Culture: El Cinco de ?

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I could have gone through the entire day today without being aware that it was El Cinco de Mayo. None of the neighbourhood restaurants in Bloor West Village showed an outward sign of the holiday (a few bars apparently had specials inside), and nobody I interacted with here had any plans for celebrations. The Mexican restaurants I passed in my walks over the weekend weren't advertising anything special upcoming for today.

For someone who has spent time in California, this seemed very strange. There, El Cinco de Mayo gets even more attention than the actual Mexican Independence Day on 16-September, especially from those not of Mexican descent. Most of them have never heard of Mexican Independence Day, but tend to party every El Cinco de Mayo. How can this be?

El Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates the victory of the Mexicans over the French in the Battle of Puebla, in 1862. The triumph was quite unlikely, as the Mexicans were outnumbered, but the success was short-lived--the French would go on to rule Mexico for a few years after 1864, imposing the rule of Emperor Maximilian I. Outside of Puebla, the date is not especially prominent in Mexico--the bigger deal is Mexican Independence Day (which actually celebrates what amounts to a "Cry of Independence" in 1810 which eventually led to final independence from the Spanish in 1821).

So how did El Cinco de Mayo become the primary Mexican celebration in the United States? Historians seem to indicate that it dates right from the period of French rule in the 1860's--Mexicans in California used the date to celebrate a victory over the French as a protest against continued French rule in their homeland. By the time the French were gone in 1867, the holiday traditions had been established, and gradually grew to present day.

Here in Toronto, though, most Mexican immigrants are not from the United States nor Puebla, and thus the more important day, as in Mexico, seems to be 16-September. Then, one can find celebrations at local restaurants and community centers, just as on the national days of the other many categories of immigrants in this multi-ethnic city. If one wants to party on El Cinco de Mayo, a better bet is to find a "Tex Mex" or American chain restaurant--there will probably be celebrations there. I guess Canadians just don't need the same excuse to party that Americans do.

Margin Notes: Jane's Walk Moments

A black cat sat on a porch on Roxton Road in Toronto, Ontario, not long after the Jane's Walk passed the Il Gatto Nero restaurant on 1-May-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There are always moments on a Jane's Walk that just don't seem like they should have happened. A mild example came on my first Jane's Walk on Saturday. After the Garrison Creek walk passed the the Il Gatto Nero restaurant in Little Italy at College and Crawford (which, for the record, is about the only restaurant in Little Italy that didn't impress me when I sampled it while living in the neighbourhood), we soon passed a house with a gatto nero (black cat) sitting on a porch.

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I didn't draw my camera in time for a surreal moment during the pedestrian walk on Saturday led by Dylan Reid. As the group was gathered along King Street West listening to a discussion of street furniture, a Hummer--I kid you not--pulled up alongside, waiting for traffic to clear. The woman in the passenger seat had her window rolled down, and immediately reached over to turn off the car radio in order to hear what was being stated, then seemed very disappointed after the light turned and the Hummer had to move on.

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The Grange Park Jane's Walk gained entry into the courtyard of the Phoebe Street Apartments on 1-May-2010

The Grange Park Jane's Walk was not planned to go beyond the borders of the park originally, but thanks to popular demand, Max Allen led us through the neighbourhood, and thanks to quick, impromptu negotiation by a local following the walk, we gained entry to the gated courtyard at the center of the Phoebe Street Apartments--appropriate, considering that under the original agreement with the city, this was supposed to be a public space anyway.

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A street hockey game was stopping to clear the laneway for the passage of the Lanes of Runnymede Jane's Walk on 2-May-2010

My favorite moment of the whole weekend came during the Lanes of Runnymede walk. Leader Madeleine McDowell had warned us that the walk would be like street hockey--when someone yelled "car!" it was time to clear the road. So, what do we encounter on one of the first laneways but an actual game of street hockey. As if we were a car, the young players removed the net from the laneway. I happened to be near the head of the group at the time, so I thanked the child that had held the net to the side and he asked me, "What is this, anyway?" It probably was the most people to wander down that laneway at one time in its history.

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A man worked on his very Greek house on Shaw Street in Toronto, Ontario as a Jane's Walk stopped to discuss the scene on 2-May-2010

Probably the best moments are the chance meetings with people in their own communities as the walk goes by. In my final Jane's Walk, we happened upon the owner of the above house working on his ornate Greek decorations. Why does he do it? "Why not?"

Photos: Jane's Walk Weekend, Day One

Ward 19 city council candidate Karen Sun led a Jane's Walk near Stanley Park in Toronto, Ontario on 1-May-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site begins coverage of Jane's Walk weekend. The walking season opens each year with Jane's Walk weekend, with 120 walks across the Toronto, Ontario area. I only managed to make six; on Saturday, 1-May-2010, these were Garrison Creek led by Karen Sun, pedestrian infrastructure led by Dylan Reid, and the Grange Park neighbourhood led by Max Allen.

Culture: When Songs Become Culture

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There are moments when one realizes that a song has become not just a pop hit, but a part of the culture of the times. When then-presidential candidate General Wesley Clark claimed to listen to OutKast, "Hey Ya" moved from crossover break-out to cultural icon of the time. When U2 performed "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of" in the secretive post-September 11th concert in 2001, despite the fact that it was actually about suicide, it became the song symbolic of the time after the terrorist attack, more important than its modest commercial success would imply.

