[URBAN NOTE] "10 ways Toronto used to be more seedy than it is today"

[rfmcdonald]

blogTO's Derek Flack describes the historical seediness of Toronto, something I myself haven't seen--I came too late.

Strip clubs could be found everywhere
Toronto isn't bereft of strip clubs, but you used to find a whole lot more of them around town and in areas you might not expect. The wonderfully named Cheaters drew the ire of Yonge and Davisville residents throughout the '80s, but it was just one of hundreds of adult bars littered across the city. Today there are fewer than 20.

Everything was filthy
I mean this quite literally. When the city was run on coal, our buildings were covered in a thick layer of soot that made red brick appear brown and that gave Toronto a generally gritty look, particularly downtown.

The TTC featured a lot more graffiti
Back in the early 1980s, the state of some TTC stations was surprisingly poor. I know we tend to complain about the littlest things these days, but when the original Vitrolite tiles were coming apart at downtown stations back then, the platforms seemed like prime places for spray paint. Broken windows, they say...