I'm not sure what your point is? We should celebrate and high-five ourselves that we're not the worst? Wow, that's aiming high.
My point was pretty clearly in response to someone saying Toronto has one of the worst public realms of any city, period. I was going for the "negative hyperbole is not constructive" angle, and gave examples (Atlanta etc.) to make my point of how patently untrue that is. In fact, my prior post explicitly states that our public realm is mediocre. If you choose to translate that into "let's high five cuz we're not the worst", that is your prerogative.
Toronto is amazing, no need to reiterate that no matter how homesick you may be. If you want to start a thread where we sing the praises go ahead. The point here is the waste, corruption, malaise, apathy that hold us back from being even better. Toronto could blow Chicago out of the water but we need to stop looking like an unmade bed, a broken unmade bed. It may be a safe and cozy place where we slumber in ignorant bliss, but it's still broken and unmade.
I agree that Toronto is broken in many ways. I think people from Paris to Pittsburgh would tell you the same of their cities. Fixing our roads, beautifying our streets and humanizing our development should be top priorities, and our transit woes need not be reiterated here, for we all know how serious these problems are.
But enough with these comparisons! What makes you think Toronto should blow Chicago out of the water? The fact of the matter is that Toronto is still growing up. Forty years ago, nobody would put Toronto and Chicago in the same sentence, and for damn good reason. We had a couple of skyscrapers, some cool heritage structures and some neat neighbourhoods, but our size, infrastructure and culture were not even
close! Of course, tides are turning, and Toronto's growth has been unprecedented for well over a decade now. Consequently, we are having a sort of renaissance in this city, with thriving cultural/food/entertainment scenes, surging population growth, huge infrastructure projects underway and some massive modern and preservationist development, both good and bad.
I'll be the first to agree that our public realm has not kept up to this growth as well as it should, and for years development in this city has needed a paradigm shift. Traditionally, our projects were about satisfying the buyer and the buyer alone. Look at our oldest waterfront condos. Ugh. But I'll also argue that this is quickly changing, and new projects are finally giving back to the city, and not in the form of some kitschy art piece on a sidewalk. The Distillery seemed like a one-off at the time, but now projects like the Well, Bloor/Bathurst, 400 Front, Mirvish Gehry, etc. indicate that public realm improvements have become central to our next wave of development. Woonerfs, LEED-certified buildings and public plazas are becoming the norm. The City of Toronto may not be keeping up entirely, but let's not forget the dolt of a mayor we've finally rid ourselves of. This is a time for renewed optimism, if nothing else!
Ultimately, if the complaints come down to our concrete curbs, potholes and utility poles, I mean, well, duh. They're gross, ubiquitous, and definitely reflect badly on the city. But are we really surprised that these issues exist? Ideally they wouldn't, and we're right to strive for constant improvement, but need we really be so entitled? 40 years ago, our downtown was literally mostly parking lots. 20 years ago, we were lucky to have a single highrise project under construction. Adding to this, harsh winters and city-wide construction to accommodate all this growth are putting our roads through hell. But now all of a sudden we deserve buried wires and granite sidewalks on every block? These should ultimately be priorities, and new developments should be forced to make these efforts. But I don't know how the heck anyone thinks that Toronto's newfound status as a world city means that our history as a frontier town dominated by parking lots and nasty urban sprawl should instantly disappear.
EDIT: Apologies for going so off-topic. That'll end here. But I think my points stand. As for NPS, it does stand as a particularly bad example of public realm improvements. The city is clearly acknowledging this and is embarrassed by it. With a little luck, maybe it will serve as a case study of how to do it better next time.
