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FutureMayor
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January 10, 2007
Navigating in Toronto can be tricky
BY LARRY JOHNSTON
FLORIDA TODAY
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Last week, you found me in Toronto. I relived the guided tour on a double-decker bus with a jocular driver.
Today I travel the city by foot, bus and subway. Toronto also is the home to the largest streetcar system in North America.
Come along.
Toronto has the greatest ethnic diversity of any city in the world.
For example, there are 400,000 Asian Indians in one section.
Want to meet someone from Korea? Take your pick from 82,000 of them. Latin Americans? Plenty. Yugoslavian? How many would you like? Chinese? 600,000. Italians? More than Domino's has pizzas.
Toronto doesn't just accept outsiders; it embraces them. In the Greek section, street signs are in English and Greek. Only New York City and Melbourne, Australia, have more expatriated Greeks in the world, and I doubt they offer the same courtesy.
After a hearty lunch, I decided to find public transportation to get to a distant attraction.
I must add a word about Toronto's transportation symbols. Hidden. Uncertain. Infuriating. Senseless. Pick any one of them. What possible reason could there be for a city to have such a fine subway system and then camouflage the entrances so perfectly? For bus signs they elected to use a green blob symbol resembling a squashed baker's hat.
Shouldn't a sign be obvious, easy to identify and easy to describe? Me: "How do I find a bus stop?" City resident: "Well, the easiest way is to wait on the corner until a bus goes by and run like hell until it stops." Me: "Thanks a lot."
So, riding in a cab to where I needed to go, we passed through another ethnic area where the elderly males wore lime green and checkered pants pulled up to nearly their armpits. The women wore hairnets, socks and square-healed shoes, which can only be described as combat pumps. I asked our driver from what strange country these octogenarians hail. "The United States," he yelled. Oh.
Inevitably, we drove past the Hockey Hall of Fame. There had to be one in Canada. With all the dirty fights during games, I expect they display famous broken teeth inside.
I really don't understand the ethics of hockey. Someone on another team does something you don't like, so you take off your gloves and beat them senseless. For this offense, you sit in a penalty box for 60 seconds while they wipe the blood off the ice.
Later, you achieve notoriety because the beating is the only part of the game they broadcast on TV.
What message does this send to children? Expel a few players for life and it may become a game again.
Across the street I found Wayne Gretzky's restaurant. Special of the day, no doubt: knuckle sandwich.
At the end of the day, we decided to leave town by the subway. I found a stairway with people going up and down and some strange symbols over the entrance. We got our fare ready. At the bottom we went through some doors. It was not the subway but a Chinese restaurant. This was typical Toronto.
We took the cab home. The meal was good, though.
Louroz
Navigating in Toronto can be tricky
BY LARRY JOHNSTON
FLORIDA TODAY
ADVERTISEMENT
Last week, you found me in Toronto. I relived the guided tour on a double-decker bus with a jocular driver.
Today I travel the city by foot, bus and subway. Toronto also is the home to the largest streetcar system in North America.
Come along.
Toronto has the greatest ethnic diversity of any city in the world.
For example, there are 400,000 Asian Indians in one section.
Want to meet someone from Korea? Take your pick from 82,000 of them. Latin Americans? Plenty. Yugoslavian? How many would you like? Chinese? 600,000. Italians? More than Domino's has pizzas.
Toronto doesn't just accept outsiders; it embraces them. In the Greek section, street signs are in English and Greek. Only New York City and Melbourne, Australia, have more expatriated Greeks in the world, and I doubt they offer the same courtesy.
After a hearty lunch, I decided to find public transportation to get to a distant attraction.
I must add a word about Toronto's transportation symbols. Hidden. Uncertain. Infuriating. Senseless. Pick any one of them. What possible reason could there be for a city to have such a fine subway system and then camouflage the entrances so perfectly? For bus signs they elected to use a green blob symbol resembling a squashed baker's hat.
Shouldn't a sign be obvious, easy to identify and easy to describe? Me: "How do I find a bus stop?" City resident: "Well, the easiest way is to wait on the corner until a bus goes by and run like hell until it stops." Me: "Thanks a lot."
So, riding in a cab to where I needed to go, we passed through another ethnic area where the elderly males wore lime green and checkered pants pulled up to nearly their armpits. The women wore hairnets, socks and square-healed shoes, which can only be described as combat pumps. I asked our driver from what strange country these octogenarians hail. "The United States," he yelled. Oh.
Inevitably, we drove past the Hockey Hall of Fame. There had to be one in Canada. With all the dirty fights during games, I expect they display famous broken teeth inside.
I really don't understand the ethics of hockey. Someone on another team does something you don't like, so you take off your gloves and beat them senseless. For this offense, you sit in a penalty box for 60 seconds while they wipe the blood off the ice.
Later, you achieve notoriety because the beating is the only part of the game they broadcast on TV.
What message does this send to children? Expel a few players for life and it may become a game again.
Across the street I found Wayne Gretzky's restaurant. Special of the day, no doubt: knuckle sandwich.
At the end of the day, we decided to leave town by the subway. I found a stairway with people going up and down and some strange symbols over the entrance. We got our fare ready. At the bottom we went through some doors. It was not the subway but a Chinese restaurant. This was typical Toronto.
We took the cab home. The meal was good, though.
Louroz