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Bradford for the day – Execution

425 Holland Street Jenica Veenstra (Stouffville) jveenstra@bradford.library.on.ca Heidi, Elizabeth (Orangeville)

So! A late start again for me; I leave at 7:30 and walk through Ryerson University collecting a free copy of The Toronto Star along the way, then down Yonge Street to the Go Transit Bus Terminal.

The platforms are strangely quiet this morning; normally at this time on a weekday there would be crushes of passengers climbing off a bus, queuing to board a bus, and milling around waiting for a bus, all three groups getting in the way of each other. But this morning only one lady waiting on a bench.

Inside the Go Transit Bus Terminal I get my answer: Those who have climbed off a bus are heading for the nearest coffee shop; those who would normally be queuing to board a bus and those normally milling around waiting for a bus, are both competing for space inside the terminal. This morning is the first truly chilly morning of autumn. The Toronto star says 6ºC but there is a brisk cold wind. Is it to soon to use the term “wind-chill”?

In the Go Transit Bus Terminal the nice lady adds $20 to my Presto card and tells me the balance.

I haven’t been able to work this all out; the nice lady told me that I now had a balance of $32.74 and I noted that immediately in my paper diary, but the two pieces of docket don’t make sense to me.

(1) I cannot understand why the docket that shows a payment of $20 doesn’t tell me the new balance. If the docket is anonymous, put the data there; if it isn’t, make it so.

(2) It seems to me that to render a printed account of the balance,  the nice lady has to pretend that I am paying $3,25 off my Presto card and then immediately reverse the transaction.

A long time ago the banks worked out how to render a printed balance-of-account slip from the ATMs; why can’t Presto, in 2015, work it out?

And here we are, eight minutes ahead of time, ready to board the bus. Not for the first time I think that I should ask an expert how to pronounce “Gwillimbury”; it is in my custom dictionary, so I ought to know.

We are en route, as we say in English nowadays to indicate that we are on the way to our destination. I took this shot to show the cirrostratus clouds; the day promises to be fine with no rain. As the Canadian in the street says “It’s an absolutely beautiful day – for Fall”!

I toy with the phrase “an absolutely beautifall day” but give up after a few seconds. Life is too short ...

I am sitting in the seats opposite the two seats set aside for wheelchairs. I have noticed that these two seats, on the left-hand side of the bus, are roomier than regular seats without the opprobrium of sitting in the “handicapped seats”.

Also someone else had already grabbed the handicapped seats.

As I finish the first section of my Toronto Star I offer it to the Bearded Wonder behind me; he looks surprised but his face brightens up and he accepts and starts reading. I pass successive sections to him, but retain and complete the crossword puzzle and work my way through the Bridge hands. Second Use For Everything! And it feels good not to have to stuff the paper into a bin.

The Bearded Wonder leaps off at Aurora and I note in passing that in his passing he is not clutching the paper, so I will have to collect it and stuff it in a bin at Newmarket anyway. As I collect it I spot another man and offer it to him, he accepts, and is still reading it when we arrive at Newmarket. I figure that after a Third Use I have done my little bit.

We switch GO buses at Newmarket and drop into the GO station at Bradford. I had planned to continue on the GO bus as far as its right-hand turn off Dunlop Street onto Barrie Street, but I spot a short squat bus that looks like the short squat buses from other towns, so I check with our driver to confirm, tap my Presto card on exit (I’ve learned something from my Orangeville trip!) and leap aboard what turns out to be the #2 bus route which isn’t at all what I’d thought.

There are a stack of bus maps on the bus – so that saves a trip to the library – but waddayaknow! The bus routes are changing next Monday and we are stocked with maps that will be valid next Monday, but not today and not for the rest of the week.

I am arguably the last tourist to be frustrated by a bus map that makes little sense, initially.

The Public Library shows up on Google Maps as lying just west of Barrie Road; this is walking distance from the GO Station and since there are but two bus routes I can visit the library later, as a library rather than a place-to-get-a-bus-map.

This the route map (old version) showing the routes I will be taking today. Under this scheme, the (blue) #2 route went clockwise around town, then went anti-clockwise, alternating each trip every hour.

You will note, as did I, that both routes start and end at the GO station, east edge of town.

The new #2 route, due next Monday, is contorted by comparison. Also it no longer travels through the GO Station. Which accounts for my confusion.

Here I am inside the bus; clean, tidy, and with comfortable seats – nineteen total – ranged along each side of the bus.

