This past Monday, approximately 44,770 attendees descended on the SkyDome, I mean Rogers Centre, in downtown Toronto to watch Game 7 of the ALCS between the Blue Jays and the Mariners. I was lucky enough to be one of them. And with one swing of George Springer's bat, we did it.
The Blue Jays became only the fourth team in the history of Major League Baseball to come back and win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home. (Baseball is full of fun little stats.)
This is what makes October baseball so exciting. It's slow and suspenseful, but then all of a sudden — boom — you completely lose your voice because you're screaming so hard. I still don't have mine back at the time of writing this post.
What a game. What a moment for Toronto.
Now let's switch gears and think about all of this from an urban mobility standpoint. Forty-five thousand is a lot of people. How do you efficiently move this many people to and from a stadium? One option is you could build a ton of parking.
This past Monday, approximately 44,770 attendees descended on the SkyDome, I mean Rogers Centre, in downtown Toronto to watch Game 7 of the ALCS between the Blue Jays and the Mariners. I was lucky enough to be one of them. And with one swing of George Springer's bat, we did it.
The Blue Jays became only the fourth team in the history of Major League Baseball to come back and win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home. (Baseball is full of fun little stats.)
This is what makes October baseball so exciting. It's slow and suspenseful, but then all of a sudden — boom — you completely lose your voice because you're screaming so hard. I still don't have mine back at the time of writing this post.
What a game. What a moment for Toronto.
Now let's switch gears and think about all of this from an urban mobility standpoint. Forty-five thousand is a lot of people. How do you efficiently move this many people to and from a stadium? One option is you could build a ton of parking.
Here, for example, is Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles:
But this is a suboptimal approach, which is why a year ago the LA Times had to write: "Going to Dodger Stadium for the World Series? Five ways to avoid parking and traffic headaches." In it, they suggest the following: Take the bus, take the Dodger Stadium Express Bus, take an Uber, ride your bike, or walk 30 minutes to the nearest metro station (Chinatown).
On Monday, we took the Union Pearson Express from Bloor to Union. The train was absolutely packed, but we got on the first one and we were door-to-door in a little over 30 minutes. After the game, it was pandemonium. People were swinging from light poles, lighting off smoke bombs, and the lineup to get back on the UP Express looked like this:
But here's where I need to give a lot of credit to whoever was responsible for keeping things together on Monday night. They had stanchions lined up to accommodate the crowds flooding out of the Rogers Centre, they had staff walking up and down the lines so people could tap on ahead of time, and they had more trains operating. The result was that we waited maybe 10 or so minutes before getting on one.
Nobody got out of downtown this quickly unless you were on a train or you biked. My friends who had to take Ubers home were stuck for hours. In fact, one driver said, "We're not moving for a while. You're better off going into that bar right now and I'll come back for you later."
Sometimes when I write about trains and public transport, people comment that I'm living in the past and that it's an outdated technology. Look, I'm all for new tech. Bring on the autonomous vehicles and let's get the global financial system onto the Ethereum blockchain already. But when it comes to urban mobility, trains work. They're highly efficient at moving the greatest number of people.
And you really see that in action when there are sudden demand shocks, like what happened on Monday night when the Blue Jays punched their card to the World Series for the first time since 1993. Go Jays!
Being a sports fan is like having a bipolar disorder. The highs are high. And the lows are low. But right now -- with the Toronto Raptors having clinched their first ever NBA Finals appearance -- we are all on a high. Though the job is far from over, this city has waited 24 seasons for this moment. Turns out, all we were missing was one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
It's pretty amazing to see how far we have come both as a franchise, and as a global city. When Scotiabank Arena was completed in 1999, it, and the surrounding area, looked like this. On Saturday night after the win, it looked like this, a veritable "sports alley." I have long thought that Bremner Boulevard should be placemade into a sports alley connecting Scotiabank Arena (on the east) and the Rogers Centre (on the west).
Tonight I went a photography heli tour with @normandthegang.
I took almost 500 photos, including a bunch of aerials of our development sites. And we got lucky with a pretty spectacular pink sunset.
Here is a photo that I took of the CN Tower with my Fuji X Series (35mm prime lens):
Here, for example, is Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles:
But this is a suboptimal approach, which is why a year ago the LA Times had to write: "Going to Dodger Stadium for the World Series? Five ways to avoid parking and traffic headaches." In it, they suggest the following: Take the bus, take the Dodger Stadium Express Bus, take an Uber, ride your bike, or walk 30 minutes to the nearest metro station (Chinatown).
On Monday, we took the Union Pearson Express from Bloor to Union. The train was absolutely packed, but we got on the first one and we were door-to-door in a little over 30 minutes. After the game, it was pandemonium. People were swinging from light poles, lighting off smoke bombs, and the lineup to get back on the UP Express looked like this:
But here's where I need to give a lot of credit to whoever was responsible for keeping things together on Monday night. They had stanchions lined up to accommodate the crowds flooding out of the Rogers Centre, they had staff walking up and down the lines so people could tap on ahead of time, and they had more trains operating. The result was that we waited maybe 10 or so minutes before getting on one.
Nobody got out of downtown this quickly unless you were on a train or you biked. My friends who had to take Ubers home were stuck for hours. In fact, one driver said, "We're not moving for a while. You're better off going into that bar right now and I'll come back for you later."
Sometimes when I write about trains and public transport, people comment that I'm living in the past and that it's an outdated technology. Look, I'm all for new tech. Bring on the autonomous vehicles and let's get the global financial system onto the Ethereum blockchain already. But when it comes to urban mobility, trains work. They're highly efficient at moving the greatest number of people.
And you really see that in action when there are sudden demand shocks, like what happened on Monday night when the Blue Jays punched their card to the World Series for the first time since 1993. Go Jays!
Being a sports fan is like having a bipolar disorder. The highs are high. And the lows are low. But right now -- with the Toronto Raptors having clinched their first ever NBA Finals appearance -- we are all on a high. Though the job is far from over, this city has waited 24 seasons for this moment. Turns out, all we were missing was one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
It's pretty amazing to see how far we have come both as a franchise, and as a global city. When Scotiabank Arena was completed in 1999, it, and the surrounding area, looked like this. On Saturday night after the win, it looked like this, a veritable "sports alley." I have long thought that Bremner Boulevard should be placemade into a sports alley connecting Scotiabank Arena (on the east) and the Rogers Centre (on the west).
Tonight I went a photography heli tour with @normandthegang.
I took almost 500 photos, including a bunch of aerials of our development sites. And we got lucky with a pretty spectacular pink sunset.
Here is a photo that I took of the CN Tower with my Fuji X Series (35mm prime lens):
From now until this Thursday, all is right in the world. Enjoy it Toronto, and Canada. Masai Ujiri made a bet that I think most, if not all, of us would agree has paid off. Had it not, Raptors fans across the country would be criticizing him for trading away our franchise player. But that's par for the course in this bipolar world of sports fandom.
Lake Ontario actually looked like that. This is not post-production chicanery. Follow me on Instagram to see the rest of the photo series.
Thanks again for the invite Norm. That was a lot of fun.
From now until this Thursday, all is right in the world. Enjoy it Toronto, and Canada. Masai Ujiri made a bet that I think most, if not all, of us would agree has paid off. Had it not, Raptors fans across the country would be criticizing him for trading away our franchise player. But that's par for the course in this bipolar world of sports fandom.
Lake Ontario actually looked like that. This is not post-production chicanery. Follow me on Instagram to see the rest of the photo series.
Thanks again for the invite Norm. That was a lot of fun.
