Toronto

I took a quick trip up to Toronto yesterday to hang out with my BFFs Joe and Julie. We had a blast wandering around Canada's most boring large city. I love Toronto and endlessly praise its virtues, but my god, the city can be so lame sometimes. Torontonians can seem incredibly self-conscious and that insecurity reflects itself in every interaction. But their city is massive and nuanced and perfect for exploring so those of us who love it keep coming back for more, despite our mixed emotions and occasional frustration.

In any event, some photo evidence...The Hazelton Hotel, below, recently rated by my fav columnist and condo critic Christopher Hume. I think it's a terrific building.  

Down the street in Yorkville is this cool old building:

Nearby is Toronto's most adventurous new building, the new Crystal Building at the Royal Ontario Museum. I can't help but stop and stare at it every time I'm in Toronto.

Posted by Sebastian / July 28, 2008 /
 

O Canada, where have your bargains gone?

From the Sunday Times: "ONCE upon a time, not all that long ago, there existed a magical country that was a lot like the United States, only less expensive. Its enchanted currency — the other dollar — allowed Americans to indulge as they could not back home. This delightful fantasyland was called Canada, and for centuries it was synonymous with frugality.

No more. With the precipitous decline of the United States dollar, Canada has slid off the budget-travel map, and nowhere is the challenge to stay frugal greater than in Toronto, a city of 2.5 million whose ascendancy is not merely attributable to fluctuating exchange rates."

Posted by Sebastian / May 18, 2008 /
 

Hello from Toronto!

The best part of traveling is hanging around the airport for hours waiting for your flight to depart. As long as you're in an airline lounge. Today thanks to a prime upgrade I'm relishing in the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto's airport before flying to Vancouver. All airline lounges are not created alike; Air Canada's are really among the best.

Believe it or not, I love Air Canada. That's not a comment you often hear about Canada's much-reviled airline, but lately I've been experiencing some killer service from the airline that has been derided for so long as "Mapleflot."

Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / April 18, 2008 /
 

Quote of note

Toronto Star columnist Christopher Hume, my fav, takes on the city's rapid rehabbing of cultural institutions in a recent piece. Of the new Four Seasons Centre, home to the Canadian Opera Company and pictured below, he writes:

"The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts ignores its responsibility to be, if not an icon, at least a presence on the urban landscape. Here's a structure so studiously indifferent to context, it might be described as the architectural equivalent of an extended middle finger."

Related: Toronto Architecture Soars Skyward

Posted by Sebastian / December 23, 2007 /
 

Toronto

Don't get me wrong: I absolutely love Toronto, but the city has done too well a job at maintaining a nondescript aesthetic. It's done so well, in fact, that it's been able to stand in for New York, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Vienna, and just about every other city on Earth in film and TV. Though the average person could not imagine what Canada's biggest city looks like, they've probably seen it countless times masquerading as some place else.

American Richard Florida continues his new urban affairs beat for the Globe and Mail and in yesterday's tour of downtown with reporter Peter Scowen, he had so many spot-on points about Toronto that I was absolutely giddy: "One thing I've learned from my time in Toronto is everything is controversial...Its development model has changed so fundamentally in the past 20 years from a city that was mainly low-rise, for better or worse was sleepy, that was mainly an Anglo city, to this incredible kaleidoscope of people and building styles. Some of it's great and some of it's not so great."



On why Dundas Square, the city's gaudy Times Square wannabe, is an important part of the city: "Maybe when a Canadian or American thinks of a city, they think of Victorian houses and parks and so on, but maybe when an immigrant thinks of a city they think of tall buildings, neon signs and so on."

On "'everywhere stores": "It's something he says he has seen all across the city - an older storefront with the windows papered over and a sign that says, 'Coming soon: Sunglass Hut.' 'That's the real challenge,' Florida says. 'How does Toronto retain the mixture of uses without becoming just another everywhere?'

Being mistaken for "everywhere" has been a boon to Toronto's film economy over the past decade or so, but has done little for residents or visitors seeking a more interesting cityscape. A flurry of development projects planned for Toronto will likely begin to define a unique look for the city once and for all. Well, so long as the endless debate and controversy over Toronto's future ever dies down enough for construction to actually begin.

Posted by Sebastian / December 16, 2007 /
 

The Golden Horseshoe from space

From Richard Florida's blog comes this neat view of Toronto (on the top, with the city's Yonge Street spine clearly defined) and Buffalo (on the bottom).

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / November 4, 2007 /
 

Florida now in Ontario

Richard Florida, the urban affairs wonk famous for positing that the prosperity of cities like Boston, SF and Austin (more or less) directly correlates to the number of gay people, artists, musicians, and bohos in them (Or something like that...I still haven't cracked the book yet!) has moved to Toronto and is now writing a blog and occasional column for the Globe and Mail.

In his column today, titled "Wake up, Toronto - You're bigger than you think," he describes his move Toronto and the weirdness that ensues in everyday conversations with locals. "Everywhere we go we are met by Torontonians who either seem mystified that we would move to what they imply is a second-rate city, or seem to be seeking some kind of validation in our answer...there is so much going on here that the city and its people are unaware of the scope and power of Toronto. This place is really, really big and getting bigger. It just needs to recognize it in itself."

He brings up an interesting point in that piece -- the self-conscious attitude that so many people in Toronto seem to have. Coincidentally I recently wrote a piece on my time in Vancouver and mused on the same issue Florida sees in Toronto. "My New York friends wouldn’t be caught dead in Canada, and my friends in Vancouver -- a city that is perhaps Canada’s most self-conscious -- can’t figure out why I'd ever want to spend my time in British Columbia when my other home is New York City."

Posted by Sebastian / October 27, 2007 /
 

Height envy in Toronto

Toronto has long been a city of superlatives, but this week it lost one of its proudest claims: the city is no longer home to the world's tallest freestanding structure. No, the syringe-shaped CN Tower has not fallen; it's just been one-upped by the Burj Dubai. Construction on the desert skyscraper this week slipped past the CN's height of 553 meters, on the way to its final height of 800 meters, or 165 floors. Still, the observatory on the CN will remain taller than the observatory in Dubai. No word if the emirate is going to opt for a vertigo-inducing glass floor like Toronto did.

