Toronto by Night

Most of Toronto falls asleep after 1AM.......














So I set out on a midnight adventure to cure my listlessness two nights ago. and It took me from the Garden District at the border of Downtown, all the way to the edge of Parkdale at the border of Suburbia. All photos were shot from my craptastic cell phone camera, as my real camera is currently en route to my mailbox via Canada Post.


Toronto has the last non-heritage (i.e. non tourist) streetcar system in North America. Curiously enough the Toronto Transit Commission, following the lead of other North American cities, had plans to scrap them in favour of buses as early as the mid 1950s, but by 1972 there had been an outpouring of community resistance throughout the City that the TTC abandoned all streetcar abandonment plans:

http://transit.toronto.on.ca/streetcar/4002.shtml

For me Streetcars are quite fascinating, having only heard of the New York City "Trolleycars" of yesteryear (that were completely abandoned in the Five Boroughs by 1956) from my Grandparents, it's kinda quirky to live in a town where they still serve a purpose. Streetcars at night are somewhat foreboding, catch the 501-Queen or the 505-King car at the right hour and you might very well be the only soul aboard. cars that area absolutely packed at rush hour take ghosts to and fro non-nocturnal (i.e. dead at night) transit hubs after reasonable hours. Its a solitude that is hard to find otherwise in this town. Its the kind of experience that, in the white light of the streetcar, in the midst of the darkness of a dead Toronto, one can put Joy Division's "Closer" on shuffle and lose themselves...














I found myself where King and Queen Streets finally meet at Roncessvalles Avenue, and the hip strip of Queen West fades into the Queensway and its "hip" factor drastically drops to "zero" as Toronto fades into Etobicoke. the notorious, squalid Coffee Time serves up rancid hot beverages and baked goods to ghosts and weary nighthawks, otherwise the area is frozen still in the night.




Roncessvalles Avenue is the heart of Toronto's polish community, and the end of "West Queen West". when Pope John Paul died, "Roncy" as locals call it, was flooded with mobs of mourning, hysterical zealots weeping at the passing of a sexist, fascistic patriarch of a fairy tale world, but enough of that (I was raised Catholic)....



onwards.........














Trinity-Bellwoods Park is basically the Tompkins Square of Toronto (minus the Punks), a green oasis surrounded by what were supposed to think is "bohemia". this is the hippest part of Queen West, the commercial strip west of Bathurst that is not quite the cozy yet dreary yet gentrifying Parkdale, but not quite the consumerist ectoplasm that is Queen Street from University to Bathurst. Trin-Bell extends from Queen Street northwards to Dundas Street and in its centre it is common to find drum circles, pot-smoking teens, skaters and hipsters. a park for all people, a park for all seasons if you will. I like it...














THE TORONTO INSTITUTE FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC brings back memories (by coincidence of a similar name ONLY) of the "Toronto Centre for Intellectual Exchange" aka the BROHOUSE where I spend 3 squalid days this past summer. the BroHouse was on Dupont Street, two blocks west of Spadina Avenue and had punk shows in their kitchen, one of the filthiest kitchens I had ever been in. though, It was very fun, don't get me wrong. the Centre for the Enjoyment Music was also a site of a raging hipster dance party during this years NUIT BLANCHE.

Interestingly enough, as I continued eastward on Queen West, I found myself at "751" a trendy bar that occasionally hosts "punk bar nights". as I was about to snap a picture of it, a well known local music promoter walks out, sees me in the street, phone held up; ready to take a picture and asks "hey man, you alright?" I meekly walk away.....

as I get a bit more Easterly to Bathurst Street, I run into a Homeless man ("my father", but that's a story for another time) who asks me for change, I don't have any so I give him a candy bar. I than encounter some weary, insomniac traveling crust punks and their starving dogs (punks shouldn't travel with animals). I try to feed one of the dogs my apple, but one of the crusties pops up from her stupor and kindly asks me to stop trying to feed her canine companion "people food". she than comments on a TSOL pin on my jacket, asks me if "I go to shows" and hands me a flyer for a Horrorpunk show. I throw the flyer and dog germ laden apple in the nearest trash can.

TIME TO GO TO SLEEP.......














I take the Bathurst Streetcar northbound to College Street, to catch the 506-Carlton car to take back to my room. along the way I stop to marvel at Maple Leaf Gardens, hallowed ground for die hard hockey fans. It lied in a state of disrepair and abandonment for eleven years, however Ryerson University bought it, and one day in the near future it will be a satellite building of the Ryerson campus. there will also be a Loblaws there. yum.

I should do this again some time. goodnight Toronto.

companion music for this adventure:

JOY DIVISION-CLOSER:
http://www.mediafire.com/?tyeydzyhanz

THE ROLLING STONES-BEGGARS BANQUET:
http://www.mediafire.com/?imj4qzymzmu