I would like to express sympathy for how especially difficult life is during Toronto's lockdown. I have put together the earlier visits to Toronto, with the exception of "West Of Toronto" which remains as a separate posting. During my life not too far away I have watched the amazing growth of this city. It seems that nearly everyone wants to live there.
The eastern part of Toronto is known as Scarborough. Here is a look around, starting at Scarborough Town Centre.
There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move onto the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7761893,-79.2565835,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sWTPVHcOHF-ztjeDsOuZOUA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DWTPVHcOHF-ztjeDsOuZOUA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D81.32722%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192
Proceeding downtown, some modern buildings that I have always admired are those of the Toronto Dominion Bank. They were the first tall buildings in downtown Toronto. I remember when the first two of these buildings are what could be seen of the skyline of Toronto, from a distance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:CN_Tempo_service_to_Sarnia.jpg
This is what the buildings look like from ground level:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:Mies_van_der_rohe_3-6-2006.jpg
This is the TD Centre from the CN Tower observation deck. The rest of the images are views around downtown.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6425409,-79.3888189,3a,15y,317.83h,74.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sSLjNFWFq_DU-9veMxBeUtA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Every large city has it's area of really expensive shopping. In Toronto, that area is known as Yorkville. The section of Bloor Street in this area is known as the "Mink Mile". The first of the following scenes are from the intersection of Bloor and Bay Streets, on the Mink Mile, looking into Yorkville. The rest of the scenes are from around the area:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6697242,-79.3894366,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sC6kPk8EJ7J_QLVIf-S4zHg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DC6kPk8EJ7J_QLVIf-S4zHg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D7.1668229%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
I want to celebrate the amazing growth of Toronto. The last I knew, the population of the Toronto metro area was about four million people. The news came that it's population has now passed six million. This is the city where everyone seems to want to live.
The tallest structure in Toronto is the CN Tower. The idea began as a radio antenna platform conceived by CN, Canadian National, the railroad company. This explains why there are railroad tracks not far from the base of the tower. From there, the idea developed into what was then the tallest structure in the world:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Toronto_Harbourfront7.jpg
The most visible sight in Toronto is the pod of the CN Tower, where the observation deck and revolving restaurant are located:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_CN_Tower_Turmkorb.jpg
The CN Tower was opened in 1976. I remember the news that it had surpassed the height of the Ostankino Tower in Moscow by a few meters to become the tallest structure in the world. Before that, I remember as a boy on a school trip by bus to the Ontario Science Centre, going past the tower under construction and watching structural pieces being brought to the top by helicopter.
Toronto's most important business is banking. It is the headquarters of Canada's "Big Five" banks. These are 1) Bank of Montreal 2) Toronto Dominion Bank (TD Bank) 3) Scotiabank 4) Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and, 5) Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). This is not necessarily their order in size or volume. Nearby is Bay Street, which is Canada's financial center.
Here is a photo looking toward the financial district from the CN Tower. The tall white building is First Canadian Place, home of the Bank of Montreal. The black skyscraper closer to the foreground is the home of Toronto Dominion Bank, including the two shorter identical black buildings next to it. The tall reddish building beyond the white One Canada Place, with the V inscribed in the structure of it's upper floors, is the Scotiabank Building. The mirror-like building, which is the fourth of the four tallest buildings in the photo, holds the headquarters of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The buildings to the right, with the stepped terraced upper stories, as well as the reddish reflective glass building, are where the local headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Toronto_From_CN_Tower.jpg
Great cities usually have a square which is right at the center of the city. The square with the fountains, where there is skating in the winter, is Nathan Phillips Square named for a former Toronto mayor. In this photo, the stone building on the right is the Old City Hall, still a significant structure in Toronto with it's clock tower, the two facing hemispheric buildings are the modern city hall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Phillips_Square#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Rathaus_und_Nathan_Phillips_Square.jpg
A view along Bay Street, Canada's financial center, leads to the clock tower of the Old City Hall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Street#/media/File:Bay_Street_May_2010.jpg
We also saw Toronto City Hall on the North America Travel Photo Blog. The reason that there are not more photos of Toronto on that blog is simply that I live close enough to Toronto that going there isn't really "traveling":
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/2.jpg
The Eaton Centre Shopping Mall, in downtown Toronto, is the busiest mall in North America. This mall was originally supposed to be larger, but there was resistance to razing Old City Hall and the adjacent Trinity Anglican Church. How many malls get a million visitors a week, and not just at Christmas?