I take more stock of more casual moments to realize that a song has "made it" beyond the radio. Once, in spring 2003, while riding a local train near Zurich, Switzerland, a pair of teenage girls boarded the train, started horsing around, and one exclaimed, "Chihuahua!" At that point, I knew the hit by Swiss German rapper DJ BoBo (from whom, I oddly have only two degrees of separation) used in a Coca-Cola campaign had become at least a Swiss cultural phenomenon. (It never made it in North America outside of the owners of that breed.) When I was walking down Dundas Street West in Toronto in the summer of 2006 and heard Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" coming out of two different car radios not in simulcast, I knew that song had become the symbolic song of that summer and the World Cup soccer tournament ongoing at the time, as each car was flying a flag of their favored national team.

I had another of those moments yesterday. While walking down a very low-traffic street in my neighbourhood, returning after a Jane's Walk, I passed a family playing in their front yard. As two children circled after one another, seemingly chasing one another, the mother sang out loudly, "When I get older..." Immediately recognizing the tune, I sang back, "I will be stronger..." and then one of the children completed the phrase "They'll call me freedom, just like a wavin' flag" before breaking up in giggles while rolling on the lawn.

These, of course are the opening lyrics of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag", which had long-since became a global phenomenon when it was selected as the song for the 2010 World Cup, as discussed last week. Yet, in my mind, that moment yesterday will be the moment that the song became something more than pop music, a cultural touchstone of 2010.

Margin Notes: Walks, Buses, Robin Hood

Madeleine McDowell (with library bag) led a nearly 100-person group on her Jane's Walk through the "Laneways of Runnymede" in Toronto, Ontario on 2-May-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - After six Jane's Walks and at least thirty kilometers by foot, I've pretty much expended all the energy I have for this weekend. Interestingly, the first walk I went on Saturday morning began at Christie Pits Park and the last walk I went on Sunday evening ended at Christie Pits Park, lending some symmetry to the experience.

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There were a lot of references to divine interventions by Jane Jacobs over the course of the weekend. One has to wonder if she had anything to do with the fact that the first time I took transit this weekend, avoiding a trek downtown to attend a "Skyscrapers of the Financial District" walk, the subway was shut down. Decide not to walk somewhere, and see what happens. With clever detouring, I was only five minutes late to the walk.

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I never did ride a bus all weekend, but I discovered that I had not been paying much attention to the bus fan web sites. I was surprised to see diesel Orion VII "Next Generation" buses, numbered in the 8100-series, running on the 29 Dufferin route. The 2010 order for 120 low-emissions diesel buses is well underway.

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Spring colors were still readily visible at High Park in Toronto, Ontario on 29-April-2010

I didn't walk through High Park during the weekend, but I was there earlier in the week to find the Japanese Cherry Blossoms gone, but still plenty of spring colors to observe as seen above.

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One might find Robin Hood not out of place in High Park, but instead I found people dressed as Robin Hood in Union Station. They were there to support a tax on banks known as the Robin Hood Tax. The group behind it, called At The Table 2010, has a surprisingly wide set of progressive groups behind it, likely explaining how they could afford to be lobbying in Union Station.

Radio Pick: Barbara Budd Tribute

TORONTO, ONTARIO - There wasn't much question what the weekly radio pick would be this week. The importance of acting skills to making quality radio, in particular for news shows, is often overlooked. In their 30-minute tribute to outgoing co-host Barbara Budd, the CBC show "As It Happens" managed to present a variety of examples of how Budd used her skills to create exceptional radio.

Listen to streaming MP3 of As It Happens "Barbara Budd Tribute"

Politics: One of Jane's Legacies

Max Allen spoke during a Jane's Walk at Grange Park in Toronto, Ontario on 1-May-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This weekend, all over the world, people are remembering the legacy of urbanist Jane Jacobs by participating in Jane's Walks. Toronto, Jacobs' chosen home and the origin of the Jane's Walk just three years ago, will have 120 mostly neighbourhood-based walks to partake in this weekend. I managed to participate in only three today.

One of the delightful things about Jane's Walks is that one never knows what one will learn. From a possible renaming of Harbord Park to what kind of pedestrian signal activation is preferred by the city of Toronto (PS2MVG--I'll get around to explaining that in some future post) to the fact that Grange Park is actually owned by the Art Gallery of Ontario, there were a multitude of interesting facts that I would not have otherwise learned had I not gone on these walks today.

The most unexpected revelation came during the "360 Degrees: Grange Park as a Time Machine" walk in the evening with local resident association chairman Max Allen. In the course of explaining how the Ontario College of Art and Design's famous stilted building, he launched into an explanation of how development is normally accomplished in Toronto, and then went into a sidebar on how Toronto Ward 20 Councillor Adam Vaughan has tried to change it.

I had heard about the standard process plenty of times before, which could be summarized as back-room dealing between the local councillor and the developer usually leading to the local residents going before the Ontario Municipal Board in an attempt to stop the project. I hadn't heard that Vaughn decided that was all backward, and tried to change it. Rather than cutting a deal with the developer himself, he forces a community meeting and public buy-in before he will endorse the project. What usually happens is that the residents don't outright reject the proposal, but tell the developer to go back and do it better, and then they go and do it. The improved design is not only accepted by neighbours, but tends to be more attractive and thus sells better for the developer. Why don't developers do this by default? In the opinion of Allen, it's because they were never asked to before. When they are so challenged, architects usually love the chance to do something interesting.

Jane Jacobs fought to establish livable communities. If Max Allen is correct, Adam Vaughan has stumbled on one way to help make that happen, and it is as simple as deviating from the normal development process to get public input earlier.

Jane's Walks continue tomorrow, in cities all over the world; see the official website to find out if there are any where you are located.