Toronto

4 Posts

Chronolog

Chronolog is a website for archiving "Time lapses of Earth powered by community science." Essentially, they're fixed phone placeholders where passersby can position their phone and take a picture. Then, the photo can be uploaded to the Chronolog website and, over time, you can see a "time lapse" of the location. Because the placeholder is "permanent," essentially every user's phone has the same point of view, forcing the perspective to be fixed, at least in theory.

Toronto only has one Chronolog. Unfortunately, it's placement is terrible. It overlooks Grenedier pond in High Park. It's one of my favorite places in the park, and therefore the city, but just about any other place on the pond or in the park would have been a better choice than this:

I walk by this space daily and though the distant greenery does change a bit, it's mostly a wasted opportunity and I hope High Park, or whoever paid for this particular Chronolog, moves it to a more dynamic location.

If you want to check your area for Chronologs, use the search feature on their site or browse the map.


Is There No Relief?

One of the many reasons I'm so down on Toronto is just how oppressively hot it can get. I've lived in some hot places (Los Angeles, Southern Spain, Vanuatu, Cuba, the Dominican, Melbourne...), but Toronto, in my opinion, is the hottest. I don't care what the number on the thermometer reads — I care how I feel. How I sweat. What a slog it is to get from place to place as a pedestrian — and, to me, there is no worse place than Toronto in the summer. (It also has the worst traffic, but that's another post.)

Anyway, there's a great long-form piece by Sam Bloch in Places Journal about Shade.


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