My Toronto is not the mayor - part six

Toronto (pronounced locally as 'Tronna') is a modern, go-ahead city, not lacking in amenities.

As with all places, we have our pretensions and Torontonians are as acquisitive as anyone ...

... helped by firms eager to sell us something we didn't know we needed. 

Even stores have pretensions (the Champs Elysées this ain't). Here the proprietor offers a useful pronunciation guide.

Shopping in Toronto is delightfully cosmopolitan ...

... if you can't read it, click on the picture and appreciate the sign.

Honest Ed's is a soon-to-be-closed Toronto shopping institution. Founded in 1948, it's catered to decades of immigrants, hard up students and, increasingly, middle class, even upper class, shoppers who come to revel in nostalgia. Selling clothes, kitchenware, food, shoes, artificial flowers, pharmaceuticals, hardware, in fact, virtually everything, the store cannot be replaced in the hearts of generations. Not even by Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton and Burberry, a few blocks from here.

Along with your milk, eggs and a bedside clock, you can buy the Last Supper or - look closely - a plaque for a Muslim home.

Don't laugh at Honest Ed's, it's made a fortune. So much that the late owner, Ed Mirvish, became Canada's leading theatrical impresario, had two major Toronto playhouses and bought London's historic Old Vic. 

Last Supper reproductions may not be everyone's taste, nor this Toronto house ...

... but you can't fault a city that takes care of its pets.

Torontonians are generally a happy lot ...

... we have our hobbies and clubs ...

... and we like to have fun ...

... we're certainly not unaware of popular entertainment (worth clicking on) ...

... and we bravely claim that autumn is the best season. Well, everyone but me says that fall is best.

More seriously, this is not to say we don't have problems, skid rows, deprivation, racism, inequality and anger.

In 2010, against much advice, the Canadian government hosted world leaders downtown. Much of the core, including Toronto's best-known symbol, was sealed off. Predictably, there were disturbances, but the rioting was worse than anyone, including the police, had anticipated or for which they were prepared. More than a thousand were arrested. The police reaction was heavy-handed and much criticized.

Many stores, including the usual suspects, were trashed. 

I include this because it simply highlights that, normally, this is a very safe city. Living close to the core, I walk the streets at night without concern.

With blips, we are an increasingly tolerant place. Below, a new Canadian, with national and Ontario flags, passes a Toronto war memorial. He's looking at Canadian troops, mainly white, going 'over the top' in the Great War. Toronto is now one of the planet's most multicultural cities. I like to think that this man, whose face we cannot clearly see, but is likely South Asian, suggests something good, something hopeful, about the present and future of my city and country.

Long before Brokeback Mountain, this beer advertisement was in Toronto's 'gay village'.

July 1, Canada Day ...

Two final things: make sure to come to Toronto before Honest Ed's closes December 31, 2016. I mean, how can you not shop in a place where a Napoleon clock sells for $9.99?

And remember, despite the headlines, my Toronto is not the mayor. That means any mayor, not only this mayor.

All pictures in this posting, and the previous five, are mine, but for the 1950s postcard in part two.

__________________________

(September 12 update: After more months of civic turmoil, Mayor Rob Ford today withdrew from the 2014 mayoralty race. This was less than an hour before the deadline for his name being on the ballot. Two days ago, he checked into hospital with a large tumour. It's an indication of the international quality of this story that his decision not to run was headlined on the BBC news website, just under the Oscar Pistorius verdict and US sanctions on Russia.

With the mayor uncertain of his health, his brother has been delegated to run in his place. Although less controversial than the mayor, Doug Ford is no stranger to criticism.

My intention is not to be disrespectful or callous at a very difficult time for Rob Ford and his family. These postings, drafted before he went into hospital, were always about my Toronto, not the mayor.)

My Toronto is not the mayor - part five

No Smithsonian or Louvre or Albert Hall, but we aren't entirely without possibilities. By some estimates, this is the biggest live theatre city after London and New York. Toronto has one of the world's most influential film festivals and and is North America's third busiest movie production centre. Think Chicago, Good Will Hunting, Hairspray and, if honest, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.

The Toronto of my teenage years was a culturally conservative backwater. Oh, we did have Marshall ('The medium is the message') McLuhan. Now, it's almost a surprise to find that Toronto's hip, cool and internationally fashionable. Certainly, it seems hard to turn a corner without coming across either a film set or some sort of fashion or promotional photography going on.

There's plenty of public art. The full size elephant is a personal favourite.

Seen by thousands of shoppers every day, a flock of Canada Geese flaps through the Eaton Centre. Flying in a 'V', the real ones are majestic. On the ground, they're thuggish and aggressive and, well, just not Canadian.

In the Toronto Sculpture Garden, an artist works on a sleuth (bet you didn't know that) of bears. 

This is an artist's studio. If really interested, Google 'Toronto Sculpture Garden Mushroom Studio'.

Massey Hall, once the Toronto's Symphony's home, opened in 1894. It's Canada's oldest performing arts theatre and reputed to have excellent acoustics. Among those who've performed here were Paderewski, Caruso, Pavarotti and Maria Callas. Winston Churchill also appeared at Massey Hall, although I suspect he didn't sing.

El Mocombo has been frequented by the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Costello and U2. 

No more, but the sign's still here. Johnny Cash, Harrison Ford and Leonard Cohen patronized Club Matador.

If clubs don't appeal, Toronto, in the warmer months, is awash with public performances. There are so many street festivals, politicians and police are regularly criticized by irate motorists. Of course, many of those motorists later park their cars and attend other festivals. 

In my neighbourhood, a group breaks from a pub gig to perform on the sidewalk.

Across the street from my living room, rooftop entertainment. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear because of the traffic.

A passerby plays a public piano.

People's Chicken (I think the name has changed) offers live music. The food varies, but the bands have been great. And I like the rooftop Chicken.

In-your-face graffiti is an irritating, but certainly not major, Toronto problem. However, in older parts, lanes behind houses become unintended free canvases. Tours are run to inspect unusual art usually unseen but for those with newly decorated garages. Respectable, middle-class citizens, who'd go berserk at the merest hint of graffiti on their own fences, cluster 'round guides and make appreciative comments about street art.

For those who prefer more formal presentations, the Art Gallery of Ontario (there's a picture in 'My Toronto is not the mayor - part four') has a major Henry Moore collection, some nine hundred sculptures and works on paper. The British artist gifted them to the AGO.

The Royal Ontario Museum - next to the city's planetarium seen below- has one of the West's largest collections of East Asian art and artifacts. I've included the planetarium because, by the time you visit, it might no longer exist. It closed in 1995, which seems a pity given advances in space and knowledge of the universe over the past two decades. The site seems likely to become a new cultural complex.

The planetarium may vanish, but this already has. In a quiet underpass near the University of Toronto, the nod to knowledge has been painted over. I was quite fond of it.

On the other hand, I'm pleased that this work, on the side of a railway bridge not far from me, remains.

Ernest Hemingway was a Toronto Star reporter in the early 1920s. It would be fair to say that, after Europe, Toronto was not the most exciting or stimulating of towns. In fact, for Hemingway, it was boring and, to make a long and complicated story short, he returned to Paris.

In 1961 Toronto, the Irish dramatist Brendan Behan got drunk, bopped a hotel employee, was arrested and fined. Unimpressed with local liquor laws, he departed. However, he did state, 'Toronto will be a fine town when it's finished'.

I like to think Toronto, although unfinished, has improved. Why, you can even drink in outdoor cafes, something unimaginable when Brendan was getting sloshed. And who couldn't love a city that has a bicycle decorating competition on its main street? Not highbrow, but culture, indeed!