Downtown Toronto is changing

You might remember that last week I told you one of our friends was going to be having open heart surgery at a hospital here in Toronto. Well, she had the operation on Friday and she’s still in the hospital and recovering well.

We spent the better part of the weekend going back and forth to the hospital visiting our friend and our husband. Needless to say i didn’t manage to get much done this weekend! She was seen by physio today and was finally allowed to get up and walk around so if she continues to progress well she’ll be out of the hospital by the end of the week. Fast isn’t it?

The hospital is downtown … actually the hospital she’s in (Toronto General) is surrounded by a number of other hospitals. I hadn’t actually been downtown for some time and I was amazed to see that the area around Dundas and Yonge had changed quite a bit. For years they’ve been building a new multi-movie theater on the corner of Yonge and Dundas and now they’ve removed all the boards that had been blocking it off – for years and I think it’s open.

Now that corner that had been a huge construction site competes with the huge shopping center and the other stores on each corner. It’s a mass of digital signage in that area!

I took that photo two years ago, but as you can see there were lots of digital signs back then .. and now that area on the right of the picture is a big multi-movie theater with, oddly enough, a section at the top that is used by the neighboring Ryerson University (I believe they are part owners of the complex).

In the late 80’s and early 90’s that whole area felt like home to me. I was a jewelery – part of the jewelry trade, and that area if full of trade jewelers. I had my business in that area and I lived and breathed the downtown lifestyle. I still live close to the downtown core, but in a much more family friendly area.

Have you noticed how parts of your city has changed over the years? Amazing at times isn’t it?