Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

wolfewood said:
Because some users fetishize Manhattanesque street canyons without considering the various problems that come with them (like constant shadows and brutal wind tunnels). I also personally think there's a manifestation of the average Torontonian's low self-esteem, insofar as some will constantly highlight and demand we emulate aspects of other cities, regardless of whether or not it suits Toronto.
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Personally I wish we had more Manhattan styled street canyons.

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I like a good podium, but I don't think it was necessary at Y&B. Not sure why that makes me have low self-esteem. Very odd statement above about Torontonians. I realize that we care about sunlight and wind tunnels here. We will never be NYC or should ever strive to be, but an occasional Manhattan-looking street is fine. No?
 
wolfewood said:
Because some users fetishize Manhattanesque street canyons without considering the various problems that come with them (like constant shadows and brutal wind tunnels). I also personally think there's a manifestation of the average Torontonian's low self-esteem, insofar as some will constantly highlight and demand we emulate aspects of other cities, regardless of whether or not it suits Toronto.
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I often wonder if there were ever New Yorkers constantly complaining they weren't London, and Londoners complaining they weren't Rome, and Romans complaining they weren't Athens, and Athenians complaining they weren't Babylon…
 
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I suspect that's probably true. People love to compare and contrast - why not cities? Toronto isn't the only city which engages in this.
 
Edward Skira said:
Personally I wish we had more Manhattan styled street canyons.
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Would a canyon in Toronto really ever look like that though? Our architecture isn't anything like that, nor the scale and size of our streets. Manhattan is Manhattan, and there will never be another so you may as well wish for Parisian cafe terraces or Venice canals.
 
Tewder said:
Would a canyon in Toronto really ever look like that though? Our architecture isn't anything like that, nor the scale and size of our streets. Manhattan is Manhattan, and there will never be another so you may as well wish for Parisian cafe terraces or Venice canals.
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Exactly. The streetwall Edward chose in his photo is great and I love that aspect of New York myself (my complaining about wind tunnels and shadows aside, it is a real marvel). I just also think it's wishful thinking, bordering on delusional, to think Toronto will ever look anything like. Far better to own what we have now and take some pride in it rather than wish we were somewhere else.
 
wolfewood said:
Exactly. The streetwall Edward chose in his photo is great and I love that aspect of New York myself (my complaining about wind tunnels and shadows aside, it is a real marvel). I just also think it's wishful thinking, bordering on delusional, to think Toronto will ever look anything like. Far better to own what we have now and take some pride in it rather than wish we were somewhere else.
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With all the growth and change happening in our great city, there will be a day when another growing city looks at Toronto and asks why their town isn't more like ours.

While Toronto is a big city, and despite being the 4th largest in the North America, we are poised to grow to a massive size. It's about time we stop addressing feelings of inadequacy and take a hard look at the things in which we excel, and the reason this has become one of the go-to destinations for travellers and immigrants from all over the world.
 
Honestly, i'd rather have wider sidewalks in the downtown core than Manhattan style "canyons". I cant believe the words coming out of my mouth, but even Downtown Detroit has significantly wider sidewalks in its core compared to Downtown Toronto and with the core adding literally thousands of residents on a weekly basis, I don't know how it will be possible to have semi-uncongested sidewalks at any point of the day.

Instead of looking into widening certain sidewalks and removing lanes from streets, Toronto should look to set back buildings further. Buildings like Aura and One Bloor East get it right because they are "landmark developments", but smaller developments arent really forced to have larger setbacks from the street. I think we're looking to Manhattan a little too closely and i'd prefer not having having everything downtown clogged up (ie: sidewalks, roads, subways).
 
The sidewalk widening does not have to do with the size of the building, it has to do with the particular street: the City does try to get sidewalks widened by a set amount on every street that's seeing redevelopment. That said, there are few streets where you are going to see every frontage redeveloped, or even a majority of them. We're going to be dealing with narrow sidewalks on many streets for years, and to get them widened in many spots the only way we're going to be able to accomplish that is by taking lanes away from the street. Yonge is the perfect candidate for that.

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wolfewood said:
Because some users fetishize Manhattanesque street canyons without considering the various problems that come with them (like constant shadows and brutal wind tunnels). I also personally think there's a manifestation of the average Torontonian's low self-esteem, insofar as some will constantly highlight and demand we emulate aspects of other cities, regardless of whether or not it suits Toronto.
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+1
Toronto is Toronto. Too many are trying too hard to be NY. It's ridiculous . If you want to be NY then go to NY.
 
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