Posted by Sebastian / September 16, 2007 /
 

Toronto: A metaphor for a country in decline

I've been meaning to mention this article for weeks. Toronto Star columnist Chirstopher Hume takes on complacency in Canada's biggest city, a place plagued by chronic government underfunding with the scathing but true commentary:

"Democracy boasts many virtues, but it also has serious weaknesses, including the fact that it allows citizens to vote thoughtlessly and without regard to reality. Indeed, look at who gets elected to see just how irrational, even moronic, the process has become.

"One of the truths the politicians would like us to forget is that you get what you pay for. Civilization costs money. If the city's going to remove snow, pick up garbage, pay the province's social services bill, fill potholes and so on, it must be able to cover these costs.

"Instead of voting for councillors who promise we can remain forever in dreamland, where taxes never go up and roads are free, we should think first and ask whether they are able to do the opposite, i.e., insist we return to the real world. It, of course, is not such a nice place.

"Toronto, like all of Canada, is based largely on myths that border on lies. We like to think that the city is among the greatest and the country a respected world citizen. We may be a middling power, but always sensible and responsible.

"We continue to demand European-style public services on American-level taxes. As we Torontonians are finding out, it doesn't work that way."

Posted by Sebastian / September 14, 2007 /
 

New ROM a hit -- at least with tourists

Up in Toronto this weekend, I had the pleasure of taking numerous photos for non-English speaking tourists checking out the much-anticipated (and much maligned) new facade of the Royal Ontario Museum on Bloor Street West. I declined the opportunity to get a photo taken there myself, opting instead to snap the below shot of the crystal building jutting out over Bloor.

I wrote a mediocre piece about this new building (and others) a few years ago, when debate over the Daniel Libeskind-designed addition was rip-roaring. Now that the building's complete (it opened last month), I have to agree with R.M. Vaughan, the Canadian poet who called the ROM’s transformation and simultaneous construction projects going on in Toronto a “race to see who can erect the largest hunk of monster-truck architecture.” The building is vaguely Bilbao -- but not fluid enough -- and it certainly doesn't fit the scale of the street or the neighbourhood very well at all.

Posted by Sebastian / July 30, 2007 /

Why is Toronto the capital of Facebook?

Interesting story in today's Star about Toronto's addiction to facebook. The city boasts more members than New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco combined.

One theory: "Facebook users are more likely to come from families that emphasize education and going to college, according to Danah Boyd, a researcher at the University of California. Torontonians are more likely to be well educated than residents of most other North American cities, with higher numbers going to post-secondary education."

Posted by Sebastian / July 1, 2007 /

Up and coming in Toronto

As if Toronto wasn't already overdosing on luxury hotel/condo buildings, with a new Trump Tower, Ritz-Carlton, and Four Seasons all under construction right now, Asian chain Shagri-la is planning a massive 65-storey tower on University Avenue. The lower 17 floors will feature 220 hotel rooms and the upper levels will contain 352 condos. It will be the tallest residential tower in Toronto, and the renderings look hot, even if it will stick out on the corner its planned for.

Critics of Toronto's bland look always say the city needs to be a little bit more daring, and this tower will be an excellent addition to the skyline.

Hogtown may be the 5th biggest city in North America, but is this just one too many in the latest string of luxury high-rise condo-hotels being built there? The developer, Ian Gillespie, doesn't think so, according to the Globe and Mail: "The decision to come to Toronto, he said, was not about the hotel market in the next five years. It's a call on the economy and the importance of the city over the next three decades or more given travel patterns and the rising power of the Asian market."

Posted by Sebastian / Real Estate / February 11, 2007 /
 

YYZ (aka "What a %@#$hole!") gets transformed

Of all the terminals I've had the experience of passing through, Toronto's Pearson Airport (YYZ) is among the shoddiest. Landing there years ago was like landing in Soviet-era Eastern Europe. But all that's changed. Today was the first day of operation for the new Terminal 1 International Pier, an immense new space designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill that serves both U.S. and international flights (the rest of the terminal, for domestic Canadian flights, opened previously).

I've flown through the new terminal a few times, most recently in the fall, and there is simply no words to compare it with the old space. The old terminal was simply an awful hovel. Avec passport control. The new terminal is soaring, gleaming, light-filled and, pardon the new-ageness, hopeful--everything the old Terminal 2 was not.

Posted by Sebastian / Aviation / January 30, 2007 /
 

CNN's taste of Toronto

CNN: One of the first things a visitor to Toronto notices is its diversity; the melange of architecture, cultures and food forges a town-like feel in what is undoubtedly a bustling metropolis. In fact, Toronto has attracted so many cultures to its shores that the United Nations deemed it the world's most multicultural city. As the largest Canadian city -- and fifth largest in North America -- Toronto (pronounced Toro-know by locals) is nestled along Lake Ontario and boasts a varied culinary scene that includes the rich flavors of more than 90 ethnic groups.

Kind note to CNN: that's Tronno, not Toro-know.

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / October 12, 2006 /
 

Toronto ferry ride from hell

Having living on an island for ten years I've experienced my fair share of ferry rides from hell. Toronto politicians and business people got their own sort of hellish ride yesterday at the launch of a new ferry connecting downtown with the controversial Island Airport.

CBC reports, "Shortly after leaving the mainland docks Wednesday, the ferry spun around in the harbour several times before smashing into the shore's breakwall after the captain had an anxiety attack."

Father David Mulholland, the reverend who blessed the ship before its launched noted, "Blessings don't guarantee success. But it's a good and proper thing to say a prayer for a ship." The Star reports that "as far as [Mulholland] knows, never has a boat crashed after his blessing. Then Mulholland, wearing a navy wool cap, got ready to board what would have to be one of the strangest maiden voyages he's ever taken, one on which the captain would need medical attention and a four-piece old-time band would play a few bars from the Titanic movie theme song, 'My Heart Will Go On.'"

Posted by Sebastian / October 12, 2006 /
 

The Toronto wrecking ball

As it grows and matures, Canada's biggest city has a wee bit of a problem. Architecture critics claim the city is continually tearing down buildings of significance while the ugly ones are left behind. A casual stroll around downtown Toronto reveals much truth to the idea: like all big Canadian cities, T.O. is littered with architectural ugliness.

