Contributed by Duncan Fremlin
Each Thursday, in anticipation of weekend road closures, if you have to drive a car around town to make a living, you’ll likely make a point of listening to the radio or checking the City of Toronto web site. We (I’m one of them) are anticipating road closures. You can be sure there’s at least one Toronto neighbourhood about to put up barriers to close their street to cars for their (fill in the blank…art, food, music) festival.
I use the Waze App to help me manoeuvre around these obstructions. This App politely instructs me to “turn left here” or “make a u-turn you idiot, you turned down the wrong street”. Occasionally, the calming certainty of the App’s voice helps me maintain a cool temperament inside the car, as the sun is beating down outside the car, and as I’m sitting in traffic enjoying my Malcolm Gladwell podcast.
Many of us use the radio station that boasts “traffic and weather on the ones”. However, by the time that accident makes it to the reporter in the studio, it is often too late and we’re hopelessly stuck in the biggest traffic jam of the season.
Don’t get me wrong…those of us on the road all the time really love festivals. Our own neighbourhood has one (ahem). But I know what we’re all thinking as we wait and wait and wait for the car ahead of us to move ahead a few feet….I can see the guy behind me mumbling to himself, ”did you have to have your festival this weekend?”
Having said that, compared to the residents who have to get in and out of the Jazz Festival in the Beach or Taste of the Danforth in Riverdale, Cabbagetowners have it pretty good. We really don’t have much to complain about. From what my Beach/Riverdale friends tell me, as the musicians are plugging in their loud Marshall amps and the food vendors are beginning to pour kerosene over their coals, the locals are loading up their cars to hit the road for some underpopulated region of the country.
When they do decide to stay in town for a weekend to enjoy one of Toronto’s finest weekend festivals, they undoubtedly will choose Cabbagetown Festival 2016, the neighbourhood with the most beautiful streets in the city!
Duncan Fremlin, Broker, RE/MAX Hallmark Reatly Ltd.
www.morethanahome.ca 416-716-3257
