Embrace your inner flâneur

EYE Weekly columnist Shawn Micallef has just launched a rather peculiar book about his experience walking around Toronto. Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto showcases this city in a refreshing approach illustrating its metropolitan beauty rarely appreciated by its inhabitants.

Micallef articulates a view of Toronto I've always identified with as someone who's grown up here and sees her hometown bashed or ignored far too often. Those who know and see Toronto's unique allure are those who quietly explore its many wonders. As he writes:

Since Toronto seems to exist without design or reason, we don't expect to turn the corner and see beauty or be amazed. Canadians from coast to coast are taught to hate Toronto, even if they can't always articulate why. But when you ask Torontonians about their city, why are so many people genuinely amazed about being Torontonian? ... Any Toronto flâneur knows that exploring this city makes the burden of self-deprecation disappear. And anybody can be a flâneur.

Micallef explains that walking is an essential way to indulge in Toronto's multifaceted culture and engage with its rich rhythm. As he outlines quite poignantly, the only way to truly experience Toronto's urban intrigue is to tred through its many pathways.

Toronto is a utilitarian city. People never talk about actually doing something for the sake of seeing the city. They go to work; they go home; they go out; they shop. You never see people looking around admiring the architecture or people-watching on a park bench. I think this is kind of true of most cities, but because Torontonians generally believe they have nothing impressive to look at, they don't bother looking.

This is why Toronto isn't really a tourist hub. Sure, lots of tourists come here, but they don't come to see Toronto specifically. Now that we don't have the tallest freestanding structure in the world, the only reason for people to come is to try to understand why 2.5 million people want to live here.

But as Micallef alludes to, there are so many beautiful things about Toronto that no one outside the city ever recognizes because they don't become part of its syncopation. The reason why Toronto is such a great city to live in is it moves at just the right pace. It's fast enough to be an exciting, big city, but it has its pauses where you can relax and take in its urban wonder. And the pace varies slightly depending on where you are and when you're there.

One of my favourite Toronto moments was over the Christmas break. My friend and I had just come out of a movie at the AMC and decided to park ourselves at Dundas Square while he had a smoke. In the summer, this place is packed with tourists, shoppers, students and many others. At that moment it was as silent as a Muskoka Lake. While most people were attending family dinners and catching up with friends in warm pubs, we sat serenely under the city's bright lights, oblivious to the irony of our situation.

Every city has their own beautiful idiosyncracies, and the best way to discover them is to wander around taking in the sights and sounds. Toronto is not at all the most exciting place to visit, but it's a wonderful place to live if you're someone who likes variety and quiet excitement.

This is why I think kids who grow up in the suburbs are extremely shortchanged compared to kids who spend their youth in Toronto proper. I didn't even grow up in the true urban parts of Toronto, but I did spend enormous amounts of time in my adolescence walking around and hopping on the TTC. When most of your childhood consists of piling into the family car and ignoring everything between points A to B, you never learn how to explore. City living becomes always about the destination, not the journey.

Now that I'm back in the city permanently, I am amazed at how many kids walk to and from school. The media is constantly making Gen-Y out to be completely sedentary and dependent upon rides from their parents to get around. Judging by the number of teens and tweens strolling my neighbourhood, I think they walk around far more than the suburban dwellers who have come to represent the norm of North American living.

You can read Micallef's book for all sorts of interesting paths to explore around the city, but here's one of my own: Bay St. Yeah, that's right, where all the bankers and high financiers carry out the proverbial rat race. It's an absolutely fascinating place to me. The architecture, the hussle and bustle, the zest of the power-suited people - it's the perfect place to bring out your inner flâneur, but I'm sure you can think of your own paths to examine and marvel at.

Banksy's cool, but don't forget the little guys

Everyone's excited about Banksy coming to Toronto, including myself. Torontoist.com has been avidly reporting on spottings around the city of art believed to be the work of the great British graffiti artist himself.

