Every community has its organizers, those who roll up their sleeves to get things done. They are the high notes in the musical composition of community life. In the St. Lawrence neighbourhood, Michael Comstock was one of those high notes. Last week, his many contributions to the community were commemorated with the naming of the new pavilion in St. James Park—the Michael Comstock Pavilion.
The Michael Comstock Pavilion in St. James Park, Toronto 2021
The naming of the pavilion is due to the efforts of his long-time friend, Barbara Bell, who used to live in the neighbourhood. Shortly after Michael died from cancer in September 2012, she started a petition to name a local asset in his honour, which generated a swift response. She worked with the late city councillor Pam McConnell on several possibilities, but it was not until the idea formed of a new bandstand for St. James Park, as part of its revitalization, that they landed on an appropriate way to recognize Michael, one that evokes his love of music and his efforts to bring music onto the streets of the neighbourhood.
Michael Comstock in 2006
Michael was born in Detroit in 1945 and attended Michigan State University. He moved to Canada in 1969, settling in Kingston. He worked as a social worker, then teacher, and later a pharmaceutical sales rep. He was always involved outside of work, and it was in Kingston, as owner of the clothing store Silver Threads, where he became involved in a local business group.
Once in Toronto, he became part of a cohort of civic-minded community members who were passionate about the power of the citizen to make democracy work. They were motivated by the wave of reform-minded city councillors and the emergence of people like Jane Jacobs, who were rethinking the modern city, wholly embracing her mantra that new ideas need old buildings.
Later Michael would become the president of TABIA, the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, the umbrella organization of all the BIAs in the city (BIAs were a Toronto invention and are now a popular model in cities everywhere), but Michael began his promotion of Toronto’s diverse neighbourhoods and local businesses right here in the St. Lawrence community. As a founding member and chair of the St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood BIA, he made happen—often taking up his own tools—many neighbourhood programs that we enjoy today. In those initial years, when the BIA was a start-up volunteer organization, holding its meetings at the Hot House restaurant, it focused on a limited footprint—the Market and Old Town. As time passed, the boundaries expanded; today’s BIA boundaries are essentially Yonge to Parliament and Richmond to the Gardiner Expressway. Michael’s impact would, through other committees and organizations, grow even further to include Corktown and the West Don Lands. George Milbrandt, current chair of the board of directors for the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Market BIA, described Michael’s internal drive to make a difference as key to establishing one of the largest and best run BIAs in the city, stating “He had the energy and the vision to get so many things off the ground”. The BIA now works out of an office on Adelaide Street East and many of the current public realm and community programs organized and managed by it comes from Michael’s time there.
Ever the promoter, Michael worked tirelessly to bring events and people to the area. At a time when the market area was in transition, when there were only a few condos nearby and most visitors to the market were driving in from the suburbs, he had the vision to see a future neighbourhood that celebrated its historical antecedents and unique landmarks. Together with Alan Seymour, whom he described as a mentor, they formed the Old Town Toronto Promotional Alliance (OTTA), essentially the tourism arm of the BIA (Seymour is credited for coming up with the moniker Old Town Toronto). The Alliance was a way for them to engage beyond the early boundaries of the BIA and they worked in concert with another community group, Citizens for the Old Town, using the heritage distinction of the neighbourhood to draw tourists, residents, and businesses to the area.
In 1998, when funding from the federal government became available for economic development projects, Michael and his group of community “conspirators” formed an ad hoc alliance called SEDERI, the South East Downtown Economic Redevelopment Initiative. Michael and Alan were both steering committee members, as was Edward Nixon, who remarked, “If there was an initiative to improve, celebrate, or market the neighbourhoods of Old Town Toronto, he either instigated it or was a leading part of it.”
There were so many things Michael had his hand in, it can be hard to make a full account of them; but all can be traced back to SEDERI’s foundational revitalization strategy for the area, the 2002 Old Town Toronto Action Plan. Its goals were to make the area recognizable as the Old Town, advocate for heritage development and public realm improvements, and attract business and tourism. Twenty years later, many of these initiatives and programs are still making their way into being.
They had a good tagline for the action plan— Putting Old Town Toronto in the Spotlight. Indeed, to draw tourists to the area, it must be spruced up. One only needs to look at past photos showing expansive parking lots, forlorn heritage buildings, and little to no streetscape enhancements to appreciate the challenge they faced. But Michael was not daunted, “he threw himself into everything”, a sentiment expressed by George Milbrandt and echoed by many others.
One initiative they started, which was then used across the city, was the installation of street signs that identified the district. They installed markers near important heritage buildings that read “Old Town 1793”. You might still see the odd one around. The BIA designed pole-wraps that act as both a wayfinding mechanism and a deterrent to graffiti. The recent introduction of street corner wayfinding signs by the Toronto 360 Wayfinding Project, can be viewed as a redux version of these prior branding initiatives.
The Old Town Toronto street signs were commonplace for a long time. The St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Market BIA is currently exploring how to continue the practice of wayfinding in new signage as these older ones are phased out.
The heritage lamps and the seasonal greenery that ornament our local streets and parks were Michael’s idea—he designed and built the prototype of the basket frame that hangs from the lampposts. He was also part of the initial drive to light the Old Town’s heritage buildings. St. Lawrence Hall was the first to be fitted in 2009, the Market in 2019 and St. James Cathedral, completed just this past year. Those who work tirelessly to make positive change in their community know that the timeframes can be long—5, 10, 20 years. Dig back to the beginning of any current project and there you will find the seeds planted by Michael and his cohorts.
Throughout the years, Michael was relentless in making something from what never before existed. Local historian Bruce Bell credits Michael for getting him into the tour guide business. It was in 2002, when Bruce was writing local history articles for the area’s community newspaper, The Bulletin, when Michael approached him with the idea of doing walking tours for tourists to promote the history of the area, the Market, and its vendors. As he tells it, “Michael was always really involved in history, food, and people. Before him, none of this existed—no tourism, no busses full of visitors, nothing. He really changed the neighbourhood and made it what it is today”.
The Alliance organized events to celebrate the area’s heritage legacy and to attract visitors. One such event, the 2008 Festival of Old Town was a commemoration of the War of 1812 and included heritage concerts at St. Lawrence Hall (tickets cost $18.12!), a picnic in Sackville Park, Market walking tours and a corn roast dinner at the Enoch Turner School House. Michael described the event as helping “people understand that there is an Old Town area where Toronto began, where pioneers lived and died and built the city. We have a history we should celebrate and learn from.” The year prior, the Alliance produced a two-day historical event that included tributes to historical black leaders like Marcus Garvey and Thornton Blackburn. They cast their net wide for ideas on how to bring people to area; even arranging to have citizenship ceremonies take place in the historical setting of the St. Lawrence Hall.
In the mid-2000s, they created a marketing campaign branding the old town the Nutcracker Neighbourhood. Encouraging business owners to dress up their storefronts, they blanketed the core of the old town in twinkling holiday lights. Travel tour packages were advertised all over, including out of country, with enticing experiences offered by local businesses—history and food tours, a behind-the-scenes looks at heritage buildings, like St. Lawrence Hall and St. James Cathedral, and high-tea at the King Edward hotel. Tickets to the National Ballet’s Nutcracker performance were an option. Visitors who wanted a self-guided tour of the historical buildings in the area could use the heritage landscape guide map they produced.
The Old Town Toronto Alliance advertised the Old Town as Toronto’s leading neighbourhood for live theatre,
home décor shops, and heritage sites, and heavily promoted its pubs and restaurants.
At the heart of Michael’s ideas and initiatives was the economic vitality of the area, especially King Street. A current attraction called KEDDnight, a design-inspired exhibition with art installations, food, and wine at businesses all along King East Street East (KEDD stands for King East Design District), can be attributed to Michael’s efforts; he cultivated the idea. This annual celebration would not have happened without Michael’s initial encouraging of local design-oriented businesses to engage the public with a marquee event.
Most people, when asked to remember Michael, mention the Market Kitchen. His wife, Sharon, says that the Kitchen at the St Lawrence Market was one of his proudest achievements. Inspired by a trip to New Orleans where he saw how a chef can connect people to a city’s history through food, he spearheaded the concept and installation of a demonstration kitchen in the neglected space on the Market’s mezzanine level in the early to mid-2000s. It was Michael’s usual force of will that made it happen. He built the first kitchen and showed the powerful combination of food and tourism, a trend that was just emerging at that time. On Saturdays, when the market was busiest, the kitchen was used to showcase vendors and their food, with Bruce Bell providing the historical connection. Since then, the Market Kitchen has been through a few iterations—today it is a culinary centre offering cooking workshops and demonstrations with top chefs and other food related events.
Michael was an enthusiastic guitar player—his decorated guitar hangs prominently on a wall in the apartment he shared with Sharon overlooking St. James Park. He brought his love of music onto the streets of his community, first with the Global Roots music festival on Market Street starting in 1998, which morphed into Buskerfest, a festival featuring circus artistry, music, and magic. Then came the popular dog festival Woofstock, both events so popular that they were relocated to the large open space of Woodbine Park. He also started the popular noon-hour jazz concert series in Berczy Park to serenade lunching office workers and residents alike.
If Michael was not on the ground organizing some event, he was at his computer, trying to effect change through a popular opinion column he wrote for the community newspaper, The Bulletin. He covered topics affecting the community at the local level such as homelessness, condo development, and the installation of public art and he often bemoaned the state of tourism in the city compared to what it could be. Frank Touby, editor of The Bulletin, wrote in remembrance of Michael, “he was a practical guy, full of practical ideas…If there was a job to be done that required perseverance, strong common sense and a volunteer spirit, Mike was quite often the volunteer”.
In July 2012, the St. Lawrence community came together to recognize Michael’s extraordinary
achievements and presented him with a special award
Because of his efforts to put the neighbourhood on the map, Michael became known as one of the godfathers of Old Town Toronto. Today, the spirit of the promotional work he did with OTTA continues under the umbrella of the St. Lawrence Market Neighborhood BIA and its initiatives. Many projects currently underway—the North Market, revitalizing the underpasses, development of the West Don Lands neighbourhood, and the work to designate the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood as a Heritage Conservation District—are, according to the current BIA director Al Smith, a natural progression of the work Michael did. Today the St. Lawrence Market Neighbourhood is one of Toronto’s biggest tourism draws, a testament to Michael’s success and the hard work of others who have built upon those early plans and taken them in new directions.
Michael touched and mentored many people. His friends and associates describe him as a charismatic and wonderful man, affable, a dynamo, always inquisitive, and very smart with a positive energy. He always met you with a smile and great enthusiasm.
To remember Michael is to remember through music. After a pandemic-enforced hiatus, the Music in the Park program will soon return to perform on the new pavilion, which now bears his name. Bands will set up, perform sound checks, and ready their instruments. People will draw together in the plaza in anticipation of a good show. The members of the band will make eye contact, their countdown just audible, and then, in that moment, in the first surge of the opening hit, Michael will be remembered.
Wonderful description of a great leader!
this is a wonderful article. I’m wondering why the author is not credited.
This is a beautiful, masterful account of the life of a remarkable person. I would expect nothing less from Kristine! It is one that should be be widely disseminated, and read by all Torontonians.