"The problem isn't that Toronto tears down so many buildings, but that it tears down the wrong buildings. Instead of destroying the good stuff, which is in short supply, we should be ridding ourselves of architectural blight, of which there is plenty," writes Christopher Hume in the Toronto Star.

"There's so much the city would be better off without. Some buildings were poorly designed by architects who tried but failed; others by architects who clearly didn't care. Their failure goes beyond questions of taste and aesthetics; these are the buildings that deaden the street, blot the skyline, and suck the life out of the city."

Posted by Sebastian / August 21, 2006 /
 

Heard on Davie Street

I was walking rather briskly down Davie Street in Vancouver the other night when a homeless guy yelled at me. He said, "You're not in Ontario! Slow down." It was funny timing since the Calgary Herald reported that day that Toronto-hating is truly a national pastime.

"Canadians are always searching for that one thing that unites the country," says Toronto filmmaker Albert Nerenberg. "And it seems the one thing they can all agree on is that they hate Toronto."

"The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) has a population of 5.6 million people, representing 16 per cent of Canada's population. It is the fifth-largest city in North America. Although, as Nerenberg has discovered, many Canadians feel it carries itself with far greater stature."

Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / June 18, 2006 /
 

Toronto snaps

One of the coolest buildings ever is the Sharp Centre (aka "the Tabletop") at the Ontario College of Art and Design. It's a classroom box sitting on multicolored knitting needle-shaped stilts, and suspended high above an existing classroom building. A few years ago, right after it was built, I was at the Tabletop, interviewing a couple passersby about their thoughts for a story I was writing. When I asked one of the guys what he thought about the new building, which was being heralded as the first in a wave of many new structures to radically transform the look and feel of the city, the man said, simply, "it's alright." Indeed public opinion has been mixed.

The other shot is a cool sign at MaRS, the Medical and Related Sciences Centre.



On Saturday there was a huge rally and parade in support of the Falun Gong crisis in China. The never-ending parade snaked up Spadina and across Dundas through Chinatown with a whole slew of fascinating floats, including one pictured below that reads, "Chinese Communist Party Kills Falun Gong People For Their Organs" (replete with a body on a gurney and blood splattered "doctors" surrounding the victim).

Posted by Sebastian / May 29, 2006 /
 

I heart Toronto

Toronto is so underrated, but I love it always.

Posted by Sebastian / May 27, 2006 /
 

Happy weekend!

Enjoy the long weekend (for those of you who actually get one). I've fled northward to the azure shores of Lake Ontario. This is my favourite shot ever of my beloved Toronto.

Below, a flight tracker map especially for my friend David who always loves these. (Aviation timetable/OCD factoid: did you know there are 70 flights each day between New York and Toronto, making it the busiest international route to the U.S. from anywhere?)

Posted by Sebastian / May 26, 2006 /
 

For Sale: A White Elephant, Scandal Included

The New York Times has taken a neat look at an old scandal-plagued building in downtown Toronto that is expected to hit the real estate market shortly.

No. 10 Toronto Street was the office for media mogul Conrad Black but now his protracted legal troubles in both the U.S. and Canada, and those of his holding company, Hollinger, mean the building is no longer needed.

The agent handling the sale "said he did not know whether the building's security camera system would be included; last year it captured Lord Black and some of his personal employees removing boxes out a back door in defiance of a Canadian court order."

Posted by Sebastian / Real Estate / April 11, 2006 /
 

Michigan tries to ban Canadian trash

No, this is not the latest immigration policy. Michigan is simply trying to stop being Toronto's landfill, but unfortunately, they can't make that move on their own: only Congress has the authority to restrict cross-border trash hauling.



Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / March 14, 2006 /
 

Toronto

To spend time in Toronto is to have urban Canada's obsession with the glass condominium tower thrust into your face. There is so much residential building going on in Toronto it's absolutely astounding. This weekend I checked out the Glas Condominiums on King Street, which seems to have the most impressive sales office of them all. It may look like a glass trailer filled with only a Roche Bobois dining room set, but I loved it. Across the street, the Hudson's sandwich-board sign was nearly sitting in the middle of King Street, but it did lay there gracefully. My third sign, for Ho's Place, is unrelated but still merited inclusion.



Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / March 5, 2006 /
 


Toronto's Insecurity

Dundas Square, Toronto's attempt at Times Square, is a pretty hideous spot, and it's getting worse. Expansion plans are on tap for the busy public space that will make it even more ad-saturated than it is now.

Not everyone is in love with the plans for more massive, glowing promotions. One blogger from ehMac.ca is calling it "a pathetic attempt by an insecure city that believes that copying others is the route to greatness...This whole area is being turned into a crass, overblown example of commercialism gone mad."

Another blogger, from spacing.ca, said Dundas Square is "undergoing the trashiest renovation Toronto has every seen. It still boggles my mind that people see this kind of development as a step toward a 'world-class city.'"



Posted by Sebastian / Toronto / February 11, 2006 /
 

25 Years Ago: Toronto Bathhouse Raids

This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of the Toronto Bathhouse Raids, a mass-arrest of hundreds of gay men that launched the modern gay rights movement in Canada.

Posted by Sebastian / February 4, 2006 /
 

Toronto vs Buffalo 
 
There was a time when a evening of fun in Toronto the Good meant driving 90 minutes for a night on the town in Big Bad Buffalo. Mary Kunz Goldman, a Buffalo News columnist who I don't always enjoy, offers up her explanations for "Why Toronto isn't Buffalo, and vice versa."



• Our slums are slummier. "We're not used to boarded-up buildings or rusting, derelict industrial sites," a Toronto business consultant told the News. "Buffalo isn't as bad as it was, but there is still a greater acceptance of - I don't know how to say it - urban wreckage."

• Buffalonians "always seem 15 percent friendlier and more outgoing - OK, louder - than the dour urban Canadians we see."

Posted by Sebastian / Buffalo / January 10, 2006 /
 

Conflicting views on crime
 
Antonio Zerbisias, the Toronto Star's media columnist, says coverage of the city's Boxing Day shooting has involved too much of that "Toronto-has-lost-its-innocence crap that never seemed to dominate the headlines as much when it was happening to non-blonde non-white non-girls in non-familiar neighbourhoods that none of us comfy middle class types would venture into."

