[PHOTO] Alexander the Great Parkette

Alexander the Great Parkette
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

Located on the corner of Logan and Danforth in the heart of Toronto's Greektown, the Alexander the Great Parkette was opened in 1994, just down the street from a Macedonian cultural centre. The timing suggests to me that it may have something to do with the ongoing dispute over the name "Macedonia" between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

[LINK] "American brains are Canada's gain"

In The Globe and Mail, Elizabeth Church suggests that Canadian schools are starting to attract significantly larger contingents of American students thanks to lower education and other costs.

Libby MacCarthy had never been to Canada when she applied to Dalhousie University at the suggestion of a friend. After a campus visit during a cold snap in April, the Maine native was still undecided about the merits of a Canadian education.

But when the offer from her top U.S. choice arrived without a promise of financial aid, the annual $25,000 (U.S.) difference in cost made up her mind.

"Canadian universities are like hidden gems," said the 21-year-old, who starts her fourth year in Halifax in September. "A lot of them are Ivy League-quality schools and they are just a lot less expensive."

At a time when many U.S families are finding they have fewer dollars than they expected to spend on higher education, the price of a Canadian undergraduate degree is looking attractive.

That feeling is being fuelled by increased marketing from the Canadian government and more interest by Canadian schools, drawn to the American market as a way to maintain enrolment, attract more tuition dollars and give their campus a more international outlook.

Signs of that push are showing up this spring. Many schools say their U.S. applications are up, and so is the number of students saying yes to offers.

"The U.S. is one of our target areas, no question," said Asa Kachan, the registrar at Dalhousie, where applications from American students are up 14 per cent this year.

In a province with 11 universities and a declining high-school population, Ms. Kachan says attracting foreign students is vital. The school does that by tapping into networks of U.S. guidance counsellors and sending staff to key high schools. Foreign students account for 8 per cent of enrolment, but Dalhousie wants to raise that to 10 or 12 per cent.

[LINK] "36 Hours in Toronto"

Last August, I blogged about a travelogue that Margaret Atwood wrote about Toronto in The New York Times in 2002. Now, Denny Lee has a travelogue of his own up at that same newspaper.

AS one of the planet’s most diverse cities, Toronto is oddly clean and orderly. Sidewalks are spotless, trolleys run like clockwork, and the locals are polite almost to a fault. That’s not to say that Torontonians are dull. Far from it. With a population that is now half foreign-born — fueled by growing numbers of East Indians, Chinese and Sri Lankans — the lakeside city offers a kaleidoscope of world cultures. Sing karaoke in a Vietnamese bar, sip espresso in Little Italy and catch a new Bollywood release, all in one night. The art and design scenes are thriving, too, and not just on the bedazzled red carpets of the Toronto International Film Festival, held every September. Industrial zones have been reborn into gallery districts, and dark alleys now lead to designer studios, giving Canada’s financial capital an almost disheveled mien.

His list of the top 10 things to do in Toronto, spread out over 36 hours, is worth reading, not only for travellers but for Torontonians: it's always interesting to see how others see our city.

[LINK] "Marketing the Market"

Speaking of Torontonian idiosyncracies, the National Post has an article on the almost archetypically Torontonian downtown neighbourhood of Kensington Market, Adam McDowell's "Marketing the Market." In it, McDowell argues that despite locals' fears (described below), gentrification isn't going to change a neighbourhood that is arguably characterized by dynamic change.

A Monopoly board was an appropriate theme for a flyer announcing a meeting of the Kensington Market Action Committee earlier this week. As in a game of Monopoly, how Kensington's future will unfold depends a little on chance and a lot on who ends up renting what.

At the meeting in the Kensington Market Lofts' basement Monday night, local resident Mielle Chandler couldn't sit still through the reading out of financial details. She put up her hand and started talking about gentrification, about how the neighbourhood had tidied up over her 10 years of living there - the Kensington in her mind was being erased.

"It's scuzzy," she said to scattered applause, "and I like it."

Gentrification, nodded outgoing KMAC president Chris De Vita, "is a dirty word around here."

The word has been on Kensingtonians' lips even more than coffee lately. Local business owners report that the area's major landowners, a handful of whom reputedly hold a virtual monopoly, are dramatically increasing their rents and holding out for tenants with a proven track record - meaning, some fear, chain stores over quirky mom-and-pop shops.