The fifth edition of Spacing is out this week, dedicated to "the new beautiful city", with pieces on public art, graffiti policies and the remains of the Gardiner Expressway, images from a cast of photobloggers, and features from city beat pros Christopher Hume and John Lorinc. The issue will be feted Thursday night (Nov. 24) at the Arts and Letters Club (14 Elm St.), but Joe Clark has already inspected the contents, and counts a 2-to-1 bias toward the west end over his own beloved east, chalked up to the inherent Jane Jacobs pedigree: "Really, if they aren’t within walking distance of Dooney’s (which, they will repeatedly remind you, they just barely saved from conversion into a Starbucks) or of Bar Italia, well, they’re just too far away from everything, aren’t they?" Certainly, heading into the next municipal election year, the discourse encapsulated by Spacing could only benefit from increasingly reaching beyond its foundation of Annegonian activist acolytes. The latest issue should nonetheless provide its share of Dooney’s (and Starbucks) table talk through frosty months ahead.
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thanks for the link to joe clark’s blog – hadn’t been there in a while. noticed he has an amazon wishlist. i think it might be time for paved to get one of those..don’t you? that way i’d know what to get you for the upcoming holiday season.
Keep in mind, though, that the Spacing gang is less Dooney’s per se than the all-too-eagerly-embraced fantasy sons, daughters, grandchildren of Dooney’s bobos…
Reading Mark Kingwell on what he considers to be ‘his’ Toronto was enough for me to turn against him, stoic east-ender that I am (even now, when I live in Agincourt). Who is at Dooney’s anyway, besides Brian Fawcett?
I don’t think that’s anything new from Kingwell (I haven’t read the current article). If you read Marginalia he mentions the Annex twice: Once to say that he lives (or rather lived) in it, and once to say that in reality he lives near it–across Bathurst. It’s just that it’s much more appealing to think of oneself as being in the Annex, especially if you, as he claims, love Bloor East of Bathurst and “buy all your books at Book City.” I do the same thing. I think of myself as living near Yonge & Eglinton if only because there’s nothing at Avenue & Lawrence to think of.
Joe Clark’s blog had nothing new for me. I think you linked to the ask metafilter thread where he said all there is to be said:
1. He likes the East End.
2. Thinks people in the West don’t.
3. Dislikes Streetcars.