Toronto Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Perkins&Will

NPS is one of Toronto's most significant embarrassments, IMHO.

I want to see Plant get to work.

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"I will make Nathan Phillips Square spectacular!"
 
MetroMan said:
You guys are making me so depressed I think I'm gonna cry. :(
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Sorry to depress you MetroMan.

Just think, Toronto may win the PanAm bid. If the local boosters are serious, they won't take the PanAm brass to N.P. Square when schmoozing time comes, otherwise Lima or Bogota will be a shoo-in... at least those towns take care of their public spaces. "Poor" Toronto can't afford to do that, you know.

Don't you think Miller should push this effort along harder? Sometimes I wonder if his socks match, honestly.
 
From the media reports I recall reading, Miller has been pushing this initiative hard but some City Councillors felt that prior to the vote on the $1.6B budget last fall there were more important areas to allocate more of the 2009 budget towards including TTC, roads, bridges etc.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
From the media reports I recall reading, Miller has been pushing this initiative hard but some City Councillors felt that prior to the vote on the $1.6B budget last fall there were more important areas to allocate more of the 2009 budget towards including TTC, roads, bridges etc.
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I agree there is a lot more important issues.

Dont forget the $8 million – to study and do the assessment for options of our elevated highway (Gardiner Expy) :rolleyes:
 
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Both Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall look like absolute shit. Always have and still do. Good for them trying to plant a few trees to liven it up, but our city hall and adjacent public space will still look terrible.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
From the media reports I recall reading, Miller has been pushing this initiative hard but some City Councillors felt that prior to the vote on the $1.6B budget last fall there were more important areas to allocate more of the 2009 budget towards including TTC, roads, bridges etc.
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That's all understandable, but why should he give in? The price of renovating the square -- 40 million -- is trifling for a city this large. Those councillors that Mayor Miller is caving to have no pride at all.
 
Translude15 said:
Both Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall look like absolute shit. Always have and still do. Good for them trying to plant a few trees to liven it up, but our city hall and adjacent public space will still look terrible.
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City Hall looks great, always has. It's the Square that needs the attention.
 
I disagree that aesthetics of public spaces are a lesser issue compared with public transit or road quality. I don't want to live in a depressing and ugly city no matter how extensive the public transit system or how smooth the roads are. True, most of our streets leave a lot to be desired, but Toronto has always had some great public gestures to save itself. With not even our greatest square in shape, we might as well be heading towards total trashiness. Adopting some suburban mentality that as long as our private homes are nice and we can get around efficiently than that's all that matters doesn't make for a particularly pleasant city to spend time in.
 
the Square definitely needs some improvements. its current features seem to be a disjointed collection of stuff. having traveled to Tokyo and London (UK), in the past year it's rather embarrassing what Toronto has in terms of public spaces.
 
emacs said:
the Square definitely needs some improvements. its current features seem to be a disjointed collection of stuff. having traveled to Tokyo and London (UK), in the past year it's rather embarrassing what Toronto has in terms of public spaces.
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Agreed re: NPS, but I hope your not talking about parks! :rolleyes:
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
City Hall looks great, always has. It's the Square that needs the attention.
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Thanks, I agree totally. City Hall is a wonderful building but the plaza in front of it has been allowed to fall to ruins over 40 years ...

junctionist said:
I disagree that aesthetics of public spaces are a lesser issue compared with public transit or road quality. I don't want to live in a depressing and ugly city no matter how extensive the public transit system or how smooth the roads are. True, most of our streets leave a lot to be desired, but Toronto has always had some great public gestures to save itself. With not even our greatest square in shape, we might as well be heading towards total trashiness. Adopting some suburban mentality that as long as our private homes are nice and we can get around efficiently than that's all that matters doesn't make for a particularly pleasant city to spend time in.
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It is symptomatic of problems in our political system. I could say that "this is just City Council giving yet another lesson to us all on how to suck eggs" but that would be inaccurate. What's wrong here is the political set up in general, it is designed to inspire apathy.

Considering the shortfalls of the system, I can't place the blame in Miller's camp entirely. But I am looking for a mayor who will, come election time, remind the people who actually vote to think of the city at large, not the usual nimby issues.

And I really did mean it when I said that 40 million bucks (the cost of refurbishing the square) is pennies to spend for a city of this size. The budget should also spend about 60 million more per year on tree planting downtown over the next five years or so ..

Edit -- met some folks for lunch yesterday and as I came into downtown I thought to myself "this is an absolutely great city despite some dumb political follies --- we always manage to kick butt, somehow" ... but I still can't believe they are trying to sell this city to some international sports organization while the public spaces are left to fester. The money is there to keep things spruced up.
 
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Translude15 said:
Both Nathan Phillips Square and City Hall look like absolute shit. Always have and still do. Good for them trying to plant a few trees to liven it up, but our city hall and adjacent public space will still look terrible.
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what about the public space in front of Old City Hall? every year i think to myself that they are going to put a bit of effort into making it look a little nicer, to no avail. they plant 2 round flower beds and leave the rest of it looking like total crap. it's about 50% dirt. what an embarrassment
 
^ Agreed - and because people walk across the "grass" all the time making shortcuts, or spilling over from Queen Street's narrow sidewalk, a lot of it really is just dirt and mud.

I say pave the whole area with nice stone and make a real square in front of the building. It could be a great space.
 
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