Morningglory47

So says the Huffington Post....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauri-..._b_632271.html

If your idea of Canada is dominated by maple syrup, hockey, flannel shirts or the G-20 Summit, it's time to discover Toronto as the new capital of Cool.

Toronto boasts a population of five million people, 200 ethnic groups and 130 languages. Each year the city absorbs approximately 50,000 immigrants, making it Canada's largest city and surprisingly one of the most culturally diverse communities in North America.

If your idea of Canada is dominated by maple syrup, hockey, flannel shirts or the G-20 Summit, it's time to discover Toronto as the new capital of Cool.

Toronto boasts a population of five million people, 200 ethnic groups and 130 languages. Each year the city absorbs approximately 50,000 immigrants, making it Canada's largest city and surprisingly one of the most culturally diverse communities in North America.

Although the Toronto skyline is dotted with a dizzying array of towering glass residential developments, it is the renewal of the once dodgy but now trendy West Queen, Ossington and King West neighborhoods that have visitors buzzing about the galleries, custom clothing boutiques, restaurants and specialty stores. As a reference consider these districts to be Toronto's Brooklyn.

The best way to get an insider's view of these neighborhoods is to take a tour with Betty Ann Jordan of InSite walking tours. Betty Ann, a former art journalist, has an all access pass to the young entrepreneurs responsible for the revitalization of these areas.

Moving further along you will discover the beating heart of the city lies in Kensington Market, Little Italy, Chinatown, Little Portugal, Greektown, and Little India. It is in these neighborhoods that you will see, feel and taste the vibrant mash-up of globalization and daily life coming together. If you really want to feel the beat, stick around for the ultimate street party Caribana, one of the largest Caribbean carnivals in the world. Caribana takes place July 30-August 1st.

To make use of the mild summer and early fall temperatures, Canadians have ingeniously packed their events calendar full of outdoor festivals. The festival organizers have strategically designed the programs to foster a new creative hub for art enthusiasts of all levels. By doing so, they have discovered that arts and music festivals attract an international crowd of repeat visitors.

As a return on their investment, the city of Toronto receives cutting edge art, innovative cultural programs and more importantly, art tourism dollars that trickle down to all sectors of the local economy.

The key to making this equation work is strong community outreach. Instead of maintaining the mystic of art as being exclusive and indecipherable, the Canadians have literally taken the arts to the streets. The annual Luminato Festival recently showcased ten days of city wide performances, exhibitions, and artist talks.

An example of public art was the installation by the visual arts collective, FriendsWithYou. The artists who are known for their vivid pop aesthetic and large scale outdoor installations transformed Queens Park into Rainbow City. The park was filled with towering inflatable totems, bounce houses and celestial creatures that invoked playful interaction for the young and old alike.

The hands down show stopper of Luminato was the theatrical production The African Trilogy. The production featured three individual plays Shine Your Light, Glo and Peggy Picket Sees the Face of God. Each play examined the multi-faceted relationship between Africa and the West by navigating the explosive questions 'Just who do they think they are? Just who do they think we are? Just who do we think we are?' The African Trilogy is smart, irreverent, challenging and brilliantly directed and acted.

During autumn the art party continues with the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, September 9-19th. The film festival routinely attracts the Hollywood A-list as well as a half a million attendees each year.

From October 2-3rd the term Northern Lights will have new meaning with the Nuit Blanche Festival. Nuit Blanche features 24 hours of outdoor art installations that will light up the night sky throughout the city. The grand finale of Toronto's arts festivals is Flash Forward, celebrating the work of emerging photographers, October 6-10th.

If you haven't noticed by now, Canadians are crazy about art. If they don't grab your attention outside, they will grab it when you try to go to sleep. At the Gladstone Hotel art is not something you simply hang on a wall, it is the hotel room itself. The 100 year old hotel features 37 artist designed rooms that showcase an individual theme for each room.

The Gladstone also presents a full schedule of exhibitions and an innovative Artist in Residence program for international artists who specifically want to create work in Toronto. On the luxurious end of the hotel spectrum, the newly opened Thompson Hotel has followed suit with a commissioned mural by Javier Mariscal, rooftop pool parties and celebrity DJ's.


If your idea of Canada is dominated by maple syrup, hockey, flannel shirts or the G-20 Summit, it's time to discover Toronto as the new capital of Cool.

Toronto boasts a population of five million people, 200 ethnic groups and 130 languages. Each year the city absorbs approximately 50,000 immigrants, making it Canada's largest city and surprisingly one of the most culturally diverse communities in North America.

Although the Toronto skyline is dotted with a dizzying array of towering glass residential developments, it is the renewal of the once dodgy but now trendy West Queen, Ossington and King West neighborhoods that have visitors buzzing about the galleries, custom clothing boutiques, restaurants and specialty stores. As a reference consider these districts to be Toronto's Brooklyn.

