Diagram

On August 2, 2025 2 Comments - Photography

***this post will not work in tiny form on your phone. Have a look on a bigger screen if you can***

What’s a diagram?

In broad terms, a diagram is a visual representation of an idea or a system of related parts. It might explain how the parts function together or, it might just depict how the parts relate to each other in physical space. A diagram is usually a drawing or a flow of symbols representing and simplifying the workings of something.

Can a photograph be a diagram?

I think so. A photo can be labeled with words or over-laid with symbols that clarify what you are looking at or, how the different things in the photo relate to each other. I can remember school textbooks full of diagrams, from drawings showing the organs of a plant cell to photos labeling the parts of an airplane wing. I would pour over them for hours and I still love looking at them today.

It seems like a lot of old technical instructions came with roughly labeled black and white photos too. I had a motorcycle repair manual that was full of terrible black and white photos with what looked like taped-on labels. Things like lawn mowers, power tools, instruction manuals from small factories…these often used to come with labeled photos.

When I was a boy, some of these diagrams inspired me to take apart appliances when my parents weren’t home and draw pictures as I went so that I could put them back together again. These were my own diagrams and they worked! Usually…

IKEA

IKEA is notorious for it’s cryptic diagrams aimed at having a single instruction manual that works across all languages and cultures. This is a pretty ambitious goal and I don’t think it always works. The IKEA diagrams have become kind of a universal joke with anyone who has had to sweat over assembling a flat-packed bookcase or file cabinet. Over the years, I have gotten a little better at understanding them but….I also think I could improve them quite a bit. That would be a fun job : )

The Calypso

The Calypso was Jacques Cousteau’s ship. When I was small, all I could think about was the ocean. I read everything I could in the school library and then begged my parents for my own Jacques Cousteau Encyclopedia. Eventually they got me the books. My absolute favourite book was the last volume. In it was a 4 page foldout of all the rooms and systems on the ship. Both sides! The rest of the books are long gone now but the Calypso book is still on my bookshelf. This is a classic diagram with numbered lines that correspond to a key on the opposite page. It is one of my favourite diagrams of all time.

Here is one side of the Calypso diagram:

diagram of Calypso, Cousteau's ship
Jacques Cousteau Encyclopedia Volume 21 Calypso Quarters and Equipment Starboard Side, 1978

How we arrange all of our “things”

Something I like to do on Instagram: when someone posts a selfie or other photo taken inside their house, I like to zoom in on the backgrounds and have a look at what is on the walls, what is on a bookshelf or a table. I like to see how people arrange their “stuff”. The background is sometimes more interesting than the main subject.

With that thought in mind, I had a look at some of my old photos and also around my apartment to see how my things were arranged and how they might relate to each other. Sometimes arrangements seem random but other times there are patterns…the stuff we use more often is easier to access. Or things that get used together are grouped together. Sometimes there is a logical flow to the physical arrangement of our things. And sometimes, there is a kind of beauty to the random placement of things, how they just happen to end up in space. I often think how difficult it must be for art directors on a set to get all these kinds of details just right to make a fictional environment feel believable.

My photo-diagrams

Below are some diagrams that I made of stuff around my house or things in past pictures. I like the look of these kinds of labeled photos. They remind me of old parts manuals or science fair projects when paper and glue was the only way…

diagram labeling contents of living room shelf
Built-in shelf and contents south wall (fire hazards in yellow highlight).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
diagram of small student kitchen
Student kitchen Toronto Canada (potential fire hazards in yellow highlight).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
diagram of guitar effects pedal board
Guitar effect pedals mounted on board (yellow arrows indicate flow of current through circuits).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
kitchen shelves and contents
Gas pipe and raw lumber shelving with contents, kitchen, north wall.
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025
coffee workflow
Coffee workflow from bean broker to mug (orange indicates potential danger from scalding).
photo copyright TigerSalad 2025

Diagrams as art

I think there is something meaningful and personal about the way we arrange our “stuff”, our tools and our less functional objects. And I also think there is both art and science in good diagrams. I tried to combine both ideas here into something fun and engaging. What do you think? If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below. And subscribe if you would like a note about new posts. Thanks for reading!

