Look back as we leap forward

Torontonians look wistfully to New York City these days.

A planning commissioner with a vision, someone who is not afraid of making bold decisions and exudes passion for the city and its neighbourhoods.

The kind of vision that sees an abandoned, elevated rail line transformed into a striking urban park.

Better commuter times than Toronto (I’m still reeling).

It’s not like we aren’t trying. Spend some time exploring this city’s nooks and crannies and you stumble upon urban art installations and bike lanes alongside the train tracks. And there is a vision (albeit moving at a snail's pace) in the waterfront plans, in some community housing development and revitalization projects across the city.

But here’s something else we could take from the Big Apple: a museum that celebrates Toronto’s immigrant communities, and all that they have brought to the city.

Why not start with one little corner of the city.

In New York, it was the Lower East Side.

The Lower East Side Tenements Museum started when a historian and social activist decided she wanted to build a museum that honoured America’s immigrants. In 1988, she and her co-founder finally found what they were looking for… One of the original tenement buildings, those multiple family buildings that housed thousands of immigrant families from the mid-nineteenth century on.

Now, having restored six apartments to reflect the living conditions of six actual families, residing in the tenement at various points during those many years, the museum is a living history of immigration, a slice of time and cultures, all carefully told by guides with talent for telling their stories.

So my Idea of the Day is a celebration of Toronto’s immigrant history. And yes I recognize that we are all – with the exception of First Nation people – immigrants to this land. But let’s start somewhere. Perhaps a storefront on Spadina Avenue, once the centre of Jewish life in Toronto, the home of the garment district, Yiddish theatre, cinemas. The advent of Chinatown and the waves of new families, cultures and communities ever since. The smells and sounds of Kensington Market.

And it is true that the dreams of a Toronto museum have been lingering out there for years… so maybe this could be a first step, a little taste of what we are and what we will become. A celebration of something that we are proud of, a reminder of the good and the bad, the racism, the struggles, the triumphs.

Oh and since we are talking about museums, and thinking big ideas, spend a few moments checking out the virtual museum of Toronto. It’s a beautiful little thing.

About Marit Stiles

Comments

[Marg]

My suggestion for a location for the Toronto Museum is the Paper Fibre Building in the Distillery district (corner of Trinity & Mill St). It is a large building in a significantly historical locale, currently designated historical and something should be done soon before it falls down in disrepair.

Thanks
Marg

[AlisonYonge]

Have you seen the Multicultural History Society of Ontario? It is sort of what you're talking about:

http://www.mhso.ca/

[Thomas Graff]

We don't even have a decent museaum to tell the history of this city to citizens and tourists alike - of which the history of immigrants is a small part.

Why is it that we seem to have such a strange attitude towards immigration - a "cult of immigration" where we idealise immigration and immigrants, but ignore the contributions of their children and those who were born here, or we ignore the history of this city, province and country, as we tear down old buildings or other parts of our past without a sceond thought so that we can cram even more immigrants into this city.

[Thomas Graff]

And also "And yes I recognize that we are all – with the exception of First Nation people – immigrants to this land." How far back does one stop considering people to be immigrants - do we count people whose ancestors have been here 200 years as still be "immigrants", while saying that aboriginal people, who have been here 10,000 years, are not? Humanity did not evolve in North America - there were up to 3 waves of aboriginal immigration to this continent - the first being as much as 30,000 years ago.

On my father's side, my family has been here for roughly 200 years - my mother is an immigrant, and has been here over 60 years. I have no other place I consider home - any ties or feelings I have to my mother's country of birth (England) are weak. The problem with multiculturalism is that it has no place for venerating or preserving the culture of people who consider themselves to be nothing but Canadian - our culture and history is something to be diluted and as such will cease to exist, while the cultures being added will still exist in the homelands of others, to which immigrants still feel a connection or loyalty to.

[Ingrid]

Clearly the author of this article is not aware of the definition of an immigrant. I am a Canadian, not an immigrant. I was born here. I actually think the idea for an immigrant museum is a good one since all Canadians, except for people of aboriginal descent, are descendants of immigrants or came here as immigrants themselves. I am a Canadian and no-one has the right to belittle me because of my ethnic background as the author, in their ignorance, has done.

