My Asylum - Images
of Deer Park 2003 Power Cut
| When the power cut me off from my ordinary life, I had enough
spare volts in the battery of my Thinkpad to go on the Web, make a Diaryland entry,
and check the online news about the event. Since my network was toasted, I was
forced to connect via primitive dialup. Slow in extremis, just like this Web page
with its 2.5 mb of cute images of people with nowhere to go. When I learned
about the distribution of the problem, I was certain that chaos would reign, and,
grabbing my camera, I skipped to the intersection of Yonge and St. Clair, that
is, downtown Deer Park. A charming place that was first settled by the Heath family,
all of whom continue to reside on Heath Street. I could toss a frisbee from my
street to Heath. In any case, the Heaths dubbed all of the streets around here,
less my own (Glen Elm), which was a busy trail when the Heaths purchased all 80
hectares that comprise Deer Park, in 1837. This land area stretches from Yonge
and St. Clair in the east to the edge of Wychwood Park, west of Bathurst Street;
and from the CPR right-of -way in the south to the Belt Line West of Yonge, and
my own street and the edge of the Avoca Ravine, to the north. Now, Deer Park's
downtown is one of Toronto's busier intersections. No surprise then, that it was
packed with people with nowhere to go, or with people waiting for a less than
packed bus. Since the subway was down, plenty of folk were walking along Yonge
Street. |  
 
 
 
 
 
 | With
nightfall, the dimension of the unpowered city became evident. Homes lit with
candles stood proudly independent. Nearby, some office towers declared their own,
powered independence from the grid. The Arthur Meighen Building and others at
Yonge and St. Clair are always powered, and by all indications, had an abundance
of supply. |  
 
 |
Like other anonymous federal government buildings with all kinds of surprise
tenants like the RCMP, Meighen is a city that operates 24 hours a day, possibly
under its own power at all times. Large portions stand empty, since Environment
Canada relocated its inland waters division to Dufferin Street. Perhaps some of
the illuminated floors stand empty. | 
 | Apart
from occasional chaos, life in Deer Park progressed with surprising normalcy.
Traffic fell into a sensible pattern of its own volition, and absent the accoutrements
of modern life, people found themselves engaging each other. The neighbour who
mows his lawn with the rising of the birds seems not so bad playing catch with
some almost stranger. | 
 |
The sight of the two stalled streetcars spooks. It is also proof of near-precision.
The eastbound car is perhaps one minute ahead of the westbound. Both would have
been stuck in position on either side of Avenue Road had both been exactly on-schedule.
With the sun set, many people with no reasonable way to get to North York
or Scarborough chose to sleep on the sidewalks. |  
| For some reason, my corner of Deer Park got power before anywhere
else in Toronto. Oddly, Mel Lastman, Toronto's mayor of the day lived in part
of Deer Park that did not get powered. I got juiced at about 05H00. One of my
audio system's power amplifiers produces a substantial turn on transient, and
it was this noise that woke me up. Drenched in fear, I listened to John Denver's
Sunshine on My Shoulder (make me appee!!) which is what I had been listening
to on the gramophone when the lights went out. The front entrance lamp lit,
I was optimistic as I ventured out to see what was happening in downtown Deer
Park. | 
 
  
 
| Later on, I discovered that my street had power first because
there is a substation under Glen Elm that is a distribution point for the main
power conduit that runs up Yonge Street. A small portion of Toronto, situated
east of Yonge, north of St. Clair had power passing through it before anywhere
else, including Mel's condo on Delisle Street. Only a day later was power restored
to most other parts of Toronto. As the sun sets on another day, an unmarked
RCMP vehicle awaits a purpose. Buses serve the 512 St. Clair line, the streetcars
frozen on the still unpowered system. In the bottom picture, a view north from
Glen Elm along Yonge Street shows the lights of a distant Yonge-Eglinton intersection.
Next, a plane flies over an as-of-yet unpowered Deer Park, west of Yonge. |
My Asylum - Images
of Deer Park 2003 Power Cut
|