It certainly would give Toronto's streets a little more cred if they got Banksy's sticker of approval, but I hope Banksy's fame will shed a little focus on our city's many talented graffiti artists rather than act as a publicity stunt.

As many west-enders can attest, my favourite part of the subway ride downtown is between Keele and High Park stations, where I admire the block of beautiful art at the back of the buildings. Imagine if the entire subway ride were like that, with swirling colour and punchy urbane images cascading into the horizon. Here's a great video looking at the images up-close.

Dan Bergeron, a native of Montreal, is probably the closest equivalent to Banksy in Canada, having done work all over the world. His most famous recent work in Toronto is his collection of large posters on buildings in Regent Park. When the City announced the public housing project was going to be redeveloped, Bergeron started this art project to showcase the faces of the neighbourhood in protest of its "revitalization" - which most people interpret as a euphemism for gentrification. It's kind of an alternative - and uniquely Toronto - take on Banksy's artistic activism.

I'm hoping Banksy's presence will inspire more street art in the city. It's not likely the city will relax its vandalism laws, but maybe Banksy's hype can teach us to appreciate the brilliant graffiti we already have.

Time to get fussy, Toronto

One of the things I love most about this city is how cranky we can be. After living in Kingston for the better part of four years, I've come to appreciate how active Torontonians are in the development, maintenance and planning of their city. Whereas in Kingston, dangerous intersections go unnoticed and delapidated roads go unkempt, Torontonians don't hesitate to get obnoxious in public (and, ahem, the blogosphere) to have their way.

As real estate values skyrocket in Toronto (average house prices have jumped 19 per cent this year, topping out at $409,058 in January), lifting gurus are hungrily eyeing public spaces all around the city looking to capitalize on prime investment. On Wednesday the Toronto Catholic District School Board voted to close St. Cyril Catholic School in 2013 and sell off the valuable land in the North-York area. Its 400 students will amalgamate with St. Antoine Daniel. The land is estimated to be worth about $14 million.

Over in Etobicoke, residents are still waiting on the fate of Fairfield Park, which is one of nine sites the city has put on the market as surplus land. The 4.7 acre lot is considered to be an excellent fit for housing development. The City needs to buy the green space or the park will be developed into residential units.

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), which owns the Seniors Centre and parking lot by the park, is talking about building four-storey seniors' housing or dense townhouses. Councillor Peter Milczyn has ensured residents the City would only allow low-density units would be built if an agreement over the land wasn't reached, but that's no reassurance for the area's families who use the park regularly and use the green space for soccer games and weekend activities.

It's time to put our lobbying talent to use. Once one school or park is sold off, many more will follow - unless the housing market really is a bubble about to burst. But if housing prices come down - as many predict they will - that means developers will simply hold on to the land until the market picks up again, without doing anything with it. The City won't have control over the property anymore so it won't be a regularly maintained space.

Toronto still needs parks and it definitely needs schools (especially French immersion schools). Parks and schools are complementary goods with houses: The more people moving into a neighbourhood, the more public spaces and schools we need to serve them.

The City is blinded by the mind-boggling profit to be made from its land right now. But we can't let it lose sight of our neighbourhood's long-term needs. It's pretty obvious what will happen if all our parks get turned into townhouses. The mall rat population will multiply and Dr. Phil will set his sights on Toronto's dreadfully out-of-shape youth - and we certainly wouldn't want that.

We've been through this many times before. Spadina Ave. almost got turned into a highway back in the 1960s but thanks to public pressure, we got a subway line instead. Take a look at some of the land at stake around your neighbourhood because it might be one of the many whose fate is in the City's hands.

Try it, or it may be gone

In one of my favourite episodes of the '90s sitcom Seinfeld, Jerry gazes out his upper-west side apartment window and guiltily observes the gregarious Babu as he stands outside his empty restaurant. In an effort to save this floundering local merchant, Jerry suggests he convert his worldly family-style restaurant into an authentic Pakistani eatery. Sadly, the restaurant fails just like all the businesses that occupied its cursed space before it.