Following are some images, starting at the Ontario Legislature, and proceeding to nearby universities, including the University of Toronto.
Many discoveries have been made at the University of Toronto. The best-known is the discovery of insulin, but it is believed to also be where stem cell research first began and where a practical electron microscope was first used. The university was instrumental in identifying Cygnus X-1 as the first identified black hole. A professor at the university, Marshall McLuhan, coined the widely-used therm "global village".
The area around here is known as the "Discovery District", due to the universities, research hospitals and museums. The museums include the ROM, the Royal Ontario Museum. This area also brings back childhood memories because, when we first landed in Canada in the late 1960s, my brother was deaf and went for treatments at the Hospital For Sick Children.
Toronto is the largest city in Canada, but not the capital of the country. It is the provincial capital of Ontario. The red stone building in the images is the Legislature at Queen's Park, the downtown Ontario Government complex. It is called Queen's Park because that is the name of the park next to it. Notice the similarity in the red sandstone structures of the Ontario Legislature Building and the Old City Hall, seen above.:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6618924,-79.3913047,3a,75y,328.87h,103.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZGa-FLJKwT7NCpg6sw63Rg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Downtown is not all modern skyscrapers. Two widely-known older buildings are Union Station, for trains and linking to the subway system, and the Royal York Hotel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto)#/media/File:Union_Station,_Toronto_(30427373561).jpg
Like the nearby CN Tower, the Royal York Hotel was the project of a railroad company, to give travelers a nice place to stay, in this case Canadian Pacific (CP). It was opened in 1929, and serves as the residence of the royal family when visiting Toronto. The two black buildings immediately to the right of the Royal York Hotel are part of the Toronto Dominion Bank Complex, described above. The reddish section of building to the far right of the photo is the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Royal_York_Hotel.jpg
One of the most famous food marketplaces in the world is the St. Lawrence market, in the oldest section of Toronto near Lake Ontario. This was actually the location of Toronto's original city hall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lawrence_Market#/media/File:St._Lawrence_Market_(Unsplash).jpg
Following are some images around the Old Town area of the St. Lawrence Market. In the first image, there is something of interest to older residents of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Does anyone remember the Clifton Memorial Arch, near the falls? I remember it when I first landed nearby as a boy. It was removed in 1968 after it was decided that it was a hindrance to traffic. I found out that the circular medallions, on opposite sides at the top of the arch, were removed before it was demolished. These two circular medallions are now mounted together on Front Street, diagonally opposite the St. Lawrence market. Look at the circular image of a ship on the sunlit side of the arch, near the top, in the upper right corner of the photo. To see this, you will have to enlarge the photo by pressing the "+" sign several times:
http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?id=380332&b=1
Now, look at the circular medallion of a ship, mounted on the sidewalk on Front Street. The brick St. Lawrence Market is on the diagonal opposite side of the intersection with Jarvis Street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6497163,-79.3715867,3a,37.5y,82.39h,84.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spQ5mn_2AxM9mrcv5cdGb0w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Many cities have claimed to have had the first system of electric streetcars, including Toronto. At any rate, Toronto today definitely has the largest system of electric streetcars in use in North America.
The one disadvantage of Toronto is, of course, the winter. Many people may not know that Toronto has actually solved that. There is what is believed to the the most extensive underground city in the world, known as PATH. Most of the tall buildings have shops, cafes and, restaurants at the lower level, below ground. All of these, as well as the malls, are linked by below-ground walkways. One can spend all day going around the stores within PATH, and scarcely be aware that it is winter. The same can be said for the heat of the summer. It may actually be better than walking on the surface because there is no vehicular traffic.
