If you guessed the trucks, but not really sure why, you’re absolutely correct! That’s a movie crew and those trucks are just sitting there like that with not a soul in sight. This is in a slightly sketchy neighbourhood, and people do sometimes help themselves to stuff they “find”. So that’s one.

Number two is the complete absence of people on the street. The aforementioned missing souls are missing from everywhere. I think we can chalk that one up to the cold.

The third, and I must admit not so easy to spot, thing wrong with the photo is that it was shot at the end of September, not today. See? Hard to spot.

But today was much like it looks in the picture. If you splashed a bit more yellow on the leaves and had steam coming up from sewers, this would be pretty accurate. And I still think it’s due to the cold.

It’s either that or my slight frame is getting even slighter. And I start to look emaciated at 170 pounds! So what else can I do but take it indoors again.

I hit the PATH from in front of the CN Tower and Convention Centre South building, which is in the lower left-hand corner of the map. That area gets windy and cold in the summer, and if it wasn’t for the brewery across the street, it’d be a completely desolate wasteland. With a big tower.

From there I shivered across the Skywalk to Union Station, tried to get warm as I made my way up through the Toronto-Dominion Centre, and did my best to thaw out as I headed east of First Canadian Place, north to Scotia Plaza, and then out to the intersection of Yonge and King through MetLife Place. Stopping every four steps to take a photo.

Outside, I was cold again. *sigh*

The Bay Adelaide Centre will be a nice addition. It’ll be the other main artery north and give me something new to look at while I try to lose the chills. My God, it’s still just October!

Okay, enough yammering. You know the drill, if you don’t have the Adobe Flash Player, get it here: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

If you can see the dark, grainy silhouette of the CN Tower with a big “play” button on it below, you’re good! Just hit that button but keep in mind that this is a 5 minute animation, so give it some time to transfer to your computer first. Feel like you need a pee break? Now’s the time

I think I’m going to need that Second Cup sponsorship if I’m to survive this winter. That fine, flavourful, and hot brew on a cold autumn morning, what could be better?

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I had to travel to the outskirts of Toronto and just a little bit beyond. International airliners were landing next door.

The trip was a bit too long for my liking but at least it gave me the opportunity to loiter in some of the subway stations on the west Bloor-Danforth line. Most of them are the same drab tile tinted a few mild shades … don’t wanna excite the passengers! Not all stations are like that, mind you. Old Mill is a bit more interesting (big!):

The problem with these open platforms is the winter. When it’s cold, it’s cold. Sometimes the tracks freeze, during storms the snow piles up on the edges and the platform ices up, and the shape of the structure seems to actually accelerate the wind as it passes through. And the ticket collector smiling all smug and warm from inside his little booth with his electric heater doesn’t help matters. Then the storm takes the power out. HA HA. Oh. Except now the trains aren’t running.

But at least the view’s nice. Some stations, like Spadina, are entirely enclosed but still connected to the outside; in this case, it’s because it’s a  loop for streetcars:

I imagine that at one time it was probably a pretty grand station. I remember it having two long motorized walkways that connected the north-south and east-west lines. It was so worth it to go one more station past St. George to Spadina to switch lines, even if at St. George the subways are just a flight of stairs away. Unfortunately, the Spadina people-movers are gone and the station’s in pretty rough shape besides. Why would I visit now? To walk down that big hallway? At least have a courtesy vehicle of some sort. Serving mildly alcoholic beverages and perhaps pretzels.

What makes Spadina especially bad is the fact that just a couple of stops down, the Museum stop is decked out to the nines:

They have nubile young women here that bathe and anoint your weary feet as you sit in wait for the next train. Libations flow from faucets in the columns. And if a train doesn’t come regularly every two minutes, they publicly execute the conductor responsible.

It’s a shame they couldn’t use some of that slave labour to fix up Spadina. I mean, if they want to try a passenger carrying service for that hallway, I’d be willing to hop on someone’s back, but I’d rather have the motorized walkway. It was always so much fun to stand there and watch people walking beside the walkway like suckers. You knew you were special then. Now, you’re lucky if they spit on you before they drive that screwdriver into your eyeball. I just wanted a transfer!

The subway could use a whole lotta facelift, is all I’m saying. I know I’ve said it before, but now I have to try to imagine spending three hours out of every day in there, and it’s not terribly appealing. So if there’s no alternative, the two gentlemen may have to discuss someone else’s qualifications.

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It’s also been an unusually traumatic week, what with Bill Carroll switching time slots and all. You can smell change in the air. And musty autumn leaves. And urine. Why’s it always urine?

But no matter. The proper urban rat knows all the warmest holes in the ground. In Toronto it happens to be a long-ish path known as, umm, PATH. I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be an acronym or what; not that it would jazz it up any.

Today, instead of writing a long post describing what’s there and blah blah blah, I thought I’d just invite you along for the walk. I am so thoughtful!

