Visit to Toronto 1987

Family from Netherlands visited in 1987

[@nicholashylton6857]

I practically grew up in the Science Centre. It makes me so freaking angry that Ford wants to tear it down for condos. 🤬

[@gregcosta6965]

What do you expect today's politicians are in the pockets of greedy corporate interests.

[@r.pres.4121]

How many more goddamned condos do they need? The science Centre is a major educational and cultural attraction.

[@nicholashylton6857]

@@r.pres.4121 I agree. And moving it down by the lake? The traffic is terrible downtown! It's not like condos would make housing in Toronto more affordable anyway.

[@D33Lux]

This is an amazing video, hardly no cars on the Gardiner Expressway, few people on the streets and no condo's all around.

[@gregcosta6965]

Ugh those condos ruined the skyline of Toronto. Way way too much urbanization.

[@JohnDoe-yj5ng]

Um, no, they were on the 401 heading east around 427 area.

[@InADarkTavern]

@@gregcosta6965 Because the zoning laws do not allow density outside certain places, it must be very tall to accommodate demand. I think people would be more mad if you tore up homes in their neighborhood to build medium density than to have high density on major arterioles where there is abundant food, fun and transit.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@InADarkTavern *** zoning by laws. Canada has tons of space. Toronto ain't Hong Kong where space is limited so you have to build upward. No this is an act of greed. The mayors and city officials are in the backpockets of the corporations( in this case builders of condos and other real estate moguls). What is being done is an urban travesty. Shame on the mayor, the premier and the PM of Canada for allowing the destruction of a once promising city.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@InADarkTavern Toronto ain't Hong Kong. There is no need to build skyward and fill up the whole city with these ugly monstrosities.

[@Born2DoubleUp]

man I would kill to go back to this time. no cell phones, no internet, no social media. you knew all the kids who lived in your area. there was so much stuff to do for free or for next to nothing. you could get into a fight with someone, dust each other off, and go about your day without worrying about dying. nobody was car jacking or stealing everything that wasn't nailed down. 😅

[@TorontoPopulistConservative]

Does anyone else miss the orange glow of those sodium vapour street lamps at night? I wasn't alive in 1987 but we have lost so much of the warmth of this city between the first decade of the 2000's and today.

[@allanharris4281]

The Ontario Science Center exhibit is cool. I went to see it with my high school sweet heart

[@barrybebenek8691]

I was 16 in Etobicoke in 1987. God I miss those days. No cell phones, internet, electronic social media…I liked it so much better than today. Thanks for posting this.

[@cameranmanner4701]

I was there too in 87, almost the same age. We had...cordless phones, Actual TV programming, BBS boards, VCRs. Arcade games. Everything to distract us. Don't really see a difference. My 80's parents wishing for simplistic lives like they had in the 50's and 60's.

[@areolaman]

Some business people had cellular car phones back then@@cameranmanner4701

[@Joe-cy5hm]

Not better than today. It's just nostalgia. Every generation says that it used to be better but it's just an illusion

[@yes0genesis]

@@Joe-cy5hm Strongly disagree. We are moving towards a tech dystopia. Whether or not the sentiment was true in the past, I think it definitely is true now.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@Joe-cy5hm It was better. A LOT better. How can you say it wasn't better?

[@whiteclouds9775]

My birth year and place .....wow .....thanks

[@misscandyxO]

Same!! 🙌

[@josephstorc7148]

I was 27. I remember the days. I lived in Toronto near High Park. Went to school in the 60s and till 1979. I know reside in Port Perry near retirement.

[@intercommerce]

Me too. I was 27 when this was filmed. I now live by High Park.

[@davidkreick1473]

This brings me back! Thank you for sharing your footage. I was born and raised in the GTA from 1976-1996. I remember going to the Ontario Science Centre several times. Love that place.

[@user-to1yw8vv2k]

I was a Hamilton boy in his prime I spent so many weekends in Toronto in the 70s and 80 s in 1987 it was still Toronto the good !

[@renjiththariath7831]

Until we showed up

[@gregcosta6965]

@@renjiththariath7831 yeah go back to where you came from.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@renjiththariath7831 leave then.

[@renjiththariath7831]

@@gregcosta6965 I can personally leave but that won't solve the problem.

[@r.pres.4121]

Now it is Toronto the expensive.

[@neilwhite49]

Thank you for this video. I was 11 years old in '87 and this brought back some good memories. I lived just minutes from the cn tower and would be in that area for most of the summers.