[Wally]

Having a such a museum is a good idea. Since the 'white' migrants have contributed more than 95% toward building modern canada, will 95% of the space be allocated to their contribution? Normally, it's the other way around because we Canadians are more concerned about being politically (in)correct and look down upon our heritage. Also, the North American Indians too migrated from Asia--they did not evolve from Canadian soil. Therefore, their heritage too should be included in the 'migrant' museum. -- I am proud of my Canadian heritage --

[brm2000]

I agree, this is a great idea for Toronto. We have residents living here today in Toronto that lived in a Toronto that was vastly different than today. Mel Lastman for instance lived in cabbage town as a child and played with his wife in Lake Ontario. There are Italian immigrants alive now whose first job was plucking chickens on Spadina or working in the slaughter houses in the junction. I have heard stories of the Queen/Greenwood area being an immigrant area with lots of prostitution by the original people going on. There are still people alive today who came from what was called the largest white slum in North America, Cabbage town. Most of them have moved away to the burbs.

For many reasons, political, social, language barriers, these stories have not been told. We should try to get to these people while they are alive or before their memory fails them. As well any museum should look at all the sides, good and bad and not white wash or paint over what was the truth of Toronto's past....

[Tigger Lechien]

Bah, stop living in the past. Torontro is such a sucker for this type of wishy washy nonsense. It'll never grow up.

[Sonny Yeung]

I am always amused by the comparison to NYC when we are a nicer bunch of a mosiac with actual financial regulations...I heard about the idea of an Immigration Museum before and would want more local participation rather than have elites and oligarchs control the content and naming it after a wealthy family.

While attending some lectures at UofT I figured that an interactive space or classroom could be used for diaspora studies...

[Alex]

It's very simple. Just look at New York City! The article is also right in front of you. Toronto is a tad younger and smaller, but the process was similar as well as the time period, not quite far off from that of NYC's. We're talking about the bulk of the immigration, the "bulk" meaning a lot of what makes up the base of today's Canada. This is during the INDUSTRIALIZATION period. A.K.A. first real modernization and growth, which is reflected in the architecture of the old buildings and homes in Toronto and its English rule. As some have mentioned, these are the immigrants from the UK, Ireland, as well as the continental Europeans such as the Italians, who followed. Catholics and protestants/anglicans. They all did more "modern" jobs for that time, but they were grueling and still very harsh and laws still not developed. Farming was still big and being done outside of Toronto and there was poverty in the city.
Then, while still in the period, though in the last phases of it very close with the Italians' arrival, we started to have other types of immigrants such as those of Chinese, Jewish descent, Portuguese, and eastern Europeans. This is followed by the final phase, which is the complete modern immigration, the post 60s-70s era where every ethnicity was open to immigrate here. A lot of them were professionals who were in need to modernize Toronto and Canada's professions and fields. I believe it ends there in the late 70s. So this is our history and the history of Toronto. It's safe to say, it is quite reflective of Canada's history, identity and culture as a whole. However, what makes Toronto different than NYC is how our native history and roots is big here, and Toronto acknowledges the native tribes who were in the Toronto area.
As for today's immigration, it is just a continuing immigration, which unfortunately is creating this attitude that Toronto (and Canada) is everyone's for the taking and that it is still new and has no history and culture here, and that we need more and more people, for some odd reason.
We are constantly being bombarded all the time that our role is in welcoming new people. Like it's an industry or business or something. This is wrong and it's overboard. I'm a first-generation Canadian in my family, but it doesn't take a genius to see this and realize what is going on. You cannot be in denial about today's situation, as well as our rich roots, identity and history. It is a beautiful mix of our native tribes who were found here, our strong UK roots and feel, a Judeo-Christian base and ground resulting from the first wave and industrialization roots with the other europeans and others that followed towards complete modernization in the 60s-70s.

[greg]

New York has a can do Mayor with years of experience in implementing his vision. He has had a career of building on ideas and making it a gleaming success in an environment where he is accountable for his performance. We need a Mayor who is like this and not someone who is an advocate of good ideas but does not know how to flex his/her influence to get things done. New York has also had their share of idealogists without a clue of how to get things done. For this reason I am not a big fan of career politicians in a time when serious reform is in demand. Toronto is in need of a builder and an implementer, a real executive, who understands how to put complicated puzzles together. Everyone knows what need to be done its time to actually get it done.