Spacing Wire: Toronto from a San Franciscan’s perspective

[Transportfan]

That's my point: downtown Manhattan, downtown Chicago, downtown Toronto are safe. It's the suburbs that are becoming scary.

The South Bronx is hardly suburban.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

From the Post:

Californians see Toronto the Good

Sarah Karlinsky, National Post
Published: Monday, August 18, 2008

The current issue of Urbanist, the monthly magazine of the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association, is themed ''Learning From Toronto,'' a mostly upbeat survey of our city. The package is introduced with the following column:

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At first glance, Toronto is not a beautiful city. As Toronto's former chief planner and current "urban mentor" Paul Bedford explained to us on our first night in Toronto, the city is about "business first, not about beauty first." But, he went on to say, it's a city that has "good bones."

Good bones, indeed. The bones are not just in the physical structure of the city -- a geographic form defined by Lake Ontario and a series of deep ravines that run through the city, inciting a comparison to an inverted San Francisco. The bones are also in the main streets that are the backbone of Toronto and in the transit infrastructure that the city and the region are now rapidly outgrowing.

As Jane Jacobs (who left New York City with her family to escape the draft, and settled in Toronto in 1968) explained in an essay in Places magazine, Toronto's main streets are "the most basic 'self ' of the city." Why? Because Toronto's main streets traverse its many neighbourhoods, they are a live part of the city: "They provide a congenial form for the city; if they hadn't they would have disintegrated." Walking along Spadina, one of Toronto's main streets, you get a strong sense of how it ties together many Torontos, from downtown to a bustling Chinatown and beyond.

Toronto's bones also are to be found its transit infrastructure-- a system that Toronto is in danger of rapidly outgrowing. Toronto's population is expanding at a rapid clip (boosted in part by tremendous immigration, both from inside and outside Canada), and the city expects to pass Chicago as the fourth-largest city in North America. The key to its successful growth will be a major reinvestment in its aging transit infrastructure. Metrolinx, a newly created regional transportation authority, is in the process of assessing what that level of investment will be, and what types of land use changes are required to make that investment worthwhile.

The good bones of Toronto extend beyond its physical infrastructure to its "human infrastructure" -- that is to say, its citizenry. There is a booming civic culture in Toronto, defined by such efforts as Spacing Magazine, a quarterly publication devoted to understanding Toronto and prodding it toward a better, more sustainable future, and [[[murmur]]], a project in which Torontonians' recorded stories about specific locations may be accessed by calling a telephone number found on sculptural signs that look like big green ears posted throughout the city. A new Toronto bicycle coalition is in the works. A project called "City Idol," in which ordinary Torontonians competed with one another a la American Idol for a shot at running for Toronto City Council, produced an amazing slate of potential candidates --one that in its gender, ethnic and racial diversity bore little resemblance to the current council, composed largely of white males.

There also are many ways in which Toronto is at risk of failing to capitalize on what it has. With the exception of an effort to channel development into its main streets and several key areas, for instance, the city appears to do no meaningful neighbourhood planning work. Toronto's ability to do this kind of planning is complicated by the fact that all land use decisions in Toronto can be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board--an arm of the provincial government -- which is considerably more conservative than the city of Toronto. This means that all major land use fights in the city are punted to what is largely a judicial regional body, one that is not required to respect local land use concerns.

While concentrating more authority over land use decisions in the hands of state or regional bodies is critical to stopping sprawl, by almost all accounts the OMB is an extremely gross tool, one that may (or may not) direct growth to the right locations, but that cannot, by design, respond to the fine-grained needs of the neighbourhoods. The province also has not granted the city the authority necessary to pass its own inclusionary housing ordinance, meaning that any requirements to build affordable housing are negotiated project by project. While the region is trying to implement its smart growth vision, the city does not seem to be able to do the meaningful neighborhood planning work necessary to make that vision a success. - Sarah Karlinsky is policy director of the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association.
Download the full magazine at http://www.spur.org/

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/story.html?id=730520

AoD

 

[ShonTron]

It can be very refreshing to see the viewpoints from our peer cities, where they see the good from the bad and can offer simple ways in which we can improve.

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I can't believe that people here are equating Toronto's suburbs with the really scary areas that exist elsewhere.

I'll walk down Jane Street from Steeles south at night, no problem or through Regent Park.

I've walked through Downtown Detroit at night after a Tigers game. I have walked (in daylight hours) through some sketchy areas (by Detroit standards), and drove through very "scary" areas. I've taken public transit in Baltimore, South Side LA, Detroit (both D-DOT and SMART). Though I would not take up an offer to walk through parts of Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington or LA at night, though my tolerance point is much higher than average. It's when you get lost in these areas, and don't know where you are going can things feel scary at all.

 

[W. K. Lis]

It can be very refreshing to see the viewpoints from our peer cities, where they see the good from the bad and can offer simple ways in which we can improve.