Were this peak-hour I’d be facing crowds of schoolchildren and business folks, but I have the bus to myself at ten in the morning.

And Hamilton Street Railway take note – the windows are large and transparent!

Not the best shot in the world, but it’s a treat to be able to take a photo of the new housing estate as we make our way around town. That’s it, the new housing estate, looking like a ridge of limestone cliffs keeping The English Channel at bay.

I was to learn of many new housing estates this hour.

I estimated that about a half of our meandering trip was through housing that was less than five years old, maybe ten. A great many estates still had large backhoes in the streets between the houses.

And then there were newer estates that looked older than twenty years.

In many places the houses nestled against a grove of trees; good places for a per cat or dog to hunt.

We are on our way back to the GO Station Bus Terminal. Here is an older house at the corner of Barrie and Britannia streets.

We arrive and my driver tells me that the other bus, the #1 (Red) bus will be along in about five minutes. I have guessed that the timetables are useless to me today since they reflect the new schedules for next week, but five minutes is an easy wait between buses.

That’s my 2B bus sitting next to the largest “No-Smoking” sign I have ever seen.

I amuse myself by taking a zoom shot of the potato harvest.

Keep your eye on that huge shed in the background.

And the landmark Dutch-style windmill on Bridge Street opposite the GO Station.

One of the continuing puzzles is “Where do GO Trains go to die?”. Not as silly as it sounds. In essence GO Trains flood into the city weekday mornings bringing commuters from the outlying cities and towns. Where do they store them? And how do the drivers get home? The trains carry commuters home in the evening, so presumably they sit on sidings in the dormitory towns waiting for tomorrow’s commuter trips.

But look again! Here in Bradford FIVE trains head for the city in the morning and SEVEN trains come back in the evening.

There are two trains left over!

Yes that’s a photo of me taking an accidental photo of me.

My #1 bus pulls in and Barry-The-Driver welcomes me aboard than excuses himself to chat with the other driver. I take the opportunity to take a shot of the driver’s cramped and cluttered work space.

That’s the cash fare box on the right, and to the left the easyPASS device is pushing its way in.

The easyPASS is a puzzle to me. Alone amongst the towns I have visited, Bradford does not subscribe to the Presto Card. Instead they use a different technology.

Why?

I suspect a disagreement between Metrolinx and Bradford Council; or between Bradford Council and the Presto Card management.

The issue will be resolved, ultimately, but at great cost, we can be sure.

These buses have the wheelchair ramp that unfolds from the front door.

And a rather large exit door at the rear, presumably to accommodate wheelchair users if the front door is jammed.

Although if the bus is lying on its side we would all have to pitch in and lift out the wheelchair person.

On the #1 bus we zip up, and then back down Holland Street with just a couple of detours.

The friendly bus driver gives me a bit of a guided tour but I soon find myself praising every public transit system in Southern Ontario except the bloody-minded Toronto Transit Commission.

This bus driver would make a great barmen, barber, or psychiatrist.

My friendly bus driver points out a new public library building at the western edge of town; actually by now almost the centre of town, for so many new houses have been built to the west. This new public library building is next to a huge Leisure Centre and will be the hub for public transit, starting next week.

(Will Go Buses drive up there to connect with the local buses? I doubt it)

The Library/Leisure/Transit centre will re-define the heart of Bradford; the old business district will be an appendage on the eastern end of Holland Street.

We are back at the GO station by half-past-eleven, so I phone my friend Rick who suggests a Thai Noodles restaurant nearby; we meet for a chat and a good lunch, then he, poor sod, must get back to work while I, lucky devil, face a pleasant stroll two blocks wets to the Public Library (please see the map at the top of this page).

Here I am, partway up the hill which is, I suspect, a lake terrace such as we have in Toronto, albeit for a different lake.

Remember during the potato harvest I told you to keep an eye on that huge shed in the background? Now you know why, and you can more or less work out where lies the GO Station.

I continue walking up the south side of Holland Street looking for the Public Library. Gotta be here somewhere!

On the north side of Holland Street I see the Court House and what might have once been the Bradford Town Council Chambers. The bus driver had told me “We don’t have a town hall, we have several chunks of administrative offices scattered in various buildings across town”.

So I continue walking up the south side of Holland Street looking for the Public Library. Gotta be here somewhere!

I continue walking up the south side of Holland Street looking for the Public Library. Gotta be here somewhere!