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Queen Street East

On July 31, 2025 4 Comments - Photography, Toronto

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To Book City in the Beaches

This morning, I finished up the last chapter of a fat book that I have been reading for a few weeks. I had a new title in mind so I decided to take a walk from my place to the Book City in the Beaches neighbourhood. Book City is one of the last independent bookstores so, in an effort to support small business, I try to buy most of my books there. And, lucky for me, they had a single copy of the book I wanted. This long walk would take me along most of Queen Street East through Corktown, Leslieville and to the Beaches (named for the white sand beaches nearby along the shore of Lake Ontario).

Return flight

Since I had my camera with me and since I don’t get to the Beaches very often, I decided to take a few photos on the 7km walk home. Compared to the rest of Queen Street, this area has some truly old and interesting low rise architecture and businesses. Some blocks of Queen Street East are so quaint, they almost have the old-time feel of a cottage-town main street. The commercial areas are mostly undeveloped (so far). There is even a gas station right out of the 1950’s with pumps that look like refrigerators, full service attendants in uniform and a round glass reception area. I am excited to take some pictures of it at night! Coming soon!

The Photos

I had not planned on posting about this so I was just taking random pictures for fun. The photos are not really meant to be representative of anything. I just liked enough of them that I wanted to share them. They are generally in chronological order from the Beaches travelling west back towards Corktown.

Time for a pint….
Colourful old-school aquarium shop. You don’t really see too many of these around anymore. When I was a kid, fish were very popular pets and every shopping mall had a huge aquarium shop. I did see many just like this one in Japan and Korea with tanks of pet fish and plants on the sidewalk.
Melba Studios: I just like the look of this place. The old windows and the green paint. I think it is a ceramic studio.
Maru Japanese Bistro. These rainbow benches are all over the sidewalks here.
There is something about hand painted signage that i just love. The graphics here are so cool. The colours too. And the globe lights…so retro.
Dave’s Hot Chicken and electric bike delivery guy. These guys are such a part of the cityscape now. When I go walking and I don’t see one of these guys for awhile, I feel like maybe I have gone too far and it’s time to turn back towards home.
Old pawnshop.
Boston Discount Store at Queen and Boston Street
Jack Black, Pet M.D.
Queen Books.
This is a corner garden centre and cafe. I like the mural but I wonder why it is 11 o’clock? There is a lot of colour everywhere in this neighbourhood. It is the first thing I noticed. A lot of Toronto, especially newly redeveloped Toronto is…well…”neutral”.
Wonderful bulky old building with original windows and paint. Those apartments up top must be incredible. Ali Baba’s…good quality fast food.
Riverside Bridge/Queen Street Viaduct crossing over the Don River. “This river I step in is not the river I stand in”. That’s a Heraclitus quote…feel free to discuss amongst yourselves in the comments. I don’t recommend stepping or standing in the Don River these days. I am pretty sure that clock is broken.
4644 and 4441 meet face to face on the Riverside Bridge. These colours make me happy: the vibrant TTC red framed by the dull green bridge. It’s a good picture.
“Who is Jesus?” billboard beside faded Bay Cat Hospital sign. I had a cat neutered here once but I have not read the Bible in some time.
Concrete bridge-support art.
Speaking of colourful, Thruway Muffler is the sickest colour of pink. This crazy bubblegum colour covers the entire giant auto repair garage. Beside it is Spaccio: commissary kitchen, grocery store and restaurant that is part of the Terroni group. They have the absolute best frozen take home pizzas, a bargain at 2 for 20$.
Poke bowl billboard with float plane.
I like the lines, light and colours here. These old brick factory buildings are real beauties.
“Scenic Route” art posted on a row of boarded up and abandoned houses on River Street.
A rare selfie…Hello Neighbour

The End

Hope you enjoyed some of these photos. Queen Street at the Beaches is lined with fun and unique shops and restaurants and is definitely worth a visit. I will be back soon for some night photos. As always, if you have anything to say, even if it’s just “Hi” feel free to comment below.