---

I can't believe that people here are equating Toronto's suburbs with the really scary areas that exist elsewhere.

I'll walk down Jane Street from Steeles south at night, no problem or through Regent Park.

I've walked through Downtown Detroit at night after a Tigers game. I have walked (in daylight hours) through some sketchy areas (by Detroit standards), and drove through very "scary" areas. I've taken public transit in Baltimore, South Side LA, Detroit (both D-DOT and SMART). Though I would not take up an offer to walk through parts of Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington or LA at night, though my tolerance point is much higher than average. It's when you get lost in these areas, and don't know where you are going can things feel scary at all.

I was in Dallas, Texas a few years ago on a seminar, and saw this image on a doorway into an office building:

Now THAT is scary!

 

[Whoaccio]

Sometimes I like to think some things, like don't bring a handgun into you're place of work, can be left unsaid. That basic human intelligence is sufficient for people to figure things like that out. I mean, I remember a few years ago an NFL player got suspended for bringing an assault rifle to a game in his trunk.

 

[Glen]

Having Spur heap praise on Spacing is like Ed Broadbent declaring Jack Layton the best federal leader.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Here is the full mag from SPUR:

http://www.spur.org/newsletters/0808Urbanist.pdf

AoD

 

[brad-514]

Here is the full mag from SPUR:

http://www.spur.org/newsletters/0808Urbanist.pdf

AoD

That was really interesting, thanks for the link.

Is there anything like SPUR in Toronto?

 

[Tewder]

From the Post:

Californians see Toronto the Good

Sarah Karlinsky, National Post
Published: Monday, August 18, 2008

The current issue of Urbanist, the monthly magazine of the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association, is themed ''Learning From Toronto,'' a mostly upbeat survey of our city. The package is introduced with the following column:

---

At first glance, Toronto is not a beautiful city. As Toronto's former chief planner and current "urban mentor" Paul Bedford explained to us on our first night in Toronto, the city is about "business first, not about beauty first." But, he went on to say, it's a city that has "good bones."
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/toronto/story.html?id=730520

AoD

True though it may be it really depresses me to see Toronto described in this way. 'Ugly but with good bones'. Good lord, it sounds like the sweet but homely girl your mother would try to set you up with. This is all the more depressing when you think how little a make-over would suffice to make her a little more hot and sexy.

 

[adma]

True though it may be it really depresses me to see Toronto described in this way. 'Ugly but with good bones'. Good lord, it sounds like the sweet but homely girl your mother would try to set you up with. This is all the more depressing when you think how little a make-over would suffice to make her a little more hot and sexy.

So? We're worthy of America. Ferrera, that is.

 

[christiesplits]

I can't tell you how refreshing it is to hear an outsider's largely positive take on the city.

If you were to read UT or Spacing Wire, you'd think that this city was on a path of neglect.

If you were to read Royson James or Sue Ann Levy, you'd think that this city was on a path to armageddon.

That isn't to say Toronto can't do better, but its comforting to know that we could be ALOT worse.

 

[syn]

That's a nice little take on the city. I find a lot of Torontonians (especially the ones in the suburbs) are very down on the city. I think everyone should spend some time exploring it as tourists to gain more of an appreciation for it.

 

[Hydrogen]

True though it may be it really depresses me to see Toronto described in this way. 'Ugly but with good bones'.

I don't think anyone called the place ugly.

There are parts of the city that are really quite visually attractive, and others that have a character that makes them attractive if one has an affinity to the qualities found in those places.

I find stretches of Queen hard on the eye, but I wouldn't want to change them for that reason alone. Once one actually sees what's along the street, the look starts to feel appropriate. Then again, I find carved up side-walks, dead trees and tilting poster-covered utility poles in the downtown core idiotic. It makes the city look uncared for.

 

[Tewder]

I don't think anyone called the place ugly.

Well like it or not, it is hard to dismiss the fact that visitors to Toronto, who may not yet 'get' the vibe of the place or appreciate 'urban messiness', are often unimpressed by the appearance of the city, to say the least. I have to admit myself that while walking around town during the film festival recently I was pretty shocked but the pervasive ugliness and decriptness everywhere, and I wasn't off the beaten track.

There are parts of the city that are really quite visually attractive, and others that have a character that makes them attractive if one has an affinity to the qualities found in those places..

I would agree, but that is essentially the 'bones' that were mentioned. Toronto has great bones which is why the condition of the city, and the lack of disregard for pure aesthetics, is such a shame.

I find stretches of Queen hard on the eye, but I wouldn't want to change them for that reason alone. Once one actually sees what's along the street, the look starts to feel appropriate. Then again, I find carved up side-walks, dead trees and tilting poster-covered utility poles in the downtown core idiotic. It makes the city look uncared for.

Yep, agree.