The city's ripped back side

I'm having a phase of working in town again and am experimenting with taking public transit. I've commuted by train to Toronto before, along the Lakeshore. That line parallels the nearest we have to a "winding ocean drive" and the view, from the south side of the train, is very pleasant. I wasn't quite ready for the ride from Brampton.

(Apologies for the picture quality, they were taken from under glass through smog).

When commuting through west end Toronto and suburbs by car it just looks dull, miles and miles of warehouses and light industry such as you might see around any airport. This sort of thing:




The houses are either old and run down or new projects of jam packed ticky tacky boxes. Strip malls are dotted about. It's not attractive and not directly horrible; just interchangeable with any other North American city.

Seen from the Brampton train the west end does look horrible. There are very many car breaker's yards, these houses have a view into one.



There are innumerable abandoned buildings



many of them have been decorated.



I assume some of all of these marks are gang signs. It's a sad state when your turf is a crumbling former industrial estate.



Of course no city looks its best from the train tracks and this isn't the degree of desolation seen on the www.kiddofspeed.com website but yesterday, for the first time, the smell of grass at about this point



made me feel more at home than the gritty air at this



I hope this is just a mellow phase. I'm certainly not ready to listen to John Denver, mashed up or not.