Old city hall bells = gravy?

[ttk77]

The Star: City may replace old city hall bells with recording

Any idea if this was a directive from the Ford brothers?

 

[toto]

The mayor will probably suggest contracting out clock maintanace to a private sector company. I'm sure Timex would love to have their logo on those clockfaces. Though, that would be a shame!

 

[gabe]

How tacky!

 

[TOareaFan]

The mayor has actually spoken out in favour of keeping the bells.

It does point out though how hard it is to end a "gravy train" or get spending under control. It is hard to get consensus on what is waste and what is appropriate spending. $40k for a staff christmas party at one of the largest landlord real estate companies on the continent (how much was that per head?) which probably contributes to staff satisfaction and retention rates....that's a waste. $50k to keep bells ringing at old city hall as opposed to a digital "fake" bell that most of the population probably would not be able to tell the difference....well that is worth spending.

Nothing judgemental in this just pointing out how hard a job (for anyone in government) it is to reign in spending.

 

[ttk77]

Nothing judgemental in this just pointing out how hard a job (for anyone in government) it is to reign in spending.

Agreed, but before things get out of hand, council really needs to put a guideline together of what they consider to be wasteful spending, and what they consider to be acceptable spending. Otherwise we're going to see articles like this coming out every few days.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

When I read about this my heart sank. Some things are best just left alone, what's $50K for a piece of TO history like this. I can often hear the bells from where I live late at night, about 1 KM away.

Here's a story and good video link inside the clock tower

http://www.citytv.com/toronto/cityn...ronic-chime-could-replace-old-city-hall-bells

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Does one replace an item before it breaks or wait until it actually breaks and then replace it? Usually, it is more expensive to wait until it breaks.

 

[Bogtrotter]

Quite surprised to hear that Ford opts to keep this. But glad they are keeping them as replacing real bells with electronic chimes does seem tacky- kind of like replacing marble with Formica.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Quite surprised to hear that Ford opts to keep this.

That was my feeling too, then I showed the clip to my roommate and without missing a beat he said that Ford is just playing "good cop" on the bell issue. So lets see if he still supports keeping it if the recommendation comes down to convert it to chimes.

 

[Chuck]

Although I'd choose to keep the bells too, how can one argue that bells are more worthy of saving than bus routes which people actually rely on to get home? Or downspout disconnections which save the city millions of dollars a year by reducing the flow into waste water treatment plants?

If Ford likes it, it's not gravy. If he doesn't like it, it's gravy.There's no rhyme or reason.

 

[junctionist]

If the bells were replaced with a recording, it would be another instance of gutting the city of meaningful history or sense of past achievement. In this case, we're talking about technical achievement in architecture and a memorable part of the urban experience. When that's gutted, our standards for what we do in the present are lowered, because we always think of ourselves as some provincial city until recently, and that only now we have an opportunity to build a sophisticated city. With this pathetic and flawed realization, we come to think that we can only take baby steps in that direction, with a moderate and gradual approach, making bold and impressive projects less likely.

In reality, Toronto's past offers a lot of sophistication and accomplishment, but with a lot of that destroyed already or significantly compromised. We and subsequent generations think less of the city for every such instance of destruction. To preserve the bells in this landmark National Historic Site is par for the course in any fine metropolitan city, and it's damn time we start acting like one, rather constantly undermining the great things we have.

To even consider something so stupid is outrageous. We need some sort of public realm awareness and lobbying group to prevent such embarrassing ideas from even being floated. The only good thing to come of this proposal is that Rob Ford can remember his decision on the bells.

 

[adma]

I reckon this is just another case of "no gravy? then create it!"--Snobelen-style deliberate crisis-creation...

 

[Aaron]

They did the same thing at Ridley College here in St.Catharines. I didn't notice until it was reported in our local newspaper. Sounded exactly the same - volume and all. It's happening in Europe also.

If the bells remain, it becomes a sound issue. If the sound's the same, I don't see an issue.

 

[junctionist]

Being in a National Historic Site, the mechanism for producing the sound should be preserved. There may be lesser buildings where this approach might be considered, but not here.