Few inventions have generated such enthusiasm, encouraged such expectation, or promoted change in so many varied areas. The bicycle has influenced the social, political, and economic life of Toronto’s residents for more than 135 years. After first appearing in Toronto in 1869, it would revolutionize transportation in the city by promising unimagined freedom of travel. It would contribute to better roads, women’s emancipation and the growth of tourism, professional sport and the subsequent development of the motorcycle, automobile, and airplane. And that was before the turn of the 20th century.
Today’s instant dissemination of news feels unremarkable, but if we represent the 200,000-year history of human communication as a single day, this recent period of immediate disclosure amounts to some 30 seconds – or about the time it now takes someone anywhere in the world to tweet a newsflash into the ether. This exhibition chronicles the movement of information over distance and through time, with a particular focus on how and when Toronto residents obtain their news. In 1953, when Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay become the first humans to reach the peak of Mount Everest, four days pass before Torontonians learn of the milestone. Today, a climber can access cellular service at Everest base camp — over 17,000 feet skyward — and send a selfie to friends and loved ones via Snapchat or Facebook. Time doesn’t just fly, it constantly accelerates.
PICTURE a neighbourhood where life is mostly lived in four square-blocks. There are no cars and children walk to school. You can smell fresh bread from the bakery and a local dairy delivers butter and cream to your door.
There’s ready access to butchers and grocers, whose vegetables, fruit, grains, livestock, chicken and eggs arrive from the 900 or so farms within 65 kilometres.
Imagine work in your community in sectors as diverse as retail, printing, fashion, manufacturing, transportation, finance or public health. And nearby small businesses grow into large corporations who sell around the globe.
Beyond necessities, there’s a thriving retail strip, restaurants and opportunities for entertainment, education and self-betterment.
This community exists in Toronto. Or rather existed. One hundred years ago, the group of streets that border on Ogden Junior Public School near Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue offer residents the opportunity to work, shop, play and prosper and the 100 or so homes we examine have access to services and resources rarely found in neighbourhoods today.
As we cast our eyes increasingly outward for models of sustainability, perhaps we would do better to explore the local villages that once thrived in our midst.
Efficient, wheeled human-driven transportation was a dream of land travelers for centuries and in 1869, a steerable, kick-propelled vehicle arrives in Toronto offering “a revolution in locomotion.”
Grand’s Riding Academy opens on Wellington Street on March 5th and provides visitors with their first glimpse of a velocipede. Within months three other riding academies open. The Globe is skeptical of “Velocipedomania”, suggesting the new vehicle is “a toy, a very good one, we daresay, as affording free play to the limbs, but nothing more.”
Locals view exhibitions and learn to ride, while police launch a “crusade” against their use on city streets. On March 25th, an officer charges John Dixon “for running a velocipede on the sidewalk, thereby obstructing the thoroughfare and endangering the life and limbs of pedestrians.”
As soon as the velocipede is introduced, riders crave to race them. Six weeks after the first school opens, a competition is held at St. Lawrence Hall with silver goblets awarded to victors.
The impracticality of riding on Toronto’s dirt roads - dusty and frequently rutted when dry and impassable while wet - ensures the velocipede is a passing fad. It’s a decade before more functional cycles return.
Steve has worked as a writer, researcher and editor for business and not-for-profit organizations. Projects include annual reports, grant proposals, press releases, background and briefing documents as well as copyediting, proofreading and fact checking for clients including Evergreen, Kensington Health, BMO Financial Group, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and Business Development Bank of Canada. Core skills include project management, media strategizing, stakeholder relations, communications, responsiveness to client needs and sensitivity to client culture.
Steve is an Toronto writer and researcher known for developing, writing and coordinating complex, award-winning editorial packages.
That work, as well as feature writing and service journalism has been recognized with 15 Canadian National Magazine Awards, the White Medal for Writing from the U.S. City and Regional Magazine Competition and by the Canadian Business Media Awards.
