentioning that two of those events happened at the same night, at the same venue (which also had a room generously set aside for a meetup with some local electronic producers).
I did miss a good beer selection though. For all its reputation as a country of serious beer drinkers, Canada doesn’t offer a lot beyond lager and pilsner. Most bars had a selection of several of each, and only the more adventurous ventured into the realm of pale ale, amber, porter, or stout. The ones that did tended to have good ones, but it was odd to not find anything darker at many places. Especially during the early winter!
I’m sure I could go on and on about this city. So many little things jumped out at me while I was there, way too much for me to remember in one blog post. However, I did keep track of exactly what I visited, broken down by day. I won’t bother to list it here, but there were some definite highlights:
Sneaky Dee’s: Visited here at least 5 separate times, for breakfast, nachos, or beer.
The Bovine Sex Club: A goth-y dive bar and venue.
The Cock & Tail: A new, very lovely little bar on Queen West.
The Green Beanery: An organic coffee shop on Bloor, in an old bank building. It still has a vault in the corner.
The Rivoli: The comedy club where the Kids in the Hall got their start.
Kindred: A “coffee shop” with a “member’s only patio” where they apparently sell $15-$20 “milkshakes”, Amsterdam style. Not that I’m into those type of “milkshakes”…but we stumbled upon it looking for coffee. Overhearing the not-so-subtle conversation between the proprietors was entertaining.
Royal Ontario Museum: This deserves a post of it’s own. It’s a museum of art and natural history, with a collection spanning eras and civilizations. I could spend weeks in there, easily. We barely got through a floor and half before closing.
The Beguiling: A comic book store tucked into a converted house. It’s cramped and somewhat disheveled looking, but the selection in unbeatable.
David’s Teas: For Seattlites, think Remedy Teas, but with a more retail-oriented atmosphere. Service was incredible, and I felt bad about only paying $2 (Canadian, at that) for a cup of tea after the thorough recommendation process.
Moog Audio: A well stocked DJ/Producer oriented audio shop, with records and T-shirts for sale alongside MIDI gear, new Moog synths, and Serato scratch setups.
I could go on and on, but I won’t. Though I will write a second post about Toronto, recounting some specific incidents. Stay tuned.
