Downtown Gets Canadian Ink

So very cool -- an exhibit of some of my photography of Downtown opens this coming week in Toronto so I am having the gallery clip this piece and have it available so people can learn more about what is happening here.

I caught this article online yesterday , but I though t I would wait for you to let the world know that Toronto knows about you. They already know about me...

Good story and a bit of a let down because it would have been more interesting to their tourists if you were quoted on other items of interest downtown besides the Standard Hotel.

I liked it a lot too, thought it was a nice 'outsider's perspective' viewpoint.

Does Exposition Park count as Downtown? I can spend a whole day down there. Also should see the Derby Dolls indoor roller derby in Little Tokyo, very hot.

Downtown is a superb urban destination for tourists. When you start compiling a list of things to see and do, it is astonishing. For those visitors who crave more than a Disneyland experience, downtown can't be beat with its excellent public transit and its many walkable neighborhoods.

I've spent a lot of time at www.tripadvisor.com in the Los Angeles forum answering questions from prospective visitors. Over the past few years, I think I've finally garnered some respect for downtown as a tourist destination from my fellow posters.

Los Angeles is infused by so many powerful myths. Hollywood glamor and Malibu beach life and Disneyland to name just a few of the most potent. These ideas are firmly fixed in the mind of travelers. They come here looking to experience them. However, these myths are even more firmly entrenched in the minds of my fellow posters in the Los Angeles forum. Many admitted to never venturing downtown except for brief visits to the Music Center. Interestingly, the worst complainers about downtown are those who work here but commute in. Not sure why, but they hate the place with a passion.

Initially, when I'd chime in about the virtues of downtown, my colleagues were aghast. Their good sense as Angelenos told them that downtown was an urban crime-ridden wasteland infested drug dealers, gang bangers and hordes of homeless. In the face of their endless boogeyman stories of the terrors of downtown, my experiences of living here told a different story. After telling this story repeatedly, my colleagues have grudgingly accepted that there really are things of interest to the visitor. Even more helpful were the trip reports of happy visitors who were delighted by their time in downtown.

Eric, I'd have to say I think your chagrin at being quoted about The Standard Hotel is a tad naive. Understand, Ms. Pigg's article was written a long time before she got her, probably as she was pitiching the story to her editor at The Toronto Star. If you hadn't made the comment, I'm sure she'd have found someone else to say it.

What I found interesting is were the things unmentioned in her article. Did she tell visitors about the Fashion District, Grand Central Market, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Broadway itself, Cliftons, The Pantry, Philippe's, Union Station, Olvera Street, the Cathedral, the Central Library? Sure she has to pick and choose. Still, I find it amusing when she talks about the 30,000 residents in downtown. This, the very weekend, when 500,000 people descend upon downtown for Fiesta Broadway. Too bad she is not interested in this enormously vibrant part of downtown. Clearly, as you put it, she's interested in the cool stuff. Alas, 'tis her loss.