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01/26/2006: "A Saturday Night on Victoria Park"

A few weeks ago I went to visit a surrogate Scottish Granny who moved from the Woodbine and Kingston Road area of the Beaches to a Condo on Eglinton, west of Victoria Park. I was offered a ride, or even to be picked up at the subway station, but I thought it would be good to get there by transit.

It was Saturday night, and felt weird to be leaving the city-city instead of doing something in it. Last year, I drove out of the city around 8pm to a party in Orangeville and was reminded how many people's Saturday nights are about driving into, out of, or around the city. The 401 seemed wilder on a Saturday night – as does the subway in and around downtown, but the wildness is tempered by hearing people chat and talk. Maybe on the 401 people are as jovial, but all you can see are the cars rocketing around the lanes.

In contrast, Victoria Park station was calm. I followed a few people from the subway up to the Victoria Park 24 bus – one of the outdoor covered bus bays. It was cold, and people impatiently and patiently waited. Some people smoked in places where they were not supposed to. On the bus, once it came, things were quiet too, a few people talking, but unusual (or usual) for a Saturday night.

It was one of the new low-floor busses (the ones that are flying in from space in those weird TTC ads). Why do these busses get so dirty? The windows are always so thick with dirt it's impossible to see where you are – it might as well have no windows. I sat near the front to see Eglinton, because you can't trust TTC drivers to call out the stations. Sitting so low in a bus feels weird, and somewhat claustrophobia-inducing. One big benefit of public transportation is getting to sit up high.

I got off at what I thought was Eglinton but it was O'Connor Drive, a weird road that deviates from the grid and sort of snakes down towards the Coxwell and Greenwood areas north of the Danforth, through parts of Toronto that we never hear of. The intersection is a big wedge. To the east along Eglinton is the Golden Mile (as golden as you imagine it to be). The granddaughter of the granny and I ate at at the Golden Mile East Side Mario's once, last year, for fun. The unlimited salad is really unlimited.

I started heading in the wrong direction, but got the feeling I wasn't doing the right thing so I went north, by some people walking their dogs around some townhouses. There are some pedestrian scaled areas, islands really, but they're surrounded by highways and vast open spaces.

Once I found Eglinton, I walked along the snowy, unshovelled sidewalks west through some wild lands that remain undeveloped, as they are hydro-corridors. Granny's condo complex was up on a hill, but the front door is out back, in the parking lot. There's no real entrance on the sidewalk, which seems like an oversight. From her window you can see the CN Tower that seems to exist at the end of that corridor, as if all those power lines are heading for it, giving it maximum power.

I stayed long enough for my feet to dry, then acquiesced and got a ride back downtown. You can really move around the city fast in a car when there is no traffic at night. The Bayview Extension has curves too.