absence here of gay, sushi-eating, Unitariannpost-structuralists.nIncidentally, I don’t know what happened,nbut Doug Marlette recentlynmoved again, from New York to NorthnCarolina. He’s my neighbor now, justnup the road in Hillsborough, and if he hasnexplained that move in print, I haven’tnseen it. Maybe he feels no explanationnis necessary.n]ohn Shelton Reed lived for ten years innMassachusetts and New York, but nownwrites from Chapel Hill, NorthnCarolina.nLetter FromnClevelandnby Henry PrechtnA Tale of Two CitiesnVisits in the space of ten days to Toronto,nOntario, and then Tifton, Georgia, demandnreflective analysis for stronger reasonsnthan the compelling force ofnalliteration. The city and the town are sondifferent that the visitor to both is drivennto look for the faintest similarities.nOnce that effort is made, however, sweepingnconclusions are revealed to guide usnagainst repeating past mistakes in thencrrYnM*0*V*I*N*G ?nLET US KNOWnBEFORE YOU GOnTo assure uninterrupted delivery ofnCHRONICLES please notify us innadvance. Send change of address on thisnform with the mailing label from yournlatest issue of CHRONICLES to:nSubscription Department,nCHRONICLES, P.O. Box 800,nMount Morris, Illinois 61054n46/CHRONICLESnZIPnfuture of cities like our Cleveland. Mynwife and I traveled to these distant placesnfor good but irrelevant reasons; it’s whatnwe saw, tasted, and heard that counted.nWhen boosters speak of the greatnfeatures of Cleveland, they tell us ofnthe museums. Browns, orchestra,ntheaters, ballet, and ethnic diversity.nThey never mention the one greatnadvantage we hold over most othernAmerican cities: we’re close to Canada.nIn Canadian seasons there are forestsnand lakes for the rough and ready andnStratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake festivalsnfor the cultivated. But, year around,n35 minutes away by air, there’s Toronto.nIt is, in two words, an “urban lesson”nfor all of us who live to its south.nThe first thing you notice about Torontonis that it is clean in a way that wenhave forgotten was once true of Americanncities. Since there is no army ofnstreet sweepers in sight, the probablenexplanation is that people don’t throwntheir trash on the streets. Moreover, thenstreets are free of human detritus, althoughnthe statisticians tell us that somewherenin this city of 3.2 million there arenfifty thousand homeless. (Not surprisingnwhen the apartment vacancy rate is alsonabout .1 percent.) Why the absence ofnwaste—material and spiritual? CannCanadians simply be more considerate ornare they laggards in developing a post-industrial,nconsumerist society? Let’s looknfurther on the city streets.nThe second thing you observe, liftingnyour eyes from the pavement, is that therenare fewer police and, even after work,nmore people than you will ever see innmost downtowns south of the border.nOne reason, you learn, is that there is sonlittle crime. Metropolitan Toronto, halfnthe size of Chicago, has less than onetenthnthe homicides and robberies.nPhiladelphia, larger by half a million, hasnfive times the homicides and over threentimes the robberies. Useful facts for planningnyour urban vacation.nWalking around downtown, you arensoon taken by a third fact. The city is antreat for the eyes and intellect. There arengreat, handsome towers of modern businessnand finance. And, in the same neighborhoods,nthere are public buildings fromnthe past and blocks and blocks of smallnshops, restaurants, and businesses. Mostnof these seem to have one feature in common:nthey are owned by real people rathernthan corporate chains.nDevelopment and growth came relativelynlate to Toronto; the city missednnnthe opportunity to have its structuresnregularly destroyed and replaced. But therenis much that is new and equally attractiventhat is hidden from view. If you’re drivennoff the streets by the cold, you can walknliterally for miles underground past thensame kinds of small shops and eateries.nThe diversity in structures is rich andnenriching; the mix of peoples offers anneven superior celebration. Toronto is a citynwhere different communities are valuednand distinct, yet fully part of its life. Indian,nHungarian, Afghan, and Ethiopiannrestaurants are all supported by their communitiesnas well as by outsiders. A Mandarinnchannel is a fixture on TV for theneighty thousand Chinese. Crucially, thenethnic communities are knit together byna superb urban transport system.nAn Iranian emigre to the city told me,n”We are made to feel at home here in anway you Americans can’t conceive. Younwould want us to adapt to your ways;nhere we keep our own while taking fromnthem as we like. Best of all, Canadiansnmake us feel we are needed—and it mayneven be true.”nIn Tifton, Georgia, no ethnics appearnin this small Southern town exceptnblacks and whites (with a red-necknsubsection). If you’ve driven Route 75,nthat straight shot from Atlanta tonFlorida, you’ve passed just outside Tifton.nYou probably never knew it. Few outsidersntake the exit and drive the fewnmiles east from the highway.nLike a medieval town with elaboratendefenses protecting its perimeter, Tiftonnis masked along the invasion side by a systemnof spectacular “offenses.” Half-milenhigh neon signs invite you to spend $15.65nfor a room or to eat in America’s mostnpopular fast-food places. It seems an impenetrablenwall of bright colors, almostnaudible in their assault on the senses.nBehind this cacophony and the morentraditional inner ring of auto dealers isnTifton. The suburbs seem little changednover the town’s hundred years of history:nrun-down places for the blacks on onenside, prosperous homes for whites on thenother. But it is the “historic center” thatnwe want to see. It speaks of a town thatnwill not die. Years ago this center of “thennation’s richest agricultural area” boastednthree large hotels, mills, warehouses,nand train connections everywhere. But thenpopulation sank to ten thousand, the millsnclosed, and the hotels lost out to thenhighway motels.nNow, somehow, the population hasnrisen to twenty-two thousand. One sur-n