Do you know T.O.?

Gone is the moniker “Toronto the Good”. Dismiss the cliché that this is the “City that Works”. These are but outdated descriptions for a city that is so unique it defines description.

Lamentably, Toronto has recently been branded by politicians and public relations people alike with such insecure terms as “World-Class City”, an insecurity noted in the introduction to Howard Akler’s and Sarah Hood’s info-travel book Toronto: The Unknown City (Arsenal Pulp Press).

The map provided in the book illustrates how diverse Toronto has become since its early days as the City of York. From west to east, north to south, the city is a cornucopia of wonderful communities: For instance, the Junction, Parkdale, Kensington Market, Chinatown (west and east), Little Italy, The Danforth, Boystown, St. Lawrence Market, and Little India.

And these are in the city; it gets even more diverse as you venture outside Downtown Toronto into the Greater Toronto Area, which includes Etobicoke, Weston, Rexdale, Downsview, York, North York, Don Mills, East York, Agincourt, and Scarborough.

“Perhaps it sounds like a cliché, but Toronto's multicultural diversity thrills me every day. It's exciting, scary, glamorous, challenging, heart-warming,” said Hood, the books co-author. “You can’t live here with open eyes unless you are constantly re-evaluating your own customs and beliefs, because there's so much to compare them to on every street corner, in every home, in every community newspaper, in every shop.”

Akler could not agree more. “Sarah has deftly handled what I’d call the external uniqueness of the city, and I agree 100 per cent. I’d add something more internal, namely, Toronto is unique because it’s my city. I’ve lived here my whole life and my personal history is tangled up with it. I can remember a giddy communal glee along Bloor Street after the Blue Jays won the World Series, or a sick shock of recognition that the Just Desserts killers were from my old neighbourhood, or even something more banal, like the contented feeling of browsing in Rotate This after a delicious brunch. Sometimes it seems like comparing Toronto to New York or Buenos Aires or Dayton, Ohio is beside the point.”

The book is so up-to-date it even refers to the ongoing MFP computer-leasing scandal, and there’s even a part on Mel Lastman’s interesting approach to public speaking, with classic quotes like his now-famous slip before heading to Africa in 2001: “What the hell do I want to go to a place like Mombasa for … I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me.”

Broken down into 10 sections, Toronto: the Unknown City, takes not only the novice tourist but also life-long Torontonians on a walkabout through North America’s most multi-cultural city.

Discover landmarks and destinations that most people walk passed; interesting stories about subway stations like the unfinished second level to the Queen station; sports, outdoor living, dining, literature, the arts, shopping, media, entertainment, nightlife, notoriety, and living. It’s all here, and unlike your typical photo-heavy coffee table variety, this is truly an information book. Did you know?

• The Done Right Inn (861 Queen St. W.) accepts Canadian Tire money.

• The windows of Royal Bank Plaza (200 Bay St.) are covered in a very thin film of gold.

• Yonge St. starts at Lake Ontario and runs all the way to Rainy River on the Minnesota border.

• Wacky architect E.J. Lennox, a local Toronto boy who designed the courthouse was nixed the privilege of having his name on the building due to a huge bill. So, what did he do? He opted to carve individual letters on all sides of the building that spelled out EJ LENNOX ARCHITECT. And, he had his carved visage affixed to the main entrance.

• An underwater walkway connects the mainland with the Toronto Island, but it’s not for walking; the tunnel is pressurized and must be pumped out and carefully monitored when being worked on.

• The haunted The Keg Mansion (515 Jarvis St.) has a secret tunnel that connects it to Wellesley Hospital, when the Massey family used it to transport their son for treatment. The haunted old Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital, now on Humber College grounds, has tunnels approximately five feet wide with limestone foundations used to transport food, medicine, and other supplies for the hospital.

When asked what part of the city the two authors like most, like the city itself they had diverse views. Hood loves the Toronto Islands because her “dad lived there briefly in the ’30s and he instilled in me a fascination with Island lore.” As for Akler, he’s a Kensington Market fan, where according to him, “it’s history as a place where newcomers, whether Jewish or Portugeuse or Chinese, could make themselves at home. It’s a place that has always retained its spirit of art and politics and great coffee.”

While they both seem to like these locations, they both admit there are many more places they love in the city.

Photograph by Sam Iatesta
Homepage photograph by Bouke Salverda