The best way to get an insider's view of these neighborhoods is to take a tour with Betty Ann Jordan of InSite walking tours. Betty Ann, a former art journalist, has an all access pass to the young entrepreneurs responsible for the revitalization of these areas.

Moving further along you will discover the beating heart of the city lies in Kensington Market, Little Italy, Chinatown, Little Portugal, Greektown, and Little India. It is in these neighborhoods that you will see, feel and taste the vibrant mash-up of globalization and daily life coming together. If you really want to feel the beat, stick around for the ultimate street party Caribana, one of the largest Caribbean carnivals in the world. Caribana takes place July 30-August 1st.

To make use of the mild summer and early fall temperatures, Canadians have ingeniously packed their events calendar full of outdoor festivals. The festival organizers have strategically designed the programs to foster a new creative hub for art enthusiasts of all levels. By doing so, they have discovered that arts and music festivals attract an international crowd of repeat visitors.

As a return on their investment, the city of Toronto receives cutting edge art, innovative cultural programs and more iimportantly, art tourism dollars that trickle down to all sectors of the local economy.

The key to making this equation work is strong community outreach. Instead of maintaining the mystic of art as being exclusive and indecipherable, the Canadians have literally taken the arts to the streets. The annual Luminato Festival recently showcased ten days of city wide performances, exhibitions, and artist talks.

An example of public art was the installation by the visual arts collective, FriendsWithYou. The artists who are known for their vivid pop aesthetic and large scale outdoor installations transformed Queens Park into Rainbow City. The park was filled with towering inflatable totems, bounce houses and celestial creatures that invoked playful interaction for the young and old alike.

The hands down show stopper of Luminato was the theatrical production The African Trilogy. The production featured three individual plays Shine Your Light, Glo and Peggy Picket Sees the Face of God. Each play examined the multi-faceted relationship between Africa and the West by navigating the explosive questions 'Just who do they think they are? Just who do they think we are? Just who do we think we are?' The African Trilogy is smart, irreverent, challenging and brilliantly directed and acted.

During autumn the art party continues with the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival, September 9-19th. The film festival routinely attracts the Hollywood A-list as well as a half a million attendees each year.

From October 2-3rd the term Northern Lights will have new meaning with the Nuit Blanche Festival. Nuit Blanche features 24 hours of outdoor art installations that will light up the night sky throughout the city. The grand finale of Toronto's arts festivals is Flash Forward, celebrating the work of emerging photographers, October 6-10th.

If you haven't noticed by now, Canadians are crazy about art. If they don't grab your attention outside, they will grab it when you try to go to sleep. At the Gladstone Hotel art is not something you simply hang on a wall, it is the hotel room itself. The 100 year old hotel features 37 artist designed rooms that showcase an individual theme for each room.

The Gladstone also presents a full schedule of exhibitions and an innovative Artist in Residence program for international artists who specifically want to create work in Toronto. On the luxurious end of the hotel spectrum, the newly opened Thompson Hotel has followed suit with a commissioned mural by Javier Mariscal, rooftop pool parties and celebrity DJ's.

Believe it or not, Torontonians refer to food as 'the art that feeds people'. The city's chefs have expanded the palette of Canadian cuisine with an infusion of ethnic spices and inventive menus. The city's eclectic mix of culinary tastes and styles can be best experienced at Origin, a popular St. Lawrence neighborhood restaurant.

The overall gourmet trend is on food that is local, natural, healthy and delicious. This mandate is easy to pull off due to Toronto's close proximity to abundant farms, vineyards, and lakes. To highlight the city's commitment to healthy food, Toronto will be hosting the first ever Conscious Food Festival, August 14-15th.

Say goodbye to flannel. Toronto is the hot new destination for all things crazy, sexy, cool.

Lauri Lyons is the author of Flag: An American Story and Flag International

Daniel_Williams

Thanks for this article.

I wonder what some of those who lived in "Toronto the Good" of 50 years ago would think being immediately teleported to "Toronto the Cool" of the now. Clothing-optional beach on the Islands, sex toy libraries at the popular Drake Hotel, it all would be rather a shock I would believe...

Morningglory47

Hi Daniel - Wellll, I was around but a kid who had to be home when the street lights came on. I sure won't be telling my 92 year old mother about the Drake's "library" (question - how do they clean those toys for the next user??)...I'm not sure if she knows about the clothing-optional beach at the Island but I think I'll tell her - in her day (and I remember it vaguely) - Centre (where the fountains are now) and Ward's islands had hotels and amusements - I think they should have kept them. I know she remembers fondly big band dances at the Palais Royale and other dance halls in those days, especially the war years - most were down by the waterfront in pre-air conditioning days. Sundays were pretty dead (no sports, no movies) until the late '50s, early '60s (it was then people shuffled off to Buffalo for the weekends) but the bootleggers did a good business - a friend of mine's Grandmother was one.