Posted by Sebastian / January 4, 2006 /
 

Portrait of crime
 
Today the Globe offers up an end of the year tribute to the 75 people murdered this year in Boston. Crime news has taken centre stage in Boston and Toronto this year, with surging levels of violence in both cities. CNN said a major "crime press is underway" in Toronto. And it is, but let's look at this in perspective: Toronto has had 78 murders this year, and Boston has had 75. Taking into account the huge population difference between the cities, Boston actually has a murder rate that is more than four times worse than Toronto's.    

• Beware Toronto, CNN tells viewers

• Pro-gun lobby scraps Toronto ad campaign in wake of deadly shooting

Posted by Sebastian / December 30, 2005 /
 

Toronto victim named
 
Toronto police have released the name of the sole victim of the Boxing Day shooting that took place on busy Yonge Street, Toronto's main north-south thoroughfare. Fifteen-year-old Jane Creba, a 10th grade high school student in the city, was caught in a volley of bullets outside the Eaton Centre mall just as the sun was going down on Monday. Classmates yesterday described her as "the funniest, prettiest, and all-around nicest person."

The crime, which left half a dozen others in the hospital, has put the city on edge with many worrying that the escalating violence in Canada's biggest city may stem from a perceived influx of guns from the United States.

Police say 10 to 15 young people were involved in an altercation on Yonge Street when Creba was hit by gunfire. She had been out shopping with her mother.  

• Star columnist Rosie DiManno offers a brilliant assessment of the situation in T-dot: "I don't know when exactly it started to go disastrously wrong, but I do remember how, incrementally, this city became transformed, even as our leaders -- cops, elected officials, the tall foreheads who proclaim to be experts in human behaviour -- urged us not to overreact, to keep things in perspective, pointing to U.S. cities that were so much worse off, and promoting a sense of invulnerability, the lulling view that destiny had somehow set us apart, as if merely by wishing it, Toronto would avoid a similar fate."

Posted by Sebastian / December 29, 2005 /
 

'Toronto has lost its innocence,' police say
 
Authorities say yesterday's holiday shooting in Toronto, just steps from the Eaton Centre, North America's biggest downtown shopping mall, is a turning point in the city's history and may be a harbinger of more American-style crime.

"It was a tragic loss and a tragic day. I say tragic because it's a day when Toronto has finally lost its innocence," police said as they spoke to media about the 5 p.m. sidewalk melee on Yonge Street that left one shot dead, six shot and injured, and involves at least a dozen young people.  

One bystander told the Star, "It's really bad here now. Toronto -- for me, it's just like any big American city. There's no difference. You can get killed just by walking down the street."

Mayor David Miller seemed to agree. "The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto," he said. 

• Could gun-plagued Toronto perform a "Boston Miracle"?

Posted by Sebastian / December 27, 2005 /
 

My Zagat picks

Few activities give my life meaning as much as being able to contribute my strong opinions to the annual Zagat guides. Yesterday I gave my "witty" and "pithy" reviews of a number of places for the 2006 Canada Restaurants, Canada Nightlife, and Canada Attractions guides (all of which only cover Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver). They'll be out in a few short months and will replace the failed guides that were exclusively for Toronto and Vancouver. Montreal still gets their own guide, but it will be in French and then the "smart" and "clever" comments won't be so funny when they're lost in translation.

NIGHTLIFE: A surprise is that this year there are six gay bars in Montreal under consideration for top nightlife in Canada, while the much less overtly gay (lame, boring) scene in Vancouver has at least as many on the survey (Was that a gasp! I just heard from my Vancouver readers?!). I gave props to Odyssey and the non-gay but metro-cool Opus Bar. Boston boys known to head north and frequent the bars of Montreal's Rue Ste-Catherine will be pleased to see Sky among this year's contenders.

RESTAURANTS: A few restaurant that received top votes from me include Mikado in Montreal; North 44, Scaramouche in Toronto; and in Vancouver, Sala Thai and -- sorry to be unoriginal -- Tojo's. The best news from Vancouver restaurant scene going into the new year is that the tiny, cute, mediocre Tangerine just up from the beach in Kitsilano has finally died. Jennifer Garner may have raved about the place in the American Airlines inflight magazine, causing numerous celeb-seekers like me to frequent the place, but the food was just never that good, and the only celeb I ever saw in there was me.

ATTRACTIONS: For the attractions guides, I named the oceanfront Stanley Park (pictured) the #1 attraction in the three cities, followed by Mount Royal Park in Montreal. You might say I have a thing for urban parklands, but these two really are the most impressive spaces you'll ever see. The beautiful but touristy Marche Bonsecours in Montreal and the brutal Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto both got the thumbs down.

I felt a bit more generous and gave a mere sideways thumb to the Vancouver Art Gallery, the CN Tower, and the Distillery District in Toronto for being so gosh darn ho-hum.

Posted by Sebastian / December 20, 2005 /

OpenTable's version of geography

I was making a Toronto restaurant reservation on OpenTable last night and came across this little geographical funny. Apparently Ottawa, some 267 miles (431 km!) from Toronto is now considered a section of town just like Downtown and Rosedale. But it's likely they just don't know any better--there's an announcement on the home page saying that the San Francisco-based company only just opened its office in Toronto.



Posted by Sebastian / December 11, 2005 /

The province of Toronto

There has always been talk, however far-fetched, of splitting Toronto from Ontario and creating the new Province of Toronto. Such an idea is not that unreasonable when you consider how huge the place is. If the city of 2.5 million were to break away, it would instantly become the country's fourth-biggest province, after Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta. Include the suburbs and the province of Toronto would boast a staggering 5.6 million residents, leapfrogging over Alberta.

For now, an agreement has been made between the governments of Ontario and Toronto that recognizes the city is unique among municipalities, and gives the mayor broader powers to regulate some of its own affairs.

Posted by Sebastian / December 7, 2005 /

Little Italian about Little Italy

As in many cities, "Toronto's 'Little Italy' and 'Greektown' became much more successful as brand names after all the Italians and Greeks moved away," according to a new study out in the National Post.

