Rooftop garden!
Posted on May 11th, 2010 –
Every now and again, when people learn about what I do (did), they ask me earnestly why I’d choose to stay in Toronto.
Easy to answer: it’s an awesome city. As soon as the right people are at the helm at City Hall, it’ll be truly world-class. In some ways the city is already busting at the seams in this regard, it’s simply the government that keeps reining it in.
Election day is coming and, regardless of this, the city is blooming with construction, flowers, and lovely ladies. And as I’m sure I’ve mentioned, I’ve seen a good selection of cities; enough to know that I haven’t seen nearly enough. Toronto isn’t the cheapest, or the cleanest, or the busiest, or the biggest, but it’s also not the dirtiest, most boring, barren, or small by any means. Any tourists that complain about deficiencies in these areas are, well, tourists. The city’s way bigger than that (have you see how little I’ve covered in TCLand?), and growing by leaps and bounds. Frickin’ jackhammer outside my window right now, in fact.
With so much growth it’s extremely important to keep a steady vision otherwise it could get real messy. Here’s a great example: the new designs recently unveiled for the new north hall of St. Lawrence Market. The market has been around since basically Toronto’s been here but the north hall, which to me resembles a stripped-down school gymnasium, is much newer. On Saturdays local growers truck in their produce and on Sundays it’s an antique market.
I know I’ve probably mentioned this before but I know that many people don’t get a chance to visit that area, so to help you out I’ve taken photos from approximately the same locations as in the literature. That way you can see the before and proposed-after shots.
The design teams for the north hall project are split up into five colours but obviously the orange team is the best. A rooftop garden? Hells yeah!
Anyhow, here they are, winner to be decided by committee. :(
Blue Team
Red Team
Yellow Team
Green Team
Orange Team
Plus Toronto reciprocates your admiration. Yes, it’s the city that loves you back.
Yesterday I started browsing through the fine and intelligent people who chose to follow me on Twitter over the past year and I was a little surprised to find who I discovered: John Moore from Newstalk1010, my (currently) all-day radio station, clicked on my tickle spot. Today it was Theo Tams, a Sony-sponsored musician who seems to have some talent. Before that it was my main man Furious George and his team (high-fived myself that time), then city Councillor and Budget Chief Shelley Carrol, Federal Liberal Party and Opposition leader Michael Ignatieff, the Toronto District School Board, MTV Canada, Mushy Pony, Toronto Pride, Nuit Blanche, The Distillery District, BuskerFest, Harbourfront Centre, Scarborough Music Theatre, and Orangina Canada (yum). And a few other people and orgs I missed.
And I didn’t even force any of them.
P.S. How many panorama stitching errors did you spot in the orange team “before” shot? :)
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May 11th, 2010 2:01 pm
i love toronto too!.. New York City is a fun place to visit and to see but the quality of life and the heart of canadians are in toronto.
May 11th, 2010 2:09 pm
Damn straight, Karl! :D
May 11th, 2010 8:23 pm
It's patrick
hes taken out life insurance !!!!
At your age do you have to take a medical ???
remember that commercial bud :)
May 12th, 2010 4:56 am
Yes I do, Anonymous. Sadly it's been following me most of my life. Yes, for God's sake, I have life insurance!! :)
May 12th, 2010 7:07 am
No offense but I think they are all butt-ugly.
May 12th, 2010 9:09 am
None taken, Grace. In fact, I'd agree with you 4 out of 5 times. :)