Shabby Public Realm

[Dan416]

I saw bins like these in Ann Arbor years ago and marvelled at how well designed and tidy they seemed. I wonder why Toronto didn't copy/keep the raccoon design!

Now, we just need staff to regularly come by and empty the bins to complete the loop. There have been so many overflowing and never maintained trash cans this summer I could swear there was a garbage strike.

Ann Arbor receptacles:

View attachment 593199

The raccoons would really suit Toronto too!

 

[christiesplits]

I saw bins like these in Ann Arbor years ago and marvelled at how well designed and tidy they seemed. I wonder why Toronto didn't copy/keep the raccoon design!

Now, we just need staff to regularly come by and empty the bins to complete the loop. There have been so many overflowing and never maintained trash cans this summer I could swear there was a garbage strike.

Ann Arbor receptacles:

View attachment 593199

They definitely won't win a design award, but they look sturdy and are a hell of a lot nicer than our current park bins.

 

[Towered]

This is what qualifies as tag removal in this town:

 

[jje1000]

This is what qualifies as tag removal in this town:
View attachment 599101

I noticed that some areas around the city are definitely more heavily-tagged than before, especially on some elements of infrastructure like retaining walls.

Also passed by an alleyway near Queen-Bathurst and there were crusties/junkies literally straight-up smoking crack in broad daylight steps from the street.

 

[Northern Light]

This is what qualifies as tag removal in this town:
View attachment 599101

The patching paint doesn't work, obviously. I don't really understand why we have either City staff or third-party contractors who think that makes sense.

To be fair, if the concrete is unpainted/undyed, its very difficult to match it.

But that comes back to the question of why we chose the design/surfaces/colours we did.

Transportation hates covering structures in any kind of veneer because they think it makes inspection difficult. They hate any kind of ivy for the same reason, even if its trellis'ed away from the underlying structure.

When I look at the above, here are things I see:

1) The guardrail/balustrade at the bottom is at least black, but stylistically it doesn't match the structure/time period properly.

2) The upper level guardrail/balustrade doesn't match the lower one.

3) No creative use of lighting, which could be uplighting of the sidewalls or which could be sconces, or which could be pedestrian lighting that is period appropriate integrated to the balustrade.

***

Now, fixing the above.

1) Aside from what I've stated, all concrete underpasses in the City do not have decorative veneer/stone/ivy or mural should use the exact same paint colour, probably warm white. This makes cover-ups much easier.

2) Take your choice of applying a stone veneer inside the rectangles or shave the concrete just 1cm in, and then apply a fresh layer and press a stone form into it, make it textured and more difficult to tag, and nicer looking. It won't fool you as if it were real stone, but it would still look better.

Let me provide an example from the Lawrence Avenue Bridge over the Bala Sub:

Not real stone, just really well done form work.

We do have people at the City and contractors who care about their work..........but not enough of them, and we award contracts to lowest bidder with minimal consideration for past performance, sigh!

 

[vic]

This is what qualifies as tag removal in this town:
View attachment 599101

The thing that ticks me off about this underpass on Bloor between Perth and Dundas West is that the City specifically had a competition several years back and awarded a contract to paint the underpass to a large group of graffiti artists. I believe the cost was over $100,000. That part doesn't necessarily bother me. Actually, I quite liked much of it, and it was fun watching it all go up.....but.....

Part of the justification for getting "real" graffiti artists to paint the murals was that they would be respected and not painted over by others. The results speak for themselves..... It didn't take long for some tags to start showing up, sometimes they would get fixed.... but eventually it just got trashed. Crappy tags, silly bubble letters, and of course the city's greige cover-up paints. Meh.

This makes me feel like shelling out a ton of money for "art" isn't worthwhile. It's going to get painted anyway. Just cover up anything offensive.

 

[Towered]

The thing that ticks me off about this underpass on Bloor between Perth and Dundas West is that the City specifically had a competition several years back and awarded a contract to paint the underpass to a large group of graffiti artists. I believe the cost was over $100,000. That part doesn't necessarily bother me. Actually, I quite liked much of it, and it was fun watching it all go up.....but.....

Part of the justification for getting "real" graffiti artists to paint the murals was that they would be respected and not painted over by others. The results speak for themselves..... It didn't take long for some tags to start showing up, sometimes they would get fixed.... but eventually it just got trashed. Crappy tags, silly bubble letters, and of course the city's greige cover-up paints. Meh.

This makes me feel like shelling out a ton of money for "art" isn't worthwhile. It's going to get painted anyway. Just cover up anything offensive.

But it is very much worthwhile...as long as a clear coat is applied over the finished artwork to make tag removal easy. The underpass on Lansdowne has remained fully intact and beautiful for years now as a result.

 

[vic]

But it is very much worthwhile...as long as a clear coat is applied over the finished artwork to make tag removal easy. The underpass on Lansdowne has remained fully intact and beautiful for years now as a result.

I'll have to check that underpass out. I go there all the time, but never further south than No Frills It does look pretty great on Streetview.

Are they clear-coating more of the murals these days? I remember when the topic of clear coating came up during the Bloor/Perth underpass consultation. There was some comment about how it can actually make it more difficult to repair a mural and it didn't fully protect them anyway. Sounds like it's been figured out better now...

 

[Northern Light]

There was some comment about how it can actually make it more difficult to repair a mural.

It does. In the way that it makes grafitti easier to wash off, by preventing the paint from fully setting on top of the mural, it can prevent 'patch' jobs from adhering as well.

There are ways to mitigate this; but in general the intent would be stick to 'washing' off the vandalism and leaving the original mural intact. When you're actually ready to refresh the mural you can 'remove' the clear coat with a bit of effort and/or prime over.

 

[bedoozled]

About 3 years ago, they replaced the hydro poles along the lower portion of the east sidewalk of Keele, just north of Bloor. I'm not sure who approved the completed work as it left huge sinking pits on the sidewalk, so in addition to the new hydro poles leaving even less room (less than 1 metre width) on the sidewalk, there were ankle twisting hazards that kept sinking as the years went on. I ran out of patience filing 311 requests to fix it and my next door neighbour badly cacked her ankle tripping into one of these sidewalk pits. Anyway, today, 3 years after the initial work, the sidewalk squares were finally replaced and are completely smooth. Next, maybe they can move the hydro poles, widen the sidewalk, get the neighbours to trim their hedges, or actually plow the sidewalk in winter - or maybe all of the above?

Before (pics from 2022):

Today (end of 2024):

 

[DSC]

Since before the first Google Streetview photos in 2007 there have been duplicate Hydro/TTC poles on several blocks of King St W close to Roy Thompson Hall.

Though we should be happy that they have finally started to remove them it is horrifying they were there so long. (The rationale I heard few years ago was that the TTC owns the poles and put up new ones for streetcar overhead. but Toronto Hydro used the old ones for streetlights and had not yet moved their lights to the new poles so the TTC could not do anything. The lights now seem to be moved and TTC )??) are removing them but...

Here is the 2007 Streetview photo and the new poles were clearly not new, even then.

 

[deerparker]

All the planters on this block on Shuter are in a similar state.

 

[Northern Light]

All the planters on this block on Shuter are in a similar state.

The north side of Shuter, east of Victoria is within the boundaries of the Downtown Yonge BIA. I think that would be a good place to start.

I will send you a message with some contacts.

 

[bedoozled]

Is anyone else frustrated by the steady increase in abandoned construction materials and signage on sidewalks and curbs? There are the obvious ones where the date of a detour on the sign has long passed, but then other places where there are just traffic cones being stored on the sidewalk with no visible work being carried out? Is it just a quality of work situation, where the people who worked on it don't care to follow up and take their materials with them once the work is done?

Some examples from my walk, these have been here at least 3 months:

 

[DSC]

Is anyone else frustrated by the steady increase in abandoned construction materials and signage on sidewalks and curbs? There are the obvious ones where the date of a detour on the sign has long passed, but then other places where there are just traffic cones being stored on the sidewalk with no visible work being carried out? Is it just a quality of work situation, where the people who worked on it don't care to follow up and take their materials with them once the work is done?

Some examples from my walk, these have been here at least 3 months:

View attachment 605898

View attachment 605899

View attachment 605907

Though I agree that contractors should remove their signs, you could put in a 311 request.