[@WildDisease72]

Good old days... long gone now

[@dutchcanuck7550]

The Science Centre in its heyday, before the government slashed its funding. I had a lot of fun there as a kid. Brings a tear to my eye.

[@robk5865]

I was in my late teens then...they bussed our marketing class into Toronto to see the Eaton Center. About 50% of our class opted to hit all the headshops downtown instead. Everyone had a brand new Metallica shirt and a brown paper bag with a nice new pipe in it when we got back on the bus. So much for the marketing class portion of our trip into the big smoke.

[@808v1]

lo, sounds like there was marketing involved, just not the specific type the school had in mind.

[@MyViewToronto]

Looks amazing without the ugly condo's of today.

[@sunnymike4251]

Great video of toronto in '87 💯

[@iwantthe80sback59]

Was having lunch at 360 the day they were breaking ground for the Skydome build 1987. All the news media was there as well as local politicians. They were serving Dome (vs Dom) Pérignon champagne. Met Dick Smyth that day. Was one of the best days of my life.

[@renjiththariath7831]

well at least ya didnt meet dick van dyke, ya mighta got raped!!!!!!!!!

[@Aces77777]

The sky dome wasn't build yet

[@gregcosta6965]

wow woopty doo. Exhibition Stadium was prettier.

[@bobdole7021]

Thanks for posting. Brings back great memories

[@modern_memory]

Younge Street looked much better back then

[@gregcosta6965]

Yeah it didn't look like you're in another country.

[@nicholashylton6857]

No, not really. It's infinitely more upscale and cleaner today than back then.

[@kooldudeno-lastname]

@@nicholashylton6857 while it may be more upscale and "cleaner" (whatever you mean by that), It lost 100% of its character and now it just looks like a shitty street of condos & congestion

[@StuMarston]

It reminds me when me and my friend Gord headed west to Toronto for jobs. Lawyering jobs and doctoring jobs. We didn't gets jobs though so we went to Yonge Street.

[@gregcosta6965]

Haha Gord. What a Canadian name:))

[@YerDaddY.]

@@gregcosta6965hahaha

[@Time782]

Great archive video!

[@captainca1445]

Awesome footage!!!

[@rapingpeterpan6180]

I think we were on the same trip,,,,,,,,,,,,,thanks for the shot of nostalgia!

[@fantasyguru26]

Look how great Yonge Street looked with all the lights. It doesn't have that same vibe at all today.

[@cgimovieman]

Wild. I was a kid in 1987 and my family visited Toronto. We went to this same museum, which I think was called the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) and we also have a bunch of camcorder video of it inside. We very well could have been at the museum on this same day. I grew up in Michigan, and at the time it was my first experience being in another country. Even though Ontario has a lot of the same feel overall as places in the midwestern U.S. like Michigan.

[@aliciamack9323]

I was 3 years old in 1987 but I never been up their to Toronto CA.

[@kitsuna77]

good god it looks so different. The CN tower looks very lonely there XD

[@alexanderolena]

9:25 lol. I am at Westin Harbour Castle at this moment looking at Waterpark place. So much changed.

[@shahid8545]

I was born in 1978 in Brantford and I remember going to Toronto as a child and it was always fun. Now I utterly loathe the idea of going there. I guess nothing lasts forever. Toronto is unrecognizable to me now.

[@GlorefyeXO]

Well yea you were younger back 50 years ago the city is for young people and suburbs are for the elderly that’s why there’s no outside entertainment in Branford, it’s a quiet old people town

[@chrispomaylivewithcdpsport5517]

I've not been up the CN Tower since 1978 when I was in Grade 1, living in Oakville, at the time.

[@teaeff8898]

Wow that’s a nice video! Somebody should do a then-and-now vid, to see the changes. Changes in air quality, for one, it’s way clearer now it’s not just the camera! Also changes in the skyline for sure! Addendum: missed all the good head shops just up Yonge. Damn

[@kenbailey184]

Thank you for this. Being born and raised in Toronto it was nice to see what it used to be like…a great city. Today it’s a violent crime ridden cesspool.

[@scsi_joe]

Amen to that.

[@neilwhite49]

There was always violence and crime. The only difference between now and then was the way it's more publicly reported and now people don't care about the police. I remember being chased by the green hornets around etobicoke, along with the almost daily people wanting you to get in their car/van/truck..

