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30 May 08

» Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this (food) wall! • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

For a view of how Toronto would propose to "nanny" the street vendors, see Shawn Micallef's article here. It's amazing to note that the city would rather create an additional arm of bureaucracy "in charge" of the actual food carts, versus letting the vendors decide what sort of cart they want to use.

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spacing.ca urban_food street_vendors cities toronto

and lives up to whatever Soviet-style imagery they want to evoke. It’s more annoying because we find ourselves agreeing with these folks.
- ...indeed! - on 2008-05-30
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In the Star yesterday the Preston-Manning-of-Toronto-Danforth, Case Ootes, complains that “we have to micromanage everything,” and for once, we agree.
3 more annotations...
- But no, too easy. The meddlers had to engineer it into delay and confusion. First, the city wanted to borrow $700,000 to buy 35 carts and lease them out for $450 a month. Why not just set the cart standards and leave it to the private sector to provide and sell? Because the city wants to block “conglomerates” from taking over this new venture.
- The solution is easy. Forget about this centralized cart-leasing scheme. Issue permits to individual human beings, and then let them decided what kind of cart they will use. Establish some general cart guidelines, but that’s it (”no towering neon signs,” that sort of thing). