Shabby Public Realm

[nstuch]

Does the property bylaw regarding weeds on your property being in excess of 8 inches tall apply to city property? These weeds must be approaching 5 feet. Sadly this is what practically every tree base in the city looks like

 

[pman]

With any luck vines will grow up over the wires and we’ll have a green street. Of sorts.

 

[Northern Light]

Does the property bylaw regarding weeds on your property being in excess of 8 inches tall apply to city property? These weeds must be approaching 5 feet. Sadly this is what practically every tree base in the city looks likeView attachment 195908

New grates are coming. This is the result of the wise, if belated decision to remove the concrete pit covers wherever practical as they were terrible for the trees.

But when they removed them, they didn't have a replacement system ready.

Metal grates should be rolled out systematically, beginning next year, I think.

Aesthetics aside, I find the weed growth encouraging.

This indicates fairly healthy, non-compacted soil, which is good news for the trees!

Also, don't encourage anyone to go near the trees with a weed wacker, they would end up damaging the tree bark.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

With the number of spectacular developments coming, including The Well, CIBC square, 160 Front West, and of course the Distillery District, I hope a full redevelopment of Front from Distillery west to Spadina is in the works. The design of that street is clearly from a more industrial era. It’s a shame that this wasn’t done at the same time as the Union revitalization.

 

[JasonParis]

Considering it is also tourist central, it deserves to look a lot better and more welcoming too.

 

[DSC]

As Villiers Island is a major work-site and will be for several more years I think you may be too early to get much interest from WT - who actually have a very good reputation for creating public art. As your proposal is the opposite of shabby it really does not belong in this thread - maybe it should be MOVED to https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...quayside-sidewalktoronto-neighbourhoods.6968/

 

[ML57]

This scrubby little patch is right across the street from the Royal York. It has some weird childish theme on the walls and a haphazardly placed railroad thingy with no explanation whatsoever. You can't really tell from the photos but the base of the walls are full of bottles, cans and trash. The inukshuk seems to be an impromptu affair placed in the midst of all the dirt and weeds.

Not a good look for people leaving the hotel and heading west.View attachment 192538View attachment 192536

Yeah, it looks like it was thrown together by someone who was out of ideas.

 

[Adjei]

Only occasionally, in the downtown area they seldom install wooden poles except for temporary use.

What about the wooden hydro poles at Front and University, are they temporary or permanent?

 

[DSC]

What about the wooden hydro poles at Front and University, are they temporary or permanent?

They are (supposedly!) temporary and carry traffic light wires only (I think). They will apparently remain until the street is repaved as they will then install underground conduits. When will this happen? God knows!

 

[Adjei]

They are (supposedly!) temporary and carry traffic light wires only (I think). They will apparently remain until the street is repaved as they will then install underground conduits. When will this happen? God knows!

I swear its been like this for past 5 years. I won't be surprised if its left like that for then next 10. What a joke.

 

[Adjei]

We have a transit czar, what we need is a public realm or design czar to help look after and look to improve the public realm in this city.

 

[pman]

Maybe we can sell the naming rights to hydro poles.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

It's 2019, and I'm stunned disappointed that Exhibition Place, located in some of the most prime and central real estate in this country, remains a giant asphalt parking lot for 90% of the year. It's a blight on our city. Especially with the Ontario Line and the Ontario Place revitalization, you'd think that an Exhibition Place revitalization would be top of mind, but alas...

I say it should be revitalized in a similar fashion to Chicago's Grant Park. Turn it into a great public space that people will visit year round. Perhaps install retail or attractions to keep it animated year round. And like Grant Park, it could continue to host large public events, such as Caribana:

Take the $1.7 Billion from Rail Deck park, invest a quarter of that amount into the Exhibition grounds, and I assure you that we'll get a much better return for our investment.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

On that note, I had an idea last year for a Downtown linear park stitching together Rail Deck Park (if it ever materializes), Fort York, Exhibition Place (revitalized), Ontario Place, High Park and the Western Waterfront. We could turn all these disjointed public spaces into one cohesive experience, finally introducing a grand urban park into the core of the city.

Obviously the Gardiner and Lakeshore Blvd are major challenges to accomplishing this. I’m not going to suggest removing them, but again looking at Chicago for inspiration, we could make the road network less hostile with creative design and architecture:

This would all be extremely expensive (even without Rail Deck Park), but it’s investments like this that separate merely good cities from great cities.

 

[Northern Light]

On that note, I had an idea last year for a Downtown linear park stitching together Rail Deck Park (if it ever materializes), Fort York, Exhibition Place (revitalized), Ontario Place, High Park and the Western Waterfront. We could turn all these disjointed public spaces into one cohesive experience, finally introducing a grand urban park into the core of the city.

View attachment 197383

Obviously the Gardiner and Lakeshore Blvd are major challenges to accomplishing this. I’m not going to suggest removing them, but again looking at Chicago for inspiration, we could make the road network less hostile with creative design and architecture:

This would all be extremely expensive (even without Rail Deck Park), but it’s investments like this that separate merely good cities from great cities.

A portion of your idea already exists as the Western Waterfront Masterplan........

The thread for that is here: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/western-waterfront-master-plan.8554/

Its a pretty good plan, with pretty much zero funding attached, last I checked.

Maybe we should work on getting that part delivered!