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From Beaches to Skycrapers: Toronto Is a City of Very Special Neighborhoods By George Medovoy, Editor When people think of Toronto, they usually picture a modern skyline filled with skyscrapers and, more recently, a panorama of new condos rising all over the place with price tags in the millions. These are, with a doubt, icons of Canada's largest city, but one of my fondest memories is somewhat different. What lingers in my mind is a charming lakeside scene somewhere "out in the country." I'm recalling the Beaches neighborhood, of course, where years ago Toronto urbanites would retreat for the weekend and which is now a much-desired area at the far eastern end of the Queen Street electric tramline.
(The distinctive "Red Rocket," one of Toronto's iconic electric trams, glides into the Beaches neighborhood on Queen Street) What the Beaches does ever so lovingly is open your senses to the magic of Toronto - to the fact that it is really a city of very special neighborhoods. One morning, my wife and I boarded one of Toronto's quiet, bright-red electric trams - endearingly known to locals as the "Red Rocket" - and slipped along the tracks to where the eastern edge of the city meets Lake Ontario.
(Queen Street's eclectic shops have something for everyone if you're interested in shopping) The Beaches' main drag is Queen Street, which is filled with antique shops and quirky little stores and cafes, a good example of which is Dufflet Pastries, where entrepreneur Dufflet Rosenberg wows your palate with her outrageously rich creations.
(The Gingerbread House for gifts is worth a peek on Queen Street) Someone told us that we could get to the beach if we walked down one of the leafy little streets off Queen, and when we did, we found ourselves in a setting of cottage-style charmers that link up with the boardwalk and parkland along Lake Ontario. The street was shaded by a canopy of trees, which, I imagined, would turn a riotous display of yellow and orange come early fall.
(The Beaches neighborhood is filled with lovely "charmers" that have the look and feel of a cozy beach house) On the boardwalk, we passed people, who, we could tell from their t-shirts, had participated in a breast cancer walk-a-thon. At the nearby tennis courts, people teamed up for a morning match under cloudy skies.
(A rowboat sits on the shore in the Beaches neighborhood, with the Toronto skyline in the background) Lifeguards at the beachside boat station arranged rowboats, and in a fenced-off area a dozen or so people chatted amicably as their dogs frolicked in what was obviously a doggy playground on the sand.
(At a doggy playground on the sand, dog owners accompany their dogs) It wasn't warm enough to go swimming, but three souls wearing jackets sat on beach chairs emblazoned with the red maple leaf of Canada, admiring the lake view...and perhaps the modern Toronto skyline to the west. This "modern" Toronto stands in marked contrast to some of its remaining examples of a bygone era. One of these is the majestic Royal York Hotel, which opened on June 11, 1929 and still occupies a hallowed place across the street from another historic icon, the Beaux-Arts-style Union Station, inaugurated in 1927 by the Prince of Wales when the train linked Canada's far-flung cities. The 28-story Royal York, which reminded me of New York's Empire State Building in its massiveness, not only used to dominate Toronto's skyline, but also laid claim to being the largest building in the entire British Empire. Its
colonnaded lobby, with a spiral staircase rising to a large clock tower, is the
embodiment of old-world refinement and elegance.
(The Fairmont Royal York Hotel, at the far left, is now dwarfed by newer, taller skycrapers adorning the Toronto skyline, including the Royal Bank tower on the far right) Under the Royal Bank is an entrance to the PATH, whose 16 subterranean miles of shops, cafes and restaurants link 48 office towers, six hotels, and five subway stations, making it the world's largest underground shopping mall. In this downtown neighborhood you'll also find the Eaton Centre -- a three-block, three-level shopping complex at Oscar Peterson Square, named for the Montreal-born musician -- and ubiquitous high-rise condos with staggering prices. It's
all a sign of new wealth - sometimes "in your face" wealth -- like the
Royal Bank's 14,000 windows, each coated with 24-karat gold at $70 per window
to keep heating insulation costs down! The city's transformation has had other manifestations beyond architectural. I was reminded of this while reading an interview with Lorne Michaels, the Canadian-born producer of the U.S. TV show, "Saturday Night Live," in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Michaels remembered Toronto as "the best of all worlds in terms of comedy grounding."
(Toronto has a world of cafes and restaurants, like this spot for tasty gelato) "It
was an unbelievably dull city when I was growing up," he said, "so the
safety and dullness made you find ways to amuse yourself." But whether new or old, there are some wonderful "behind the scenes" stories about Toronto told by Bruce Bell, the history columnist for "The Bulletin," Toronto's downtown newspaper, and the author, with photographer Elan Penn, of "Toronto: A Pictorial Celebration" (Sterling Publishing Company). Bell took us backstage at the Royal York to an old dressing room with a big star on the door - it was Marlene Dietrich's when she last worked the hotel's supper club in 1947. Bell was an 18-year-old busboy at the time and remembered being "summoned" to Dietrich's dressing room.