The tallest structure in Toronto is the CN Tower. The idea began as a radio antenna platform conceived by CN, Canadian National, the railroad company. This explains why there are railroad tracks not far from the base of the tower. From there, the idea developed into what was then the tallest structure in the world:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Toronto_Harbourfront7.jpg
The most visible sight in Toronto is the pod of the CN Tower, where the observation deck and revolving restaurant are located:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_CN_Tower_Turmkorb.jpg
The CN Tower was opened in 1976. I remember the news that it had surpassed the height of the Ostankino Tower in Moscow by a few meters to become the tallest structure in the world. Before that, I remember as a boy on a school trip by bus to the Ontario Science Centre, going past the tower under construction and watching structural pieces being brought to the top by helicopter.
Toronto's most important business is banking. It is the headquarters of Canada's "Big Five" banks. These are 1) Bank of Montreal 2) Toronto Dominion Bank (TD Bank) 3) Scotiabank 4) Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and, 5) Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). This is not necessarily their order in size or volume. Nearby is Bay Street, which is Canada's financial center.
Here is a photo looking toward the financial district from the CN Tower. The tall white building is First Canadian Place, home of the Bank of Montreal. The black skyscraper closer to the foreground is the home of Toronto Dominion Bank, including the two shorter identical black buildings next to it. The tall reddish building beyond the white One Canada Place, with the V inscribed in the structure of it's upper floors, is the Scotiabank Building. The mirror-like building, which is the fourth of the four tallest buildings in the photo, holds the headquarters of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC). The buildings to the right, with the stepped terraced upper stories, as well as the reddish reflective glass building, are where the local headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Toronto_From_CN_Tower.jpg
Great cities usually have a square which is right at the center of the city. The square with the fountains, where there is skating in the winter, is Nathan Phillips Square named for a former Toronto mayor. In this photo, the stone building on the right is the Old City Hall, still a significant structure in Toronto with it's clock tower, the two facing hemispheric buildings are the modern city hall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Phillips_Square#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Rathaus_und_Nathan_Phillips_Square.jpg
A view along Bay Street, Canada's financial center, leads to the clock tower of the Old City Hall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Street#/media/File:Bay_Street_May_2010.jpg
We also saw Toronto City Hall on the North America Travel Photo Blog. The reason that there are not more photos of Toronto on that blog is simply that I live close enough to Toronto that going there isn't really "traveling":
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/2.jpg
The Eaton Centre Shopping Mall, in downtown Toronto, is the busiest mall in North America. This mall was originally supposed to be larger, but there was resistance to razing Old City Hall and the adjacent Trinity Anglican Church. How many malls get a million visitors a week, and not just at Christmas?
Following are some images, starting at the Ontario Legislature, and proceeding to nearby universities, including the University of Toronto.
Many discoveries have been made at the University of Toronto. The best-known is the discovery of insulin, but it is believed to also be where stem cell research first began and where a practical electron microscope was first used. The university was instrumental in identifying Cygnus X-1 as the first identified black hole. A professor at the university, Marshall McLuhan, coined the widely-used therm "global village".
The area around here is known as the "Discovery District", due to the universities, research hospitals and museums. The museums include the ROM, the Royal Ontario Museum. This area also brings back childhood memories because, when we first landed in Canada in the late 1960s, my brother was deaf and went for treatments at the Hospital For Sick Children.
