Thinking of Jacobs at Sugar Beach. If I’m not mistaken I believe she said something about piers and waterfront space being a place that should be shared between industrial labour and public liesure—a place where recreation and industrial activity may coexist, and actually enhance eachothers presence. While a predominantly industrial economy may very well be an thing of the past (at least in the downtowns pf cities), and while urban waterfronts may no longer, for the most part, serve the purposes they did 50 years ago, I can’t help but appreciate Jacobs’ little waterfront vision fully alive and breathing here at sugar beach. Just across the pier, huge machines lift what appears to be brown or unrefined sugar into an impressively large ship. Turn 90 degrees and I am faced by the lake, which is filled with small sailboats, ferries, and in the hazy distance, the Toronto Islands landscape. In the other direction is the downtown skyline, whose view quickly and effectively generates a strong sense of urban place—one that is distinctly Torontonian.