An ode to the Gardiner

We'd venture to guess that Torontonians love to hate it and loathe to travel on it, that concrete highway that marks Queens Quay's northern border.

Well, like standing next to an elephant, we can't help but notice that the Gardiner is in our lives but we also tend to look the other way, to the pretty lake Ontario to our south.

Fact is, it's here and marks the point when the city ends and a new neighbourhood emerges. South of the Gardiner, in the heat waves of the summer, you almost enter a new climate, when the lake-cooled air hits you within a few steps. One could live a cozy existence south of the Gardiner but for very 'living-in-the-city' type reasons, we often cross it.

So enter Christopher Hume, urban columnist/poet, scoping up down the vast stretch in search of beauty. He recently wrote a column about the Gardiner.

It is no longer merely an elevated highway; it has become a linear subterranean ecosystem, man-made but never quite under control. In the perpetual shadow of a structure built long ago in a now dead future, newly arrived dog walkers from nearby condos rub shoulders with homeless men off for a day's begging and workers hurrying to the office.

The Lake Shore is a river, with vehicles instead of water, the Gardiner a grotto. The Convention Centre is the hilly region and utility poles stand in for the trees.

A grotto and a river? Huh, okay, snap back to it Mr. Hume.

So it's no surprise people are starting to be attracted to this troglodytic world. Far from the madding crowd, not to mention nicely protected from the cars hurtling above, this may be Toronto's final frontier. Except for the waterfront, where the landscape is heading into a period of planned evolution, the Gardiner corridor is the city's last accidental wilderness of any significance.

Given its proximity to downtown and the waterfront, and the fact that it's unlikely to be torn down, the time has come to revisit the Gardiner. Needless to say, it should be torn down, but Toronto doesn't have the political will to embark on such a bold and controversial course. In other words, this wilderness will be around for a while.

Read the rest of his column here.

Oh we don't complain as much about the Gardiner than we do, say, for certain sporting teams that are planted to the north of its shores. The National Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer, in a podcast last summer, jokingly said this about the highway.

"The Gardiner is an incredible piece of our industrial experience... people don't see how singularly beautiful it is."

Joking aside, he also suggested that just like Tokyo has raised platforms for trains, we should look underneath them. There you'll find bars and a place to hang out. "Fundamentally I'd take it down but for the time being can we at least open a few pubs beneath it to make it palatable.

Listen to Posted Toronto Podcast on from June 2008 here.