Toronto Real Estate and Neighbourhoods Blog | Move Smartly

Mr. Toronto Life Leaves Toronto

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto

The Germans must have a word for that feeling of being reluctant to read something that you are sure has been created only to excite you into frothy denunciations on your blog.

Just read this month’s Toronto Life cover story titled “Exodus to the Burbs” (also profiled on CBC’s Metro Morning). Showing more skill at the misleading headline that the whiz kids behind those damn Yahoo News! stories you keep clicking on, Philip Preville’s piece is really about something else – young professional families with last names like Martin, Dunlop and Porter are choosing to semi-retire, job-share or otherwise slow down and move to small towns like Dundas, Creemore and Uxbridge. (Preville, a frequent contributor to Toronto Life, and his family have moved to Peterborough for his wife's new job.)

What follows over six pages is an attempt to make this personal decision into a story about Toronto dying a slow, unlivable death. Perhaps inspired by the sorry state of US politics, Preville goes on to make this about ideology: only our fool moralism (the kind that advocates the superiority of cities) keeps us from seeing this “heart-stopping” truth. His editor, Sarah Fulford, blames our demise on the Spadina Expressway and the Millennium Park that aren’t. But such trophies, even if we were ambitious enough to acquire them, are unlikely to satisfy those profiled by Preville: a long-suffering couple fighting all odds to rush from their downtown 9 to 5 to get to the cottage (they’d still be bitching on the Spadina Expressway) and a woman who would probably find it too annoying to get to Millennium Park anyway (“you have to pack your bags with diapers, bottles, snacks, changes of clothes, all that stuff…only to cut the outing short so you can come home and hurriedly fix lunch”). I won’t even go near Preville’s argument that he needs the watchful eye of his small town neighbours to keep him from being an asshole who litters in front of his children as I am bewildered by this.

Toronto Choral Society's DiverseCity Concert Tonight, May 18th

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto

 

We're happy to promote a great neighbourhood event in Riverdale tonight.

The Toronto Choral Society is presenting DiverseCity, a musical celebration of Toronto's heritage (read more).

The 130-voice choir and special guests, conducted by Geoffrey Butler and accompanied by William O'Meara, will present selections that are meaningful to the peoples that make up Toronto. The programme includes the Choral movement from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Va, pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco (sometimes called the ‘unofficial Italian anthem’) and folk music representing Croatia, Ireland, Spain, China, France, England, Africa, First Nations and Japan. (I dare say a follow-up concert or two may be required to fully cover Toronto's vast mosaic!)

The concert will be held at Eastminister United Church (310 Danforth Avenue @ Chester subway station) at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 at the door. (Advance tickets are available online for $20.)

If you haven't enjoyed live music in one of the Danforth's beautiful churches, this is an experience that you will relish. Come out and support this exciting ensemble!

Urmi Desai is editor of the Move Smartly blog and is responsible for Realosophy’s business strategy and marketing. Realosophy Realty Inc. Brokerage focuses on researching Toronto neighbourhoods to help their clients make smarter real estate decisions. Email Urmi

 

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Real Toronto: Kudos to Koerner Hall @ The Royal Conservatory of Music

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto

Really enjoyed Koerner Hall's sneak peak event announcing the upcoming 2011-2012 season yesterday.

Koerner Hall, the new performance hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM), has become a huge favourite with me because of its amazing acoustics and intimate setting and the brilliant work of programmer Mervon Mehta (yes, he's related to that Mehta). Mehta has done a stellar job mixing old and new and avoiding usual traps by applying a very high standard of excellence. Catching part of the Oscar Peterson tribute earlier this year, I was impressed by Mehta's goal of bringing outstanding international artists to our city for Toronto-led programming. This upcoming season is equally exciting (tickets go on sale to the public April 30th).

I also appreciated RCM President Dr. Peter Simon's comments.

Canadian Textile Museum's Shadow Box Auction Tonight, March 3rd

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto

I'm an appreciative member of the Textile Museum of Canada (55 Centre Ave, Dundas West @ University Ave), a small but strong community dedicated to the preservation, understanding and promotion of handmade textiles and the (often ancient) cultures that define and are defined by these arts.

Tonight is the Museum's annual BMO Shadow Box silent auction fundraising event, a great evening of cocktails in the museum's galleries where you can bid on original artwork.

Shadow boxes are enclosed display cases traditionally used to show jewelry, army medals and other small collectibles that are also used to make dioramas or scenes.

Experienced: Toronto on a Tightrope (Vaudeville Circus Night)

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto, Leslieville

Editor’s Note: “Experienced” is an occasional column that reveals hidden bits of Toronto – not so much the trendy underground, but rather the organic “comfort food” that keeps so many of us whole. More Scarborough strip mall, less burlesque-men’s-travel-lounge-and-sushi-bar-of-the-moment. If you have an experience that you would like to share, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at urmi@realosophy.com

After enjoying Attenberg at the Royal Cinema, I didn’t expect a weirder take on Greece in the same week.* Cue Lunacy Cabaret’s Greek Gods and Greasers! A monthly fundraiser for Circus Without Borders in its 6^th year, Lunacy is a Vaudeville show put on by volunteer circus artists, comedians, musicians and one-trick ponies.

The scene.  It’s January 29, 2011, 9pm. Gerrard and Greenwood. A few doors down from the coloured lights of Little India (where street vendors are frying up spicy goodies in minus 15 degree weather), a crowd has gathered in front of Centre of Gravity. Built in 1914, the beautifully restored building is once again home to Vaudeville theatre (and a circus training studio for adults and children). A young and dapper lineup bobs in the cold. A girl with heavily lined eyes, a pink wig under her tuque, leans out to ask if I have a ticket to sell. Unfortunately, the show is sold out. Patrons flood into a folding chair theatre-cum-beer tent. The show begins in half and hour, doors opened half and hour earlier, and it’s standing room only.

