Urban Adventurist: The Junction

The Junction is the Bermuda triangle of Toronto. Everyone has heard of it, not many have been there. The truth is, most people have no idea exactly where it is. And once you go there, there is no coming back. People disappear into the Junction, never to be seen from again. It was armed with only this knowledge that I left for my adventure.

(Ed Note*** This is in no way meant to be any sort of a travel guide. It chronicles the journey from my house to this place, and includes anything of interest I see along the way. If you were planning to use this to plan your day trip.... well... don't do that. Not unless you were planning on leaving from and returning to my house)View Urban Adventurist: The Junction in a larger mapI got off to a little bit of a rough start, heading straight north from my house and ending up in a little bit of a sketchy neighbourhood just north and east of Bloor and Dufferin. Urban Adventures need to happen in a place you feel safe getting lost and wandering around in. When you have your phone out and 9-1 dialed (finger hovering over the last 1), you know you have to find a new street to walk on.

But I quickly got my groove back by hopping onto Wallace heading west. 2 minutes later I stumbled upon the

watertower at the corner of Ward and Wallace. It doesn't look like much. But any local tech geek worth his facebook status knows that this abandoned building is the home to the new office of Ubisoft. Its pretty cool that they found a space this big in a building that has some history behind it. No

t sure what it was in its heyday, but it brings a very industrial age to mind. Which is funny, because I guess animators and game designers are just the factory workers of the new millenium. You need a TONNE of them to get out any mass of product, performing repetitive and highly specialized craft skills.

These guys just get more than minimum wage, and have drum sets and pool tables in the break room.

This office is going to go a loooong way to bringing more peeps into this hood, and lending some cache and importance to the drive to name this area. You can check out the issue and discussion thus far at fuzzyboundaries.ca

After Ubisoft I really feel into the swing. Its fun to come to a corner and make a last minute decision on your direction. If you sort of blank out and follow your nose you stumble on some great stuff. Next on my list was Yasi's Place. I had been there once before with a friend I love and havent seen in FOREVER, but never quite new where i was. Now I know, its the corner of Wallace and Campbel. And its just about the cutest thing ever. The menu is stellar (and vegetarian friendly, for those of you who tend to the herbivoric) and it just s

eems like a great place to cuddle up with a book on a bleak day.

That was not, however, on my agenda, so I trundled on along Wallace, reaching the end and the greatest pedestrian bridge i have discovered in Toronto in all my 28-some-odd years. Apparently it has been there s

ince at least 1932, as this picture shows. Which is very cool. I really dig that about these walks, and Toronto in general. I am always able to unearth some history. Don't get me wrong, I know I am no archaeological excavator. But stuff like this, and the water tower at Ward reminds me that there was a time BEFORE, stories and people that are all but forgotten in the new world of neighbourhoods we think we are discovering for the first time. I mean, we all talk about how we are "discovering" or "introducing" Leslieville, or The Junction or whatever. But its been around forever.

Anyway, up and over I went, and saw a bit of the Junctions greenery from overhead right before I plunged back into it.

The next twenty or thirty minutes was really just pointless wandering and real estate lusting. I have finally reached a point in my life where people are actually acquiring property. Its weird, to have friends that OWN houses... I am so so so far away from it. but still, it makes me look, and lust, at houses. H

ouses with big windows, houses with too many stairs to the front door, houses with driveways, houses with porches, and balconies, and turrets and additions.... By the time the bank will trust me enough with a mortgage (and it will be awhiiiiiiiiile) I will be ready to go.

I think I need to live near a park. I grew up a block away from one, and I loved it. And I want my (future and entirely hypothetical) kids to have one. The one in this neighbourhood is pretty cool. Baird Park is your typical, mid-city space, open with a playground and a wading pool. But it also happens to be the home to the West Toronto Lawn Bowling League, which is pretty fucking awesome. There was one in the park near my house as a kid. I never played. But always associate the sport with childhood. Maybe I will try it out this ummer. I think its like bocci ball.... but I have to get together some whites.

From there I was pretty much officially in The Junction proper, signified by the development of any historic space into lofts. I counted 5 churches in a 2 block radius around Anette and High Park Rd, 3 were being condo-fied.

And when I reached the main drag at Dundas I found many many businesses accomodating the furnishing of these new lofts by young hipsters in the style to which they have become accustomed (and will demand, cheap)

Mjolk (there is an umlaut supposed to be in there somewhere) is a kickin' design shop at 2959 Dundas St W. It is way out of price range (signifying its quality) but has stuff I would trade my left arm for (signifying my taste). Its only been open since December, but the kids are discovering it fast. The place was packed. I went in thinking i found the hot Junction bar... turns out, it was just shopping day on Dundas.

Smash has been around a little longer, I am told. But its definitely not tired or 'done' yet. Smash is a store and gallery that specializes in salvage and restoration of kooky and kitsch. They were clsoing up when I was walking by. But if you get there soon, you will be able to see the nose print i left from smooshing my face up against the glass to peer inside at themounds of treasures stacked to the ceiling. A quick run across the street will show you a twin set of smudgy nose prints as the stores "warehouse" is a glass front across the way. Its like eye candy treasure for a design freak like yours truly, and definitely worth the trip to the Junction even to stare through the windows at.

The last place on the journey, before officially heading for home was for a much needed caffeine jolt. And if I was judging a neighbourhood by its coffee shops alone. The Junction would be worth its weight in fair trade Colombian. My cuppa came from Cool Hand of A Girl, a cute shop that is bare cept for the things it needs to deliver sweet sweet caffeine rushes to my bloodstream.

So thats it, my day in the Junction. Well, if you take a look at the map you will see I doubled back and around a bit before heading for home. This was completely unintentional... Its just I had absolutely no idea what direction I was headed in, until I happened upon the West Toronto Lawn Bowling clubhouse, from the exact same direction I had encountered it the first time.

I have a theory on this, because I am generally REALLY REALLY REALLY good with direction.... like I NEVER get lost. But when Dundas curves up the entire grid pattern that Toronto is built on swivels around. Everything going south is now west, everything east is north... its discombobulating.

But maybe thats why, when people go into The Junction, they so rarely come out again....