Imagine if you will a tree-lined canal, where strollers pause atop an ornate arched bridge before sitting for a snack at a café or browsing the shops that line the water.
A vision of Amsterdam, or the popular River Walk in San Antonio? No, it could be the future of Toronto’s shabby Port Lands if a visionary concept by an East Toronto group known as Trillium Ridge gets its way.
Water has long been a major attraction for humans. Summer activities almost always involve a water-oriented activity. Indeed, Ontario heavily promotes its lakes, rivers, beaches and its historic canals like the Rideau and Trent-Severn. Even the Niagara Region has begun to promote the busy Welland Canal as a tourist opportunity.
Sadly, Toronto’s waterside potential still largely lies wasted. Nowhere is this more evident than in The Port Lands area. While more public access to the shoreline of the lake, and walkways along the harbour will enhance the attraction of the area, a system of urban canals would add an extra layer of appeal. In travel writers’ parlance, it would give Toronto a "WOW" factor that it currently lacks.
Urban canals have demonstrably given many communities around the world an ambiance that streets and lakefronts alone cannot give. Waterways which pass by shops, restaurants, hotels and even residences serve to combine both the urban and the waterside experiences.
Venice and Amsterdam are two widely celebrated historic examples where urban canals make for both a distinctive urban townscape and a major tourist draw. Over the last few decades, the American city of San Antonio has turned what was essentially a sewer into a major attraction. The River Walk, lined now with mature trees, inns, cafes and shops has equalled and on occasion exceeded the Alamo as an attraction, and adds $800 million annually to the economy of the city. Award-winning plans by Hassell Pty Ltd will incorporate an urban canal into the revitalization of Ningbo City in China. The ancient canal carved city of Xochimiko, now surrounded by Mexico City, was considered by even the conquering
Spaniards to be the "Venice of the New World" and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Closer to home, Ontario can claim several cases of canals having been incorporated into the urban landscape. The Rideau Canal which cuts through the heart of Ottawa, is a key attraction both winter and summer. Millions of tulips festoon the canal’s shore in spring, while skaters enjoy the frozen waterway during the winter. The Canal is the basis of festival in the winter and spring.
Perth Ontario has incorporated the turning basin of the Tay Canal into a focus for cafes, walkways and a popular farmers’ market. In both Lindsay and Merrickville, the appeal of the Trent and Rideau canals respectively have helped bring about revitalization to the downtown. Port Colbourne’s West Street faces onto the Welland Canal, and has become a popular attraction for both shoppers and ship-watchers While on the shores of Lake Simcoe, the new town of Lagoon City was built entirely upon a system of newly dug canals.
Why not Toronto? Trillium Ridge thinks it has the answer with a network of canals which crisscross The Port Lands area. Shops and cafes would line the waterways which would be crossed by charming bridges, while watercraft glide slowly beneath.
From an engineering point of view, The Port Lands are already built on landfill in the lake and can be easily trenched. Torontonians love their neighbourhoods and visit them with great relish and frequency. The Beach district in east Toronto, Cabbagetown, and ethnic shopping districts like Greektown, Little India, and the many Chinatowns draw visitors from both within the GTA and beyond. It makes sense that the appeal of a neighbourhood of urban canals would provide an economic justification for the efforts in creating such a distinctive landscape.
The Toronto to Rochester ferry will dock nearby. Not only will the urban canals provide an immediate attraction for disembarking passengers, but may even enhance the attraction of the ferry itself and contribute to its viability. Other historical features also lurk nearby. The Keating channel, the historic hulking bascule bridge that guards the shipping channel, and the newly popular .Distillery District a short distance north on Cherry St.
But there’s much more that can be done to enhance a new neighbourhood of urban canals. A museum of Great Lakes shipping can be
established at the ferry terminal. This would add to the attraction of the ferry, and provide reasons to visit the site during the ferry’s off-season. Just as plane watching has become a popular sport beside Toronto’s Pearson Airport, so too could ferry watching by the Eastern Gap. A low-rise hotel which would take advantage of the stunning views of the city’s skyline from the eastern harbour would provide nearby accommodation for passengers arriving on the ferry, and offer visitors to the city an opportunity to enjoy a rarely experienced view of the skyline.
If Toronto should succeed in attracting a World’s Fair exposition, its legacy on the city’s landscape could well be a neighbourhood of urban canals in much the same way that the space needle has left its imprint upon Seattle and the Eiffel Tower on Paris.
A neighbourhood of urban canals would show the world a city with imagination and vision, a vision which could truly make Toronto a "world-class" city.
Ron Brown is a travel writer and author of several books on unusual features to see throughout Ontario. His latest titles include Downtown Ontario; Unusual Main Streets to Explore, and Top One Hundred Unusual Things to See in Ontario.
