From Rathnelley to Yorkville
A tale of two former hippie havens, the Republic of Rathnelly that stopped the Freeway construction in its tracks, and Yorkville, the home to Joni Mitchell, and other musical icons. Now, Rathnelly is the home to quiet money and Yorkville is Toronto's Rodeo Drive or Magnificent Mile.
On my walk down, I cut through the Davenport Triangle past the corner of Bedford and Davenport which has number of ghosts. If you grew up and came of age in Toronto, you would remember the Just Desserts shooting. A bunch of guys, one of them packing a 12-guage sawed off shotgun robbed an updscale desrsert cafe on a week night in the spring if memory services correct, shaking patrons down for cash and jewellery as well as whatever was in the cash register. The kid with the shotgun was a little trigger happy and shot a 24 year old woman on a date with her fiancé (again if memory serves), in the torso, killing her on the scene. After that, building was cursed, the cafe folded, sat vacent for a while became a Subway franchise, and is now slated for demolition for condos.
Cutting over to Yorkville, I noticed some boutiques survived, others didn't. You can tell who had the decent e-commerce strategy to get through the pandemic. If you squint, things look normal, until you get to Bloor St. and you notice some stores have been vacant going on two years. This town is changing. To what? I don't know.
Camera: Minolta XD-11, MD Rokkor X lenses.
Film: Ilford HP5 400 Pushed to 1600, HC110 B
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