[@scsi_joe]

@@neilwhite49 No one in this comment thread said violence and crime never existed in Toronto before. That's not the point here. What is different is the overall level/amount of violence and crime, and/or rate, especially when you look at certain areas or neighbourhoods - they're _way_ worse than they used to be. For example, my family & I moved to north Etobicoke in 1986. We lived there until 2009. There were a few punks around back in the 80's, but _nothing_ compared to what it is now. Talk about an area gone bad! We saw firsthand how it declined. It's a perfect case study, if one was writing an essay on the topic. That was one of the main reasons we moved, it became _very_ unsafe over the years.

[@RedroomStudios]

it was pretty bleak back then though...

[@scsi_joe]

@@rcarseneault1214 yup.

[@user-ex9en7du9x]

I'm on this stretch of road in the back of my mind at this time in history all the time

[@chuckroyal]

I was two years old living around Jane street and Weston road at that time.

[@kevinfoster1243]

The camera this guy was using to film was the size of a stove. Can only imagine. And probably the only guy that had one. No cell, no internet, just video tape. Different times to be sure.

[@Boeing-I-hs2gj]

Actually it seems like he was not the only guy in Toronto that was filming with a 1980s camcorder. Another KZbinr who is still active to this day has a few old videos of Toronto back in 1987.

[@barndancer6149]

No lol they were not that big.

[@teaeff8898]

VHS camcorders were pretty reasonable by the late 80s.

[@user-wd9mo4vr5d]

@@barndancer6149 seemed to me it was an expression tbh

[@emjaydark2811]

Not that big. I still have two of them. Sonys. Great image.

[@AChapstickOrange]

Man, that was a long time ago. That's just about the time I left high school and before I started university. You could still see the CN Tower coming in from the west on the Gardiner, standing pretty much alone. That's all a canyon of steel and glass now.

[@sigma_curry]

What is gone will never come back.

[@laze7992]

Wow 40 years later I live on the waterfront and it looks NOTHING like that! I was toddler when this was filmed 😂

[@randaldavid7685]

We were there at the end of March 1987 for our honeymoon

[@mr.t8562]

Be fascinating to see the pan shots from the CN tower today. The City is all condos.

[@valentinaamigo3621]

Hello Gary, Amazing video and quality! We would like to use part of this video for a student documentary at Humber College if you agree. I would like you to know that we will give you credits with the name of your preference. And share with you the final result if you would like. Please let me know if it's okay with you. Have a great week!😃

[@garykuiper5936]

Sure np Credit Gert Bakker please!

[@hussfarsani8135]

Feels a lot like a scary movie: like any moment now something terrible could just happen 😄

[@SuckerEmcee]

There's a rainbow in Toronto where the Maritimers are bold. They always get a potfull-but they never get a pot of gold. 🎶

[@gregcosta6965]

Maritimers are good people. Nice Canadians in contrast with Ontarioans.

[@chickenburgerfan88]

Notice how it doesn't look like the third world. This country is severely broken

[@sparker.24]

have you been to a 3rd world country? canada looks nothing like it. quit your yappin

[@Mrs.EmmaPeel]

Have you seen midday traffic in Toronto these days? The 401 is a parking lot most days.

[@jkent6526]

Quite a different scene these days. Especially around the Eaton Center. Pretty sad really.

[@TheIronDuke9]

That was the year rollings and swarmings really started happening. If you were a teenager wearing Doc Martins or other valuable gear and you were alone on the subway or in a mall etc there was a good chance you would be jumped and robbed - lots of times you wouldn't even be hurt, they just rip what they wanted from you and split, but sometimes you get beat up as well. The media really picked up on it by 89 and then by the early 90's it had died down and teenage swarmings weren't a thing much after that

[@TheIronDuke9]

jbwarehouse.blogspot.com/2015/08/off-grid-retro-to-golden-age-of-swarming.html

[@harunmusa8693]

I remember that...

[@trevorgwelch7412]

In 2024 more people more buildings more crime but far better hospitals

[@freddymarques4423]

It is impossible for it to be 1987. You know why? Because by that time scotia plaza would be already present on toronto skyline

[@gregcosta6965]

No i think you're wrong Scotia plaza was built in 1989.

[@freddymarques4423]

@@gregcosta6965 no

[@barndancer6149]

Looks like the Ontario Science Centre.

[@hobonomad1928]

Back when Toronto was still a cool city.

