Urban Shocker
Doyenne
You're welcome.
If you want to see beautiful 100 year old + architecture, there are amazing areas just outside of the area. Downtown Oakville, for one, has been excellently preserved. Or come out to rural areas. Some villages less than an hour and a half from Toronto have barely changed. To go back to the Paris example, to see medieval France, you go to the towns and villages, not the big cities.
Yet, why isn't Paris ripping down its Haussman-era neighbourhoods on behalf of the ultra-contemporary? Even Haussman wouldn't get away with his interventions today, because of the historical ordinances, community organizations, and political cultures in place. And whatever *is* left of medieval Paris tends to be prized and preserved, not arbitrarily sacrificed on behalf of a "new beautiful city"--that is, even Paris is no longer the Paris that you're portraying.
Paris is proud of itself, Toronto isn't. That's the difference. You need to change that before you can get people to care about historic sites and invest in beautiful new projects.
Paris is proud of itself, Toronto isn't. That's the difference. You need to change that before you can get people to care about historic sites and invest in beautiful new projects. People need to be able to expect more from their city.
And I was just pointing out that there are well preserved areas in the GTA. Oakville's preservationists have been active since the end of WWII. From what I know about the program there, it is very sophisticated. People in downtown Oakville are proud of the history there. It's a lot easier to be proud when there's a plaque on every house saying when and by whom it was built and what their profession was. You don't get that in Toronto.