Toronto Visit

[Lauffray]

Toronto might become or could be a home base, but not sure I could winter there. I still have a few more years to go.

I've been to NYC in the winter and while it wasn't nearly as cold or snowy as Montreal, it felt colder. You'll find generally Canadian cities are much more prepared and winter-proofed, double doors, double windows, closed subway system, underground connections, heated everything. We complain about our snow removal but it's actually pretty efficient compared to other places

 

[Calzone]

Cal, I'm glad you liked Toronto.
Makes me wonder though, did you get to the "ugly" or "rough" parts of Montreal when you came ?

Jerome,

I did get to see some grit in a gentrifying neighborhood in Montreal. It had a remarkable feel like in NYC. A bit of tension, but no real danger. Just different people trying to get along.

Anyways not on the scale of danger or tension I experience here in NYC.

When we were in Montreal it was about 2 years ago. I'm sure things have changed. That is what I like about cities.

I'm reading a few Jane Jacob books. She talks about the level of diversity that a city needs to stay vibrant and constantly growing/changing.

I'm not so sure if that diversity that is spoken about is sustainable in NYC over the long term the way things are going. Anyways understand that this is coming from an adaptable guy. I can't help but feel that NYC is closing me out and that the broad diversity that makes a city great is also getting squeezed out.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

toronto is like a clean new york where the people are warmer, friendlier and say 'sorry' if they bump you on the street.
and the blue jays play the yankees a few times per season!

Joe,

I am a pretty friendly guy, but there is that NYC tough thug part of me too. I'd like to leave that tough guy part of my life behind.

BTW I'm not a Yankees fan. Go Blue Jays.

Last year I almost got pancaked by a cab at the entrance of my luxury building. The cab driver was trying to pull out of a tight spot and thought he had the cab in drive. When he gunned the gas in reverse he drove over the nose of a Camaro like a car ramp and became air-born, but luckily he got snagged on the wrought iron fence protecting a tree, otherwise me and a neighbor would of gotten hit and pushed through the plate glass of our lobby while standing on the sidewalk. The Camaro happen to be a cop's car from the 23rd Precinct just around the corner.

About 2 years ago I was almost hit by a water bottle that was thrown from a high floor of a Public Housing Project while walking to work. The Poland Springs bottle exploded upon impact with the ground and hit close enough that I got wet.

Even though I literally am on the same block as a police pricinct: a woman gets mugged with a brick on the corner just outside my building; a young girl gets repeatedly body slammed onto the floor of her lobby because she won't give up her purse and cell phone a little further from that same corner; and just across Lexington Avenue on the next block an attemped rape was a news story just two weeks ago.

Welcome to downtown "SpaHa" (Spanish Harlem) where 50% of the population receives some form of government check; 25% of the population lives in public housing; and just down the block on Third Avenue is a halfway house for ex felons that use to be called "The Parole Transition Institute."

Anyways I don't have to go far to see grit or run down neglect. It is right outside my door. LOL.

Cal

 

[Calzone]

So I come home and got a surprise e-mail.

Before Toronto an open call was sent via e-mail to all active customers of Manhattan Mini Storage. I applied. "No Longer Empty" is a non-profit that does all these pop-up exhibitions in unused spaces all around the city.

I currently am one of 18 artists who is now going to have a "Storage Visit" in August where I will be video interviewed.

In the next cull down 10 of the 18 artists will be part of a curated exhibition presented at the Spring Street Manhattan Mini Storage in Soho.

Click the link www.freshoutofstorage.com click on Calvin Lom; and check out the 5 slides of my work.

After the next step I hope to make it to the final round.

BTW the one vertical image is of Eastern State Penitentiary, and prision that was in operation for 142 years and then abandoned in 1971. It is in a state of stabilized ruins.

The shot of the Domino Sugar Refinery along the East River is from a perch on the Williamsburg Bridge. Someone must of reported me because now that shot is all blocked off by fencing. I am scared of heights, but to get that shot I climbed up on a railing and leaned over a 180-200 foot drop to South 5th Street below.

