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The walk west on Carlton has changed over the past year and become quite a nice and cozy canyon. The addition of the new glass condo just east of Yonge (the one with the crane on top) made its canyon-ness noticeable. This condo has a name, of course, which I’ve taken note of on several occasions, and then forgot, because like so many condo names in Toronto, it’s instantly forgettable, with no local reference. So I can’t remember if it’s The Murano or The Fooze or The VoomVaVoom or the Shimmy Bazoot building. At least it looks good, and has a weird asymetical shape.<\/p>\n
What makes this canyon special is that Carlton and College have a slight curve, so “infinity” is limited to a few views between buildings, and what we mostly see when looking down the street is more city. It looks and feels safe and dense and full of stuff. It’s asking to be explored, or at least walked through, like cities should be. Some of the buildings along this bit of road are kind of dumpy or boring — like the Days Inn — but there is always a lot of street life here, at any hour (unlike some of the financial district canyons). Maple Leaf Gardens, as historic as it is, is the only real dead zone. Though verging on heretical to suggest this, whatever happens to it should include punching more openings out around the sides to let the building interact better with the sidewalks.<\/p>\n
My great aunt Esther who lives a well-read hermit’s life in the remote and ancestral family home on the shores of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia always asks if the “Commerce Bank” is still there on the corner of Church and Carlton (now the CIBC). She worked there after the War for a bit, during a 20 year excursion to Ontario before going back up the road to NS. “It was called Toronto the Good back then,” she always says. I told her that branch is not good anymore because they always keep their ATM doors locked after hours — unlike most banks in Toronto, they can’t seem to deal with running a bank in a big city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"