Iconic Yonge-Dundas Square a major city asset
http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/300091
Feb 04, 2008 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Perhaps it's not surprising a city that has always wanted to be New York would also want its own Times Square.
Still, there's something touching, almost endearing, about a town that believes Yonge and Dundas could stand in for the famous Manhattan precinct.
Yonge and Dundas isn't Times Square, neither is it the Shinjuku of the North. As much as we might long to be New York or Tokyo, we're Toronto, for better or worse, a city better known for qualities other than brashness. The 24-hour electronic pandemonium that is Times Square and the non-stop neon-architecture of Tokyo have no equivalents in Toronto.
Thank God.
Not to say that Yonge and Dundas doesn't offer the faithful a chance to worship at the altar of consumerism almost any time of the day or night. But what distinguishes the neighbourhood is not the signage but Yonge-Dundas Square, which, at the risk of sounding precious, is a place of urban contemplation, if not quiet, certainly set apart and unhurried.
True, it's surrounded on every side by a noisy barrage of video screens, LED signs, oversized billboards, the whole paraphernalia of North American consumer culture. Everywhere you look, you're exhorted to buy, spend, acquire and desire.
So what else is new?
The most engaging aspects of Yonge-Dundas Square aren't those it has in common with Times Square, but those that make it different. For a start, there's nowhere to sit in Times Square; the crowds of tourists, hawkers and street vendors hustle you along relentlessly. It's impossible to step back from the frenzy except in one of countless overpriced restaurants or bars. Even there, you're still in the thick of it. The public part of Times Square is too small and insignificant to matter. In reality, there is no square in Times Square.
By contrast, Yonge-Dundas Square, with its chairs, benches and fountains, invites passersby to stop and spend time, not just money. It offers space for visitors to be human, not just consumers. It is a place for people-watching and conversation, more Paris than Manhattan.
Yes, the square hosts its share of concerts, corporate events and community gatherings and isn't always accessible. That's the price of success. Then, of course, there's winter, when hanging around outdoors is rather less appealing. (On that score, however, we might learn from Sweden where outdoor cafes provide blankets to customers at the beginning and end of the cold season.)
Still, whether we realize or appreciate it, Yonge-Dundas Square is actually a whole lot more sophisticated, even civilized, than Times Square. As an element in the urban landscape as well as a piece of civic design, it towers above its Manhattan "counterpart." This isn't necessarily good news at a time when the race to the bottom has reached warp speed, and it may mean that Yonge-Dundas Square will never attract similar sized hordes, but who cares?
Besides, it isn't as if Yonge and Dundas lacks for the crassly commercial. The Eaton Centre and the still-unfinished Toronto Life building are just steps away; shopping opportunities abound. Indeed, that's why the corner is the busiest in Canada. That's also why Yonge-Dundas Square makes so much sense, why it's a major asset to the city.
Distant pastures, distant squares, seems they always look greener.
Yet of all recent efforts to improve Toronto, to enhance a sense of urbanity, Yonge-Dundas may be the most successful. Though much criticized when it opened in 2003, the square has emerged as an iconic space, a destination and civic space.
How long before some Big Apple contingent comes north asking questions about how to create its own Yonge-Dundas Square? Maybe it already has.