On the right side of the shot is a small brick building where I once lived in a loft. The two new buildings to the left of my old loft was once a vacant lot, and during the time I lived there all those new high rises in the background had not been built. The sugar refinery was operating, so basically it was like living right next to a massive bomb factory, as sugar refineries are known to go ka-boom. The glass upper story is designed to blow out as to not to take down the building.

The three black photographers are Luis Mendez, Jamal Shabaz, and Anthony Lero. Luis is an living urban legend who hung out with W. Eugene Smith at the "Jazz Loft" when he was young. I think Luis is now 72. Jamal is a rather famous street photographer who's day job is being a prison guard at Riker's. Anthony I know though Luis, and this was shot on Broadway very near the now defunct Leica Gallery.

I call this one shot "Landscape-Face" of "Sal" who lived on East 106th Street in East Harlem for 40 years bringing up 6 kids. I asked Sal if he was a boxer and found out that back in the day he did what we now would call a "Fight Club" which was unregulated boxing that pitted racial groups against each other. BTW Sal is a small man, but he worked the docks.

The shot of Columbus Circle also involved leaning over a high balcony. This shot was mighty lucky because the light seemed to be naturally perfectly polarized to get the refection's exposure to match the exposure of the exterior shot. Believe it or not this shot like all my others is almost as shot right out of the camera. Post is pretty marginal.

Cal

 

[newsgrunt]

Sherbourne St from Queen up till maybe Wellesley but as mentioned, gritty and Toronto don't really mix anymore.

Also if cycling is your thing and u transplant here, look for the Doughnut Club. Wide variety of skill sets but many get left behind the serious riders.

As for your gf, yeah, Kensington Market is still a good place but only, imo, on Kensington, I'd skip Augusta which bears the brunt of hipsters and burrito joints. Lots of Mexican on Augusta tho so if you dig that, have at it. Value Village is where the smart set go to find hidden gems. Kind of like Goodwill but better finds and not so depressing.

Queen West (almost the entire stretch) is too trendy and hip for me. The last holdout stretch between Spadina and Bathurst gave up the ghost when a big fire burned down Duke Cycle (beloved bike shop to many) and a few other character buildings and that opened the door for the developers. Crate and Barrel II opened up where The Big Bop (great club) used to be.

Tons of bike shops in the city, Sweet Petes, Curbside (lots of Euro and British bikes if that's your fancy). Urbne Cycle for the proles.

 

[Calzone]

Sherbourne St from Queen up till maybe Wellesley but as mentioned, gritty and Toronto don't really mix anymore.

Also if cycling is your thing and u transplant here, look for the Doughnut Club. Wide variety of skill sets but many get left behind the serious riders.

As for your gf, yeah, Kensington Market is still a good place but only, imo, on Kensington, I'd skip Augusta which bears the brunt of hipsters and burrito joints. Lots of Mexican on Augusta tho so if you dig that, have at it. Value Village is where the smart set go to find hidden gems. Kind of like Goodwill but better finds and not so depressing.

Queen West (almost the entire stretch) is too trendy and hip for me. The last holdout stretch between Spadina and Bathurst gave up the ghost when a big fire burned down Duke Cycle (beloved bike shop to many) and a few other character buildings and that opened the door for the developers. Crate and Barrel II opened up where The Big Bop (great club) used to be.

Tons of bike shops in the city, Sweet Petes, Curbside (lots of Euro and British bikes if that's your fancy). Urbne Cycle for the proles.

At 58 1/2 I am not as speedy as I use to be. I can go fast, but I can't sustain high output like I use to. When I raced I mostly took a beating like a man. At this point in my life I'm more into the challenge of rolling hills to do intervals and long rides to keep my blood pressure and resting pulse low. I like lots of time in the saddle, exploring and getting lost. Did a few solo centuries just wandering around.

I definitely am into retro bikes. Currently I own 4. I have an 1989 IBIS Mountain Trials that features a 24 inch rear wheel, a 26 inch front wheel, and a hyper short 39 inch wheelbase that I have set up with 30 inch gears for trials. I wonder if I could use some of those ravines to practice/train.

It is not cool to use my trials bike in Central Park even though they do have some awesome glacial rock outcroppings. For health reasons I have to stay fit, and in this regard I am kinda high maintenance.

