May 23, 2024
Trying to take a vacation in the middle of a Genocide is a challenge. We never thought the assault on Gaza would go on so long when we made these plans. And I felt the tension between having fun and wanting to be fighting for a ceasefire most minutes of most days. But here I am, in Toronto. I haven’t been here since 1966 and wow have things changed. I saw immediately why Toronto brags about being a city of creative skyscrapers. The Uber ride from the airport to our Airbnb confirmed the mind-blowing height and visual individuality of each skyscraper.
But before I move on, I should mention that we flew into the Billy Bishop City Airport – a five-minute drive to downtown – which can only accommodate propeller planes. Unfortunately, we were seated in Row 6, directly next to the propellers and they are loud mutherfuckers! So all my plans of listening to my audiobook were chopped up by the rowdy blades. It made for some cool video clips though.
Our Airbnb was a nice place, but only the décor could be called sterile: unfortunately they hadn’t changed the sheets, dusted the crumbs off the toaster, or dusted anything else for that matter. So we had to. For those who know me personally, you will understand that I celebrated having, just a block away, both a dollar store and a hippy but humongous grocery store, Farm Boy. And in the other direction, a cannabis dispensary.
I had hoped to make it to the University of Toronto Gaza encampment that first night, but was too wiped out by the travel. Instead, we went food shopping and laid out the exorbitant amount of $80 at Farm Boy for dinner makings and some fruit and this & that. It’s not a cheap city – although the exchange rate quite favors the US currency. And, apparently, the housing prices are on a par with the US East Coast.
Back in Boston, this day was the Harvard Commencement and I missed supporting the over 1,000 people who walked out over Genocide and over the viciously punitive approach Harvard has taken to the protesters, even depriving over a dozen students of their diploma. My comrades of Arlington4Palestine were there in force, bless ‘em.
May 24, 2024
Toronto used to call itself a checkerboard (as opposed to a melting pot) but now it uses the term “mosaic” and everyone justifiably brags about it being the most multicultural city in the world. Over half its folks were born outside of Canada. And in that sense, it is a very comfortable place to be. With 6.7 million people, Greater Toronto is by far the largest city in Canada and fastest growing city in N. America, and often compares itself (favorably) to NYC. As it sits on the western end of Lake Ontario (one of the deepest and the smallest by surface area of the Great Lakes), it has been the home of indigenous peoples for 10,000 years, and only became the City of Toronto in 1834.
It is proud of its skyscrapers, each one of which is unique. I must say that many are gorgeous, but in the parts of the city we’ve seen, there are almost no regular houses left. Everything is either high-rise condos (with balconies) or high-rise office buildings (without balconies). Turns out that the Ontario Heritage Act restricts the destruction of designated building fronts. You can tear down a designated old building if you keep the façade, so there are all these odd combo structures where 70-story towers shoot out of stone church fronts.
As of January 2023, Toronto has constructed 81 skyscrapers – many with 50+ or 60+ floors and a number with 70+ – and has a further 36 under construction. Toronto also has 92 skyscrapers that are either approved or in the proposal stage.
May 24, 2024
On the advice of various travel YouTubers I watched, we decided to do the On/Off double-deck tour bus the first day in order to get an overview of the city. It was not that illuminating. If you had a decent guide on the bus (as we did) and you got off, when you caught another bus, you might have a kid trying it out on his first run (as we did).
Kensington Market was fun, not the least because I found a great bakery called Sleepy Pete’s and bought a delish biscuit. For lunch we actually tried the Peameal Bacon sandwich, a Toronto specialty – which I didn’t find particularly special other than it was a treat to have some bacon after years of deprivation.
The Kensington area was first settled by British workers and then Jewish immigrants. They opened stores on the ground floor, setting tables out on the sidewalk with their goods. But is now the hip “bohemian” area. For example, all the telephone poles had leaflets posted for someone offering “Anarchist Piano Lessons” and another leaflet from a queer & trans BIPOC group called Bottoms Only! presenting their “Summer Solstice Rave.” As for shopping, it is a vintage clothing heaven for those not old enough to remember with strong distaste everything 50s. I bought nothing but the biscuit. But admired the Gaza graffiti we saw in a number of places there.