Toronto is the largest city in Canada, but not the capital of the country. It is the provincial capital of Ontario. The red stone building in the images is the Legislature at Queen's Park, the downtown Ontario Government complex. It is called Queen's Park because that is the name of the park next to it. Notice the similarity in the red sandstone structures of the Ontario Legislature Building and the Old City Hall, seen above.:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6618924,-79.3913047,3a,75y,328.87h,103.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZGa-FLJKwT7NCpg6sw63Rg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Downtown is not all modern skyscrapers. Two widely-known older buildings are Union Station, for trains and linking to the subway system, and the Royal York Hotel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto)#/media/File:Union_Station,_Toronto_(30427373561).jpg
Like the nearby CN Tower, the Royal York Hotel was the project of a railroad company, to give travelers a nice place to stay, in this case Canadian Pacific (CP). It was opened in 1929, and serves as the residence of the royal family when visiting Toronto. The two black buildings immediately to the right of the Royal York Hotel are part of the Toronto Dominion Bank Complex, described above. The reddish section of building to the far right of the photo is the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairmont_Royal_York#/media/File:Toronto_-_ON_-_Royal_York_Hotel.jpg
One of the most famous food marketplaces in the world is the St. Lawrence market, in the oldest section of Toronto near Lake Ontario. This was actually the location of Toronto's original city hall:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lawrence_Market#/media/File:St._Lawrence_Market_(Unsplash).jpg
Following are some images around the Old Town area of the St. Lawrence Market. In the first image, there is something of interest to older residents of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Does anyone remember the Clifton Memorial Arch, near the falls? I remember it when I first landed nearby as a boy. It was removed in 1968 after it was decided that it was a hindrance to traffic. I found out that the circular medallions, on opposite sides at the top of the arch, were removed before it was demolished. These two circular medallions are now mounted together on Front Street, diagonally opposite the St. Lawrence market. Look at the circular image of a ship on the sunlit side of the arch, near the top, in the upper right corner of the photo. To see this, you will have to enlarge the photo by pressing the "+" sign several times:
http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?id=380332&b=1
Now, look at the circular medallion of a ship, mounted on the sidewalk on Front Street. The brick St. Lawrence Market is on the diagonal opposite side of the intersection with Jarvis Street:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6497163,-79.3715867,3a,37.5y,82.39h,84.9t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spQ5mn_2AxM9mrcv5cdGb0w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Many cities have claimed to have had the first system of electric streetcars, including Toronto. At any rate, Toronto today definitely has the largest system of electric streetcars in use in North America.
The one disadvantage of Toronto is, of course, the winter. Many people may not know that Toronto has actually solved that. There is what is believed to the the most extensive underground city in the world, known as PATH. Most of the tall buildings have shops, cafes and, restaurants at the lower level, below ground. All of these, as well as the malls, are linked by below-ground walkways. One can spend all day going around the stores within PATH, and scarcely be aware that it is winter. The same can be said for the heat of the summer. It may actually be better than walking on the surface because there is no vehicular traffic.
I have never spent much time in PATH, simply because I usually go to Toronto on a nice day and there is no reason to spend the time below ground, but this system is really incredible and is easy to access by the subway.
The best-known street in Toronto is the north-south Yonge Street. Not many individual streets are known across the world, and this is one of them. I read that Yonge Street was actually named for a Canadian expert on ancient Roman roads. Just to the left of where that photo was taken is another downtown square, around which Toronto revolves, Yonge-Dundas Square. Here is a scene of that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonge-Dundas_Square#/media/File:Dundas_Squire_Evening_Saturday.jpg
Just about every major ethnic group in the world has a neighborhood in Toronto. The most visible is Chinatown, west of Yonge Street and the Eaton Centre, although this is not the only Chinatown in Toronto:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Toronto#/media/File:Chinatown_toronto_spadina_avenue.JPG
Following are some images of Casa Loma and the older Toronto neighborhoods around it. Of Course, Casa Loma is not a "real" castle from medieval times, but it must have been what a great castle would have been like back then.