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St James Town at Night

On July 24, 2025 2 Comments - Photography, Toronto

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A Very Short History of St James Town

St James Town was once a working-class Victorian neighbourhood, housing the poorest of Toronto residents in ratty decaying homes. In the 50s and 60s, city planners and developers decided to rezone and bulldoze most of the neighbourhood. Over the next decade or so, they built nineteen highrise buildings including 4 city owned public housing towers. At the time, developers assumed that fresh young middle-class office workers would quickly move in. Instead, that demographic chose to move to the suburbs of North York and Scarborough and the neighbourhood filled up again with Toronto’s lowest income families. Over the last couple of decades, the demographics have shifted more towards new immigrants to Canada and St James Town remains one of the last affordable neighbourhoods in the downtown area.

For a more detailed account of St James Town history and development have a look at this excellent article at Blog TO.

Bad Reputation?

In the late 90’s, when I first moved to Toronto, St James Town had been in steady decline for 30 years. The buildings were crumbling, the public spaces were trampled and neglected and the residents were some of the poorest in the downtown area.

One day, shortly after moving to this city, I went to visit a friend downtown and missed my subway stop. As a result, I accidentally came above ground at the tiny run-down Glen Road exit of the Sherbourne subway station. Glen Road consists of a single block of some of the last surviving Victorian homes in the area but, at the time, the houses were all boarded up and abandoned. It was like coming up into a ghost town of haunted houses. I was so surprised that I took a bunch of film photos but, unfortunately, I can’t seem to find them now. If you want to see some images from this time, this site has some good ones.

A little later I met my friend and told him about getting lost in St James Town. His advice was to stay away from the neighbourhood, even during the daytime. Apparently the area had a bad reputation for drugs, gangs, violence, prostitution. I had no idea if this was true or not but I took his advice and never came back. Not until over 20 years later when I ended up renting an apartment on this very street.

St James Town Today

With 19 highrise towers in a relatively small area, St James Town is the most densely populated neighbourhood in Canada . The “official” population of St James Town today is around 17 000 although it is probably much higher. It is still home to many low income families and is a popular landing place for new immigrants.

Sometime around 2000, the city decided to put some resources towards improving the crumbling neighbourhood. This included plans to clean up and repair the old highrises and renew the parks, playgrounds and public spaces. This is ongoing today.

Eventually, developers started to sniff around one of the last downtown neighbourhoods that had so far escaped gentrification. Condo speculators bought up and fenced off many of the old neglected houses and plots of land. They also gutted and renovated the row of abandoned houses on Glen Road in return for the city’s approval of their development plans. They squeezed in a few new glass and steel towers and tucked little townhouses into the shadows of the old highrises. Since I moved in, no less than 5 new condo buildings have gone up within a 1 minute walk. And many more are on the way.

Living in St James Town

I think that St James Town still has something of a bad reputation today. Reading online, I often see postings where people are nervously asking about safety and crime rates before moving in to the area. And still others (who probably don’t even live here) advise them to be very careful, especially at night.

I have lived here for years and have not had a single incident that would make me feel unsafe. Police, ambulances and fire trucks are a pretty regular sight. But, when you have over 17 000 people living on a few city blocks, this doesn’t seem unusual.

I like that this neighbourhood always has people moving around in it. You are rarely by yourself outside. To me, this feels safe. I used to work at a restaurant directly south of St James Town in Old Toronto. The walk home from there at night felt so unsafe to me during the covid closures that I would carry a police baton with me at all times. Walking on high alert, I wouldn’t feel relaxed until I found myself among the busy highrises of St James Town again.

Maybe the Best Neighbourhood Downtown…

I love living in this neighbourhood . Everything is in walking distance: dentist, doctor, supermarket, subway, Koreatown, Chinatown, Little India, beautiful natural spaces, museums, universities, galleries, live music venues, great restaurants, a fully operating farm, some of the country’s best hospitals…the list goes on. I think this must be one of the most connected neighbourhoods in the city. I haven’t had a car in many years and I never miss it.

