I thought I'd shoot a panorama from my balcony, giving an overview of my neighborhood. Parkdale has at times been a "challenged" neighborhood, but never actually violent or all that unpleasant. A variety of ethnic stores and restaurants, and different sorts of marginal businesses keep it interesting, even if the panhandlers and crazies are sometimes a nuisance. You get a fairly intimate view of my street (Dunn Ave.) and the next one over. The third street over is Jameson Ave, which was cleared out in the 50's, rebuilt from one end to the other with then new apartment buildings, and the street itself made into a major on-ramp for the Gardner Expressway, that follows the lakeshore. Since Parkdale is up on a 20 foot bluff, the Expressway and lakeshore beaches are not actually visible. Naturally, after about 20 years of being an upper income rental area, Jameson Ave. became something of a slum, and is mainly inhabited by people from the Caribbean, Africa, or the Middle East. But the houses are a mixed lot -- some are plain old boarding houses, others are being re-gentrified. Originally most of this part of Parkdale was rather ritzy, as you can probably judge frm the size of the homes. If the camera was pointed a little higher, you could see the west end of the lake, all the way to the city of Hamilton. Further west (right), the lake curves back east and creates the Niagara peninsula, so you can actually see across the entire width of the west end of the lake from my balcony. On a decently clear day, the opposite shore is clearly visible. Niagara Falls itself, and the American shore *would* be visible, distance-wise. Unfortunately, they lay out of sight around the corner of my building.