MisterF
Senior Member
That is depressing. And it's a good example of why steel poster collars are such a no brainer - no staples.
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Hipster Duck
Senior Member
One thing we coud do from now on is to make all poles and light standards out of materials that you can't staple nor wheat paste a poster onto. I'm thinking about rough, dimpled concrete or maybe using thin, steel rods bundled together like a thick cable to form a cylinder rather than a smooth, purely cylindrical surface.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
The mechanisms of quite a few of the garbage bins that I've tried are broken.
renvel
Active Member
poles & ligth standarts
What about to start pressing the City Hall to burry those ugly wooden poles across the street from the AGO on Dundas St.West?
Elegant light standarts would be good beginnig , the rest of the street furniture may follow...
What about to start pressing the City Hall to burry those ugly wooden poles across the street from the AGO on Dundas St.West?
Elegant light standarts would be good beginnig , the rest of the street furniture may follow...
TO City of Light
Active Member
Oh, if it were only the trashy street furniture
Oh, if it were only the trashy street furniture.
But we also have some rather off-putting human streetscapes in the prime parts of town that are not likely to impress any visitors. Here, I assume that Torontonians are sufficiently inured to these scenes that it does not bother them.
Anyway, some shots of old City Hall, City Hall, Bay and King and Bay and Bloor.
While all other cities certainly have their unfortunates who are homeless, few seem to accept their constant presence around their "crown jewels" - city hall, the financial centre of the country, the top tier shopping district.
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Oh, if it were only the trashy street furniture.
But we also have some rather off-putting human streetscapes in the prime parts of town that are not likely to impress any visitors. Here, I assume that Torontonians are sufficiently inured to these scenes that it does not bother them.
Anyway, some shots of old City Hall, City Hall, Bay and King and Bay and Bloor.
While all other cities certainly have their unfortunates who are homeless, few seem to accept their constant presence around their "crown jewels" - city hall, the financial centre of the country, the top tier shopping district.
.
Tewder
Senior Member
Those pictures are so Toronto. Thanks for the reminder.
TO City of Light
Active Member
Touristic toronto
I thought on that beautiful spring day about six weeks ago that I would take some pictures around Toronto's main square - the very heart of urban Toronto.
First perhaps a bus tour of the city, something that many first time visitors would be interested in doing. There is the welcoming sight of the ticket sales office, located conveniently in the plaza, with its carefully lettered sign advising of the next tour. One can only wonder at what the ",AND MORE" is.
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Honestly, doesn't the city even have Windows Word!
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Maybe a quick picture of the Henry Moore, public art for the people. If you pick the right spot, as this group so wisely did, you can even crop out the construction fencing that seems to be there for a while - no doubt a major repair job taking weeks if not months.
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The other street furniture in the square seems at least not to look out of place.
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Then perhaps a quiet expresso in the outdoor cafe - an interesting variation on the word "charm".
.
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I thought on that beautiful spring day about six weeks ago that I would take some pictures around Toronto's main square - the very heart of urban Toronto.
First perhaps a bus tour of the city, something that many first time visitors would be interested in doing. There is the welcoming sight of the ticket sales office, located conveniently in the plaza, with its carefully lettered sign advising of the next tour. One can only wonder at what the ",AND MORE" is.
.
.
Honestly, doesn't the city even have Windows Word!
.
.
Maybe a quick picture of the Henry Moore, public art for the people. If you pick the right spot, as this group so wisely did, you can even crop out the construction fencing that seems to be there for a while - no doubt a major repair job taking weeks if not months.
.
.
The other street furniture in the square seems at least not to look out of place.
.
.
Then perhaps a quiet expresso in the outdoor cafe - an interesting variation on the word "charm".
.
.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
When I cut through City Hall at night coming back from the Scotiabank there are dozens and dozens of homeless folks sleeping under ramps and on concrete benches, it's shameful.
condovo
Senior Member
Wait a minute. What about Streets-to-Homes? Didn't it just get a major cash infusion and isn't NPS ground-zero for that program?
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
I haven't been to Scotiabank since Feb. or March, too many bad experiences there.
