Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

[nstuch]

the thing that makes a bigger overall impact than street furniture is the preponderance of hydro wires lining practically every street in the city, mounted for the most part on leaning, shabby poles. what it says to people is that we don't care about the aesthetics of the city.. it's a joke. as someone has pointed out on this forum before, new york buried its hydro wires 100 years ago

the second worst thing is the city's obsession with digging holes in every sidewalk and fixing them with a hastily done asphalt patch

cool looking street furniture isn't going to change the visual appeal of our streets until the city starts to appear to care about how its streets look

 

[TdotTrickyRicky]

"Certainly this is the case for visitors, and Sydney has 146 million of them a year"

That isn't right is it? I don't think any country on earth has 146 million visitors a year and didn't even think Australia was in the top ten of most visited countries. Actually if you reckon that the average person is in a city for a couple of days 146 million visitors would work out to having an average of 1.2 million tourists in the city every day!

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

What I desperately wish for are public washrooms and drinking fountains every few blocks; they would come in really handy after eating street food.

They would quickly be occupied by Toronto's homeless and drug adictted populations, plus rarely cleaned or maintained. In Hong Kong and in Europe I've seen that the street washrooms have a full time attendant to clean and maintain the facility. Toronto would not have the political will to stop vagrancy in the washrooms, nor the funding to sufficiently to staff, maintain and clean them.

The problem in Toronto is that even if attractive street furniture is designed and implemented, it quickly gets ruined by posters and graffiti. I don't think this city is capable of maintaining attractive streetscapes even if it wanted to (I'm speaking, of course, of non-BIA-maintained areas).

Again, Toronto does not have the political or legal muscle to deal with this issue. Just try to ban posters for example, and you'll have fringe freedom of speech protestors all over city hall.

What we need in Toronto is a Juliani-like champion to take on the street populations, grafitti and poster folks. Without that, we'll always have a second-tier street scape.

 

[wyliepoon]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

In Hong Kong and in Europe I've seen that the street washrooms have a full time attendant to clean and maintain the facility. Toronto would not have the political will to stop vagrancy in the washrooms, nor the funding to sufficiently to staff, maintain and clean them.

In many places in China you have to pay the washroom attendant before going into a public washroom. That doesn't guarantee that the washroom you will be going into is sparkling clean... bring your own toilet paper!

 

[andreapalladio]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

What we need in Toronto is a Juliani-like champion to take on the street populations, grafitti and poster folks.

Oh, yeah, a facist like Giuliani is just what we need, locking up the undesireables and removing funding from museums that dare show pictures he doesn't like. Oy!

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

Oh, yeah, a facist like Giuliani is just what we need, locking up the undesireables and removing funding from museums that dare show pictures he doesn't like. Oy!

I visited NYC several times in the 1980s and early 1990s, and swore never to return after each visit due to the homeless, begging, " Weclome Back Kotter" grafitti and "Warriors" gang culture. I do not know if Juliani was the solution, but when I returned to NYC in 2002 and 2005 I was amazed at the difference, it was like a brand new city. I saw almost no homeless, no begging and no grafitti on the subway. Perhaps this had nothing to do with Juliani, so I'm wrong to suggest him, but NYC has certainly seen a turnaround since the pre-Juliani 1980s and early 1990s.

 

[Observer Walt]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

Giuliani was a little "over the top" in some regards, but he had an insight that helped NYC, sometimes referred to as the "broken windows" syndrome. Smaller things such as broken windows, graffiti, etc. had been ignored before, as the police concentrated on bigger problems. Giuliani started paying attention to the smaller things and brought up the quality of life in the public spaces. It's one reason (not the only one) that NYC has gone through a real renaissance in the past decade. Toronto is of course nowhere near the level of decay of NYC in the 1980s, but we could still learn a lesson or two.

Further on the appearance of our streets, I agree with the comments above regarding the amount of postering in this city, which makes many streetscapes look shabby. We should set aside some designated places for postering. Possibly one hydro pole per block would work, along with small kiosks at the entrances to parks or at community centres. Postering would be permitted for non-profit or community purposes only (local garage sales, community meetings, lost cats, a concert at the local church, that type of thing). Commercial postering would be banned (sorry, driving schools!) It's disgusting sometimes to see torn posters flapping in the wind off every pole, and bus shelters which have been papered with so many posters for driving schools and discount divorce lawyers that you can barely see through the glass to see if the bus is coming.

 

[Abeja de Almirante]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

Commercial postering would be banned

Never going to happen in Toronto. This city government does not have the willpower to even limit commercial posters.

BTW, is "postering" a word, with regards to posters? IMO, this is pronounced paw'stering, meaning to take or give an opinion. I know, potato, pawtato, carry on...

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

Speaking of new furniture...from the Star:

New bus shelters, benches planned
Jun. 28, 2006. 01:00 AM
JOHN SPEARS AND VANESSA LU
CITY HALL BUREAU

Toronto is ready — almost — to go on a multi-million-dollar shopping spree to spruce up the city's streets.

City councillors gave general approval yesterday for city staff to invite private firms to bid on a 20-year contract to supply the city with all its "street furniture" — transit shelters, litter and recycling bins, benches, bicycle racks, newspaper vending boxes, information pillars, and even public toilets.

The city will ask the private bidders to put up the cost of the various items: By the end of the contract, for example, the city expects to have 6,000 transit shelters, each costing about $20,000 to build and install, for a total of $120 million.

To recoup the costs, the winning bidder will be able to sell advertising on some of the objects — while giving the city a percentage of the revenue. City staff figure the city should reap about $20 million a year.

The formal call for bids will likely be ready for final approval by council in September; interested firms will then likely have until early 2007 to submit bids.

AoD

 

[bizorky]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

And if they'd bury the stuff on the ugly utility poles, we'd be laughing.


Anyway, this is a good start.

 

[EnviroTO]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

I'm worried that all those things are to be provided via advertisement cash and the city intends to make a profit after all is said and done. Either the quality of what is being provided will be sub-par, the advertisements will be plentiful (in size and/or quantity), or a combination of both.

"transit shelters, litter and recycling bins, benches, bicycle racks, newspaper vending boxes, information pillars, and even public toilets"

How many of these items will be carrying advertisements and has the superbins idea been ruled out or is it still a possibility?

 

[Archivistower]

Re: Post: Post: We shape our city's streets in unseen ways

I like the existing transit shelters, which are quite functional, attractive and new. What a stupid waste to replace them.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

They'd be adding shelters where there are none currently and replacing the hundreds/thousands of remaining old bus shelters, not the new glass ones. Well, unless they're retarded. The new glass shelters have not made it out to the suburbs other than at some major intersections, and they have no intention of building them at other suburban stops.

 

[Mark Dowling]

www.sydneymedia.com.au/ht...sitors.asp