Anna at The Commons

My friend Melanie has a favor­ite neigh­bor­hood cof­fee shop, The Com­mons, on Col­lege street in Toronto West. It’s a cozy little inde­pend­ent place, com­plete with edgy baris­tas, well-worn benches, and fine young things. It has four long tables, and a good vibe. Like most local cof­fee shops, the reg­u­lars here know each other. In this case, they’re part of a semi-urban artistic and pro­fes­sional class. They work together, sleep together, and listen to the same bands. Some are crazy, some are nice. Some are nice and crazy. Sit at the right table, and chances are good that the stranger on the other side will have some com­mon interests or friends. It is a hap­pen­ing little hub. Oh, and the cof­fee is very good.

Melanie and I talked a lot about com­munity, and the value and vagar­ies of pub­lic space, shared cul­ture, iden­tity, race, and place. Inter­sec­tions of dif­fer­ence and com­mon­al­ity abound in the city, and cre­ate ten­sion between com­pet­ing interests. It’s nice to have a place like The Com­mons, where people can come together and share the things they have in com­mon. It scares me that these import­ant meet­ing places are increas­ingly being made private and restricted.