Carolime Time

The contentious issue of 905ers infiltrating and infesting Toronto

Oh those 905ers. You’ve heard of them, you might know a few, you might have actually been one at some point…and they’re talked about far more than you notice. The term 905er has planted itself firmly in Toronto’s slang and in-the-cool jargon, especially in the  downtown core. But what exactly is a 905er and why is the term not exactly an acceptable one, and therefore not one to be associated with?

Described in Urban Dictionary as,

“A person from the telephone area code 905, which comprises North America’s third-largest suburban sprawl, and surrounds the area code 416, Toronto’s dense, cosmopolitan downtown core…Used [to] imply that someone is bland, boring, unsophisticated and/or ignorant. ”

Reporters and journalists at all the hip mags and free weeklies like Now! and Toronto Life have no qualms about using this term. TorontoLife says their pre-club look is “dolled up with careful coifs, canned tan and skin-tight denim,” while the Torontoist takes pity on them some years back when referring to a news guide where “wealthy 905ers find a cool place to drink outside of their soul-sucking suburbs on the weekend.” Soul-sucking suburbs, eh. Those poor things.

Let me state my association with the suburbs now…I lived in Scarborough till I was 13 and went to highschool in Pickering, the epitome of suburban sprawl, the place I did everything I could to move out of: upon graduating high school, I teleported (that’s right, I have teleporting powers) to Montreal and Concordia University for 4years. I hated Pickering wholeheartedly and used to often take the GO transit and walk the summer distance to a TTC stop in order to wander the streets of the city. I wanted to leave, but I wouldn’t be the person I am today–the awesome, fantabulous person I am today:)–if it weren’t for my experiences living there and leaving..there.

Needless to say, I still have 2 or 3 friends who live in Pickering, and a few in Mississauga and Brampton, other 905 suburban areas in the west end outskirts of Toronto. But I take offence to these terms, as they are thrown around to categorize, discriminate and make jabs at 905ers. After moving back from Montreal to the GTA (The Greater Toronto Area= sometimes 905), I lived in Pickering from June to November 2007.

I was depressed, partly because I’m a city girl and partly because I had 2 friends in the area and many more in the city. I thrive on the city, but it’s not for everyone. I moved to Toronto immediately after this period. I now live in the very busy, active centre of Toronto.

I visit Pickering sometimes, and Mississauga every once in awhile. I was there on the weekend, frolicking in the overgrown farms of the area, basking in the sunlight that is often lost or hidden by the skyscrapers and tightly-woven urban landscape of the city. Now, when I visit Pickering, it’s not such a bad thing–I still detest the mall and box plazas, but I see why my parents enjoy the solitude of their backyards, the long and scenic drives along Taunton Rd. and the friendly eye contact of neighbours. My dad has a garden that doesn’t get littered with trash and their house is larger than a house most middle-class Canadians can afford or even hope for in the downtown core.

So why is the 905 so frowned upon? Apparently, 905ers are the only ones that come down to the city and puke on its streets. According to the holier-than-thou Torontonians, 905ers dress up way too much to go out for a night. Supposedly, 905ers ruin everything that’s good about downtown nightlife.

Do 905er commuters not contribute to the city’s 9 to 5 work culture? Do they not feed millions of dollars to the clubs, bars, restaurants and stores in Toronto? Do they not attend universities in the city, pay for transit and have a stake in Toronto? Hmm..

So I guess I hit the brink of anti-905er shittalking a few weeks ago, when I was out with some friends–all of whom live in either the downtown core or uptown at Yonge/Eg and Yonge/St.Clair. Albeit, two friends had driven down from Pickering to visit. Oh, and one of those two girls also works at the Westin Harbour Castle at Toronto’s Harbourfront:) So I believe she had every right to park on our streets and feed the meter, right? Unfortunately, 905er talk has required that I justify these little useless facts.

Walking past the corner of King and Portland, not far from where I live, I noticed some men on the street corner looking at us. Maybe we were dressed up to go out, wearing shorts and heels, maybe a skirt or two, maybe some jeans and tank tops..the guys, in dress shirts, some in runners..and I heard one of the glaring strangers mutter something “905″…I turned on my (low) heel and asked them to repeat what they said. “Sorry, did you say something?,” I asked, and they simply smiled. I said, “905, eh? That’s what I thought..” and kept walking.

We went to a club, danced a bit, la dee da. At the end of the night, we congregated outside of the club among friends, waiting for a couple to meet us so we could start our walk home. A group of guys started talking to me and another friend. Before they knew anything about my name, occupation or age, they managed to get under my skin. Maybe I was feeling especially defensive, or protective, because I was with some of my 905 friends?

This tall, preppy blond boy with a baby face decided to quip up, “So you guys are 905ers eh?,” his smirk as clear as day. “Why?” I asked, and his smirk started to peel away. “Well, uh, just thought..you are, right?”

So, can I not dress in shorts, heels and a tank top, is that it? Am I dubbed 905er, and if so, what’s so bad about being a 905er? Do 905ers have no sense of style and creativity? What if I, Caroline, just generally don’t have any sense of fashion but am the coolest person in the world because I live in the city? Do 905ers have no art to them, is that why no musicians like K-OS, Sarah Slean and Neil Young have lived in the 905 area code?

When Urban Dictionary suggests that 905ers are “bland, boring and unsophisticated” and thereby garners more than 20 thumbs up, and magazines repeatedly use the term 905ers in sentences of condescension, I believe I have the right to point out this shared mentality, take offense whether I am a 905er or not, and react.

So I started on the guy, telling him, “No, I live in Toronto. Down the street in fact. Where do you live?” and he responded, a little like a scared boy (I loved ruffling his blond feathers), “I live in Rosedale. But you’re not all living downtown?,” he asked, and I lied to rebuff his stereotypes, “No, we all live in the area, why, what do you know about 905ers? You know, I used to live in the 905. Have you been there? It’s not so bad. Some people like it.”

If I was a bitch I would’ve immediately asked if he lived with his mommy and daddy, if he could afford on his own to buy a house with acres of land in the city..but I didn’t make the effort of categorizing him before getting two sentences out of his mouth and I could already feel the tension growing.

One of my guy friends lurked in the background, coming upon us and asking the boy what his problem was. It wasn’t supposed to turn into a fight so I distracted my friend and walked away from blondie.

Don’t get me wrong-I don’t hold anything against my friends who use the term 905ers–because they do–and I don’t think I hold anything against these people and magazines who make these remarks..I just think people need to check the reasoning behind this terminology, the roots and meanings of this title and really, just stop being so discriminating!

Living in Toronto is something we’ve been blessed with because it’s what WE wanted. It’s not for everyone. Maybe the city does offer access to a larger range of cultures and activities, but aren’t we supposed to share that so it grows in richness? Why withold that from someone else, or try to make them feel unwelcome because it’s ‘mine’ or ‘ours.’ Are we trying to own culture, then? Suburban culture is completely unlike ours, aren’t you curious? And not living here is not something we should use as a weapon, but as a difference. Aren’t we supposed to love and champion differences here in the city, anyway? So..straight up…get over it, fools. Love ya!

Entertaining 905er readings:

http://www.905apartheid.com/?page_id=2

http://jeremybrelph.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html