C
circuitboy84
Guest
Interesting and unfortunate point of view.
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Toronto reminds him of East Berli backwater
October 2006
Michael Piette
The Bulletin
In September 1972 while visiting Europe I had the opportunity to visit East Berlin, which at that time was the capital of the rather incongruously titled "German Democratic Republic." I wandered around for several hours admiring some of the impressive historical buildings that had been restored, although there were many areas where war-damaged ruins had been removed and there was only an empty plot or an urban wasteland. My overall impression was one of neglect. It was clearly a city that had seen better days.
I draw attention to the above visit because Toronto, the city where I live, has started to remind me more and more of the East Berlin of old. Burned out (or other-wise inoperative) streetlights; streets Downtown where all the lights seem to have been turned off or were not functioning (Adelaide from Church to Jarvis; Front from Bay to Jarvis); broken and patched sidewalks; potholed streets; and dead and poorly maintained trees along city streets in the Downtown area. We don't have as many "People's Police" as East Berlin did although we do have legions of "Parking Enforcement Officers" who seem to be everyhere. Our transit system is looking decidedly scruffy, reminiscent of East Berlin's "Unterground" (subway) with hard-to-find (or non-existent) garbage containers, dirty platforms, broken tiles, stained walls and burned-out lights in stairways. And of cours there are streetcars that are dirty first thing in the morning. Maintenance received a low priority in East Berlin's BVG (read TTC), too. As far as citizen input, I might just as well be in East Berlin in the 1970s where the Central Planning Authority and the SED (read Communist Party authorities) ran the show with little or no local input. And we have a few mass projects; just like the Alexanderplatz redevelopment in East Berlin while the rest of the city slowly deteriorates. Our parks are being filled with "low maintenance" (or no maintenance in the case of the street tree-planting program) plants and flowers-to save money one assumes. Toronto: a world-class city of the 21st Century? I don't think so. Much more like a mid-20th-century backwater. Apparently, East Berlin has improved greatly since 1972. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Toronto.
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Toronto reminds him of East Berli backwater
October 2006
Michael Piette
The Bulletin
In September 1972 while visiting Europe I had the opportunity to visit East Berlin, which at that time was the capital of the rather incongruously titled "German Democratic Republic." I wandered around for several hours admiring some of the impressive historical buildings that had been restored, although there were many areas where war-damaged ruins had been removed and there was only an empty plot or an urban wasteland. My overall impression was one of neglect. It was clearly a city that had seen better days.
I draw attention to the above visit because Toronto, the city where I live, has started to remind me more and more of the East Berlin of old. Burned out (or other-wise inoperative) streetlights; streets Downtown where all the lights seem to have been turned off or were not functioning (Adelaide from Church to Jarvis; Front from Bay to Jarvis); broken and patched sidewalks; potholed streets; and dead and poorly maintained trees along city streets in the Downtown area. We don't have as many "People's Police" as East Berlin did although we do have legions of "Parking Enforcement Officers" who seem to be everyhere. Our transit system is looking decidedly scruffy, reminiscent of East Berlin's "Unterground" (subway) with hard-to-find (or non-existent) garbage containers, dirty platforms, broken tiles, stained walls and burned-out lights in stairways. And of cours there are streetcars that are dirty first thing in the morning. Maintenance received a low priority in East Berlin's BVG (read TTC), too. As far as citizen input, I might just as well be in East Berlin in the 1970s where the Central Planning Authority and the SED (read Communist Party authorities) ran the show with little or no local input. And we have a few mass projects; just like the Alexanderplatz redevelopment in East Berlin while the rest of the city slowly deteriorates. Our parks are being filled with "low maintenance" (or no maintenance in the case of the street tree-planting program) plants and flowers-to save money one assumes. Toronto: a world-class city of the 21st Century? I don't think so. Much more like a mid-20th-century backwater. Apparently, East Berlin has improved greatly since 1972. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Toronto.