This video clip was taken on September 1, 2007 during my cycling trip to see the Canadian International Airshow which is always held on Labour Day weekend. I started in Toronto’s east end, cycled in on Gerrard Street through the colourful neighbourhoods of Little India and Toronto’s eastern Chinatown, both of which feature ethnic cuisine, vegetable, fruit and retail stores. Then I crossed the Don Valley Parkway and cycled by Regent Park, a public housing development from the 1950s and 1960s which has experienced significant social problems in the last few decades. A portion of Regent Park has been demolished to make way for a brand-new mixed housing development that will include low-income housing as well as middle-income housing. Right across the street from Regent Park is Cabbagetown, a neighbourhood that was originally settled by Irish immigrants that started to be settled as early as the late 1840s after a wave of poor immigrants left Ireland due to the Irish potato famine. These poor residents grew cabbage in their front yards, hence the name Cabbagetown. In the last few decades Cabbagetown has become increasingly popular and has seen extensive gentrification. I cycled through the relatively poor downtown east side to the intersection of Gerrard and Yonge; Yonge Street is the east-west dividing line in Toronto and used to be the longest street in the world. I then continued west on College Street, past Queen’s Park and the University of Toronto to the intersection of …
Posts Tagged ‘Street’
Toronto Travel: Ireland Park at the foot of Bathhurst Street
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011Toronto Travel: Air Show 2007 – Gerrard Street West to Bay
Saturday, April 2nd, 2011
This video clip was taken on September 1, 2007 during my cycling trip to see the Canadian International Airshow which is always held on Labour Day weekend. I started in Toronto’s east end, cycled in on Gerrard Street through the colourful neighbourhoods of Little India and Toronto’s eastern Chinatown, both of which feature ethnic cuisine, vegetable, fruit and retail stores. Then I crossed the Don Valley Parkway and cycled by Regent Park, a public housing development from the 1950s and 1960s which has experienced significant social problems in the last few decades. A portion of Regent Park has been demolished to make way for a brand-new mixed housing development that will include low-income housing as well as middle-income housing. Right across the street from Regent Park is Cabbagetown, a neighbourhood that was originally settled by Irish immigrants that started to be settled as early as the late 1840s after a wave of poor immigrants left Ireland due to the Irish potato famine. These poor residents grew cabbage in their front yards, hence the name Cabbagetown. In the last few decades Cabbagetown has become increasingly popular and has seen extensive gentrification. I cycled through the relatively poor downtown east side to the intersection of Gerrard and Yonge; Yonge Street is the east-west dividing line in Toronto and used to be the longest street in the world. I then continued west on College Street, past Queen’s Park and the University of Toronto to the intersection of …
Toronto Travel Discoveries – Funky stores on Queen Street West
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
Yesterday I went to do a video/photo tour of Toronto’s historic Gladstone Hotel that included an interview with owner / renovator and artist Christina Zeidler. Always curious I wanted to get a feel for the neighbourhood surrounding the hotel which is wedged in between West Queen West and Parkdale. This area is an interesting study of local history and sociology. A neighbourhood in transition, it has for many years been a lower income area with significant social problems. Today the neighbourhood is revitalizing, and new housing developments and loft conversions are going up all over the place. The grittier past now coexists with the brighter future. Dozens of new cafes, galleries and funky boutiques have sprung up in the neighbourhood and I enjoyed a little walkaround along Queen Street West. I stopped in for lunch at Café Bernaté, a nice little lunch place almost opposite the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health that features 30 sandwiches with wonderful ingredients such a French brie, avocado, artichoke hearts, asparagus – the kind of foods that make my mouth water. On the way home I stopped off on the CNE Grounds and took some shots of the Princes’ Gates and the Automotive Buildings, two outstanding architectural examples of the Roaring Twenties. The Princes’ Gates (often mistakenly called the “Princess Gates”) were officially opened on August 31, 1927 by the two princes Edward, Prince of Wales and Prince George. Edward later became King Edward VIII. The statue at …
Toronto Travel: Toronto walking tour: Imposing mansions on Beverley Street
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
These video clips were taken during my walking tour with famous Toronto historian and tour guide Bruce Bell on July 16, 2007. After meeting at the famous and eclectic OCAD Building (I call it the “gift box on stilts”) just south of the University of Toronto, Bruce took us past the Grange, Toronto’s oldest building, past the Art Gallery of Toronto to some of the mansions along Beverley and Baldwin Streets. Along the way Bruce explained to us the early history of Toronto, and the family compact — a group of extremely wealthy and powerful English families that used to rule Toronto in the early days. We then walked westwards to Chinatown and the ethnic mix of the Kensington Market area which started as a Scottish market, then became a popular Jewish residential area in the 1910s and 1920s (evidenced by two local synagogues) and morphed into the diverse, multicultural and hip neighbourhood that it is today. Vendors sell fruits, vegetables, cheeses, dry goods, meat, fish, vintage clothing and all sorts of other unique items in this Bohemian neighbourhood. A great variety of different ethnic restaurants caters to eclectic tastes. We then visited Denison Square and admired a statue of one of Toronto’s popular actors, Al Waxman, the “King of Kensington”. We then continued on our walk through busy Chinatown to Toronto’s Garment district along Spadina and Queen Avenues and then headed east along a variety of restaurants and bars on Queen Street West to end in front of the …