July 28, 2009. Bethesda, Md. Toronto Revisited.

Toronto always seems to be a much bigger city than Washington. When we visit Toronto we feel a little like being in New York City. Every where in the city you see very tall buildings, even on the ride from the airport to the hotel. We lived in downtown Toronto from 1958 to 1964, but I can tell you that the place has changed in every direction, but mostly up. Huge buildings have been build in our absence and more huge buildings are under construction right now. Toronto has only one way to grow as Toronto is situated on Lake Ontario, so the growth must be either higher or further north to accommodate the larger population. It seems that most people prefer to live in cities, so Toronto is growing. My first impression this past weekend of Toronto was the density of the buildings and the people. People were everywhere. Even the sidewalks are crowded.

The second impression of Toronto is the abundance of restaurants and bars. Within a two block walk of our hotel we came upon at least fifty restaurants, two of which we enjoyed lunch. And we also walked by several grocery stores. With so many people living in condominiums in the city, the need for grocery stores increased and there they are, just waiting for the people to shop. It seems a mix of rentals and office buildings and condos in these high raise buildings. I just wondered who will buy all these new condos, now under construction. It feels a bit like Madrid, where the people live and work in buildings a few blocks apart. The good folks of Spain routinely meet after work for a drink before walking home, and I expect the same is true of Toronto. I just don't know if the rush of people were natives or tourists. For the past several years, we have spent most of our time in very sparsely populated locations and I guess we prefer the country life. But we enjoyed our visit to Toronto, but before we return we will check to be sure the trash men are no longer on strike.