Real Toronto: The Intangible City

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto, Entrepreneurism

Just back from India, I’m thinking about the intangible thing that is a city. The thing that makes your neck get all hot and prickly when you read Wallpaper’s take on your city or Richard Florida’s or this blog’s because it’s never quite right.

It’s something about haggling with style, kids dangling out of rickshaws reading chemistry texts, or the way a Mumbai statistician is glamorous and unruffled when you tell her that English governor whose statue she was just praising was a complete imperialist tyrant: “Oh, that is too bad. I was loving this statue.”

The futility of getting it right doesn’t deter writers, academics and bureaucrats, in ascending level of train wreck. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed the “Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity,” a concrete list of the intangible things that make spaces great. Like a bazaar of artisans and storytellers in Morocco. Kabuki theatre. The Mediterranean diet. And whatever else is nominated and ratified by the Committee of the Intangible.

Experienced: Toronto on a Table (Greek Bouzoukia Night)

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto

Editor’s Note: “Experienced” is an occasional column that reveals hidden bits of Toronto – not so much the trendy underground, but rather the comfort food that keeps so many of us whole. More Scarborough strip mall, less burlesque-men’s-travel-lounge-and-sushi-bar-of-the-moment. If you have an experience that you would like to share, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at urmi@realosophy.com

Here’s a resolution for Toronto in 2011: less multiculturalism, more cosmopolitanism. The difference? Multiculturism looks like a grade school pantomime and sounds like a CBC radio navel-gaze about “My Canada”. Cosmopolitanism means sourcing out the best life has to offer. It means eating what the folks did in the old country simply because it tastes so damn good. Asking your grandfatherly neighbour, the “informal backyard economy” bee keeper, about honey. And befriending people who dance on tables.

So here's an overdue report on a gathering I’ve dubbed the “Greek Bouzoukia for a Night” where Toronto banquet halls swell with passion. No, it’s not a wedding. At the bouzoukia (Greek night club), fans of laiko music come to worship the song. There is no pretense, no need for a special occasion, the reason is the music.

The scene.  It’s November 12th 2010. A Markham banquet hall is transformed into a bouzoukia featuring Thanos Petrelis, a top singer from Greece, along with a band of 10 musicians. You have shelled out for this: $150-200 for dinner and the show. Tables of 10 fill the room at right angles to the main stage. Friends order wine and spirits by the bottle. The dancing starts before plates are cleared. There is no dance floor. You dance around tables, on tables, on stage, on chairs, in fire exits. There is a thick carpet of flowers on stage, on the floor, everywhere. It's easy to lose sight of the singer among dancing crowds. Visiting Greek musicians love this type of show (in Greece, top acts play in big clubs for month long engagements). Pity the singer I saw at Roy Thompson Hall who made this confession to his nice, quiet, seated crowd: “I’m just not my best outside a bouzoukia.”

Experienced in Leslieville: Crafternoon Tea + Holy Cow Warehouse Opening

Urmi Desai in Leslieville, Toronto Neighbourhoods, Real Toronto

Walking to our Leslieville office this Sat, I stopped in to enjoy high tea at the Leslieville Crafternoon, a local crafts show and charity tea held at Queen East Presbyterian Church (at Queen East and Carlaw). The event was well organized by Leslieville's own boutique of handmade gems, Nathalie-Roze & Co.

Experienced: Toronto the Sweet Not Sour

Urmi Desai in Real Toronto, Toronto Neighbourhoods

Who knew that the wonderful summer we enjoyed would lead to an extremely bitter fall? According to prominent voices in one of the most depressing Toronto mayoral races ever, we must live somewhere between the USSR and New Orleans.

Toronto does have problems - uninspiring leadership at all levels of government, the free fall that is the TTC, persistent issues of poverty and social isolation, violent quarrels re strollers in public places, the suspicious feeling that the organic greens you are overpaying for have been picked out of a Markham ditch and potential racial unrest due to a) the domination of overachievers at university and b) the threat of Lake Shore the reality show.

But we have been spared the complete jobs collapse the Americans are suffering through, along with severe austerity measures in Europe, we continue to be fairly peaceful for one of the most pluralistic cities on earth and a lot of our neigbourhoods are getting tastier while remaining artfully dodgy mixed (disclaimer: I think like this because I live in Leslieville).

To wit, the BBC/Lonely Planet travel website is featuring Toronto's diverse, neighbourhood-centric charms - see "This is Toronto Week". Speaking of pleasantly gritty Kensington, a gallant friend treated me to one last birthday dinner at the soon-to-be-gone neighbourhood gem, La Palette - a true Toronto original. And I discovered that at least one downtown hotel, Hotel Le Germain on Mercer, hasn't been completely airlifted in, thanks to their "Made in Toronto" tapas. Call it kitsch, but I love it.

Being furiously bitter need not keep you from being irrationally proud of your city - witness a New Yorker at the office water cooler to see this principle in action (I for one think the wrong George ran against Ford). So this winter, let's a) join one organization tackling a Toronto problem and work hard at it (a good way to mark the sacrifices we remember on Remembrance Day - be inspired by this Toronto example), b) remember that it's way worse in most other places on earth, c) be horrified at the idea of living anywhere else and d) get out and eat something tasty at whatever price point you can muster. May I suggest inexpensive Indian sweets at this most auspicious time of year?

Happy Diwali and Sal Mubarak!

Urmi Desai is editor of the Move Smartly blog and is responsible for Realosophy’s business development and marketing. Realosophy Realty Inc. Brokerage focuses on researching Toronto neighbourhoods to help their clients make smarter real estate decisions. Email Urmi

 Subscribe to the Move Smartly blog by email