You know that you are in Toronto when you see older homes of the "Bay and Gable" design. I have not seen this home structural design anywhere else, the two-story bay windows capped by the gabled roof. This is in the Annex, a neighborhood adjacent to Toronto University that is home to many students and faculty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay-and-gable#/media/File:Bay-and-gable_2.JPG
Here is starting inside Casa Loma, and the surrounding area:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6780646,-79.4094724,3a,75y,57.05h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s69lc5T_XAQ6oF1PLx-xpbg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D69lc5T_XAQ6oF1PLx-xpbg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D48.133572%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Every city has it's neighborhood of mansions, of people who made a fortune in one way or another. Central Toronto's such area is Rosedale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedale,_Toronto#/media/File:Rosedale_Park_playground.JPG
Both World Wars were followed by settlement of planned communities in central Toronto. After the First World War, it was Leaside:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaside#/media/File:Leaside.jpg
After the Second World War, it was Don Mills. In the U.S., Levittown, NY, and then a second Levittown in Pennsylvania, became the prototypes for postwar suburban development. I think of Don Mills as fulfilling a similar postwar suburban development prototype for Toronto, and the rest of Canada:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Mills#/media/File:Don_Mills_homes.JPG
Here is something that I find really amazing. Have you ever wondered what the definition of the word "progress" is? Well, here is a definition of progress in three photographs.
This is downtown Toronto in 1970. The two modern black buildings are the complex of the Toronto Dominion Bank, that we saw above. The green-topped building to their right is the Royal York Hotel. The photo of the rail tracks is taken from near where the CN Tower will soon be built. You can see "CN" on the rail cars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:CN_Tempo_service_to_Sarnia.jpg
Next, here is a photo, from the North America travel photo blog, that I took from the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in 1989, 19 years after the above photo was taken. If you pick out the two black Toronto Dominion buildings, near the center of the photo, you can see that a third and shorter Toronto Dominion building has been added. The taller light-colored building immediately left of the Toronto Dominion buildings is First Canadian Place, the home of the Bank of Montreal. Showing in the background is the reddish Scotiabank building, with the "V"-shape inscribed into it's upper floors. To the right of all this is, of course, the CN Tower, and all around are other tall buildings that were not there 19 years before. If you look closely, you can see the pointed top of the Royal York Hotel, between the Toronto Dominion buildings and the CN Tower:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/4.jpg
Now, look at this more recent photo. The white First Canadian Place building, with the Bank of Montreal, is there, as are the black buildings of the Toronto Dominion Complex, to it's right. In the background is the reddish Scotiabank building, with the V-shape inscribed into it's upper floors. The stone structure of the Royal York Hotel, with it's green-peaked roof, can be seen in the lower left of the photo. But there are an incredible number of modern buildings that were not there in 1989. This is progress, Toronto-style:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Toronto_From_CN_Tower.jpg
The best-known street in Toronto is the north-south Yonge Street. Not many individual streets are known across the world, and this is one of them. I read that Yonge Street was actually named for a Canadian expert on ancient Roman roads. Just to the left of where that photo was taken is another downtown square, around which Toronto revolves, Yonge-Dundas Square. Here is a scene of that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yonge-Dundas_Square#/media/File:Dundas_Squire_Evening_Saturday.jpg
Just about every major ethnic group in the world has a neighborhood in Toronto. The most visible is Chinatown, west of Yonge Street and the Eaton Centre, although this is not the only Chinatown in Toronto:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Toronto#/media/File:Chinatown_toronto_spadina_avenue.JPG
Following are some images of Casa Loma and the older Toronto neighborhoods around it. Of Course, Casa Loma is not a "real" castle from medieval times, but it must have been what a great castle would have been like back then.