We got back on the bus until the CN Tower – probably the #1 Toronto tourist magnet. Built in 1976, it is “the tallest free-standing structure on land in the Western Hemisphere.” I do not recommend it at all. It does a poor job when compared to the observation tower in Vancouver, which not only had a downloadable guide, but displayed plaques all around the circle of windows telling you what you were seeing and some interesting facts about the buildings. The CN Tower had zilch. Not one sign or sentence.
But that wasn’t the worst part. It was unspeakably crowded and one’s whole experience consists of standing for 20 or 30 minutes in a line only to pass through a couple of doors in order to spend 20 or 30 minutes waiting in the next line, leading only to line after line after line. You were trapped and it was torture. And the tickets were so expensive that one wondered how so many people could afford it. Truly, the glass-front elevators up & down were the most fun part, even though you were jammed in with other exasperated people.
Because of the never-ending winding lines, I was forced to walk more steps than I probably walked in the last 20 years, only to return to the Airbnb to ice my complaining knee and my feet. Sigh.
May 25, 2024
Our first stop was the Bata Shoe Museum, which my friend, Charles Coe, had once recommended with an enthusiasm that I remembered a decade later. We discovered that it is “Doors Open” weekend, in which lots of places are open to the public for free – often buildings that are otherwise closed to folks. So we got in free to see everything from prehistoric shoes that looked like a bird’s nest sitting inside a leather envelope to the first Pride sneakers. The collection is extraordinary but the commentary on the plagues is oddly neutral – with no critique of the practice of foot-binding, for example, just a show of the disconcerting shoes the women’s feet were tortured into.
We went on down the street to the First Peoples Gallery at the Royal Ontario Museum. This is a remarkable and illuminating collection, not to be missed in Toronto. I learned so much, not the least the roles native women played. The crafts, too, were amazing, not the least the display of moccasins down the ages. However, the most stunning object was a huge carved wood bear, which served inside the home as a foundational pillar. It was a picture just waiting to be taken.
As we left, we passed one of the entrances to the University of Toronto and I asked some students about the location of the encampment, but once again it was too far for my suffering feet and shrieking knee.
We googled and found a restaurant which turned out to be one of a chain of three. I limped all the way. The food was forgettable but the service was delightful. To get home, we had our first ride on the subway – and got in free because of the sweet woman employee whom I stopped for a quick tutorial. It is clean, on time, and the cars are wide. It was rush hour but not crowded, but there are only two subway lines.
The high point of my evening was discovering online that the Ontario Federation of Labour told the University of Toronto administration that if they want to bust up the student encampment, they’d have to go through the workers. I posted it to my group back home.
May 26, 2024
We took a streetcar down to the harbor area to pay an extra $10 for a boat ride, part of the On/Off Bus service. However, the address they provided was inaccurate and once again we were pounding the pavement and abusing my body. Suddenly the fog rolled in so thickly that we could not see any building around us, even the CN Tower, which just moments before had been looming over us. The ferry guys told us to wait an hour. One hour later the fog lifted and we had a relaxing, interesting ride that included views of the distinctive skyline and a winding tour of the islands of Toronto.
Close by was The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery so we walked there – more walking! Of the two exhibits, my mind was blown by the work of June Clark – Harlem-born but Toronto-based. Her exhibit “Witness” displayed installations and assemblages that combined photo and fabric to explore personal identity and artistic lineages. My feet and knee were shot by then, so we headed back.
May 27, 2024
On my last day, I reunited with a London friend who lives now in Toronto. We haven't seen each other for a quarter of a century, but just picked up where we left off as we settled into her local café, a 30-minute Uber ride away. Gillian Rodgerson has a long and impressive history in the publishing/editing field. It was great to get out of the downtown / entertainment high-rise district, and into one of the many actual neighborhoods of Toronto with homes and yards and stores. I learned a lot about this city - the kind of things you can only glean from a local. Altogether a lovely morning - not to mention the delish croissant. After the gruesome news from this weekend's fiery massacres in Gaza, this was a welcome break
My final treat was a super-tasty (but devastating digestive-wise) take-out dinner from Momo Loco and ice for my knee.
Comments