Toronto

These are my initial impressions from my first visit to Toronto, which was from November 28 to December 2, 2002. What follows is copied directly from a letter I sent to a friend five years ago describing my trip (sorry I’m too lazy to clean up and edit it):

One of the things that stood out for me about Toronto was how clean it was relative to LA. Like LA, the streets are congested (in fact I witnessed a fender-bender Monday morning) and parking is criminally expensive, but unlike LA the public transportation system is extremely efficient (though I think it’s better in Vancouver and cheaper, too). It was interesting to see how on a weekday morning the sidewalks downtown are crammed with people walking to work, a sight that you won’t get in LA. Hot dog stands (that even sell “veggie dogs”) are everywhere.

My visit to Toronto was as winter was setting in. There was some freezing rain Friday, and there were snow flurries over the weekend, but the snow didn’t really stick. I was happy anyway. Since I don’t really get to see snow very often I still get excited just to see the little flakes falling from the sky. The temperature ranged from as high as 5 degrees down to minus 8 degrees Celsius during my stay. I felt sorry for the homeless people who slept on the steam vents on the street to keep warm. I didn’t think there were any ferries going to the Toronto Islands, which are popular during the summer for their beaches. In fact, I didn’t really spend too much time near the water because I found that the closer to the lake I was the windier and colder it got. I did, however, get to see a giant fish swimming in the harbor. I think it was a pike.

One of the attractions I visited in Toronto was the Royal Ontario Museum. They had a temporary exhibit on high society women’s fashions in Toronto in the 40’s and 50’s. The outfits were donated by socialites of that time, many of whom happened to be Jewish. (I don’t know why, but I was somewhat surprised to find that there was a prominent Jewish community in Toronto. In fact, there was a very large, beautiful synagogue downtown.) There were many other interesting historical exhibits at the museum as well, but I just vaguely remember looking at a lot of vases and sculptures and stuff from ancient civilizations that all begin to look the same after a while. I was particularly impressed with the natural sciences exhibits (complete with very well preserved specimens and even a case of live bees busy at work) but was a little disappointed with the sparse displays on the peoples and history of Canada.

I think Toronto must be the closest to a melting pot I’ve seen. Sure, LA is very multi-cultural but the ethnic groups seem rather segregated (of course voluntarily) and Mexicans are easily the dominant group. Vancouver seems quite multi-cultural too, but it seems very Chinese. However, in Toronto I couldn’t tell if there was a clear majority ethnic group. Of course, Anglos seem to have a plurality but don’t seem to dominate. I was even surprised to see a sizable black population in Toronto. Although I saw the ethnic enclaves of Chinatown (much better than the ones in Vancouver and LA, in my opinion), Little Italy, Little India and even Little Portugal, the city as a whole doesn’t seem segregated like LA, but in contrast there seems to be more intermingling of the different cultures. In general, from all the time I’ve spent in Canada I seem to get the impression that Canadians are more accepting of other cultures than Americans.

While sometimes it seems like you’re still in the States when you’re in Canada, you can often notice a distinct European flavor in some of the architecture. I really liked the different buildings that make up the University of Toronto. Standing among them, I felt like I was in Europe. The university I attended looks really sorry in comparison. The parliamentary building of Ontario, which is across the street, was beautiful too, but I still think that Alberta has the most impressive of the provincial capital buildings I’ve seen in Canada (i.e. Alberta, British Columbia, Northwest Territories and Ontario).

On Saturday night at the Nathan Phillips Square in front of the new city hall buildings there was an event called the Cavalcade of Lights, which lasted until about 11 pm. The fountain in front of city hall was frozen for the winter and made into an ice skating rink. There were hundreds of people there: old, young, families, couples, and teenagers. It was a really good time. I didn’t skate, although I could have rented skates if I were brave enough to. (I say “brave” because I’ve never been ice skating before.) A rather good local girl band performed mostly 80’s music, and there were booths that sold pizza and hot dogs. The trees around city hall were decorated with Christmas lights and there was a giant menorah with a couple of the candlelights lit to mark the number of nights of Chanukah. Spotlights of different colors shone onto the skating rink. It was beautiful to watch as snowflakes lightly fell in the multi-colored lights.

My favorite areas of downtown Toronto were Yonge Street (which seems to be the main hangout downtown) and Kensington Market (where I would shop there if I lived in Toronto). Down Yonge Street there are a lot of places to shop, eat and get entertainment. It’s where the Eaton Centre is, the big mall in Toronto. I don’t know what Sears is like in the Midwest, but in California Sears is considered to be one of the more “low-end” department stores. I was shocked to see that in the Eaton Centre, Sears was 5 stories high and carried all the very “high-end” brands. Kensington Market is a section of the city near Chinatown where there are a few blocks of dinky, almost run-down looking storefronts that sell a very eclectic mix of products. It seems like where the hippies go. There’s also a large gay community in Toronto, especially up Church Street. Interestingly, even in the middle of the financial district I saw a surprising number of lesbian couples (and even a couple of gay male couples) on separate occasions intimately embracing in public, and no one seemed to care (which is refreshing and as it should be).

From my short visit the general impression I get is that the people of Toronto seem to have a very fast paced life. They seem to be very materialistic and willing to spend money like it were water from the tap. Apparently, I’m not the only one who has noticed this as on Saturday there were a couple dozen people holding picket signs and writing slogans in chalk on the sidewalks in front of the Eaton Centre protesting against materialism as people poured into the mall to do their Christmas shopping. Yet, I think even in Toronto the people are not as cynical as the Americans. In contrast to LA, the area surrounding Toronto seems very flat with no mountains in sight, but much like LA there seems to be quite a bit of suburban sprawl. I bet it’s just as polluted as LA, too.

I seem to have reached the conclusion that in general the Canadian accent (at least the different variations I’ve heard) is halfway British. I guess it would make sense since written Canadian English is closer to British English and the fact that Canada has had historically closer ties to Britain than the States.

I want to go back to Toronto sometime again but probably when the weather is warm so that I can go to the beaches and maybe Niagara Falls, too.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts on Toronto after one brief visit…