[@r.pres.4121]

Back when Toronto was an affordable city.

[@dgabit]

So different, but at the same time, so many things the same.

[@ank337]

Wow ! Toronto looks so good , less traffic less people , less ugly condos , probably less rent less crime etc I came to the party too late 😝 it’s a cold not wold class city

[@GlorefyeXO]

It looked grey and ugly back then just a bunch of cars, roads and cancer filled smoke in the air, Windsor was a much better city back then

[@lmnop276]

1987 and 199th decade

[@Dedicated2WendyWilliams]

so this is where the old scarborough town center got its idea for gas balloons in the mall

[@mattlorentz1988]

Wowzers so weird not seeing Skydome and it didn't look like construction even started

[@runner3033]

It looks to be well underway at 8:58

[@railfandepotproductions]

Wait till you see Toronto back in the 1970s

[@schichter]

I’m directing a documentary about a radio station in Toronto in the 80s called CFNY and came across your footage. I’d love to use 6 seconds of it in the film. Would that be possible?

[@garykuiper5936]

It’s actually a relative of mine that shot it but I’ll see if I can get their blessing on that. Cfny back in Brampton or Queen west? Or both? I remember being in there (Queen st)watching an oasis interview

[@garykuiper5936]

All good buddy. Credit Gert Bakker if you can please

[@schichter]

@@garykuiper5936 Thank you so much! CFNY in Brampton 1977-1990. I can definitely credit Gert Bakker. Thank you!

[@Universal.G]

WOW look at the smog back then....

[@glen6945]

ace guy

[@dougiep2769]

Looks nothing like it did in 1987. What a dump

[@Ynalaw]

1:05 They keep trying to convince us.

[@derick3482]

this is in north York?

[@runner3033]

Yeah, the CN Tower used to be in North York until they moved it back in '95.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@runner3033 He's saying that part of the video reminded him of North York. He's right.

[@redman958]

​@@runner3033 lol.

[@whatifschrodingersboxwasacofin]

The smell of hops when we got past Spadina on the Gardiner…

[@gregcosta6965]

Yup i also visited Toronto in 1987. Wow what a nice functional city and clean it was back then. You wouldn't even be hearing english nowadays up there. Who could have thought... some normal looking people back then. No tattooed multi hair colored freakazoids, people actually laughed not the moody uptight *** they've become. And for 1987 Toronto was pretty modern and functional. I'd go back in a heartbeat compared to now.

[@whatifschrodingersboxwasacofin]

1987??? We were there. You weren’t in the right places. I was just starting law school. Gay “T-Dances” on Sunday afternoons were amazing. You clearly never hit the ‘Church Street Beach’. 🏳️‍🌈 And yes, everybody speaks English these days. Omg. You’re the ones we were glad left. Good times indeed.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@whatifschrodingersboxwasacofin You must be one of the multihaired freakshows then. Your opinion is meaningless freakshow.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@whatifschrodingersboxwasacofin whatever you say freakshow.

[@gregcosta6965]

@@whatifschrodingersboxwasacofin don't worry Toronto will return to 1987 glory sometime.

[@FidelCastro128]

NASA Space Shuttle Program RIP

[@cameranmanner4701]

Go with throttle up

[@gregcosta6965]

@@cameranmanner4701 roger challenger .

[@butwhytharum]

wow a year before i was born in the city i now live in. what the difference. and WOW THAT SCIENCE CENTER.... why cant it be like that now... oh yeah politics

[@MustangMach1696.0]

That's when you still had a country.😂

[@schitlipz]

I think that was the last good year Toronto ever had. After that it was loonies, and white cop cars, and stoop-and-scoop, and rainbows, and... well, we know where it's going.

[@cameranmanner4701]

Jays won in 92-93

[@schitlipz]

@@cameranmanner4701 Okay. I remember some good Jays vibes. But then...

[@railfandepotproductions]

How is LBGTQ related to this?

[@schitlipz]

@@railfandepotproductions You must be kidding me.

[@railfandepotproductions]

@@schitlipz ?

[@A_M_Bobb]

Smoggy. Concrete. Grey. Much prefer how it is today.

[@Kostie100]

Gone to trash now...

[@jeanbolduc5818]

same horrible USA car culture , no tree, blend urbanism

[@nicholashylton6857]

They've changed things up since back then. The downtown core is still an urban nightmare, but they have put in some effort into making the general area more bike friendly.