The Drake and Gladstone were semi-dives until not so long ago - the Gladstone's rooms were rented to the city for welfare recipients, I believe, the bar on the main floor hosted the dance society I belong to when it started 20 years ago - we wouldn't have felt like walking around there much at night and there sure wasn't any place where we'd eat - there are a few of those old restaurants left but I still wouldn't go in them.

The Gladstone is the oldest operating hotel in the city, by the way...guests came from the train station that was across the road. The rooms are really small - it's always part of Doors Open in May when you get to see them. My Uncle, b. 1906, said they brought the cattle into the train station and ran them up the streets to the stockyards on St. Clair - that must have been messy! I'm not even sure I believe it - there was another train line north, maybe that's what he meant.

"Believe it or not, Torontonians refer to food as 'the art that feeds people'." I'm not holding my breath until I hear any of my friends say that about food! I regret the loss of all the Mom and Pop greasy spoons ... for quick meals now, it's a food court, unfortunately. I just noticed Origin this week, it's in an old building across from the Anglican Cathedral - they have a patio on a busy corner ... must take a peek at the menu.

The same Uncle told me that when the Royal York Hotel opened my Grandfather refused to believe that anyone would pay $8 a night to stay in a hotel. Funny.

Nuit Blanche is a great event - Queen West is so crowded you often have to walk on the road; it's impossible to see all the installations in one night - I read this week they plan to have more downtown this year so not so spread out - I expect that Queen West will still be involved though. Last year the Gladstone let artists decorate the rooms on the second floor any way they wanted. The Drake had a light show outside so that you had to stand across the road to see it.

laverendrye

<<My Uncle, b. 1906, said they brought the cattle into the train station and ran them up the streets to the stockyards on St. Clair - that must have been messy! I'm not even sure I believe it - there was another train line north, maybe that's what he meant.>>

This was not likely the old Parkdale Station, but probably the West Toronto Station at the Junction, not far from the old stockyards.

Daniel_Williams

Morningglory--

Haha. I think those sex toys are *purchases*, not *borrows*. I think the Drake's selection of "chosen for artistic merit, women reviewed" heterosexual, Lesbian or man-on-man porn also might have had the "Toronto the Good" folk of 50 years ago reaching for the smelling salts.

Thanks for the historical look at the Drake & the Gladstone!

Morningglory47

Thank goodness...I thought you'd said 'library' and to me that means returning things...yuck

Laverendrye - my Uncle definitely meant the station that was across from the Gladstone as we were talking about the hotel and he said drovers stayed there but, of course, it makes sense that the cattle would have been moved from the West Toronto Station - isn't it the station CN (or was it CP?) demolished one night against the wishes of the local Junction historical group and the City? That Uncle is long gone so I can't ask him to clarify now...not outright tell him he was likely wrong. All my father's family back to the 1860s were from Parkdale so they knew that area well.

laverendrye

Morningglory

I did a bit of searching and I think I have the answer. The "new" stockyard (closed in 1993) were opened in 1903 to replace the old stockyard at King and Bathurst. Both railways had tracks right into the new stockyards so there would be no need for a "cattle drive". So it's quite likely that the cattle were moved along along the street from Parkdale station to the old yards. Perhaps the old stockyard continued to operated for a few years after the new one was opened.

There were two West Toronto stations--the CPR and the Grand Trunk/CNR. It was the CPR that demolished its station in 1982. The CNR station continued to operate until 1989 and is still standing derelict at Old Weston Road and Junction. The line is still a main line used by GO trains and CNR freight.

Morningglory47

Thanks for the research! So the Wheat Sheaf at King and Bathurst was probably where the drovers stayed. Uncle probably heard about a hotel where the drovers stayed and thought of the "new" stockyards, possibly he never knew they'd been anywhere else.

My Great-Great-Grandfather, an Irish famine survivor, worked for the Grand Trunk railway in Montreal and, I think, briefly in Toronto, as did many of the Irish...there's a memorial to Irish rail workers in Longueuil.

I research my family history and called CN several years ago to find out what materials they had on the Grand Trunk employees but the woman told me, quite cheerfully, that they'd thrown all that old stuff out. Sigh

Yesterday at a street festival, I was asked to sign a petition about electric trains in that GO train corridor. Residents are fighting the increase in trains IF they ever make a rail connection to the airport.

laverendrye

My mother's family farmed near Caledon and I can recall great uncles talking about staying at the Wheat Sheaf when they came to the city. This would have been around the turn of the century.

We would also meet relatives coming to the city at the old West Toronto station.

Morningglory47

The Wheat Sheaf opened about 1849, claims to be the oldest tavern in TO - even walking past you can smell stale beer and smokes!