Yonge-Dundas Square/Sankofa Square (Brown + Storey Architects)

[Admiral Beez]

Considering the square needs work, and the city is broke, this was the perfect opportunity to sale the name rights to a company willing to pay for the Improvements needed and name change, so the city wouldn’t have to spend tax dollars.

Agreed. Canadian Tire Square. Why not? It’s a Toronto-based national firm employing tens of thousands. We’ve already got the Canadian Tire Centre for the Ottawa Senators and the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Clarington. And one of Canadian Tire’s best selling locations in located on Dundas, just west of Yonge.

Though we might need to redesign the square to be a triangle.

Mixed Reaction to Canadian Tire-Logo Accessible Playground

The City of St. John's is responding to concerns raised about city sponsorships with corporations. The convers...

vocm.com

​

 

[T.E.C.II]

...welp, the jury is back @interchange42 and delivered the verdict that this is probably a good start upon further thought and reading. They just now need to think of redesigning the whole bloody place from the ground up, making it less like a Time Square knock off and making it our own, IMO.

Yeah, they can call it whatever they want, it's still a poorly thought out space. I wish they could redesign it.

 

[zang]

Not trying to turn this into a political thread, but he was an abolitionist. It's pathetic that we're doing all this, over someone that tried to help abolish slavery. His only issue was that he wanted to do it in stages cause he thought giving them complete freedom at once might be to much of a shock to society and cause even more problems. Regardless of the strategy or method, his agenda was still to try and abolish it. Welcome to cancel culture.

So years after that "gradual" motion, when he was Secretary-at-War when the British forces bought slaves to fight Napoleon, and when he was president of the board of the East India Company who were still using slaves after it was banned in England, how much of an abolitionist was he? Or when he sought to push that "gradual" end date back even further, which the HoC ended up rejecting?

At the most, Dundas was an opportunist who knew well which way the winds of the public were blowing. He knew enough not to vote for slavery himself (to my knowledge, there are no known recorded votes or witnesses of Dundas-the-abolitionist voting for or against slavery), and as Scottish Whip and "Uncrowned King of Scotland", he had more than enough political power to have others do it for him.

Aside from that, he was just a terrible person by most accounts. Not many liked him; he took his wife's birthright and estate, and was later in life impeached for embezzling from the government. What a great man to be venerated for eternity in Southern Ontario, huh?

 

[tripwire]

I thought there was a recent ruling that didn't allow panhandling/busking/corner preachers in the area?

 

[zang]

I thought there was a recent ruling that didn't allow panhandling/busking/corner preachers in the area?

The bylaw about amplified noise? And it's mostly about requiring a permit in the first place.

Toronto installs signs at Yonge-Dundas square warning of no unpermitted busking

The City of Toronto is taking steps to remind buskers and vendors in the heart of the downtown core that they need a permit to be there.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

"There are no fines for violations, however a court summons is issued if there is non-compliance."

Not gonna do much.

 

[mcbg1]

"cleaning up" doesn't sound like care for people. It sounds like just not wanting to see it. Also, Ignorance ≠ Bliss.

The city says it cares about them. Time to show it instead of wasting our tax money with this non-sense renaming.

 

[zang]

The city says it cares about them. Time to show it instead of wasting our tax money with this non-sense renaming.

And how does the city alone do that? Without spending any of "our tax money"?

 

[mcbg1]

And how does the city alone do that? Without spending any of "our tax money"?

They're paid more than me to figure it out. I'm OK with them using whatever resources they can to improve the situation. Spending millions on this renaming accomplishes nothing and people should be outraged that this was approved without any public consultations.

 

[zang]

They're paid more than me to figure it out. I'm OK with them using whatever resources they can to improve the situation. Spending millions on this renaming accomplishes nothing and people should be outraged that this was approved without any public consultations.

First off, the square is run as a PPP, so the public doesn't necessarily have full say anyway.

But how about we rename it when it's due for a refurbishment? Would changing the name be acceptable then, when all the signage/wayfinding/etc is due to be replaced anyway? Not much actual cost in changing the name then. Because most of the infrastructure there is 20+ years old now and probably close to being due for replacement. Besides, there's a massive overhaul of Yonge St. in that area which will likely bring along changes too.

 

[mcbg1]

First off, the square is run as a PPP, so the public doesn't necessarily have full say anyway.

But how about we rename it when it's due for a refurbishment? Would changing the name be acceptable then, when all the signage/wayfinding/etc is due to be replaced anyway? Not much actual cost in changing the name then. Because most of the infrastructure there is 20+ years old now and probably close to being due for replacement. Besides, there's a massive overhaul of Yonge St. in that area which will likely bring along changes too.

There was no rush for this to happen now. The city is in a deficit. There are more and more people on the streets. There is no reason for the city to move ahead with this right now. They are only doing it to save face because they can't rename the actual street. People should be protesting this change. I will certainly write to my councillor and city hall.

 

[junctionist]

The city should have a national or provincial commission similar to Ottawa's National Capital Commission to deal with cultural matters like this one and to upgrade and maintain the public realm of our streets, parks, and squares in provincially and nationally significant parts of the city. No one wants to pay for this stuff out of property taxes alone, even though it matters to our cultural and economic competitiveness.

 

[zang]

There was no rush for this to happen now. The city is in a deficit. There are more and more people on the streets. There is no reason for the city to move ahead with this right now. They are only doing it to save face because they can't rename the actual street. People should be protesting this change. I will certainly write to my councillor and city hall.

That didn't really answer the question I was posing.

 

[thecharioteer]

It seems that the renaming of the Square was based on the sole mandate of "Confronting the Legacy of the Transatlantic Slave Trade" as per the title of the City Report that went to Council, and the recommendations of the Recognition Review Community Advisory Committee. One wonders how many other voices were heard, particularly the Downtown Yonge BIA, which has focused in recent years on the musical history of Yonge Street. Couldn't names celebrating this history (like Oscar Peterson, Gordon Lightfoot, Salome Bey or Ronnie Hawkins, all names on the murals at Yonge and Gerrard) been considered?

 

[ProjectEnd]

Until people stop being bleeding hearts it will just get worse. The poor poor drug addicts. Let's give them free hotels to stay in and free food. It's a sad state we live in that homeless and mentally unstable people are literally making feel unsafe to simply walk around downtown.

Yeah, wild. Unrelated question: how have cities that successfully brought down rates of homelessness and lessened the associated mental health issues gone about doing that?

 

[UtakataNoAnnex]

While I expect rebranding of this square will likely have some significant expenditures entailed, likely less so if The City keeps it inhouse...but I am curious to know what this will actually cost. Keep in mind there is no planned redesign of the square itself...

...but there seems to be a lot of speculation and assertions made by many of the commentary I am not sure is backed up or given adequate citation on the cost factor business. I think we need to move away from the bantering of the comment section of The Toronto Sun, to something more adult, nuanced and reasoned here, IMO. Because saying something is going to cost a whole lot, when it ends up really not...would be quite embarrassing, to put it mildly.