Historic.... for now

I am currently in Toronto, actually leaving for Penang tonight, and have been indulging my exercise gene not in the gym (perish the thought) rather from taking long walks in this very pleasant autumn weather here. It's a great way to get to know a neighborhood and today was no different.

My goal was a pea meal bacon sandwich at St. Lawrence Market which is between Jarvis and Church on Front Street, pardon the geography lesson but there is a point to it.

To get there on foot from where I am, you can either walk down Bay Street or go east to the various north/south streets which the map shows quite well. Even the map calls it 'Old Toronto', I wasn't aware of that but did note on many street signs the comment 'Historic Queen Street East', so let's then call it 'historic'.

The definition of historic is 'something that will be important for a very long time'. That isn't my definition, it is what I found on the internet but it is appropriate in this context for historic means something that will be important for a very long time. Examples include important buildings and one thing that you can say about the Toronto city planners is that I am starting to notice quite a few more plaques noting a historic building, so and so lived here and all the rest of it. Sadly however they are not attached to any building for such and such historic building was demolished in the last 20 or so years so that a 60 storey glass building could sit on its 'historic' spot. These plaques are on little pedestals that people can read about.

I cannot imagine what these 2 storey 'historic' buildings looked like because they are no longer there.

Throughout my stroll down to the market I walked past many of these old presumably 'historic' buildings... and to be fair, many are pretty scuzzy ... and endlessly they were shuttered and had a sign up announcing the intent to build a 65 storey something or other on this spot.

Just how many of these will need to have been built to make this area no longer 'historic'? I do wonder about all this building. I receive regular updates from realtors wanting to be my friend and help me either sell or buy a condo and apparently despite the amount of new building, there is still a shortage. It is quite difficult to believe. From my window alone I can count more than 20 new towers under construction.

Having just walked around New York a bit, I am taken with the notion that New York planners have got the mix right. You can walk 20 yards off a major north/south or east/west road and be in a treed residential zone which is just lovely. In Toronto you have endless glass buildings. What makes New York interesting is the fact that both old and new co-exist. I get the feeling that planners in Toronto will knock down anything they can.

I do hope I am wrong.