Posted by Sebastian / November 21, 2005 /

A challenge to Israel's marriage laws

Two gay Israeli men, married in Toronto after Canada's during Gay Pride in 2003, are making history in their native country as they seek legal recognition of their union. 

"Toronto was our favourite place. Beautiful, clean, quiet, peaceful and very, very tolerant," Yaron Lahav, an El Al flight attendant, told the Star. "So when we learned it was possible to be married there, we aligned our work schedules to go as soon as we could. Two weeks later, we flew to Toronto and ran to city hall find out what to do."

The paper explains that "Marriage in Israel is no easy task even for straight couples, let alone gay, due to religious laws that deny permission for almost all but the most Orthodox Jewish weddings." However, a decades-old court ruling has forced the country to recognize marriages performed outside of Israel, with no questions asked. Lahav and his husband, Sefi Bar-Lev, believe that law is the key to their suit.

"The rule in Israel is that any marriage certificate issued abroad must be recognized by the Israeli clerk and the couple must be registered," the couple's lawyer says. "Our argument is that any registrar who refuses this obligation is the one breaking the law by contravening their basic right to equality."

Posted by Sebastian / November 18, 2005 /

First case of daughters killing their mother in Canada

Most people use instant messaging to catch up with friends on the fly, but one teenage girl in Toronto "calmly chatted with a friend on the Internet while she and her younger sister were in the process of killing their mother," according to evidence presented in court yesterday. The girls had hoped to collect $200,000 in insurance money after the death of their mother. Instead, they face murder charges and a lifetime  in prison. From the Star:

"Is she trashed yet?" a female friend asks the Mississauga teenager on Jan. 18, 2003, in one of the excerpts from a disturbing Internet conversation that was read into court yesterday.

"Passing out ... like barely moving," the teen says, telling her that she had given her mother four Tylenol 3 pills as well as a bottle of vodka and wine.

"Oh my God," the friend asks. "How did you get her to take them?"

"She just takes them and forgets," the teen replies. "She's stupid. They have codeine in them and alcohol intensifies the effects."

"Good luck," the friend tells her. "Use gloves."

Posted by Sebastian / November 17, 2005 /

No more Zagat's in T-Dot

I've been wondering why Zagat's hasn't come out with a new restaurant guide for Toronto this year when I recently learned that the venture was a massive failure for the company from the start. One columnist is calling the T-Dot edition a "hideously dishonest package of ostensibly populist assessment that managed to rate 713 of our restaurants based on feedback from ... 720 people!"

The writer continues, "They did not even bother to print a 2005 edition, a curious state of affairs that the publisher explains with a claim that they did not receive adequate diner response to justify a follow-up to their 2004 edition. Which begs the question, if 720 answer cards are enough, how few are too few?"

Posted by Sebastian / November 7, 2005 /

Calendar crazy

Everyone seems to have their own calendar these days. Two new ones represent the diversity of the calendar craze. The first, the Toronto Fire Fighter Calendar, which was released yesterday, is just plain delicious. The Fort Kent, Maine, Lions Club calendar, not so much, but it is certainly clever and getting more press than Toronto's.



Posted by Sebastian / November 4, 2005 /

Thank you for pointing out the obvious

Today's Thank You For Pointing Out the Obvious prize goes to the Toronto Police Department, which is calling the discovery of a 12-year-old's dead body in a garbage can in his family's basement 'suspicious.'

Posted by Sebastian / October 29, 2005 /

Toronto, under siege, considers curfew

Every day, it seems, the press is Toronto is forced to report on more and more shootings. The city, long considered one of the safest in Canada and far safer than most U.S. big cities, has had more than 40 shootings in public places since July 1. And of the city's 64 homicide victims so far this year, 43 have been killed by handguns. By contrast, Boston, which is four times smaller than Toronto, has had 59 murders this year.   

"A sharp rise in gun and gang violence this year has triggered such concern among Torontonians that 66% support an 11 p.m. curfew banning children from the city's streets and one in five have considered buying a gun, a new poll says." One police officer told the Globe that when he joined the force 16 years ago, "we used to recover a gun once or twice a year. Now officers are seizing guns on a daily basis, it's a normal occurrence."

When Condi Rice visited Ottawa on Tuesday, prime minister Paul Martin had strong words for her, alleging that guns from the U.S. are largely to blame for the escalating violence. Martin says that up to half of all gun crimes in his country stem from U.S. guns, but Condi says she has no official figures. And the U.S. ambassador says that Canadian officials told him there was no basis for that claim, saying "that that figure was just grabbed out of thin air."

Posted by Sebastian / October 27, 2005 /

Ferry flop

The relaunched fast ferry across Lake Ontario to Toronto that has been heralded as the saviour of Rochester's beleaguered economy lost $4.2 million in it first two months back in service. The problem-plagued ferry's staggering losses are surely a blow to boosters who see the city as anchoring the eastern end of a vast, international metropolitan area stretching from Rochester to Buffalo and on to Toronto.

Posted by Sebastian / October 27, 2005 /

Cops say, 'screw it'

Toronto cops, in the middle of a labour dispute, have decided to park their cruisers and respond only to 911 calls.

Posted by Sebastian / October 20, 2005 /

Where will all that trash go?

The U.S. Congress could decide this week to seal off the American border to imported trash from Canada. Perhaps you remember the stink, and the unsightly mess that was the 2002 garbage worker strike in the searing heat of the Toronto summer? Get ready for a possible repeat performance -- only this time the culprit will not be striking workers, but no place to send all the trash that gets created in the huge city.

Michigan already passed a ban on imported trash last month but needs federal permission to halt daily deliveries of trash from Toronto. As one piece today says, city politicians are "asking Torontonians to get very good at recycling." Uh huh.

The Star offers up this scenario if the city and province don't clean up their act and figure out where to send all that trash:



Posted by Sebastian / October 18, 2005 /

Geography 101

I don't know if he was just doing it to rile me up, but my friend Michael called last night after stepping off an Air Canada jet in Hogtown and declared, "I'm in downtown Toronto. There are people on the streets! And there is a skyline -- more than one of them!"

I have to forgive him. It was his first time in Canada.

