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At home on Elm Street

by Judi McLeodJune 20 - July 11, 2000

At Bay and Elm is the elegant old building where Toronto Free Press offices are located. All our second floor office windows overlook Elm Street, to us aptly named because of the trees.

In any season, the trees are looped with white lights, and in the evening when the gas light-like street lamps switch on, it's enchanting. From her office windows, the editor can actually pick up her apartment windows in a high-rise just a block away.

Imagine working in a great metropolis like Toronto and being lucky enough to have offices at Bay and Elm, within easy walking distance of where you live.

On slow days, we can spot the swells being dropped off for lunch at the toney Oro Restaurant directly next door. Some unsuspecting politicians are let off by impressive looking limousines under the noses of investigative newspaper types.

For most of its 10-year tenure, TFP has always been located in the general area, for four years at the rather strange building at 111 Elizabeth Street, now a parking lot, for three years in an old building at Bay and Dundas.

In one brief period when we were away from the neighbourhood, we moved into offices which were once the constituency of a former political enemy--which coincidentally just happened to be right across the street from another politician about whom we wrote an expos�. Both politicians were convinced we moved into the area looking for trouble, and would never have believed that the main reason for the move was based on economy.

The elevators were rarely in working order at the Elizabeth Street location, and transients from the nearby bus depot sometimes made their beds in the stairwell. If you were working late at night and were afraid of being trapped between floors, you had the additional worry of wondering what you were going to meet on the stairwell on the way down to the main lobby.

On many occasions people were trapped in the elevators and you could actually hear the screams of the claustrophobic when the doors refused to open. The local fire department had to be called from time to time to rescue office tenants and visitors alike.

TFP types could easily pick up the city hall offices of certain councillors within the range of army binoculars. The same politicians were visibly uncomfortable when it dawned on them how close we were, after they dropped by one of our earlier anniversary bashes.

We love our downtown neighbourhood, but friends who prefer the north country can't believe how we could be so happy "surrounded by all that concrete."

Yet, for all of its corporate airs, Bay Street is just a 'hood like any other.

When one lives and works in the city blocks between Bay and Gerrard, there are so many conveniences.

It's relatively safe, night or day. The parkette at the Eaton Centre at one end, and College Park on the other are conveniently close for walking office mascot, Kiko.

City Hall is a quick jaunt away, though since amalgamation, we only go there when we really have to. Council meetings accomplish little, and it’s downright depressing to see how few average people turn up at the twin towers, at any given time.

Even in downtown Toronto, frequent sounds to be heard from the street level are the occasional whistle for a taxicab and the beautiful peals of St. Michael's church bells.

In summer, lunching on the patio of the Elm Street eateries is a wonderful way to forget workaday woes.

The nearby Atrium on Bay is a good place in which to blow away the cobwebs when there's too much going on at the office. There is the Red Lobster, staffed by the kind of young people who always remember the names of clientele. Their newly expanded bar is a pleasant place in which to sit and watch the world go by for a half hour or so.

There is a certain kind of peace to be found when listening to the water fall on the lower concourse level and time to romanticize about the wishes made by all who tossed in their pennies.

Then there is The World's Biggest Bookstore, where hours at a time can be spent browsing and buying books, magazines and videos.

A visit to the bus depot is always good for putting things back into perspective. It's easy to speculate about middle aged ladies with luggage waiting anxiously for nieces and nephews to pick them up. Young people with backpacks coming back to T.O. from university, always look so eager.

For sure, TFP has had bigger plusher offices, but nothing has seemed so much like home as 49 Elm.

Landlord David Cooper promised we’d like it when we were moving in.

Downstairs David Wheat, Victor Salus and the gang at North Star Computers, are the best neighbours we've ever had.

Hard to believe that we were here one year on May 1.

The novelty of being at 49 Elm Street hasn't worn off.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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