Just a couple of things before we get going. First, you’ll need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player installed. If you don’t have it: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ (no cost, no sign-up/strings, 100% legit — I promise!) But you might not even need to. If look below and you see the photo of Metro Hall with the big play button on it, you’re golden. Otherwise install and reload. Shouldn’t take more than a few seconds.

Second, you’re along for the walk! I think it runs about five minutes (about a quarter of the actual walk), and it’s a sort of flip-book animation, so give the pages some time to load. Grab a coffee and put on some cool music. (Hey I slapped this together in an evening; whaddya want?!)

Finally, if you must stop, you can just click on the movie to pause / unpause it. And right-click for extra options and creative ways to screw up the interface. But try to keep up, okay? I gotta write that TCL post tonight!

Oh, I almost forgot! We’re starting off at Metro Hall (heading east), veering north by Roy Thomson Hall, through St. Andrew Subway Station, slightly south through Standard Life and Toronto-Dominion, then north through First Canadian Place, up to the Sheraton Centre Hotel, across to The Hudson’s Bay Company, over Queen Street to the Eaton Centre, and finally ducking under Dundas Subway Station to come up in Toronto Life Square on the north side of Yonge-Dundas Square. Here’s a map: http://www.toronto.ca/path/pdf/path_brochure.pdf

Haha! Screw you, cold!

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As part of the application, they wanted me to present a number of topics I’d be willing to cover for them. I recall pitching a multi-part expose on local cannabis shops, something about Steve Mann, and the imminent Union Station Revitalization project. I say imminent because, at the time, I had this notion that City Hall operated quickly and that the project would be underway by summer. Like I said, naiver. (I know, “more naive”, but “naiver” is more correct.)

Luckily, I quickly wised up and this little outside endeavour came to a splattering halt. Then I forgot about it.

Today I got an official Toronto Council tweet that a vote had been taken on the project and that it was almost unanimously approved. Hang on, I thought, hadn’t they done that last year? Well, no, they approved the commissioning of a report.

I guess.

Because today’s vote was to “adopt” a part of that report. Is that Councilese for, “Thanks, just leave it in the cylindrical filing bin on your way out”?

So, let’s see what they “adopted”:

“Approve the Head Lessee named in Confiden…”

*yawn* I can already feel sweet sweet slumber caressing my eyelids. From the sentence or so that I managed, I think they voted to let the head business guy do his job. Or something. No mention of ground-breaking or anything.

You’d think they’d have a little urgency about it. I mean, Union Station is the transportation hub of Toronto:

I still have a little trouble picturing what they’re planning to do, but it sounds like they want to dig one level deeper under most of the station to create a shopping level and a separate pedestrian level:

Here’s the way it currently looks when viewed from about ten meters (thirty-two feet) to the left of the above picture:

It’s a bit of a shame, if you ask me. I mean, I know it’s a little dark and cave-y, but it’s got some character. Though I’ll grant that it’s not like the hall above it:

The only work done here will be restoration.

There’s also the highly-trafficked GO concourse, which will also get more headroom and a new splash of colour:

I’m neither here nor there about the current getup:

It gets busy, but it gets the job done. It’s practical. I couldn’t imagine any more from the current government. Any Canadian government, for that matter.

Artist’s renditions always look much better than the real world structure they represent. For example, have you seen those condo ads where the artist took the liberty of introducing casual pedestrian traffic and gentle greenery around the building? Except that when you see the area in person, you notice that the concept would actually be impossible without knocking down a few of the surrounding buildings. And they’re young and cocky and not about to be pushed around.

So my point is, if these visions of Union Station are already over-idealized, and I’m not really that jazzed about them, I probably shouldn’t be building up my expectations. Does that make me a cynic? Does it mean I’ll be pleasantly surprised when the renovations aren’t as bad as I thought they’d be? I like to think both, with a touch of mirthful glee thrown in because, no matter what, I’ll be right.

These are early days yet and who knows how many times the plans may change between now and 2011, when the work actually begins. Well, I say that like I know it for a fact. I don’t, but the current pace of progress would seem to suggest that date very strongly.

And then the following year it’ll be destroyed. All my hard-earned taxpayer money down the drain. Hahaha! I kid. It’s not hard-earned.

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Here is my accumulated trove from the past few days, complete with a likely reconstruction of the sequence in which they came out →

Aren’t they great? Each one a unique fuck up; some mis-cut, some mis-printed, and most that didn’t fully make it through the rollers. Then there’s Blue Mountain of messed up transfers, the double-print. Super gracias, TTC!

These will find a home somewhere on my shelf, lovingly enshrined in my homage to the quirks that make the city great. MiCkie Dick’s and towers don’t a shelf make nah more.

Should you care to brighten your own morning, visit the right-hand machine at the Dundas southbound subway platform, when it’s “fixed”. I’d be just chuffed to share your own sunny treasures here (comment or email, whatever floats your boat).