Tribute to Toronto the Good and The Village of Parkdale, Then and Now

This video is a picture montage tribute to the city of Toronto and The Village of Parkdale. In searching for the right photos for this project, I was astonished and disappointed to discover, thanks to the archived photos, how much Toronto has destroyed its architectural past. It sure was a beautiful city back then. It kind of reminds me of London or Paris in its downtown core, government and institutional buidlings. I do appreciate what has been saved and restored. I love Toronto and I hope it saves more of its turn of the century buidlings as it moves forward to claim its world class appeal. Dearest to me is Parkdale where I grew up and again the main street where I lived, Jameson Avenue, did not always look like the way I remembered it to be. Parkdale, as a whole, was once an affluent well to do neighbourhood. But it went through major demolition and "modernization" in the mid 20th century with the creation of the Gardiner Expressway which cut it off from the lakefront. The mansions that lined Jameson Avenue were torn down to make way for apartment buildings. Little did I know as a child how nice and affluent the neighbourhood was. Hints of it can still be seen in the surviving houses, storefronts and official buildings in the other streets of Parkdale. I am now even more appreciative of the city, my home neighbourhood and the people that once lived here. I made this video in their honour.
The soundtrack I chose for this video is from Jean Baptist Lully's (1631-1687)
"Pièces de Symphonies" performed by the English Chamber Orchestra, directed by Raymond Leppard. Yes, French baroque music for a British created city. After all, Toronto was first a French outpost when large chunks of Canada and also parts of the United States were under one colonial territory called New France.
It was interesting to locate some of the actual sites of the many archived photos for this video. I took the same shots as did the photographers who took theirs, decades or even over one hundred years ago. For some I relied on postcards courtesy of Chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress.com and a few from R. BOBAK and Google Earth.
Enjoy and thanks for viewing.
Erwin Jose Abcede