This year for the festive season we visited family in Ontario. After flying into Billy Bishop City airport we ended up taking the GO train to Oshawa, and eventually north of Peterborough to the cottage country of the Kawartha Lakes. It was time to find our previous family homes from the 1990s in Peterborough and to remember canoe trips, North of the city.
The second week, we came back down to Scarborough and Toronto. This meant purchasing a Presto card and negotiating the links between the streetcars and the subway system. It is over fifty years since I had been immersed in this urban geography: walking down Yonge Street, visiting the Eaton Centre, window shopping at the Hudson Bay company, staying at the Chelsea Hotel.
On Sunday, we walked around the Don Valley Brick Works Park and visited the Future Cities Centre. Found a couple of interesting books on urban living. Eric Klinenberg, Palaces for the People. How social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization and the decline of city life. I liked this quotation.
“Social infrastructure provides the setting and context for social participation, and the library is among the most critical form of social infrastructure that we have”. p.32
Second, Jeff Speck‘s book Walkable City. How downtown can save America, one step at a time. He has ten steps from ‘putting cars in their place’ to ‘plant trees’. Later in the week, we dropped into BMV, a second-hand bookstore and I found Zipp and Storring (Ed) Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs.
Within Greater Toronto, there are several YMCAs. This gave me a chance to address an old knee injury. So we went to an AquaFit class with my brother. Now, on my return to the Annapolis Valley, I must see what is available at the Fundy YMCA in Cornwallis Park.
For our last night in Toronto, we stayed at the Strathcona Hotel, which is near Billy Bishop airport.
There, I found a collection of essays, edited by Stephen Katz. He was Professor, Sociology at the Trent Centre for Aging and Society. The book is Ageing in Everyday Life: Materialities and Embodiments.
“The authors of this book have backgrounds in social gerontology, geography, feminism, the humanities, social work, sociology, health and dementia studies which gives this diverse and interdisciplinary group critical access to the immediate world in which we live, the bodies we know and touch, and both the real and fantastic realms of existence with which we engage.” P.10
The country mouse has returned to the country. There is a significant stack of books to read, while the snow blows across the fields. The dogs will need to be walked. The orchard pruned. Visits to the nearest swimming pool. New technology to be mastered – common in the city, less so in the country.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to our extended family and friends for helping with our transition to city living. Patrick, Emily and family in Peterborough. Peter, my brother for the AquaFit experience. Carole, Jason and family, Julia and family for their generous hospitality in Toronto. Heather for her company and support. Edward for his contribution.
References
Eric Klinenberg.2018. Palaces for the People. Broadway Books.
Jeff Speck.2012. Walkable City. North Point Press.
Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring. (Ed) 2016. Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs. Random House.
Stephen Katz (Ed) 2018. Ageing in Everyday Life. Policy Press.
Postscript
There are some take-home messages. The city mouse walks much more than the country mouse. There is much greater access to diverse facilities in the city: YMCA, theatres, libraries, universities, shopping centres, restored industrial space.
Ernest Blair Experiment 