Every neighbourhood's got their own piece of real estate that just doesn't seem to attract any longterm business. In my neighbourhood, it's right at the corner of Brentwood and Bloor, just west of Royal York. At one point it was a sandwich place, then it was a juice bar, then it was some other obscure bar, then a hair salon and now a jewellery store. The jewellery store has been around for a few years so perhaps the curse is broken, but I may have spoken too soon.

The world of independent business is unforgiveably perilous. Relying on local support is a dicey strategy in this age of fickle, bargain-hunting consumers. The practice of idly shopping along your neighbourhood's thoroughfares is dwindling, especially in the fringe neighbourhoods of the city where most would rather take their cars out to the mall and load up on discounted merchandise from chain stores. And I'll admit, I seldom shop in Toronto's independent boutiques because most of the stuff is just too expensive. As much as I love the delectable sartorial selections of Queen West, I like my beer money more.

But we need local businesses to keep our city alive, and one particular faction of local business that is essential is local eateries. You know, your greasy spoons, your cheap shawarma shops, your donut fixes. Toronto was founded on businesses like these and they provide the identity and livelihood of our city's diverse working class. Most of these places are sustained by a deeply loyal clientele that comes in regularly and whiles away the day over a cheap meal and small talk. I've always wished I had a place like this to call home, but in a city of this size, which one do you pick? And many of them are so obscure, there is really no need to go in unless out of necessity. You want it there, but you don't really have any burning desire to go in.

There was one restaurant like this that sat at the top of my street for almost as long as I've lived in Etobicoke (which is almost 20 years). It was called Stirid Up and it was one of those classic jerk chicken places found in almost every middle-class neighbourhood. I had never been to this restaurant. I had no reason to go there, for I had my Thai, Chinese, Indian and Japanese eateries filling my need for take-out dinners. Jerk chicken never seemed like a necessity for my gastronimal cultural variety. So for almost two decades, I passed by it every day without ever giving it a taste.

Then one day my sister's boyfriend at the time came to stay with us. He was from out-of-town and had never really been to Toronto before. Whether it was due to his guyish propensity to devour plain meat, or his curiosity towards a place I had come to regard to be as banal as a garbage bin, he decided to try Stirid Up. My sister and I let him be our guinea pig in case it turned out to be more vile than a McDonald's salad. Sure enough, he said it was delicious and it was served to him by a gloriously boisterous Jamaican man.

My sister and I vowed we would eventually make our way into Stirid Up for a meal, but a month later when I was all set for some tasty poultry, there was a notice on the door that the place was locked until rent was paid. The elusive jerk chicken restaurant that had mystified, unnerved and then tempted me was gone, and as my real estate cynicism told me, I knew I probably would never see it open again.

The notice and Stirid Up sign have been up for almost a year now. Its window still reveals a desolate counter yearning to be converted into something else. It kills me that I had 20 years to try that supposedly good place out and didn't.

After Stirid Up closed another charming little neighbourhood spot, Hob Nob Donuts (just east of Royal York on Bloor), bit the dust. It too waits for another brave merchant to take over the space. I would lament about the disenchanting turnover of my familiar local sights, but it seems too trite to even bother. I know that none of you will support your local businesses any more than I will, but if there's one lesson I wish to impart from watching Stirid Up and Hob Nob fall, it's that if you wait for that kitschy coffee shop to invite you in, it's not going to. And if you don't indulge your momentary curiosity and take a break from your well-traversed routine, it may not be around for you to try it. We like to pass by these places and know that they're around giving some new Canadian a better life or adding to the roster of family businesses in the city, but we often forget that these places need customers to provide the city with their charm. I missed out on some decent chicken because I was just too stuck in my routine to give a new place a try. I'm sure I'll miss out on more great food as restaurants flop around me, but as long as it doesn't become another Starbucks, I'm happy with whatever happens to it. Maybe it'll be another jerk chicken place that I'll actually go to.