I
visited Toronto Islands on a lovely September afternoon, while it was still
warm enough for the Island to have many people visiting it (though to be fair,
I have no knowledge of how popular the islands are as a tourist destination on
what could be considered the off-season—fall and winter). Nonetheless, when I
took the ferry over to the islands, the ferry was fairly packed with people of
all ages—though there were perhaps more families (IE one or two parents with
one or more children) heading to the island than any other group. There were
also several people taking bikes over to the island, and many people had
cameras with them as well to take photos.
The
interesting thing about going to the Toronto Islands is that while they are
still a part of Toronto, one almost feels as though they are leaving the city
to go over to them by crossing Lake Ontario in the ferry. Once you arrive on
the islands, the Toronto skyline is still clearly visible and not that far away.
There is this strange dichotomy here—the visitor both has and has not left
Toronto in order to visit the islands, and so the presence of the city feels
both close and far away at the same time, largely due to the nature of
travelling from Toronto proper to the islands.
On
the island (it should be noted that I only went to Centre Island, and from here
on ‘the island’ will refer to this one in particular) I personally just walked around on the paths,
passing through the small zoo and amusement park area, and then spent some time
relaxing at one several beaches on the island. The island is quite large and it
takes some time to get from place to place, though I observed people biking
around, which makes the distances much smaller. It is possible to both bring
one’s bike to the islands or rent them once on the island itself, and given the
number of people I observed biking, this is apparently quite a popular activity
on the island. Besides this, people can be observed relaxing and walking
around, and some were swimming (though the water by this time was actually
quite cold—I dipped my feet into the water briefly and that was enough for me).
Overall, there was a feeling of relaxation and ‘getting away from it all’ that
overcame me, and the friend I was with, when we were on the island.
On
other islands that I did not visit, there are small residential communities. Historically,
the Toronto Islands were not so focused on tourism. Indeed, the islands were
mostly marshland in the late eighteenth century, but by the mid-nineteenth
century a hotel had been opened on one of the islands, and this resulted in the
rapid development of the islands—including a theatre, dance halls, an amusement
park, and a baseball stadium by 1897 (Higgens 1999). These attractions resulted
in the development of cottages and residential communities on the islands, creating
essentially a community of people all over the islands who went there during
the summer as their second homes, with infrastructure in place (such as stores,
pharmacies, etc.) to support them there (1999). However, in the 1950s the
establishment of the Metro Toronto Council resulted in demolishing of homes on
many of the islands and deconstruction of business established there (1999). By
1993, residents on the island had managed to procure the rights to maintain
communities in much smaller areas, leaving the rest of the islands for
commercial use more akin to what can be seen today (1999).
It
was near the end of the nineteenth century as well when developers decided to
try to turn other parts of the island into large, beautiful gardens for the
general enjoyment of the community. These initial parks were heralded as the ‘people’s
park’ on the island and took considerable effort to make, as what had
originally been sandbars were turned into parts of the islands in order to
create areas where gardens could be built (1999). Notably, the creation of many
of these gardens involved essentially commandeering or getting rid of previous
patches of natural wildlife and plant life, and though these pockets still
exist, the presentation as a whole of the Toronto islands is that of a
manufactured garden environment, created by humans for consumption by humans
(1999). This is largely how the islands have come to be the way that they are
to this day—largely manufactured, and designed with consumption in mind.
The
Toronto Islands, therefore, generally fall in line and have similarities to
Raymond Williams’ ideas of the country-city dichotomy, as well as his theory of
structures of feeling. When one goes to the Toronto Islands, it is almost as
though one is escaping to the country, and getting away from the city and its
associated meanings—the rushing, the noise, and its inherent pulse of activity
(Williams 1973:5). The city has these associations with being chaotic but
important—a demonstration of humanity’s ability to build and create wonders
(1973:6). This stands in opposition to the country, which carries meanings more
associated with hard work coupled with a slowness, using one’s hands, tending
to the land, etc. (1973:3-4). This is embodied in the dichotomy between Toronto
and the islands. The islands are still technically a part of Toronto, and yet
they feel very separate, and inspire feelings more akin to those of the
countryside. It is slower-paced, and there are attractions on the island meant
to inspire a more country-esque feel, such as a small zoo that contains mostly
animals that are raised on farms, such as chickens and cattle. There is even
the Franklin Children’s Garden (which I personally must have missed, but is
detailed on the City of Toronto’s website), where children can take part in
interactive learning experiences about what it is like to grow plants. The islands
the countryside—and a different way of life—that people from the city go to for
tourist purposes, but also to escape the hustle and bustle that is so prominent
in the city.
This
too, begins to play into Williams’ ideas about structures of feeling. His
Marxist-inspired theory revolves around the notion that people in a society
will create ‘structures of feeling’—that is, that a sort of articulated history
that exists within culture allows for a political economy to be created that serves
to benefit the few at the expense of the many (Williams 1977:132). It is a
complicated idea because ‘structure’ and ‘feeling’ seem like such opposed
concepts, but Williams marries them well. Essentially, people are using
feelings of loss in specific ways in order to benefit.
In
the case of the Toronto Islands, there is a clear goal to create a structure of
feeling and in turn create economic gain through a romanticized presentation of
the country, which cultural narratives have turned into something that has been
‘lost.’ In the case of the islands, they were once free from human development
and interaction, but were then heavily developed into housing projects, etc. A
structure of feeling was later created to undo this and present the Toronto
islands as a romanticized image of ‘country life,’ by having such things as pony
rides, farms, etc., while also quite clearly creating a man-made experience. Essentially,
the image of the countryside and ‘getting away from it all’ is being used as
part of a capitalist system of gain. The Toronto islands are very much
manufactured—while there are tons of green spaces, beaches, gardens, and these
country life-focused attractions, they are still all in existence for the sake
of economic gain. The islands do this quite well. They serve the purpose of
creating somewhere that Torontonians and tourists can escape from the hustle
and bustle of the city to reclaim what has been lost—the country atmosphere and
lifestyle, even if it is for just a few hours. And at the end of the day, the
people who run these attractions on the island benefit economically from it.
Sources:
Delwyn Higgens, 1999. “Toronto Island’s Homes and Gardens,”
accessed at Toronto Island Community, http://torontoisland.org/briefhistory.
Raymond Williams, 1973. “The Country and the City,” Chapter
1 in The Country and the City, Oxford
University Press.
Raymond Williams, 1977. “Structures of Feeling,” Chapter 9
in Marxism and Literature, Oxford
University Press.
City of Toronto. “The Franklin Children’s Garden,” accessed
at the City of Toronto Website, http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=e9b8dada600f0410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD.
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