So in honour of Mike, who was positively dazzled to see people in Toronto, I present today's simple geography lesson: Toronto is Canada's largest city, and 2.5 million people live there! And more than 5 million live in the metro area! In North America, only four cities are bigger: Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Ye olde Boston pales by comparison!

Posted by Sebastian / October 18, 2005 /

What an ugly city!

My heart is in Toronto, but not everyone seems to feel the same way. Toronto is "a beige city with a branch-plant economy that suffers from a lack of identity," one designer said yesterday in a panel on the city's future.

"People want to live in a city where their distant relatives from abroad will visit them and be jealous," added Will Alsop, the British architect celebrated in Toronto for his distinctly risky and non-utilitarian Ontario College of Art and Design campus.

Posted by Sebastian / October 14, 2005 /



A call for 'separateness'

Toronto prides itself for being the world's most multicultural city, but as the deadliest summer in memory hit the city's black community especially hard, a movement is afoot that may alter the city's inclusiveness trajectory.

A "coalition of 22 black community groups disgusted by gun murders in the city wants a separate set of rules and institutions for blacks — from a government department to a diversion program for minor crimes," according to The Star. The suggested new initiatives include courts, job training, and schools for blacks only. But last month the premier of Ontario said he is "not comfortable" with the idea of blacks-only schools.

"We're not calling it segregation," says Sandra Carnegie-Douglas, the leader of the Jamaican Canadian Association and a coalition spokeswoman. "We know what we need. We live it. We attend the funerals. We deal with the dropouts and the children expelled from school. As it stands now, our communities are, in many ways, being destroyed." The coalition points out that there are already numerous government-supported institutions in Canada devoted exclusively to francophones and aboriginals, for instance.

Posted by Sebastian / October 10, 2005 /

It's not SARS

The mysterious respiratory illness in Toronto that has left 16 dead and that many feared was a resurgent SARS epidemic, is now believed to to be Legionnaires' disease, a rare form of pneumonia. There have only been 13 cases of the disease in Ontario in the past five years.

The mayor said today, "The name of this disease might make people nervous, but here's what it means: This disease cannot be transferred from person to person," Miller said. "There is not, and there never was, a threat to the general population. This disease is environmental. It is not contagious."   

Posted by Sebastian / October 7, 2005 /

City fires 'soulmates'

The Star offers up this cute cartoon of the ongoing City Hall Scandal in Toronto. It's quite appropriate as the axe falls on embattled department head Pam Coburn and her subordinate Joseph Carnevale. Yesterday Mayor David Miller announced, "this is not a happy day for the city of Toronto," and then pulled Coburn and Carnevale from the ranks of the civil service in the fallout from their "no-sex scandal." The pair have been dismissed not because of their relationship, but because of "misconduct and conflict-of-interest violations."   



Posted by Sebastian / October 6, 2005 /

Is SARS back?

It's been two years since Toronto was thrust into the spotlight of the SARS crisis with an unprecedented World Health Organization advisory urging visitors to stay away from the city. Nearly 40 people died during the summer of 2003 from SARS and Toronto's tourist economy tanked for months. Now people are worried that the respiratory illness may be resurfacing in Canada's biggest city.

While doctors say they are ruling out the recently discovered form of pneumonia in the deaths of 16 elderly nursing home residents, they aren't sure what exactly is the problem. More than 80 people have been affected by the mystery bug in recent days and at least 40 people have been hospitalized. 

Posted by Sebastian / October 6, 2005 /

A sex scandal without the sex

The Toronto Star leads this morning with a new twist in the City Hall sex scandal.

Let's clarify. This is not really a 'sex' scandal since Pam Coburn, the suspended city department head, claims she and her subordinate, Joseph Carnevale, never had any of it.

"Pam Coburn says she's at the centre of a political sex scandal that featured no actual sex," the Star reports. "Coburn said she and Carnevale did kiss. But they did not have any form of sexual contact, including oral sex."

And now, for the quote of the day: "How did this whole thing get so blown out of proportion?" Coburn wonders. "These are thin, ridiculous allegations that are easily disproved instead of re-focusing it back on my almost non-existent sex life."

Posted by Sebastian / October 5, 2005 /

Scandal at City Hall

I'm the first to admit that scandal and political intrigue can be delicious news to digest. This week, Toronto has delivered it all with its tale of love in the workplace after an anonymous letter was delivered to the mayor alleging nepotism and improper relationships taking place at City Hall.

Pam Coburn (shown here with her kids), a top city official responsible for municipal licensing and standards, admitted in a press conference Monday that she has been having an affair with her second in command, Joseph Carnevale (who happens to be married with children). He was recently promoted to that post from temporary employee in a mere 10 months, now earning pay in excess of $100,000 per year. Coburn told reporters the two are "soulmates" who had hoped to one day build a life together. The pair are on paid leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation, which could release its finding as early as today.

At her hastily called press conference, Coburn defended her relationship: "Office romances are an increasing fact of life in the 21st century, with women increasingly in senior positions in the workforce, and with people working longer hours," she said. "Office romances are natural and unavoidable and, according to experts, are often good."

The Star reports, "As the bombshell admission of the affair spread through city hall yesterday, reaction was mixed — with some cheering Coburn for coming clean and others calling her a home wrecker. Some insiders wonder if the disclosure was meant to deflect attention from other allegations of questionable hiring practices within her department, including favouring friends for jobs." There are even allegations she gave city jobs to workers of her neighbourhood grocery store.

Posted by Sebastian / October 5, 2005 /

Canada's a bit too foreign

I once joked that the toughest thing about heading to Canada for most Americans is figuring out the difference between a loonie and a twonie. Somehow Canada is viewed as a mysterious, foreign land by many Americans, including one Kentucky journalist who seemed utterly foxed by so much in a piece about traveling to Toronto.

"Exactly how foreign is Canadian travel, I wondered? Just enough to be slightly annoying and slightly adventurous, the answer turned out to be."

If you go: "Easily the most annoying thing about traveling over the border. You go through Canadian customs entering Canada."

Money: "It is different currency, though only slightly different from U.S. coinage."

Language: "Now, a friend of mine who traveled to Montreal came back saying ... hotels, airports and other places that cater to tourists were bilingual." Oh really?