The interior of St James Town itself reminds me of the highrise neighbourhood I grew up in when my parents first immigrated to Canada. People are always outside. The parks and public spaces are full even at night. Extended families get together and pass time in the shade of old trees. People who have immigrated from the same place and share language and culture find each other here, in the building hallways and the outdoor playgrounds. They naturally build communities around their shared experiences. If you walk around St James Town, English might be one of the last languages you hear. Tagalog, Hindi, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Tamil, Russian, Bengali….these are much more common.

St James Town is one of the last places where low income Canadians as well as newly landed immigrants can afford to live connected to the downtown core. And because so many of the residents share a common experience, St James Town has a the feeling of a vibrant community. People know their neighbours and I believe that people look out for each other. The neighbourhood has a strong feeling of family. All kinds of family.

Night Walks Through St James Town

Some would say that the clump of old highrises is ugly but I see real beauty in them…in their multicoloured brick exteriors, angular balconies, weird glowing stairwells, old mature trees and especially in the people who call this neighbourhood home. Hopefully some of that will come through in these photos but, if not, take a walk through here on a nice summer night and you may be surprised by how much you enjoy it.

St James Town at night
Three-winged 60’s highrises were typical of the time. St James Town has quite a few toward the south. Hand painted murals reflecting the cultural diversity of the area decorate some of the dozens of concrete stairwells.
Stairwell going down
These concrete stairwells are everywhere in St James Town. Some are in parking lots, others in the middle of parks and fields, others under trees. I assume they are exits from underground parking. I almost never see people use them…who knows what’s really down there? How deep do they go? Makes me think of a Haruki Murakami novel.
Mature trees in St James Town
Typical St James Town skyline…the place has kind of a retro space-age vibe at night. There is something beautiful and mysterious about it. All those huge angled balconies and lit windows in neat rows. You can see two people on the concrete path under the trees…this gives you an idea of how big the trees are.
Glowing stairwell
I call this the snow globe. It is one of only a few covered and lit concrete stairwells.
60s twin towers St James Town
Handsome twin towers in white brick. Big old trees and wide green spaces in front.
A small commercial area on the ground floor of a central highrise. This is close to a discount supermarket and community centre. During the day there is a full time open air flea market here. From VHS tapes to protein powder to (found?) bike seats…it’s all here.
The area is dense with unique buildings. This one is bright and clean with red brick and white metal siding with blue trim. There are no balconies on this one which is unusual. I like the lit windows at night, the warm glow.
Working-class neighbourhood with working-class rides.
One of the weird glowing stairwells to….? These are everywhere.
Korean Spicy Tteok-Bokki Truck
Food truck at rest.
240 Wellesley delivery man
Ubiquitous Toronto food delivery guy on electric motorbike.
Dirty payphone near 240 Wellesley
I wonder how serious the emergency would have to be for me to touch this payphone?
Underground parking ramp with cool green porthole building.
Moms chatting in the park. Trash waiting for morning pickup.
urban art on concrete
Stairwell art, beautiful in its detail. These little panels appear in the most unexpected places. The art itself is respected by the community…these pieces never get tagged or damaged intentionally.
Another mural on the back of a concrete stairwell entrance.
Beck taxicab on street at night
Beck Taxi parked outside new building construction site.
closed laundromat. Rows of machines
A hold-out from the 50’s. This was originally an Italian tailor’s house and business. When they were planning the original St James Town in the 50’s, he refused to sell so they built all the towers around him. Today, his building still stands, home to the New World Laundry on Parliament Street.
Glen Road at Howard Street, last remnant of original Victorian neighborhood.
Top view of Glen Road..this was the street in St James Town that I first saw when I moved to the city. At that time, all of the houses were abandoned and boarded up. This cobblestone plaza is a new renovation that just opened this summer. When the city first posted plans for this, there was a lot of resistance in the neighbourhood (mostly around losing parking spaces) but I am really happy with the way it turned out.
New pedestrian tunnel Glen Road Toronto
Newly renovated tunnel under Bloor Street which connects to the Morley Callaghan foot bridge.
That’s the pedestrian bridge at the far end of the tunnel. Interestingly, it connects St James Town (one of Toronto’s poorest neighbourhoods) and Rosedale (one of the city’s richest neighbourhoods).
A 54 story condo tower, recent construction, built directly behind the row of victorian houses on Glen Road.
This is an interesting photo of a vacant lot in the springtime fog. All of the old houses you see in the foreground are boarded up and slated for demolition to make way for a new condo. This is what is happening all over this neighbourhood. The city claims there is not enough affordable housing but they keep knocking it down and replacing it with condos that nobody can afford to live in. Those steel and glass buildings in the background are like a line of storm clouds warning of the coming destruction. The little brick houses are cowering in from of them. It’s a good picture.