(Bruce Bell recalls Marlene Dietrich outside the star's dressing room, where he was summoned with gin) His recollection is pure Dietrich: "She said to me, 'Get me gin.' We knocked back a few. She was wonderful, (but) I was so nervous…" By lunchtime, Bell led us to the historic St. Lawrence Market on Front Street, a crowded Victorian-style bee hive of vendors and wonderful aromas, where you can buy everything from fresh vegetables to cheeses and salamis. On Saturdays, there's a farmers' market and on Sundays they sell antiques. We had lunch at a small Italian stand, where a hearty, Italian-accented woman in a white smock with a smile to match the food served us giant foccacia sandwiches bulging with eggplant and peppers. Behind our tables was a mural of Bell, who everyone here seems to know and love.
(An Italian woman with a wide smile serves a giant foccacia sandwich bulging with eggplant and peppers) After downing our sandwiches with a cold Coke, we walked out of the market, only to find ourselves in the middle of history on Jarvis Street - where Canada's historic Freedom Trail tied into the Underground Railroad, which brought escaping Black slaves across the border. After making their way to Rochester, New York, the slaves would cross Lake Ontario, the majority winding up at what was then the Jarvis Street dock. The
abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who published a newspaper called "The Northern
Star," would always advise the slaves to "follow the northern star,"
said Bell, who led us into nearby St. Lawrence Hall, where a plaque commemorates
the Underground Railroad and where, in 1850, a convention of "Colored Freedmen"
took place. The next morning we were on our own, hopping a ferry to Ward's Island with a group of young campers who were on an outing with their bikes. The trip from Harbourfront Centre to Ward's Island took a mere 10 minutes, but once on the island we felt miles away.
(Young campers have just arrived on Ward's Island by ferry, ready for their outing) Ward's is one of the Toronto Islands, where it's worth all the experience in the world to look back at the city from an island pathway or a canoe in a sleepy lagoon. Near the island ferry landing, we asked a fellow named Rick Scottwood for directions, and in the course of a conversation, he told us that he has lived on the islands since 1945. A friendly sort, he took us into the pretty blue Ward's Island clubhouse to see photos of his grandparents, who also lived on the islands. Scottwood raised his family here, and when we asked him if he missed living in the big city, the committed islander, who does gardening work, replied "No" without hesitation. You can rent a bike, a tandem or a quadricycle to get around the island, or just walk. You can also rent a rowboat, pedal boat, sea kayak or canoe and explore the network of lagoons.
(Youngsters in a Toronto boating club get ready to practice their skills on the water off Ward's Island) There are beaches, too, including a clothing-optional beach at Hanlan's Point, which at one time had a 10,000-seat stadium, where Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run in 1914. After a midday ice cream, we took the ferry boat back to the mainland and spent the afternoon at Toronto's pedestrian-only Distillery District, once home to liquor giant Gooderham & Worts. Today, the distillery's 40 buildings represent the largest and best-preserved collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America, now interspersed with some very nice artisan galleries and boutiques, theaters and restaurants. On our last day in Toronto, we rode the trolley to Chinatown, where it started to rain, but we opened up our umbrella and still took a walk as planned, eyeing all the fresh produce and bargain clothing spilling onto the crowded sidewalk. Chinatown merges with another neighborhood, lively Kensington, which in the 1920s and 1930s was a distinctly Jewish area with at least 30 synagogues. With its narrow, one-way streets bulging with a variety of quirky shops and cafes, Kensington has a well-deserved reputation for multiculturalism, as we could see from the juxtaposition of historic Anshei Minsk Synagogue standing next door to a reggae music shop. Most of the neighborhood's Jews moved away over the years, but Anshei Minsk, constructed in 1930, is still a functioning house of worship.
(The Anshei Minsk Synagogue, in the Kensington neighborhood near Chinatown, was completed in 1930) That night we decided to take everyone's advice and go up to the top of the CN Tower, which is the world's tallest free-standing structure. The advice was well worth it because the views from the observation deck are simply spectacular! Luckily, we just made it to the tower's casual restaurant before closing time and ordered sandwiches with French fries. For a moment we lost track of how high up we were, but reality set in soon enough as we looked out again from the observation deck for a final view of this amazing city on the lake. IF YOU GO… For
more information about travel to Toronto, contact www.Ontariotravel.net
or call (800) 668-2746. You can also contact www.Torontotourism.com,
or call (800) 499-2514.
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