Gorgeous, Ace.

I may actually be there this weekend... and there's a good chance I'll be relocating there in August for about 2 years!!!!

What are the cool neighborhoods/suburbs of Toronto for a couple with a 5-year-old? Ya know... safe, but not sterile; nice, but not millionaires' row; diverse, but where I can still speak English to my neighbors; quiet, but still in reasonable proximity to the city.

I LOVE the look and old-world vibe of Cabbagetown, but I'm thinking it may be too central. If downtown gets blown up, I ain't trying to go with it.

ShySlantedEye1 said:

sorry! Melbourne, Australia

Toronto is an overrated city. I know, i live there. It's boring, crime is up and there are not a lot of hot women here,

Spats said:

What about hot men?

Born in Brighton, England, but grew up in Cheltenham. I now live in Bangkok, though in the suburbs actually rather than in the centre as shown here:

Fauxie said:

Beautiful!

But, Fauxie, how the heck did you end up in Thailand?

Great pics, but where's Natalie? There should be a picture of her getting my phone number from you or something. Come on!

Lammastide said:

I haven't been looking.

Spats said:

Well get to it, yo! I can't research these things all the way from Cleveland!

Ace said:

If naked bongo playa is gay, there is officially no such thing as gaydar.

Fauxie said:

suburbs:




(just kidding, and you know that!)

des moines, iowa! not much of a city, but what the hell. it's iowa fer fuck's sake. but seriously, it ain't too bad of a place, just quieter. it's more or less a smaller version of minneapolis, minus all the places to go and stuff to do, and less people (and more folks are leaving the city, despite a bunch of new stuff being built so it can be more "hip"--my dad sez that there's nobody left in des moines but old people now, hehehe). here's some of the stuff that's there:


veterans memorial auditorium (sorry the pic's so small), the place where ozzy osbourne bit the head off of the bat while doing a concert back in 1982. he got treated over at mercy hospital, which is right up the street from vets.


des moines botanical center (pretty cool place, it's a lot like a big-assed greenhouse with a lotta exotic plants and free-flying birds)


along with all that stuff, des moines is also home of:


--the supposedly world-famous iowa state fair...a lotta people come from all over for the fair there. my dad recently moved over to east des moines and his new house is only 2 blocks away from the fairgrounds. needless to say, i imagine it's gonna be hell once fair time starts up. then again, it won't be so bad: he'll be able to have folks pay 'im to use his front yard as a parking space when there's nowhere else to park. easy money.


--the drake relays, which is held every april over on the campus of....


drake university! (go bulldogs!)



--anderson-erickson dairy--the two big-assed cows here (named annie and eric, oddly enough--everyone in town usually just refers to 'em as "the A-E cows") stand outside of the dairy on the corner of east university and hubbell avenues over on the east side of town. their dairy products are one of the things i kinda miss about des moines...they don't sell A-E stuff here in minneapolis.


--principal financial group--the headquarters are in downtown des moines. in fact, des moines is like the insurance capital of the u.s. or something like that, there's a lotta other finance and insurance buildings downtown.



another thing des moines is sorta famous for is that we got hit pretty hard by the flood of '93. at the time that all went on i was 12 years old and me and my folks still lived over on the southeast side of town, nearby the des moines river...we were literally by the river, it was only about a block behind our house and we lived in a low-lying area of the city. everyone on our block had to evacuate outta there when the river started rising--i had to stay over at my grandma's house across town for a few days when that happened--thankfully, the levee by our house didn't break (and was sandbagged properly) and we didn't get flooded outta there.

DETROIT

HOME OF THE MOTOWN SOUND. HOME OF TECHNO MUSIC.
HOME OF THE FIRST MOTOR EXPRESSWAY, FIRST TRAFFIC LIGHT, FIRST COMMERCIAL RADIO BROADCAST, FIRST SUPERHIGHWAY, FIRST AIR CONDITIONED DEPARTMENT STORE, FIRST HOTEL IN WHICH TO HAVE A BATHROOM IN EVERY ROOM, FIRST CITY TO ASSIGN TELEPHONE NUMBERS & THE FIRST ASSEMBLY LINE. DETROIT IS HOME TO THE LARGEST OPEN AIR MARKET IN AMERICA, THE LARGEST SINGLE DAY FUNDRASIER, & HOME OF THE MODERN LABOR MOVEMENT. DETROIT IS HOME TO THE CADILLAC, THE MUSTANG, AND THE CHRISLER SHIZZLE.DETROIT IS HOME OF THE LARGEST MIDDLE EASTERN POPULATION ANYWHERE OUTSIDE OF THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE LARGEST AMERICAN CITY WITH A BLACK MAJORITY. DETROIT HAS MORE THEATRE SEATS THAN ANY OTHER CITY BESIDES NYC. DETROIT IS THE ONLY MAJOR CITY THAT IS ACTUALLY SOUTH OF CANADA. DETROIT IS HOME TO ARETHA FRANKLIN, MADONNA, EMINEM, JOE LOUIS, ROSA PARKS, OH YEAH... AND ME.


Campus Martius Park during the Christmas holiday season.


Comerica Park. GO TIGERS!


The Movement Festival. (electronic music)


North American Freedom Festival fireworks.


A concert in front of the historic "Spirit of Detroit" statue.
[Edited 6/9/06 15:34pm]

abierman said:

Actually, there are a few houses a bit like that around here on the way to the market, leaning all over the place on stilts in the swamps. What cracks me up is when they have no windows or anything and a rickety roof, but they do have a satellite dish.

Fauxie said:

dude, I'd chose satellite dishes over windows as well.....it's worldcup-time!!!

abierman said:

True, although what's weird is how the games weren't even on cable last night on ESPN or Star Sports, but they were on 5 Thai terrestrial channels all at the same time. I just hope I can watch all the games I want to. And yes, who needs windows? Just a TV and a beer is all you really need.

Fauxie said:

maybe that's because ESPN is american? I remember when I was living in the US in 2000 during the European's, they showed the games as pay per view on cable.....americans don't bother to much if it's not big guys wearing spandex & body-pads, fondling eachother's asses.....

are the Thai soccer-crazy?