Posted by Sebastian / October 4, 2005 /

New Toronto towers

Some time back, Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star said, "There's a clear sense that Toronto needs to re-invent itself to regain its reputation as one of a handful of North American cities worth visiting. Despite our best efforts to revive our flagging fortunes, we're not there yet."

Things are changing. Quickly. In the works are two new landmark towers, including the first new commercial tower in downtown Toronto in a decade. The office building on the left will be 48 storeys and the boot-shaped condominium tower on the right, proposed by Daniel Libeskind, will be 40.

You might say that Hume, who is never one to mince words on plans for his city, hates the boot building: "The real question might be what on earth Daniel Libeskind was thinking when he designed the condo. To say it's outlandish is to put it mildly. To say it's wildly inappropriate, overblown and verging on kitsch might be more to the point. Vulgar isn't a word heard often these days, but for once it applies."

"We all know Libeskind is capable of producing great architecture ... In Toronto, where his addition, the Crystal, is under construction at the Royal Ontario Museum, he is on his way to another triumph ... But if the drawings of Libeskind's design released this week are any indication, he would be well advised to try again."



Posted by Sebastian / September 28, 2005 /

A few good photos

I came across the web site "Streets and Soul" today, which is chock-full of interesting and revealing photos of Canada's biggest cities: Montreal and Toronto (pictured below).



Posted by Sebastian / September 27, 2005 /



No black-only schools for Toronto

Critics are joking that it has only taken Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty two years in office to make a firm decision on anything. And this week he made two. As evidence mounts that some black Canadians are falling behind their peers in Toronto schools and many are considering dropping out altogether, McGuinty shot down plans to create black-only public schools. "I'm not comfortable with that concept," he said. "I'm much more comfortable with the notion of bringing children from a variety of backgrounds together, and simulating the communities in which they're living and are going to have to grow up."

The Star editorializes that black-only schools are not the answer: "If our education system is failing black students — and every indicator suggests it is — the system must change. But segregation isn't the answer. Our challenge is to create schools where kids from all races can learn, together. We don't live in a segregated society. Segregated schools would ill prepare students to function in the world as it is."

His other move this week was to bar Sharia, or Islamic law, from being used to settle family and property disputes in the province. Supporters of the move, such as Rosie DiManno of the Star, said, "The time has come for Canadians to be weaned off the teat of multiculturalism as a primary source of sustenance and self-identity ... There is something wrong when Premier Dalton McGuinty is portrayed, at least by implication, as racist for asserting that secular courts cannot be used to uphold decisions on family law made through faith-based arbitration."

Posted by Sebastian / Sept. 17, 2005 /
 

Guns? What guns?

One-thousand gun and drug charges were laid in Toronto yesterday as the city ratcheted up crime prevention efforts after a murderous summer. While city officials look for someone to blame for their deadliest period in memory (there have been 57 killings this summer, versus 64 in all of 2004), they've been gazing southward to America, but the U.S. ambassador today offered up a proverbial, 'don't look at me.'

"Premier Dalton McGuinty repeatedly decries 'American guns on Canadian streets' and Toronto police chief Bill Blair says half the weapons used by criminals are smuggled from the U.S." While Ambassador Wilkins -- Remember him? He's he newly appointed envoy who had only been to Canada (Niagara Falls) once prior to his appointment -- denies, denies, and denies even further that U.S. guns are the culprit, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is opening up shop in Toronto.

Separately, the police chief reminded reporters that the city remains safe: "This may sound a little trite – and it’s difficult when you hear about a four-year-old child that was shot – to tell people that this is one of the safest cities in the world, but Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world."

Posted by Sebastian / September 16, 2005 /

Happy Birthday T-Dot City Hall

Architect Will Alsop once called Toronto "an incredibly ugly city," and today, the drab building that helped shape that image is celebrating its 40th birthday. The twin, curved towers of Toronto City Hall (below, right) are hideously ugly, and made even more so by its siting on the concrete slab known as Nathan Phillips Square (below, left). The city's far more gracious Old City Hall stands in the shadow of the Viljo Revell-modernist design, and is pictured here on the left.

According to the Globe, "Mr. Revell's sensual design, chosen from more than 500 entries to an international competition, shook Toronto out of its architectural slumber by legitimizing and bringing to the surface the undercurrent of new ideas ... when our city fathers gave it their official stamp of approval, they stated Toronto's intentions to the world."



Posted by Sebastian / September 13, 2005 /

No Islamic law for Ontario

A major political dogfight that has festered for months in Canada has drawn to a close. For now. One day after hundreds of thousands of people joined protests around the world to voice displeasure with Ontario's plan to allow Sharia, or Islamic law, to be used to resolve marital and property disputes in the province, Premier Dalton McGuinty shot back Sunday and said the religious laws will not be allowed on his watch. McGuinty's move ended months of speculation over whether or not Sharia would be allowed in Canada's most populous province.

Just last week it seemed Sharia would come to Canada after a top justice minister in Ontario said the government could not legally prevent its existence. The move would have made Ontario the only Western jurisdiction to allow Islamic law. Protests began to mount, with objectors saying Sharia would bring with it increased discrimination against women and an unconstitutional sanctioning of religion by the state.

The ban on Sharia means an inevitable prohibition on religious tribunals used by Christians, Jews, and other religious sects. The premier said Sunday, "I’ve come to the conclusion that the debate has gone on long enough. There will be no Sharia law in Ontario. There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario. There will be one law for all Ontarians."

Posted by Sebastian / September 12, 2005 /

Would you like a condo with your museum admission?

People who think the Museum of Fine Art's Malcolm Rogers is a bit nutty for the ways in which he is changing the institution may want to gaze westward and see what's going on in Toronto for some unusual perspective.

It seems the Royal Ontario Museum, which is the fifth-largest museum in North America, will replace their unused planetarium with a 46-storey condominium tower. Units will cost $3 million and go up to $50 million for the penthouse, a new high for the rapidly expanding city.

The ROM has an impressive new "Crystal Building" facade that will open next summer, but a substantial number of locals hate it and say it is out of character with the surrounding neighbourhood. This proposed new condo tower could build on the protracted opposition that has marred the Museum's renaissance plans -- it will be the tallest building around. Neighbours are lining up for a fight, saying "It's just over the top, it's too big, it's so tall."

