April 17, 2006 - I spent half of my 4-day Easter weekend in London, Ontario. Purpose of the trip: to visit Jason's sister and her boyfriend (yup, I'm meeting the family - but that's another blog). Anyway, this is only my second time to London, the first time was during Christmas break in 2004 when I went to visit my friend Ruth, who was doing her pharmacy residency at UWO. The drive to London was not as painful as I thought it would be - but then again, I wasn't the one driving. Even though it was my second time visiting the town, I still got a semi-tour of the city's main attractions: UWO and downtown. There really isn't that much to do in town, but it does beat Cambridge at least and the trip wasn't meant for sightseeing either. Anyway, here are some of my observations (as a planner) of London:
1) London tries to be a city, but it really is just a small town - While it is the fifth largest city in the province, the City still has a small-town feel to it. Small-town mentality is still very much alive and well.
2) While parts of Downtown London seems to remain vibrant, some parts are in serious decline - Galleria Mall, which is supposed to be London's equivalent of our Eaton Centre, is simply a joke. The mall itself isn't really a mall anymore - most of the stores have shut down and been converted to office use. The demise began when Eaton's closed its London store back in the late 90s. The mall structure, with its brown bland walls all enclosed with no windows whatsoever, is a classic example of how indoor malls kill downtown streets. Imagine if they had kept the original shopping streets in London, as they had just north of the mall, then maybe downtown south wouldn't be as quiet and deserted.
3) People really ride the bus in London - It could be just a coincidence, but every bus that I saw in London was full of people - even on the weekends. Is it just me or is transit ridership in London really high?
4) UWO is one of the prettiest university campuses I have seen - I hate to compare it to UofT (since their location and context are totally different), but UWO is pretty. The University tries hard to make sure all the buildings look the same (even the new ones) and there really is that "campus feel" to it.
5) London is called the "Forest City" but I'm not sure why - I didn't really see that many trees in the city. Do they have an urban forest that I don't know about? Victoria Park, the downtown park, is nice - but there really isn't that much to it (except for the outdoor skating rink in winter). So if anyone can explain to me why it's called the Forest City, that would be great.
So those are just some of the thoughts that ran through my head when I visited. The trip was neat because Jason hasn't been back in London for quite some time - so it was cool to hear his thoughts and impressions (and to see where he spent 5 years of his life). So now that I have visited London and Cambridge, I guess I should continue my small-town Ontario trek and see Kitchener-Waterloo next?
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