Shabby Public Realm

[salsa]

I hope a strong progressive candidate for mayor, with a positive vision for the public realm rather than an obsession with keeping property taxes low, emerges in 2018.

Just like with the Democrats, Toronto's left wing has a serious shortage of interested candidates that are capable of challenging Tory.

 

[pman]

I'd welcome a progressive mayor with a positive vision for the public realm, but I wonder if such a candidate could ever get elected in Toronto. The majority of voters live in the postwar suburbs, and they seem to elect councillors who are against any kind of urbanity and seem animated by a visceral hatred of the people of the former City. I can't imagine such people ever voting for a mayoral candidate who proposed any kind of enlightened city building. This is Toronto after all, not Melbourne or Portland or Vienna.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I'd welcome a progressive mayor with a positive vision for the public realm, but I wonder if such a candidate could ever get elected in Toronto. The majority of voters live in the postwar suburbs, and they seem to elect councillors who are against any kind of urbanity and seem animated by a visceral hatred of the people of the former City. I can't imagine such people ever voting for a mayoral candidate who proposed any kind of enlightened city building. This is Toronto after all, not Melbourne or Portland or Vienna.

Which is why the ward boundary review is so important. Having said that, perhaps the greater hope is change in the inner suburbs. Also be aware of the U of Poverty and how priorities could be viewed differently.

AoD

 

[W. K. Lis]

Having the former City of York join with the former City of Etobicoke for the Community Council has the same problem. You have the former pre-war suburbs of the Township of York, and the towns and villages of Weston, Mimico, New Toronto, and Long Branch with different outlooks having to battle with the post-war subdivisions of the Township of Etobicoke.

 

[Skeezix]

I'd welcome a progressive mayor with a positive vision for the public realm, but I wonder if such a candidate could ever get elected in Toronto. The majority of voters live in the postwar suburbs, and they seem to elect councillors who are against any kind of urbanity and seem animated by a visceral hatred of the people of the former City. I can't imagine such people ever voting for a mayoral candidate who proposed any kind of enlightened city building. This is Toronto after all, not Melbourne or Portland or Vienna.

Such a candidate could be elected in Toronto. One has already (twice) - David Miller.

And before anyone trots out any one of those misleading/insidious coloured ward maps showing which mayoral candidate won each ward (purporting to show an urban/suburban split in the vote), let me stop you. Those maps imply that the mayoral election is a first-past-the-post race where the winner is the one who has the highest tally of wards - somehow like the fight for ridings in provincial and federal elections. Not only did Miller win the most votes in some wards in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, but he placed strongly throughout the city (e.g. in Rob Ford's Ward 2, arguably the epitome of 416 inner suburb, Miller got 4631 votes to Tory's 5344 - with Hall and Nunziata at 1465 and 1332 respectively). Let's not paint all voters with the same brush - there are people in Ward 2 who care about urban issues and the public realm, and there are people in Ward 28 who think DMW makes a lot of sense.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Such a candidate could be elected in Toronto. One has already (twice) - David Miller.

And before anyone trots out any one of those misleading/insidious coloured ward maps showing which mayoral candidate won each ward (purporting to show an urban/suburban split in the vote), let me stop you. Those maps imply that the mayoral election is a first-past-the-post race where the winner is the one who has the highest tally of wards - somehow like the fight for ridings in provincial and federal elections. Not only did Miller win the most votes in some wards in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, but he placed strongly throughout the city (e.g. in Rob Ford's Ward 2, arguably the epitome of 416 inner suburb, Miller got 4631 votes to Tory's 5344 - with Hall and Nunziata at 1465 and 1332 respectively). Let's not paint all voters with the same brush - there are people in Ward 2 who care about urban issues and the public realm, and there are people in Ward 28 who think DMW makes a lot of sense.

Miller is fairly ineffectual on that file - Clean and Beautiful City notwithstanding, it was certainly neither during his tenure. What was done tend to be stopgap - engendering no institutional/cultural change, and in some cases downright harmful (look at the Astral street furniture affair).

AoD

 

[Skeezix]

I wasn't commenting on his concrete accomplishments with public realm issues, but rather on the suggestion that Toronto would never elect a progressive mayor with a positive vision on public realm.

But compared to the budget cutbacks recently proposed by Tory, not to mention the cutbacks during Ford's tenure, Miller was in comparison the Usain Bolt of public realm investments. Admittedly a low bar.

 

[King of Kensington]

Such a candidate could be elected in Toronto. One has already (twice) - David Miller.

And before anyone trots out any one of those misleading/insidious coloured ward maps showing which mayoral candidate won each ward (purporting to show an urban/suburban split in the vote), let me stop you. Those maps imply that the mayoral election is a first-past-the-post race where the winner is the one who has the highest tally of wards - somehow like the fight for ridings in provincial and federal elections. Not only did Miller win the most votes in some wards in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, but he placed strongly throughout the city (e.g. in Rob Ford's Ward 2, arguably the epitome of 416 inner suburb, Miller got 4631 votes to Tory's 5344 - with Hall and Nunziata at 1465 and 1332 respectively). Let's not paint all voters with the same brush - there are people in Ward 2 who care about urban issues and the public realm, and there are people in Ward 28 who think DMW makes a lot of sense.

Yes Miller has shown that a center-left candidate can get elected in the Megacity - by dominating in the core and being competitive in the periphery.

 

[salsa]

Eglinton & Hilltop Rd. I don't think I've ever seen a smaller sidewalk in my life.

Elsewhere the sidewalks are typically twice as wide in this area.

 

[junctionist]

That's odd. Forest Hill has its share of public realm quirks that may be the legacy of its history as an independent village until 1967 and the insistence of a group of locals who care about the unique public realm features that give Forest Hill its historical character. Other quirks include green acorn-capped street name signs, a relatively significant collection of surviving brick streets throughout the neighbourhood, and ornamental street lights, which are rare in Toronto. But while I'd preserve all the quirks I've listed, the sidewalk should be widened because it doesn't serve its purpose well.

 

[Johnny Au]

I live near there. Often, I just end up walking along the curb, due to the sidewalk's narrowness.

 

[pman]

One could argue that nothing says Toronto better than a decrepit, shoddily-built and under-maintained sign that actually says Toronto.

 

[jje1000]

But councillors have been cooler to the sign’s charms than tourists or marketing experts, refusing to budget money for its upkeep.

You have your reason right there.

Penny-wise pound-foolish.

 

[DSC]

Hey Toronto city council, just fix the goddamn sign....

According to the Star article it will get new vinyl as soon as it is warm enough to install it properly "But a cold snap foiled plans to install it before New Year’s and staff are now waiting until May, and a warm, dry spell, so the vinyl can adhere properly."

Yes, it could be BETTER maintained but the City ARE doing something.

 

[salsa]

You have your reason right there.

Penny-wise pound-foolish.

And of course, there are idiots like councillor Holyday who think the city should just sell off the sign.