You know that you are in Toronto when you see older homes of the "Bay and Gable" design. I have not seen this home structural design anywhere else, the two-story bay windows capped by the gabled roof. This is in the Annex, a neighborhood adjacent to Toronto University that is home to many students and faculty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay-and-gable#/media/File:Bay-and-gable_2.JPG
Here is starting inside Casa Loma, and the surrounding area:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6780646,-79.4094724,3a,75y,57.05h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s69lc5T_XAQ6oF1PLx-xpbg!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D69lc5T_XAQ6oF1PLx-xpbg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D48.133572%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Every city has it's neighborhood of mansions, of people who made a fortune in one way or another. Central Toronto's such area is Rosedale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosedale,_Toronto#/media/File:Rosedale_Park_playground.JPG
Both World Wars were followed by settlement of planned communities in central Toronto. After the First World War, it was Leaside:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaside#/media/File:Leaside.jpg
After the Second World War, it was Don Mills. In the U.S., Levittown, NY, and then a second Levittown in Pennsylvania, became the prototypes for postwar suburban development. I think of Don Mills as fulfilling a similar postwar suburban development prototype for Toronto, and the rest of Canada:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Mills#/media/File:Don_Mills_homes.JPG
Here is something that I find really amazing. Have you ever wondered what the definition of the word "progress" is? Well, here is a definition of progress in three photographs.
This is downtown Toronto in 1970. The two modern black buildings are the complex of the Toronto Dominion Bank, that we saw above. The green-topped building to their right is the Royal York Hotel. The photo of the rail tracks is taken from near where the CN Tower will soon be built. You can see "CN" on the rail cars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#/media/File:CN_Tempo_service_to_Sarnia.jpg
Next, here is a photo, from the North America travel photo blog, that I took from the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) in 1989, 19 years after the above photo was taken. If you pick out the two black Toronto Dominion buildings, near the center of the photo, you can see that a third and shorter Toronto Dominion building has been added. The taller light-colored building immediately left of the Toronto Dominion buildings is First Canadian Place, the home of the Bank of Montreal. Showing in the background is the reddish Scotiabank building, with the "V"-shape inscribed into it's upper floors. To the right of all this is, of course, the CN Tower, and all around are other tall buildings that were not there 19 years before. If you look closely, you can see the pointed top of the Royal York Hotel, between the Toronto Dominion buildings and the CN Tower:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5492/3756/1600/4.jpg
Now, look at this more recent photo. The white First Canadian Place building, with the Bank of Montreal, is there, as are the black buildings of the Toronto Dominion Complex, to it's right. In the background is the reddish Scotiabank building, with the V-shape inscribed into it's upper floors. The stone structure of the Royal York Hotel, with it's green-peaked roof, can be seen in the lower left of the photo. But there are an incredible number of modern buildings that were not there in 1989. This is progress, Toronto-style:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Downtown_Toronto_From_CN_Tower.jpg
NORTH YORK
In the postwar period, as the Baby Boom generation emerged, what we could describe as a "new" Toronto, to the north of the city, also emerged. The city had to grow to support the burgeoning population and immigration, but Lake Ontario blocked expansion to the south. This new, mostly postwar, version of Toronto is known as North York.
In the postwar period, as the Baby Boom generation emerged, what we could describe as a "new" Toronto, to the north of the city, also emerged. The city had to grow to support the burgeoning population and immigration, but Lake Ontario blocked expansion to the south. This new, mostly postwar, version of Toronto is known as North York.
The reason that the name of "York" is to be seen all over Toronto is that was the original name of the city, starting with Fort York. I believe that the name was changed to differentiate it from New York City. The House of Lancaster may have defeated the House of York in the "War of the Roses", that ended the Plantagenet era, but the House of York has been much more successful since then at getting it's name everywhere.
Different countries had their own ways of managing the necessary postwar development, to accommodate the Baby Boom. America built it's prototype postwar suburb in Levittown, New York, and then the second Levittown in Pennsylvania. Britain established the prototype postwar "new town" in Milton Keynes. Toronto seems to have used both concepts in the growth of North York.
From the top of the CN Tower downtown, the skyline of another city can be seen to the north. That is North York, although since the sweeping municipal amalgamation of 1998 it has administratively been part of Toronto. By some accounts Highway 401, where it passes through North York, is the busiest section of highway in North America.
Like any city, North York has it's wealthy areas, as well as those that are somewhat less than wealthy. The center of wealth in North York is around the York Mills area. The areas to the northwest, Lawrence Heights and especially Jane-Finch are perceived as less fortunate, although I do not believe that the Jane-Finch area deserves anything like the rap it sometimes gets.