Cal

 

[newsgrunt]

there are def a few places to ride your trials bike. One good local spot is ravine off bayview Ave. by the train tracks (near nesbitt rd, north of pottery rd, which is also an access spot and where most riders par). Basically if you hit a high overpass, look down and you'll more often than not see makeshift ramps etc.. There was supposed to be one really nice spot outside Toronto for mtn biking but can't remember where exactly. This kid of riding is not my thing but knew people who loved getting dirty and bruised. if you like rolling hills, there are so many places to ride. caledon, niagara escarpment (thornbury and collingwood areas etc). durham region east of Toronto, while slowly sprawlifying, has areas not so developed.

Toronto is getting better as bike friendly city (esp after a former mayor who implore people to stop the war on cars lol). slowly adding dedicated bike lanes that are have some kind of physical barrier which would be mostly mental and peace of mind. till get asshat drivers who park in bike lanes and door prize riders. I used to bang on cars when I rode (kind of aggressively in the city). I'm mellower now...for the most part haha

 

[Calzone]

there are def a few places to ride your trials bike. One good local spot is ravine off bay view Ave. by the train tracks. Basically if you hit a high overpass, look down and you'll more often than not see makeshift ramps etc.. There was supposed to be one really nice spot outside Toronto for mtn biking but can't remember where exactly. This kid of riding is not my thing but knew people who loved getting dirty and bruised. if you like rolling hills, there are so many places to ride. caledon, niagara escarpment (thornbury and collingwood areas etc). durham region east of Toronto, while slowly sprawlifying, has areas not so developed.

Toronto is getting better as bike friendly city (esp after a former mayor who implore people to stop the war on cars lol). slowly adding dedicated bike lanes that are have some kind of physical barrier which would be mostly mental and peace of mind. till get asshat drivers who park in bike lanes and door prize riders. I used to bang on cars when I rode (kind of aggressively in the city). I'm mellower now...for the most part haha

I'm still a bit crazy, but not as crazy as when I was younger. LOL.

Don't really know how I became an old man. Never thought I would live this long. Anyways I have had an interesting life.

Here in NYC it is a bit of a free for all. Mayor DeBlasio reduced the speed limit to 25 MPH, but that only increased congestion and made aggressive drivers more aggressive.

Two years ago there were about 120 pedestrians were killed for the year, some not even crossing the street or intersections, the only thing they did wrong was being at the wrong spot at the wrong time on a sidewalk, and they got pancaked.

Last year, towards the end of October we hit that 120 total of the previous year. It became clear to me that lowering the speed limit actually caused an increase in pedestrian deaths. My thinking is that the added congestion made aggressive drivers more aggressive. Perhaps 24 people got killed in November and December.

Another unintended consequence is that with a lower speed limit there was a retiming of traffic lights. When I was a NYC cab driver in the 70's it was common practice to "time the lights" on the Avenues that run north and south in Madhattan. The idea is to maintain a pace, like a video game by aggressive driving and acceleration to maintain the pace of the traffic lights with a high disregard to the actual physical traffic. Pretty much like a video game, but real life and in real time. So now with the speed limit reduced to 25 mph from 30 mph what I once did in a cab I can now do on a bike.

So I'm on Third Avenue at the intersection of 79th Street when the light ahead is turning yellow. Instinct took over and I got out of the saddle to hammer my 63 gear inches on my single speed bike to begin to make my move to accelerate into traffic taking a lane. Basically I'm doing the speed of traffic, but I am on a bicycle with only one gear, and I'm heading uptown (home).

My style of riding is a "hammer" which is well suited for mountain biking and climbing because I'm 5' 10" and 150 pounds. So I use my skill developed from riding single track to avoid getting stuck behind cars turning left, double parked cars, and jay walking pedestrians to maintain my speed and momentum. So even though I'm on an avenue the route is fraught with twisting and weaving around at speed.

Anyways I made it to 101st Street where I live without hitting a light. I could of kept the pace, but I already hit my destination. Twenty-two blocks keeping up with cars in a sprint.

Cal