Things may have changed recently, at least I hope that they have for the sake of those poor souls who find it safer to sleep in parks, doorways and civic spaces rather than take their chances in crime ridden, bed bug infested shelters.
Tewder
Senior Member
That this happens at NPS sort of says a lot about the state of this city. That nobody seems to care says a lot about the people of this city. Then again, I guess they both go hand in hand...
fiendishlibrarian
Active Member
The fundamental problem, I think, is that we need to start thinking about postering as we think of spam, as the vast majority of posters I see are for Internet-based businesses ending in ".com". And so once we view the issue in those terms, we can then take the analogy further: should the city be an enabler of this "spam"? If so, why? If most of us don't tolerate spam on a personal level (and junk mail, and flyers at our doors, etc.) through the use of things like spam filters, then why are we tolerating it in the public realm? Why are we allowing opportunistic companies using "public space" and other arguments to wallpaper the city using public assets, and cleaned at public expense in order to facilitate their profits? Why are we tolerating the usurpation of our streetscapes to these companies? Those are the questions we need to ask, otherwise all this fulminating against postering just leads nowhere.
I mean, in my area, I take down *hundreds* of posters every month (and these are along residential streets mostly, as I think I've finally convinced the city to use bag and broom men along Yonge to remove ads on poles, as the guys on the vacuum carts don't). The ones I don't get to, I get the city to remove. This spamming is ridiculous, and it can't continue, and the city can't hide behind the argument, well, the Supreme Court says it's legal, what can we do? Nonsense. BIAs are instrumental in controlling postering downtown along Yonge and in St. Lawrence, and this model should be expanded to other areas.
*This* is the fundamental problem. And, of course, educating people about this in such a fashion, such that I would like to see the city "name and shame" businesses that are constantly placing ads everywhere, and informing them about how much it costs *them*, the taxpayer, to clean it up, and whether you want to support companies who engage in that activity. And it's even as simple of tearing this crap down on your walk to the subway.
Incidentally, this site is an eyeopener: http://torontoadvertisinghallofshame.org/index.html
/rant
I mean, in my area, I take down *hundreds* of posters every month (and these are along residential streets mostly, as I think I've finally convinced the city to use bag and broom men along Yonge to remove ads on poles, as the guys on the vacuum carts don't). The ones I don't get to, I get the city to remove. This spamming is ridiculous, and it can't continue, and the city can't hide behind the argument, well, the Supreme Court says it's legal, what can we do? Nonsense. BIAs are instrumental in controlling postering downtown along Yonge and in St. Lawrence, and this model should be expanded to other areas.
*This* is the fundamental problem. And, of course, educating people about this in such a fashion, such that I would like to see the city "name and shame" businesses that are constantly placing ads everywhere, and informing them about how much it costs *them*, the taxpayer, to clean it up, and whether you want to support companies who engage in that activity. And it's even as simple of tearing this crap down on your walk to the subway.
Incidentally, this site is an eyeopener: http://torontoadvertisinghallofshame.org/index.html
/rant
H
Hydrogen
Guest
NPS is the symbol for parsimony in this city.
The night view north up Bay from Adelaide could look so grand with old City Hall framed so nicely. Instead, that grand gem is lit with the most bland illumination. NPS looks downright scary at night. The whole place is infused with a sense of civic abandonment. The only beacons of life are the chip wagons and their rattling generators.
Nothing says cosmopolitan like greasy chip trucks and a bleak public square.
The night view north up Bay from Adelaide could look so grand with old City Hall framed so nicely. Instead, that grand gem is lit with the most bland illumination. NPS looks downright scary at night. The whole place is infused with a sense of civic abandonment. The only beacons of life are the chip wagons and their rattling generators.
Nothing says cosmopolitan like greasy chip trucks and a bleak public square.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
Actually, most every light in NPS is turned off at midnight or 1am leaving the place completely in the dark.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
I didn't have to walk far today to see full, dirty garbage bins and scratched up (graffiti'd) bus shelters (glass?) along Bay Street. What a shame. I like the bus shelters but the glass needs to be scratch resistant, bullet proof or some damn thing....
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.
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