Big up to east end T-Dot

I live in east-end Toronto, very close to the intersection of Lawrence and Victoria Park. While I work and socialize downtown for the most part, I have lived in the same hood all my life. Much to my surprise, there was a magazine devoted to Lawrence East called '54east', a reference to the bus line that runs along Lawrence.

In many ways, the area can be quite dismal. Walking distances are measured in what seem like light-years and architecturally it is on the boring side of a Soviet apartment block. Despite this, as the magazine captures, there is a weird energy to the neighbourhood that I have felt in many parts of Toronto. I think we take it for granted, but it is nice to live in a city where a halal pizza joint opens up where a fast-food mega-chain once stood. Lawrence east of VP is what a Middle Eastern bazaar would be if it they had strip malls in Amman. I also enjoy the working class element as there is quite the number of Canada's most endangered species- the urban hoser. It is simultaneously amusing and heartening to see a trashy tavern full of drunks eating hot hamburgers right beside an Islamic bookstore and having the patrons of each befriend eachother... Maybe they don't hump, but they do communicate. I, as a homo, feel totally comfortable to greet the Boyf with a kiss when he comes to meet me at my local, a boring little sports bar that thankfully has a smoking room. The area may be gross from a design point-of-view, but it is lived in and evolving.

So, peeps... although the centre of the city will always be the centre of my world, don't forget that the universe doesn't end at Bloor St.