These buildings are a familiar sight from the Don Valley Parkway, through North York:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park#/media/File:The_Palisades.jpg
The outside of the Ontario Science Centre reminds me of youthful school outings there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Science_Centre#/media/File:0OSC_Sept23_06.jpg
Let's start our look at North York at the intersection of Yonge Street and Bishop Avenue, which is where both Finch Metro Station and Finch Bus Station are located.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7816823,-79.4158463,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHislTpB_jjnzh6pRJ9kfig!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DHislTpB_jjnzh6pRJ9kfig%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D304.58841%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Moving westward, let's have another look beginning outside the Yorkdale Mall:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7263103,-79.4521981,3a,75y,184.13h,87.87t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s_Jz7lFIjx30AAAQJOMDjTg!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656
Here are some views of York University, starting in the Student Centre:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7739005,-79.5030816,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s2Jo3GGSrioYAAAQvOdjbdg!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D2Jo3GGSrioYAAAQvOdjbdg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D64.624062%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Finally Jane-Finch, named for the intersection of Jane Street and Finch Avenue, has the housing towers seen in many North York neighbourhoods, but looks like a nice place to me. Here are some scenes of the area, starting in the Jane-Finch Mall:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7558776,-79.5157189,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s7nyAM4rRrpoAAAQfDmzs4A!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D7nyAM4rRrpoAAAQfDmzs4A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D24.754307%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Different countries had their own ways of managing the necessary postwar development, to accommodate the Baby Boom. America built it's prototype postwar suburb in Levittown, New York, and then the second Levittown in Pennsylvania. Britain established the prototype postwar "new town" in Milton Keynes. Toronto seems to have used both concepts in the growth of North York.
From the top of the CN Tower downtown, the skyline of another city can be seen to the north. That is North York, although since the sweeping municipal amalgamation of 1998 it has administratively been part of Toronto. By some accounts Highway 401, where it passes through North York, is the busiest section of highway in North America.
Like any city, North York has it's wealthy areas, as well as those that are somewhat less than wealthy. The center of wealth in North York is around the York Mills area. The areas to the northwest, Lawrence Heights and especially Jane-Finch are perceived as less fortunate, although I do not believe that the Jane-Finch area deserves anything like the rap it sometimes gets.
These buildings are a familiar sight from the Don Valley Parkway, through North York:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemingdon_Park#/media/File:The_Palisades.jpg
The outside of the Ontario Science Centre reminds me of youthful school outings there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Science_Centre#/media/File:0OSC_Sept23_06.jpg
Let's start our look at North York at the intersection of Yonge Street and Bishop Avenue, which is where both Finch Metro Station and Finch Bus Station are located.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7816823,-79.4158463,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sHislTpB_jjnzh6pRJ9kfig!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DHislTpB_jjnzh6pRJ9kfig%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D304.58841%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Moving westward, let's have another look beginning outside the Yorkdale Mall:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7263103,-79.4521981,3a,75y,184.13h,87.87t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s_Jz7lFIjx30AAAQJOMDjTg!2e0!3e2!7i13312!8i6656
Here are some views of York University, starting in the Student Centre:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7739005,-79.5030816,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s2Jo3GGSrioYAAAQvOdjbdg!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D2Jo3GGSrioYAAAQvOdjbdg%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D64.624062%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
Finally Jane-Finch, named for the intersection of Jane Street and Finch Avenue, has the housing towers seen in many North York neighbourhoods, but looks like a nice place to me. Here are some scenes of the area, starting in the Jane-Finch Mall:
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.7558776,-79.5157189,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s7nyAM4rRrpoAAAQfDmzs4A!2e0!3e2!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D7nyAM4rRrpoAAAQfDmzs4A%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D24.754307%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
#/media/File:Union_Station,_Toronto_(30427373561).jpg){kind=link}
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