I continue walking up the south side of Holland Street looking for the Public Library. Gotta be here somewhere!

A resident has told me that the only Public Library is way further on, a ways away yet, so I continue walking up the south side of Holland Street looking for the Public Library. It is not where Mister Google had led me to believe it was.

I am getting close to the fringes; more new housing shows on the skyline, across a large plot of vacant land. But not vacant for much longer, is my guess.

This is a walk. Can that be the new Public Library way up ahead on the right?

The city lawnmower guy has been through here and hopped up the unsightly weeds and phone cables.

Here’s a zoom shot; I thought the notice board would be for the new Public Library, seen here in the background, but the notice board trumpets the Bradford District High School.

Here is a shot of the Bradford District High School.

The Bradford District High School looks like Governor Stirling Senior High School (“GSSHS”) back in the late fifties, early sixties. I should know.

At last, after a day-long and waterless trek through the desert, the Public Library has hove into view; or “hoven” if you prefer.

I shall stride confidentially through the front door and ...

... discover that there is no front door!

Nor is there a side door, but the leisure centre stretches and limbers up for swimming and (I bet) ice-hockey and other stuff.

My body is being told by my brain to ferret out an entrance to the library.

New housing estates back onto the Library, but that’s part of the reason for resiting it here. Who will tell Mister Google?

Strangely the desiccated lawn reminds me of the lawns around GSSHS in early summer. We are in late summer early fall here.

The main door of the library is around the back, of course, to make it easy to enter the building after you have parked your car. Who walks to the library nowadays?

I ask a charming librarian for permission to take photos and she consults with another librarian and returns to say it’s OK, but not to take photos that identify people.

The world has gone crazy with Privacy Laws.

An aside: I asked Toronto Public Library for a transcript of my own borrowing records so that I could do some statistical analysis on my reading habits, but was denied the request on the grounds that that would violate privacy laws. I am still wondering how my reading records of what I have borrowed could possibly violate my privacy. Some Libraries carry things too far.

Well, anyway, I understand that some people don’t like to be photographed, and so it is easy for me to agree to this constraint.

So it is that in the photo above you do NOT see the Books-On-Hold shelf of the Bradford Public Library.

Privacy laws!

Instead I have faked-up a facsimile of what I saw. Nothing like fakes and lies to ensure privacy.

The books are from my private collection. The numbers I generated in an Excel Worksheet (“=9999*RAND()”); I used dates in June because I like that month – and I’m sorry that one of them is a Sunday – and the names are those of my canoeing, Vermicomposting and literary friends; also a nice bus driver, and if any of them takes issue with this they’ll have to discuss it over lunch; my treat!

But I digress!

I was struck by the lovely manual approach to holds. When I collect my holds from Yorkville Library the slips are computer-generated and appear quite harsh compared to the gentle touch of Bradford Public Library.

If I were picking up one (but usually more) holds from the Bradford Public Library I would feel as I read the hand-written label that a human being had reached out to me, what with the hand-written name and all. This was the first thing that struck me when I entered the library.

So off on a tour of exploration.

The library is a three-story building whose top floor is an array of windows. This reminds me of the Jacksonville Public Library (scroll down to about seven-eighths of the way through).

This array of windows stretches the length and across the northern end of the building; the southern end is closed off with the physical plant.

The Children’s section at the south-west corner is huge; light streams in through the glass walls. How different from Rawtenstall library children’s section (before the days of digital photography I might add).

So upstairs and another librarian, I repeat my request to take photos and she sets off to ask yet another librarian and returns to say it’s OK, but not to take photos that identify people.

While I am waiting I take a photo of a memorable memorial plaque.

1988?

This LEEDS building was not erected in 1988. The plaque must surely be from the Public-Library-Building-That-Isn’t; the building that was new before it became obsolete, if you see what I mean.

Another view, taken from the second floor, of those third storey clerestory windows. In the foreground you can see the head of the stairs that rise from the ground floor.

And here is a view of Holland Street, heading West towards Highway 400.

Same spot, viewed a tad more northwards. I seem to recall that this industrial monster is visible from Highway 400.

Back inside the library, the shelving stretches beyond what you see here; I am off to one side to avoid taking in a young lady sitting partway down the building.

The glare from the southern windows has obliterated the view of shelves at the far end.

This is a large library.

The Historical Society has a display case at the northern end of the upper floor, so we can be sure that The Historical Society has meetings in the library on a regular basis. Hooray for History!

