Pagina Uno

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 …