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Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Yonge’s Unofficial Caribana Parade Tonight

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Once a year Detroiters of a certain age get excited to drive, or watch, the Woodward Dream Cruise reenacting and reliving their glorious 1950s and 60s youth. It’s part of the boomer mythology the rest of us of slightly less age have endured for years. In Detroit, the cruise takes place along 16 miles of suburban Woodward, not the actual Detroit length where the American Graffiti/Happy Days style cruising took place before white-flight and the riots put an end to it.. Today in Detroit, cruisers who are living in the present will take over Jefferson Avenue or do circuits of the Belle Isle park, causing traffic jams we would watch from the Windsor side of the river.

Cruising culture isn’t as big in Canada (if it even exists at all — maybe in the small towns, or out in the street racing suburbs) — except on this weekend. On the Friday and Saturday nights of Caribana, Yonge Street becomes a gridlocked parking lot of slow moving Cadillac Escalades, Lincoln Navigators and a selection of other lesser Detroit auto power with Michigan and New York plates. In between the cars are thousands of people walking up and down Yonge in a massive public celebration of flirting: groups of dudes calling out to the girls, girls doing the same back, and maybe some other gazes being cast too (though certainly kept on the most down-lowest of lows — this is maximum old fashioned heterosexuality on display). It is absolutely something to see, a vestige of the Automobile Age that likely won’t be around for too much longer.

Things start a little after dusk and continue till very late. When I biked through at 1:30AM last night, Yonge and College was packed, and cops were directing traffic. What I love about this parade is how unofficial it is — people intuitively know to go to Yonge Street. It’s a chameleon, able to accommodate disparate events like official pride parades or impromptu hockey celebrations and this weekend of old fashioned American cruising. Yonge street is our living room, but it belongs to everybody else too.

Also of note, there seems to be a police convention in town, as there are TTC busses parked in front of TPS HQ on College, unloading herds of police officers from other jurisdictions, and OPP Vehicles parked in front of the Days Inn on Carlton, cordoned off with orange cones. Last night there were packs of uniformed OPP standing on the corner, wide-eyed, taking in the big city and Caribana. An interesting mix, but it all seemed to work, and Toronto felt like the biggest city in the world.

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15 comments

  1. thank you for posting this.
    i attended this even maybe two years ago, i accidentally walked into it, was caught in the action till all the way to dundas.

    always wondered what was the story behind it all.
    thank you for looking into it.

  2. I completely forgot about this last night at about 130 am and managed to find myself stuck in this traffic jam for about 30 mins. luckily i was able to get over to bay st to bypass most of it but it sure felt like a completely different city. Felt like I was trying to drive through Times Square. You can only be sure that once dundas square is all finished up, it will only become even more impressive. I would love to be able to take some pictures from the roof of Sears.

  3. the one thing that is great, is the fact that the police and the city have not attempted to shut it down.

  4. It is entertaining. But why is it all of the sudden Spacing is all pro-SUV and car-culture? And just for gratuitous show yet. Hmmm.

  5. mobius> I assume people who read Spacing are smart and don’t need to be told “SUVs are BAD” every time something about an SUV comes up — they aren’t children. If anybody else thinks a report on something that happens in a public space (something I believe I said is in its waning days — so “see it while you can”) that happens to involve SUVs somehow makes this place, or me, pro-SUV, I’d invite them to speak up, but I’d wager most people didn’t read it like that, and I’d wager more most people would be insulted if I wrote a story about what happens on Yonge Street during Caribana and condescended to them by lecturing about how awful SUVs are at the same time.
    I think you’re either being stupid and trolling for something, or you are actually stupid and need constant reinforcement of your world view. Either way, there are likely other blogs that can help you out more efficiently.

  6. Another amusing habit during Caribana is clocking just how far away you can spot the Americans. My range is one full traffic light, but I’m not trying very hard.

    Someday somebody will write a post about how Caribana reminds us that Canadian blacks (here since 1604) and American blacks are visibily, noticeably, unmistakably different even when attending the same pary. For extra credit, explore the same kinds of differences with the British (also identifiable from a several-block radius). But I suppose you can’t really talk about how black people aren’t all the same.

  7. Shawn, every once in a while, when I post a dissenting view here, childish name-calling is the response. Is Spacing Wire a private party only for those with acceptable groupthink? Judging by the frequency of response posts by people who work at Spacing, it would appear so. Btw, how is Spacing funded?

    Your unprofessional reaction is clear evidence that a nerve has been struck. If this is indeed an open forum you should be happy that my ocassionally differing viewpoints give the Wire at least the semblance of supporting free expression.

    No one, to my knowledge, requested a piece on SUVs, either pro or con. It was your choice to do one and your choice as to what light to cast it in. If you are an honourable person, you would not dispute my right to the same.

  8. Spacing is by in large funded by unpaid work, but what does that have to do with this?

    This wire is full of dissenting views, and we don’t delete comments, and we don’t require you use your real name, so you have lots of freedom to say what you want, and be anonymous. You made an anonymous assertion that we are somehow pro-SUV with an article reporting on a phenomenon that happens on Yonge Street each year, and I said we have much more faith in our readers and their intelligence that they don’t need to be beaten over the head with things they already know. If we didn’t have that faith, this wouldn’t be worth doing.

  9. Joe Clark, I would sure like to know more about your thoughts on black culture. Maybe you can write an article about it, and about what you can’t say about it. I think we’d all be interested in that.

    Mobious, You took an anonymous pot shot at Spacing’s integrity (something other than what this article was about) and you deserved the rebuke. Count me as an anonymous poster who *likes* being respected, because I know that SUVs are awful, and don’t need to be told that when I read an article about an SUV, especially on this blog. It’s like Nixon going to China — I think this is a safe spot to talk about Caribana Cruising without the nonsense about “casting SUV’s in a positive light”. You read that into this, I certainly didn’t.

    I think you would prefer NOW magazine’s way of doing things, where people are always lectured of what is bad and good, black and white, and never really respected as intelligent readers. Like the poster above said, I like knowing what this was all about, and I can make my own personal decisions if it’s bad or good.
    PS: Caribana was fun.

  10. “Spacing is by in large funded by unpaid work….” Huh?

    From Spacing’s “about us” page:

    “Spacing wishes to acknowledge the financial support of the Ontario Arts Council.”

    Do you think they would support your infantile name-calling? You were out of line and owe me an apology.

    As for “Quest”, “anonymous potshot”? – have you heard about the pot and the kettle? Go wag your finger at someone who cares.

  11. I’ll address the biz question:

    Spacing has received two grants from Ont Arts Council. The money is less than 10% of the revenue we need to run the mag for a year. The other money comes thru ads, subs, and events.

    We do not have any paid staff, only honourariums for editors. Writers get paid about 10 cents a word. For the editors, the amount of pro-bono hours of work on Spacing vs. the actual amount paid by Spacing is anywhere from 4:1 to 10:1 depending on the editor. Which is why Shawn says we’re largely funded by volunteer work. I work 25 on freelance graphic design and 30 hours a week on Spacing. When all is said and done, I probably take home about $1 an hour for the work I do on Spacing.

  12. As a taxpayer in Ontario, I want more Ontario Arts Council grants given to people who have the strength to suffer internet goofs who lob rediculous accusations, then demand apologies. I don’t think I could do it, but this places lets everybody talk, even those whose axes are sharpening so deafenenly.

    I had fun at Caribana too, but didn’t see the Yonge SUV deal.

  13. I JUST CAME BACK TODAY FROM CARIBANA! IT WAS GREAT, I NEVER SAW SO MANY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE…GOTTA GO NEXT YEAR!