Posted by Sebastian / September 10, 2005 /

Lover of gay bar owner arrested for murder

The lover of prominent Toronto gay bar owner Janko Naglic has been charged with his murder. Naglic, who owned The Barn, the city's longest-operating and now-shuttered gay bar, died last October by asphyxiation. Naglic was a well-known figure in Toronto, and as the Star reported, he "was as notorious in the gay community as the bar he ran." He was frequently cited for selling liquor after-hours and before his death alleged that he had been approached by a city official who said he could make his liquor license problems go away — for a price.

Rumours about Naglic's death have swirled around Toronto in the year since his death. As the manager of the Black Eagle, another Toronto gay bar, told the paper, "There are more stories than Quaker has oats about what was actually written in his will and who the heirs were to be, what various individuals stood to gain."

Posted by Sebastian / August 29, 2005 /

Toronto skyline world's 10th best

With its 1,623 high-rise structures, Toronto's dazzling skyline has placed 10th on a list of the world's 100 leading skylines. The ranking was based not on beauty but on height, of which there is no shortage in T.O. The web site Emporis assessed the "visual impact" of each city's skyline and assigned points to each based on the number of floors in buildings.

Hong Kong was rated the world's leading skyline, followed by New York, Seoul, Chicago, and Bangkok. Vancouver was #27 and Boston was #48.



Posted by Sebastian / August 25, 2005 /

Pulling the plug on 'rub and tug'
 
 The City of Toronto has decide to shut down 773A The Queensway, its most notorious 'Rub and Tug' holistic centre, now known to be an outlet of prostitution instead of therapeutic massage. Last week, as city inspectors inspected the joint during a routine walk-through, one city councillor on present said he saw sex taking place. "I saw a naked man on top of a naked woman on her back and he was having sex," said Peter Milczyn, the councillor. "He was thrusting."
 
But the massage attendant tried to explain away her actions by saying, "I was doing push-ups."
 
Earlier this year, the Toronto Star exposed the sham of Toronto's 'holistic' scene. Their investigation revealed that 75% of the city's holistic centres are "nothing more than brothels."
 
Posted by Sebastian / July 29, 2005 /
 

A new Four Seasons...across the street from the old one

Who would have ever thought I could use this vanity shot for anything relevant to my blog? Forty years after the first Four Seasons Hotel in the world opened in a "hookers' paradise" part of Toronto, the chain is taking cues from Starbucks' market saturation method, and building its latest property across the street from an existing one in Toronto's tony Yorkville neighborhood.

The luxury chain, which is still based in Toronto and has its flagship, often celebrity-packed hotel on Avenue Road, is building a second, $325 million hotel and luxury condominium development mere steps down the block.

The new hotel will become the chain's flagship and will allow Four Seasons to better compete with Ritz-Carlton Hotels, which is building a stunning, 53-storey landmark building closer to the Lake. They're both competing with the Donald, who is building a 72-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower downtown.

Posted by Sebastian / July 25, 2005 /

Loosen Up Toronto

No one ever blamed Toronto for being overly friendly. The city is not necessarily snobby (though Canadians seem to think so), but Canada's biggest city is truly shy and self-conscious.

One Torontonian named Jamie Shannon has taken exception to his city's reputation for not really smiling with the "Loosen Up Toronto" campaign that he hopes will enliven the city. He's started by suggesting that the city's hipsters "lose the disinterested scowl." (My God, he should visit Boston if he wants to see scowling.)

"Shannon thinks Toronto is a great city," according to a piece in the Star. "He stresses that. He was born and raised here, and loves the neighbourhoods and the diversity and everything else the city has to offer. But he travelled to other cities as a young man and realized that Torontonians, while industrious and earnest, are uptight."

The three steps to loosening up, according to Shannon's plan: 1) more eye contact; 2) more easygoing conversation between people who don't know each other; and 3) more cheering at concerts.

Posted by Sebastian / July 17, 2005 /

Let's try this again

Thursday marks the relaunch of a high speed ferry service linking Toronto to Rochester, across Lake Ontario. Keep your fingers crossed that this time it sticks around. Since its launch last year, the ferry has been plagued by operational and financial challenges as well as rich political strife -- not to mention the chatter among thousands of skeptical Torontonians who wonder why they'd ever want to sail over to Rochester, the third largest city in New York.

In the autumn of 2004, the ferry, which had been widely touted as the saving grace for Rochester's miniscule tourism base, abruptly shut down service after just three months plying the waters, citing major financial problems. Even before then, though, it had its launch delayed when the ferry rammed a pier in New York City during its delivery then barely fit through the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway en route to its new home port. The City of Rochester purchased the ferry at auction earlier this year and contracted with Bay Ferries, the operator of ferries in the Canadian Maritimes, to run the ship. "The Cat" aims to fly across the lake in about 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is comparable to the most recent Sebastian White drive from Rochester to the T-Dot (but a drive that should really take at least three).

Posted by Sebastian / June 30, 2005 /



Toronto Pride

It was a searing 34 degrees in Toronto (that's celsius, kids) this weekend as the scantily-clad masses hit Yonge Street in one of the world's largest pride celebrations.

"Pride Week in Toronto is a time when straight women can fill their eyes -- if not their arms -- with luscious, lip-licking, libidinous masculinity, running the entire gamut from he-man to girly-man variety," Rosie Dimanno writes for the Star. "None of whom, alas, gives a toss about us. The old adage that the best-looking guys are all gay never feels truer than during this annual celebration of all things queer." Another report on the weekend's festivities, which drew an estimated 1 million revelers, delineated three prides: the public, pelvic, and personal.

Check out my friend Joe's photo album on Canada.com; one of the best shots is of the pipes on Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, the nation's uber-liberals.

Speaking of politicos, Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper, who has made defeating same-sex marriage his raison d'etre, was in Toronto but did not join other Ottawa-insiders who marched in the parade. Instead, he took his son to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His party has conceded that they've exhausted all the means for defeating the legislation, which is expected to be enacted into law this week making Canada only the third nation in the world to offer full marriage equality.

Posted by Sebastian / June 27, 2005 /