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Shabby Public Realm

freshcutgrass said:
Just trash that thing...it isn't cool.
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The coolness or non-coolness of the sign is very subjective but it is clear that many people DO like it and that it has become a major 'marketing tool' of the City. It's not really to my taste either but that's immaterial - it brings people to NPS and seems to have become 'a thing'. It needs to be fixed, ASAP.
 
DSC said:
The coolness or non-coolness of the sign is very subjective but it is clear that many people DO like it and that it has become a major 'marketing tool' of the City. It's not really to my taste either but that's immaterial - it brings people to NPS and seems to have become 'a thing'. It needs to be fixed, ASAP.
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The people - particularly visitors from outside the city - has voted with their tweets and photos. Funny how this uncool thing have managed to do what our previously "cool" and classy tourism campaigns (e.g. Toronto Unlimited)

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AoD
 
DSC said:
The coolness or non-coolness of the sign is very subjective but it is clear that many people DO like it and that it has become a major 'marketing tool' of the City. It's not really to my taste either but that's immaterial - it brings people to NPS and seems to have become 'a thing'. It needs to be fixed, ASAP.
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Agreed. Tourism Toronto has probably spent millions on branding and marketing campaigns that didn't have a fraction of the impact that the Toronto sign had. The fact that there is even a debate on the preservation of probably Toronto's most iconic spot after the CN Tower and Skydome speaks volumes about city council.
 
DSC said:
The coolness or non-coolness of the sign is very subjective but it is clear that many people DO like it and that it has become a major 'marketing tool' of the City. It's not really to my taste either but that's immaterial - it brings people to NPS and seems to have become 'a thing'. It needs to be fixed, ASAP.
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The man bun and wearing a hoodie over your ball cap are very popular "things" too. (we should also stop referring to things...as "things" as well).

It's telling as to just how dumbed down things have become, when we are now ranking this lazy-ass excuse for marketing up there with the CN Tower and Skydome as icons of the city.
 
freshcutgrass said:
The man bun and wearing a hoodie over your ball cap are very popular "things" too. (we should also stop referring to things...as "things" as well).

It's telling as to just how dumbed down things have become, when we are now ranking this lazy-ass excuse for marketing up there with the CN Tower and Skydome as icons of the city.
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Is this lazy-ass excuse for marketing too? Just wanting to hear your opinion to better understand your point.

amsterdam_honeymoon_07.jpg
 
Sorry to depart from the Toronto sign discussion, because it's a good way to motivate debate on some of the larger issues about how this city works. Or doesn't work. But could somebody please tell me why the trees on the south side of Bloor in front of Manulife have all been cut down? Wasn't this small stretch of Bloor supposed to be one of the few examples where Toronto got the public realm right? Ok I'm ranting now, but honestly, why is this city incapable of building something right the first time and leaving it alone afterwards? Why do we even pretend to plant street trees when we're more or less certain they'll be dead, dying, cut down or vandalized within five or six years?
 
pman said:
Sorry to depart from the Toronto sign discussion, because it's a good way to motivate debate on some of the larger issues about how this city works. Or doesn't work. But could somebody please tell me why the trees on the south side of Bloor in front of Manulife have all been cut down? Wasn't this small stretch of Bloor supposed to be one of the few examples where Toronto got the public realm right? Ok I'm ranting now, but honestly, why is this city incapable of building something right the first time and leaving it alone afterwards? Why do we even pretend to plant street trees when we're more or less certain they'll be dead, dying, cut down or vandalized within five or six years?
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All the plants and soil have also been removed - perhaps the planters themselves are next, to provide sidewalk space once hoarding is installed for the pending renovations to Manulife Centre.
 
WislaHD said:
Is this lazy-ass excuse for marketing too? Just wanting to hear your opinion to better understand your point.

amsterdam_honeymoon_07.jpg
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Of course it is. Considerably worse, because of the embarrassingly lame play on words.

Has a single person ever come to Toronto to see that sign? Of course not...it's just a boring sign...it has no intrinsic value in and of itself. There are a lot of pictures taken with it because it just seems like the obvious thing to do, when not much thought is given to quick, meaningless cell phone shots (I'm in Toronto so I guess I should take a selfie of me in front of a sign that says Toronto). It's also sitting in the middle of an actual iconic location...NPS and City Hall.

It's gratuitous and lazy marketing targeted at the ADD-addled pods we have all become. Even as a temporary thing during the Pan Am games it's quite lame but forgivable under the circumstances (lots of lame things are part of such events..like mascots, etc). But to keep it around as a permanent display is just plain stupid.

The sign itself is not, and cannot, ever be "iconic" (in the way the HOLLYWOOD sign is iconic). In fact, it's distracting from actual iconic things in Toronto.
 
freshcutgrass said:
The sign itself is not, and cannot, ever be "iconic" (in the way the HOLLYWOOD sign is iconic). In fact, it's distracting from actual iconic things in Toronto.
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Of course, in 1923 the HOLLYWOOD sign was not iconic either but, as you say, it has become so. (See: http://hollywoodsign.org/the-history-of-the-sign/) I agree that our TORONTO sign is certainly not iconic YET but it MAY become so. Whether you like it or not it IS a popular tourist 'destination' - which may say something about the lack of exciting tourist destinations here!
 
DSC said:
Of course, in 1923 the HOLLYWOOD sign was not iconic either but, as you say, it has become so. (See: http://hollywoodsign.org/the-history-of-the-sign/) I agree that our TORONTO sign is certainly not iconic YET but it MAY become so. Whether you like it or not it IS a popular tourist 'destination' - which may say something about the lack of exciting tourist destinations here!
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The Hollywood sign originally had four more letters and was known as Hollywoodland after the subdivision.
 
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