17 reasons to love Toronto right now
Summer’s a great time to develop an attitude of gratitude
It was a hard spring in Toronto. In the beginning, there was an ice storm, and from there we heard bad news almost daily: shootings, pedestrian deaths, a dispiriting provincial election campaign while worse political winds blew up from the south. At times, the dark cloud has felt relentless and smothering.
But summer’s here, and sometimes a quick walk out into the sunshine can be restorative: a chance to look around and count some blessings, to examine the small things that make you fall in love with the city — or some of the ones that help me realize why I love living here, anyway.
Here, a counting of small blessings. Reasons to love Toronto right now.
1. The Bentway: When the first phase of the new park under the Gardiner Expressway near Fort York opened for ice skating this winter, it showed us what a little imagination and initiative can do, transforming a unloved urban crawl space into a cosy community hub. This weekend, it reopens as a skateboard park in the same space in the shade — and offers a view of the rest of the park construction underway. One of the most exciting developments in the city right now.
2. School’s out: No more teachers, no more books, just hours and hours to go skateboarding under an old highway. Or whatever it is you do. Even for those who are decades past packing protractor sets, the ringing of the final schoolhouse bell and the beginning of July marks the start of the lazy days of summer, the season that feels like freedom — a state of mind, not of enrolment.
3. The World Cup: Although Canada is never a participant (likely not until we co-host in 2026), in Toronto you feel the ups and downs of every country as bars, cafés, malls and every second car become broadcast centres and celebration venues. The infectious enthusiasm spills into the street.
4. It’s lunch-in-the-park season: There are times of year when eating lunch seems to hardly offer a break from work. But right now, a quick walk into a park for a picnic — a hotdog from a streetside vendor will do fine — feels like a miniature vacation of its own. 5. The Islands are open: Flooding last season meant Toronto was robbed of its private paradise for much of a season. Today, the communal beach and garden resort (and theme park, and forest land ...) is only a ferry ride away. 6. Toronto Maple Leafs baseball: The Jays are the Jays, of course, but Toronto has a much older ball club playing high-level baseball. This year, the Maple Leafs semi-pro club (founded in 1969) celebrates 50 years under owner Jack Dominico, at the same time as the Intercounty Major League it plays in observes its 100th season. The best part is the games are free to watch at Christie Pits. Buy a hotdog and program, pull up a piece of the grassy hill and your Sunday afternoon is made. 7. The Scarborough Bluffs are a bus ride away: For the longest time, Toronto’s most beautiful bit of lakeside parkland was hard to get to. Now, a bus on weekends takes you there. Better yet, plans are in the works to put in a sidewalk and bike path to get there, too. 8. The coin-op batting cages at Centennial Park in Etobicoke: I stopped here one day in June when I was driving past around lunch time, anxious and frustrated, on my way from one appointment to another. I dropped $10 on three tokens, and 60 pitches produced enough satisfyingly hard hits to keep me smiling for hours. 9. Fringe Festival: More than 150 live theatre productions in 45 venues offer a total of 1,000 performances over 12 days, starting this Wednesday. The lottery programming means quality varies wildly, but that’s part of the fun — and tickets are only $13 a show. 10. Caribbean Carnival: Yeah, it’s festival season, which means parades, which means jump-up time is just a month or so away. 11. Cultura Festival: I’m a sucker for free performances in public places, and I especially love just happening upon them while strolling downtown. But the programming Friday nights at Mel Lastman Square is epic enough to travel waaaay uptown for — bands, films and busker sideshows from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. kicking off every weekend. 12. An underpass mural that’s actually good: I’m with my colleague Jason Logan, who writes that street murals, especially those funded by the city, are often kind of underwhelming.
But the one recently unveiled at the Pharmacy Ave. underpass — which was funded after community members in the participatory budgeting process allocated money to it — is gorgeous. It depicts children reclining under the bridge, as if enjoying the shade, interacting with birds from the local Warden Woods. The first time I saw it, I gasped, because I was surprised how happy seeing it made me. 13. It’s public pool season: I have often written about my love for free public skating rinks in winter. Public squares are great. But during the sweatiest times of the year, whose decks welcome us in our bikinis and our Speedos to sigh off the stress and the heat and to bellyflop and dog paddle and cool off? Swimming pools. Plus, some of them have diving boards and water slides. 14. Toronto Wolfpack: We have this team that plays this fast, spectacular form of rugby. Their opponents all play out of English cities. They were the first transatlantic team, and became champions in their first season. If all that hadn’t convinced me to check out a home game at Lamport Stadium this season, reading about how players party with fans after wins did the trick. 15. Tom’s Dairy Freeze: Keep your Instagram darlings with black ice cream or towers of fruit or whatever they’re doing this year. The soft-serve at Tom’s on the Queensway — “ice cream, not ice milk,” as the sign says — is the only frozen dessert I look forward to all year.
Walk up to the window, order a twist cone, and eat it at the picnic tables out front as the sun sets. If you get bored of that, and I don’t see how you could, they have classic banana splits suitable for sharing. Expect lines. Enjoy them. The ice cream is a pleasure too great not to be widely shared. 16. Will Alsop’s OCAD building, still: Fourteen years after it opened, and two months after the death of the architect who gave it to us, it can still make you giddy when you see it in the distance as you turn north from Queen St. up McCaul. I mean, just look at it. Even better, now the Grange Park adjoining it is a beautiful, playful space, too. 17. Kevin Quain has a new album: For 17 years starting in 1995, the Toronto singer and songwriter performed every Sunday night at the Cameron House with a rotating cast of musicians he called the Mad Bastards. During that time, I would often find myself there, passing the night to his romantic-heartbroken-hungoverhobo cabaret songs on which he was accompanied by accordion, guitar, piano, standup bass and musical saw, among other instruments. He might be my favourite Toronto musician of all time.
It’s been a while. His residency ended years ago, I became the father to three kids. I haven’t seen him live in a decade. And yet not a week has passed that I don’t find myself singing his songs to myself or my kids. I was gladdened to hear he had a new album, About November, released last week. Listening to it at home felt like meeting an old friend at a bar. One track on it is called “Downtown Blues.”
“They’re closing down the places where we used to play, but I never see anyone anywhere anymore anyway …” he sings. “I know the good old days were not that good at all, there’s a meanness in the air now, I don’t recall. I’m still crazy, I’m still poor, and you don’t come downtown anymore.”
I do still come downtown, but not so much at night. But Kevin Quain is doing a residency Thursday evenings in July at the Rex, starting on July 12.
So I might come down, Kevin. You know, I might.