collision with a street car
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Today I went on a trek down to the lone wind turbine that was set up on Toronto's harbourfront. I hopped on the subway, and then the connecting street car that traipses along Queens Quay W. We all had to pile off of the street car right in front of a building where I used to live. Someone had decided to cross Queens Quay, and had been hit by the street car. It was something I saw at least three time during the almost three years that I lived there (there's a beer store in the building). These drivers seem to think that street cars can stop on a dime, I guess.
Anyway, I eventually got down to the turbine. It's actually quite impressive. It was windy day, and the thing was whirring along at about one revolution every 4 seconds (or slightly faster). I got some pics and started back on foot.
Along the way, I wended my way through the renovated warehouse district in Parkdale where tech firms like Tucows and BMG and whatnot are. That was worth a few pics. But then I passed along a stretch of Queen St. W.
That neighbourhood (west of Bathurst) continues to get more and more pretentious. It's gotten so Hip you can't even breath long whole blocks of its length. There was a huge line up of 20 or so people - all of the type with the latest designer watches and sunglasses but sporting long bound goatees or ankle-length-'home-made' dresses - at a pretentiously 'hole-in-the-wall' fish & chips shop called 'Chippys'. All of the little junk stores are gone and replaced with understated clothing boutiques with no names. "Sanctuary" is long gone, of course, and was replaced - typically - by a Starbucks. Did Toronto really need another neighbourhood like this?
The Davisville area where I live may be solidly 'middle class', somewhat banal area of the city. But in Davisville, at least, if there's a crummy cheap ma-and-pa restaurant, it's a real crummy ma-and-pa restaurant and not a faux ma-and-pa restaurant fronted by annoying idiots with sleeveless dress shirts and lots of backing from their parents.