Culture: Crombie on Walking

Member of Provincial Parliament Cheri DiNovo presented a certificate to Swansea Historical Society President Norm McLeod for the 25th anniversary of the organization on 5-May-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The Swansea Historical Society reached a remarkable milestone this week--25 years of existence. The packed room at Swansea Town Hall included about a dozen people who had been with the organization from the very start, including President Norm McLeod. The event drew media figures, politicians, and other notables--Member of Provincial Parliament Cheri DiNovo even presented McLeod with recognition from the province.

The choice for speaker on this historic night was pretty obvious. David Crombie had grown up in what had been an independent village of Swansea (it was not annexed to Toronto until 1967) and went on, amongst other things, to be mayor of Toronto from 1972 to 1978, leading some in Swansea to say that "We took over Toronto; they didn't take over us." Crombie remains immensely popular in his home neighbourhood, and was well-received despite a double-booking that led to his late arrival to anniversary meeting.

Though often described as a "red Tory," Crombie was a Progressive Conservative when in Federal politics, so it seems a bit surprising to hear him say things that could have come out of the mouth of present mayor David Miller, who is closely linked with the New Democratic Party (NDP). Crombie pointed out that the things that define the neighbourhood--parks, trails, roads, and buildings like Swansea City Hall--are all public infrastructure, and that we should not lose sight of the government's role in enabling the building of communities that hold everyone together.


David Crombie spoke to the Swansea Historical Society during its 25th anniversary meeting on 5-May-2010

The bulk of Crombie's speech, though, focused on walking. He described how his uncle used to walk a significant distance to work each day (it would take me well over an hour to walk the route), and how the culture of Swansea was walking, since east-west public transit lines ran only at the far south end and north of Swansea proper. It was this background that made the ideas of Jane Jacobs--which Crombie had substantially embraced as mayor--so compatible with Crombie's world view.

Today, Crombie continues to structure his life around walking everywhere he can, taking transit for trips that are too long. When he needs to clear his mind, he will return to Swansea and walk through High Park and Rennie Park. He embraces the legacy of Jane Jacobs by leading a Jane's Walk through Swansea each year. He strongly encouraged everyone in attendance to walk at least two kilometers a day to help maintain their health.

Is it any wonder why I feel so comfortable in Toronto and Swansea? David Crombie made it all very clear with his speech emphasizing the past and present of walking in the neighbourhood of his youth and his city of today.

Margin Notes: Walks, Power, Cooking, Q

The CN Tower loomed in the distance as seen near Lambton Park in Toronto, Ontario on 24-January-2010. The newly-rebuilt Dundas Street bridge over the Humber River is in the foreground.

TORONTO, ONTARIO - It was very nice to return to my normal Sunday routine today, which I had not followed since 29-November. I slept in, listened to CBC Radio One's The Sunday Edition from 9 to noon, took a walk out to the Humber River to watch the Expressway train go by, and then it started raining, so I came back to my computer. I could do that every Sunday.

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I have taken a fair number of two-hour walks to downtown Toronto from where I live in the past year or so, a distance of about ten kilometers or six miles. To put this in perspective in previous places I have lived, that walk would be equivalent to:

• My parents' home near Beaux Arts Village, Washington all the way to Interlake High School in Bellevue, Washington
• Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington, all the way to the far end of the University of Washington's main campus in Seattle
• My grandparents' house near downtown Kennewick, Washington all the way to the Columbia Center Mall in Kennewick, Washington
• Stanford University's central campus all the way to the downtown Mountain View, California Caltrain station
• South Station in Boston, Massachusetts all the way to the Alewife subway station in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Perhaps needless to say, I have never taken any of those walks. In some cases, I have never even walked half that distance from the starting point.

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After taking a walk, it's time to cook a meal. Thanks to the new Toronto Hydro usage web site I talked about previously, I now know based on the spikes at mealtime that it costs me about $0.50 in electricity to cook dinner off peak, and about $1 on peak, which helps puts eating out in perspective.

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I had been thinking recently that I hadn't eaten chicken cordon bleu for a long time, and considering that I hadn't seen it pre-prepared in the frozen foods section for less than about $7 a serving in some time, I was thinking about getting ingredients to make it myself--something I haven't done in probably seven years. Then, I noticed a No Name brand "Ham and Cheese Stuffed Breaded Chicken Breast" for sale for less than $2 a serving. The difference between that and chicken cordon bleu is lost on me and I thought it tasted pretty good, so I guess I won't be on the spot to cook it after all.

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Jian Ghomeshi will be on the spot this week. His CBC Radio One show, Q, is apparently being sampled on public radio in the United States this week. So far, the stations I have noticed advertising the trial are KALW in San Francisco, which will run the show at various times of day during the one-week run, and North Country Public Radio in New York state, which will run it at 1 pm. Personally, I have a hard time seeing what kind of station in the United States would run a show that is so fundamentally focused on Canadian culture, no matter how good it is, but it will be interesting to see how it goes.