Tewder, lack of, or too many to bear, overhead wires is neither a symptom of deeper issues nor anything else except the obsession of certain members of this forum. Toronto is going to continue to have overhead wires in the Old City permanently, due to our commitment to streetcars and the fact that changing them is a ridiculous expense unless they become dysfunctional for some reason or a neighbourhood is being razed.
Misrepresenting and downplaying the issue (i.e. your false statement that all wires are streetcar wires, which you know is not true) or refusing to even consider that a very prominent element of the public realm might be part of a bigger picture strikes me as disingenuous.
To continually bring up overhead wires as a sign of Toronto's 'hick' status, or Toronto's non-abilty to compete in the world league of cities is nonsensical and, quite frankly, navel-gazing. Those that do so are saying, "I don't like overhead wires, so Toronto cannot ever aspire to greatness." Overhead wires are slightly less important than that.
Come on, it's not just the wires. The reference is metonymic now. It's the image that has come to stand in for all that is corrupt and dysfunctional with the physical and aesthetic state of this city. Now, you may feel the city's just beautiful and functional as is but to convince us that it's alpha you're going to need a much better argument than 'anyone who disagrees with me is a whiner'.
... but my mission is to bring you on board, not alienate you. The theory is that the overhead wires are symptomatic of an issue that runs wider and deeper with respect to the public realm. Let's look at the evidence:
- Not just overhead wires (that in most North American and European cities - including those with streetcars/LRT etc - are buried, in central areas at least)... but the disfigured, listing and staple-covered wooden poles they're attached to. This is not just unsightly but dysfunctional, they take up precious space on Toronto's narrow, cluttered sidewalks and the exposed wires make them more vulnerable to power outages. There are reasons why other cities bury them!
- Let's not just look up however... look down at the cracked, gum-stained and asphalt-patched sidewalks those listing poles and wires are rooted in. Not just along out-of-the way side streets but along every single major downtown thoroughfare (with the exception of the privately funded upgrade of Bloor and the recently renovated Market Street). Once again, the state of our sidewalks is both unsightly and dysfunctional. In a growing city with notoriously narrow sidewalks that are covered with snow half the year we need a pedestrian infrastructure that is accommodating. This is the very least we should expect, though to be aiming for alpha we need streets that are beautiful and inviting too (Bloor and Market Street are good examples of what we can achieve).
- Now let's look at where these broken streets lead us... Look at the broken fountains that have been dried up for years (decades in some cases), the dead trees, the unmaintained parks that strive to be little more than tracts of patched grass, and the almost complete lack of beautification (cluttered and junky corners/intersections, mismatched street furniture, utilitarian light poles, lack of flowers and plantings). I could go on. Once again, unsightly and dysfunctional.
- As for the rest of the city infrastructure? Is the decrepit and ill-maintained condition of the above really all that markedly different from what we see with the roads, bridges and highways? The interminable road construction and gridlock? The transit quagmire? The endless mess at NPS, our very seat of civic stewardship (oh the irony)? The ad-hoc and piecemeal approach to city development that's largely been abandoned to private development?
It's more than just the wires dude.
Glad we have our priorities straight. We have homeless people sleeping in the streets, but, f*ck me, those damn wires need to go.
The state of the public realm rises from a chasm where public apathy intersects with politics:
The political left view public spending on anything other than welfare as wasteful. The Fordian right view committing resources to anything other than the relief of taxation as gravy. The verbiage is different, the motivations are different but the outcome is the same.
With an apathetic public and in the absence of political motivation or any strong interest groups (the PanAm games and Waterfront Toronto have provided some leverage) we are left with an ugly and dysfunctional city.
This is not to deny that Toronto doesn't have some lovely graces (lake, ravines, heritage architecture) or to insist that we haven't achieved some randomly successful public spaces here and there (even a broken clock is right twice a day, after all)... but to acknowledge that there is a malaise in Toronto we shouldn't ignore, that we are a long way from pursuing anything that resembles a 'London/Paris/New York alpha city' approach to urbanism. It's just my take on it but I'm willing to consider differently...