Convenience Stores

There is a small commercial strip on Howard street with a couple of Filipino restaurants, a fried chicken place, a small pharmacy, an Ethiopian grocery and a Halal butcher. These convenience stores are part of this strip:

Howard Convenience Store
Howard Convenience…cheapest Haagen-Dazs ice cream. You can even buy beer now. A really nice old man runs it. I have been coming here for a long time and we know each other as neighbours. This picture was originally from my green series.
The no-name “store on the corner”.
Same “store on the corner”. I have met 3 generations of the family that run this place (and 2 generations of calico cats, both named Nyu-Nyu). A young Chinese couple own it. Shortly after I moved here, the wife became pregnant and later gave birth to a little girl. I asked yesterday and apparently her daughter is 7 years old now!

I used to buy cigarettes here. The wife’s mom (the 7 year old’s grandma) worked there at the time and I would visit her everyday on my way to work and buy a pack of smokes. She would cheerfully sell them to me while telling me that they were bad for my health and that I should stop. One day, I quit smoking and so, I didn’t go in for a few weeks. When I finally stopped in to buy an ice cream, she asked where I had been. I told her that I quit smoking and so I didn’t need to stop by so often. I couldn’t believe how happy she was to hear that. It was as if I was her own son!

Jamestown Convenience
Jamestown convenience store is just south of the highrises on Wellesley Street. An old Korean man and his son run this one. It is FULL of plants and flowers. It’s really like a flower shop pretending to be a convenience store. I think the old man prefers selling ferns over lottery tickets. This one is not directly in St James Town but it is still part of it in my mind.

Winter in St James Town

These are a few pictures of a snowy night walk through St James Town last winter. It really is a pretty place.

Snow in St James Town
Indian couple showing their baby what is probably his first snowfall. Imagine that…your first snow. The address of the white brick building is 666 Ontario Street: the highrise of the Beast!
Ventilation units pushing out clouds of steam from under 240 Wellesley St tower
Snow in St James Town park. Empty benches at night
Central Park, St James Town during a big snowfall. This park was completely redone over the last 2 years with new benches, lighting, playground and basketball courts. It’s normally full of people but I took this picture very late on a cold winter night so everyone was probably bundled up inside.

The Future of St James Town

There is a tremendous amount of demolition and building going on around here. I think the original towers are safe in their big bulky numbers. Hopefully they will continue to see improvements and provide a home for people who can’t afford to move anywhere else.

As for the surviving victorian houses…I am not so sure. Just last year I found out that Concert Realty bought up the whole west side of Glen Road. This is the same developer that is building the 54 story building outside my bedroom window. This means that right now they own a continuous parcel of land that is more than enough to build a second condo tower. They have not submitted plans to the city yet but I think it is only a matter of time. Lately there has been some pull back on new condos so hopefully Glen Road will survive for a few more years…let’s see what happens.

There is so much more…

These pictures just show a little of this neighbourhood. In recent years, the city has put up a brand new community centre complete with sunlit indoor pool, library, indoor basketball courts and community services.

The Rose Avenue Public School right at the centre of St James Town is one of the last original buildings in the area. This brick building with massive old windows was built in 1924 and still operates as a busy public school and day care, surrounded by old trees and brick walkways.

This is the walkway along the side of Rose Avenue Public School at night. It’s a pretty and peaceful spot.

St James Town represents a massive and miscalculated experiment in early city redevelopment. Originally seen as a failure and struggling for decades, I think it has grown into a unique and vital part of the Toronto downtown.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. I am always happy to hear from you.

Thanks for reading! : )

If you enjoy the content and would like to contribute towards website maintenance and development, you can make a donation here.

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