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Shabby Public Realm

syn said:
I have some friends visiting from out of town a few weeks ago. They'd been away from Toronto for about 5 years.

Overall they were surprised at how many changes the city had seen and how much bigger it felt. They also noted the efforts at beautification (planters, flowers, etc.) that made a big difference.

Toronto has a long way to go, but hopefully we're on the right track.
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Hmm I struggle to think of any specific widespread improvements over the past 5 years. I guess when you live it every day, it’s hard to appreciate the small changes.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
Hmm I struggle to think of any specific widespread improvements over the past 5 years. I guess when you live it every day, it’s hard to appreciate the small changes.
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Off the top of my head.

Queen's Quay
Bloor Street - with living trees, LOL
Market Street by the St. Lawrence Market is a gem
Bike lanes on Adelaide and Richmond divided off by planters filled with flowers
Front Street in front of Union Stn, beautiful pavers and flowers.

We are making progress, even if it could be faster.
 
Northern Light said:
Off the top of my head.

Queen's Quay
Bloor Street - with living trees, LOL
Market Street by the St. Lawrence Market is a gem
Bike lanes on Adelaide and Richmond divided off by planters filled with flowers
Front Street in front of Union Stn, beautiful pavers and flowers.

We are making progress, even if it could be faster.
Click to expand...
I would add the other 'promenade plans" in the St Lawrence area - not all are great but all DID make these stretches of street better.

Front Street East (Jarvis to Parliament). Buried most overhead wiring, added decorative streetlights (which Hydro now say they cannot maintain!) Created 'bump-outs' at many intersections . Planted more trees.

Lower Sherbourne. Front to rail berm. Separated bike track, planters with deep soil and trees , buried wires.

The Esplanade. Lower Jarvis to Scott. Wider sidewalks, buried wires, tree pits.

Next up is Wellington from Church to Yonge - supposedly still on the 2020 'to do" list. and then maybe Colborne.

Many of these were done in the days when Community Planning had time and staff available to work on planning streets. Now it seems to be done by Transportation who are still rather more 'car-centric!
 
Good examples.

Individual stores/businesses are also displaying some of their own flowers, etc. The overall effect is noticeable.

My friends did mention the city feeling bigger - I can definitely understand that. There's so much construction that things have definitely changed a lot in 5 years. Sometimes I'm even surprised to see a new building or how far a project has progressed.

The beautification efforts started with Miller - glad to see they're continuing, even if it's not as fast as we'd all like.
 
DSC said:
I would add the other 'promenade plans" in the St Lawrence area - not all are great but all DID make these stretches of street better.

Front Street East (Jarvis to Parliament). Buried most overhead wiring, added decorative streetlights (which Hydro now say they cannot maintain!) Created 'bump-outs' at many intersections . Planted more trees.

Lower Sherbourne. Front to rail berm. Separated bike track, planters with deep soil and trees , buried wires.

The Esplanade. Lower Jarvis to Scott. Wider sidewalks, buried wires, tree pits.

Next up is Wellington from Church to Yonge - supposedly still on the 2020 'to do" list. and then maybe Colborne.

Many of these were done in the days when Community Planning had time and staff available to work on planning streets. Now it seems to be done by Transportation who are still rather more 'car-centric!
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I really love the way Market Street turned out.

I'm hoping for more of that along a reimagined Colbourne, and Victoria/Scott (south of King).

I mean look at this: (from https://www.thestar.com/opinion/sta...y-torontos-greatest-streets-work-so-well.html)

203169


Love that!

More please!
 
Tweet from Joe Cressy:

Executive Committee just unanimously endorsed our plan to transform University Avenue. There are certain streets in Toronto that, with the right vision, could be great. And this is one of them. It is dramatically underused in terms of city building.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1187114255277068291

Agenda item: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2019.EX9.7

It’s a temporary art installation. Doesn’t relate to the Great Streets plan, unfortunately.
 
I was discussing the repaving of a private parking lot behind a commercial building the other day. There is a strip of land adjacent to the commercial building and lot owned by the city and currently used as private boulevard parking. The strip requires annual permit payment to the city and that permit can be revoked at any time without compensation. Apparently the responsibility for pavement, upkeep and improvement of the land is the responsibility of the permit holder not the City. Is it any wonder why these parcels of land are shabby? You could pay $25,000 to repave and improve the strip and the city could revoke your permit the next day with no compensation!
 
TrickyRicky said:
I was discussing the repaving of a private parking lot behind a commercial building the other day. There is a strip of land adjacent to the commercial building and lot owned by the city and currently used as private boulevard parking. The strip requires annual permit payment to the city and that permit can be revoked at any time without compensation. Apparently the responsibility for pavement, upkeep and improvement of the land is the responsibility of the permit holder not the City. Is it any wonder why these parcels of land are shabby? You could pay $25,000 to repave and improve the strip and the city could revoke your permit the next day with no compensation!
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Property owners are ALWAYS responsible for maintenance of the City owned boulevards adjacent to their property and up to the sidewalk. It is not only boulevard parking licencees. You find this an issue in suburbs when a homeowner thinks they own all of their front lawn and then the City comes along to widen the road or sidewalk and takes half of it away. It's partly why folks in Etobicoke do not want sidewalks on many residential streets - they will make "their" front lawns smaller.
 
^I’m not even saying that the system is wrong; However, it’s a recipe for a shabby public realm when the City maintains full control but abdicates responsibility for the design, maintenance and upkeep of it’s own land. The system relies on private land holders to invest their own resources to overstep their jurisdiction. It would be like tasking people living around a city park with maintaining that park and funding it’s capital improvements ...oh wait we kind of do that too.
 
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WislaHD said:
I hope this could lead to support for Eglinton Connects now that we are nearing the end of the construction timeline.
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So far, this seems to be focused on buildings, I certainly hope that extends to the public realm.

Eglinton Connects would be great to see; but my personal top priority, let's replace those hideously ugly waste/recycle bins in our parks!

After that, I'd love to see a line-item to support beautifying TTC Stations; but not cheaply.......go big or go home! Value engineering is outlawed; no bare trackside walls, no utilitarian lighting, no missing ceilings!
 
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A propos to nothing you guys are talking about but very much in keeping with the theme of a shabby public realm:

Can we please cancel all chain link fences? They look like shite! Why can't we use those fancier versions of metal fences they're fond of in Europe? The stuff we use here is bruuuutal.
 
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