PDP #17: Downtown, Moss Park

Cities change, some faster than others. If I dislike returning to my hometown Barrie, it's because that city has had the gall and temerity to change since 2000. There are entire tracts of it now that didn't exist when I lived there, farmer's fields and wide green vistas plowed under for sprawling subdivisions where roads eat themselves like Ouroboros serpents. In others, common touchstones remain, so that even if aspects and details evolve, the core of what the city was continues to be.

Since the completion of Scotia Plaza in 1988, there have been few major additions to downtown Toronto's skyline. That is set to change. The Bay Adelaide Centre, killed by the last recession and barely squeaking by into this one, has risen from a concrete stump to a bright azure tower, due to open in only a matter of months. Donald Trump is building his own tower right across the street from it, and condominium towers have proliferated like dandelions on what was once blighted railway land.

This photo was taken from the grassy field of Moss Park between Queen Street East and Shuter Street on June 20, 2004. Five years on, the skyline doesn't look the same, but the core of what it is remains there today.


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