Toronto Ridiculous NIMBYism thread

[Avenue]

The houses in the background are ghastly. They all need a giant cow art each.

 

[jje1000]

some Markham NIMBYism (?). A somewhat weird cow statue has been donated in Cathedraltown and (some) people are outraged.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/07/26/markham-residents-have-beef-with-huge-cow-sculpture.html

That being said, I wonder if the residents were consulted with before the statue went up.

 

[ShonTron]

Don't have a cow, man!

 

[salsa]

Raising a calf is one of the worst thing a Christian can do? Huh?

AoD

 

[Skeezix]

That being said, I wonder if the residents were consulted with before the statue went up.

Notified or not, doesn't make their objections any less silly. They don't have a veto over public facilities, just because of proximity.

ETA: The sculpture apparently commemorates a prize-winning cow, and the agricultural history of Markham generally. The cow was raised by Romandale Farms, which owned land in the area, and as best as I can tell was one of the developers of Cathedraltown.

 

[Skeezix]

The houses in the background are ghastly. They all need a giant cow art each.

The cow sculpture is better than those McVictorians.

 

[JasonParis]

I don't love the statue per se, but I love the neighbour's responses to it, which make the thing bloody brilliant. I may have to go see this while I still can!

 

[jje1000]

Notified or not, doesn't make their objections any less silly. They don't have a veto over public facilities, just because of proximity.

People tend to react defensively if something changes all of a sudden without them knowing of it.

If they're consulted on what goes there beforehand, I doubt they'll be making as much of a fuss.

 

[Skeezix]

People tend to react defensively if something changes all of a sudden without them knowing of it.

If they're consulted on what goes there beforehand, I doubt they'll be making as much of a fuss.

Have you ever been to a public meeting? Because nothing about the process suggests that notice = people make less of a fuss.

Markham likely doesn't have a public notice requirement for donated public art because no group of ratepayers has been this petty before.

 

[jje1000]

Well if people are consulted beforehand, they can raise their fuss at the meeting, not at the Star.

Sometimes they'll do both, and that's when you can safely ignore them.

 

[Skeezix]

Well if people are consulted beforehand, they can raise their fuss at the meeting, not at the Star.

Sometimes they'll do both, and that's when you can safely ignore them.

Almost always they do both. Virtual certainty. Nothing about these residents, or how the Star covers such issues, suggests that this would have blown over had theirthere been notice and we would now not be hearing anything about this.

As I said above, notice or lack thereof does not make their objections any less silly, as people are still free to ignore/mock them.

Toronto is installing a new signalized intersection to the east of me, and public art to the west of me. I didn't receive notice of either. Municipalities can't function if they have to send out public notice for every single improvement. Notify for the stuff that has actual impacts.

ETA: How embarrassing.

 

[PinkLucy]

Notified or not, doesn't make their objections any less silly. They don't have a veto over public facilities, just because of proximity.

ETA: The sculpture apparently commemorates a prize-winning cow, and the agricultural history of Markham generally. The cow was raised by Romandale Farms, which owned land in the area, and as best as I can tell was one of the developers of Cathedraltown.

Former Unionvilleite .... that was all Roman land, and the Cathedral was built by Stephen Roman.

 

[Skeezix]

Former Unionvilleite .... that was all Roman land, and the Cathedral was built by Stephen Roman.

And the donor was Helen Roman-Barber.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

This furor over public art reminded me of the fuzz over the Corten piece at Leslie and Sheppard.

AoD

 

[jje1000]

Almost always they do both. Virtual certainty. Nothing about these residents, or how the Star covers such issues, suggests that this would have blown over had their been notice and we would now not be hearing anything about this.

As I said above, notice or lack thereof does not make their objections any less silly, as people are still free to ignore/mock them.

Toronto is installing a new signalized intersection to the east of me, and public art to the west of me. I didn't receive notice of either. Municipalities can't function if they have to send out public notice for every single improvement. Notify for the stuff that has actual impacts.

Yes, and I have no doubt there was at least an open house/community meeting regarding the new intersection and at least some public consultation for the public art options (that might be bundled together with park improvements).

Cities don't inform citizens of everything, but they usually do inform the public on mid-sized larger projects that often include these smaller issues. It doesn't need to be a full-scale Honest Ed's level of public participation, but there is some level of public consultation/newsletters that inform the public of plans.

In this case, it was a private donor, so it seems like this step was skipped in favor of committee meetings and a council vote.