A view from the northern end across the atrium to the shelves at the southern end and, beyond them, a study section.

The foot of the stairs and not only have they a huge children’s section there is a teen section (rhymes with “Lime-Green”!) too.

And finally, the mid-section of the stairs and a view across the ground floor back towards the children’s section.

I stroll outside and take a shot of the doors through which most folks would enter, from the car park.

A truly lovely housing of the city’s book collection.

And now it is time to head back downtown; I am aiming to arrive at the GO Station before nightfall!

See that little gray rectangle in the distance, to our left of the footpath? That’s the Bradford District High School sign which I mistook for the Library sign on my way up here.

Here is a Google Maps shot of part of Bradford.

The GO Station is outlined at the right.

The old “new” library site is outlined in the centre; this used to be the centre of the east-west axis of Bradford.

The new library which I visited today is now in the centre of Bradford.

I cross the lights at Professor Day Drive and continue my stroll. Yes. That’s a shadow of my former selfie in the left foreground. Keep your eye on that weeping willow tree that looms up behind the blue BWG bus stop.

Now you can see the weeping willow tree. I continue my stroll.

Here I am standing under the weeping willow tree. I continue my stroll. But you keep your eye on that white building in the distance on our right-hand side of Holland Street.

I am by now at some named but unknown-to-me side street getting close to the downtown core. There’s that white building. I continue my stroll.

You notice how the road drops away; I believe the drop is a lake terrace.

I continue my stroll here is a zoom shot of that drop as I draw closer to downtown.

What a walk!

Vehicles don’t struggle up these terraces the way I did after my lunch!

I consider myself to be downtown.

I am not certain but I think the large building, now a dentistry centre, partly hidden on the right, is what used to be the New Public Library opened in 1988.

I grab a coffee at the Tim Horton’s and continue my stroll to the GO station; buses leave at 38 minutes past the hour, so my target is to aim to arrive by half-past any hour.

I stopped to take a photo of the bus shelter with the BWG bus stop sign.

And a shot of our lunch time spot; good food and friendly service.

On to Dissette street and the GO station signs hidden discreetly from view. I suppose there was a sign at the Holland Street intersection.

And here we are with time to spare. Another shot of That Windmill; just in case ...

And a timing shot taken through the bus window as we pull away, spot on time!

The weather has been perfect; “It’s been an absolutely beautiful day – for Fall”

We have a ten-minute way to change buses in Newmarket. I was too slow in whipping out my camera and the door to the station kept opening but ... the gentleman in the long-sleeved shirt scurrying across the front of the bus is the bus driver. He has been polishing and adjusting both sets of external rear-view mirrors of the bus.

He is a GO bus driver and is dressed in dark pants, long-sleeved white shirt AND TIE and this makes the drivers look as professional as they act.

I suppose too that it gives them an air of authority when a dispute arises.

But most of all it makes the GO service so much more attractive than the Toronto Transit Commission with its drivers in shorts, rumpled socks, unpolished shoes, and a shirt of their own choosing.

Zoom Zoom! We go down the Don Valley Parkway, lovely in its greenery.

It has taken just under two hours to travel from Bradford; we arrived a few minutes late due to cleanup from a collision on the DVP.

This is the scene at Front and Bay streets. The east-west lights are green (look above the truck).

The south-bound traffic, impatient to get onto the Gardiner expressway has closed the intersection. For the entire green cycle (east-west), the east-west traffic can not and will not move.

The first truck has edged forwards, but the second truck and two cars still block the east-west flow. Part of the cross-walk remains clear.

Why am I back in Toronto instead of Bradford? What is wrong with me?

So I trudge wearily but happily up the east side of Bay street, between Front and Wellington streets.

Toronto brags about the number of trees it supports, but the truth is that very few trees survive downtown, and here is one reason that we have no tall long-term trees in the city.

These sidewalk tiles are about six inches square.

This tree has about one square foot of surface that is not paved over.

I can’t call this patch soil because it isn’t soil; it is gravel that has been driven up off the road from construction vehicles and snow-ploughs.

Anyone who knows anything about soil will know about the teeming world of microbes, insects and fungi that are essential to a healthy tree.

Paris can line its minor streets with forty- and sixty-foot trees.

Why can’t Toronto learn enough high-school botany to nurture its trees?

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7092187927 CPRGreaves@gmail.com

Bonavista, Wednesday, June 03, 2020 12:22 AM

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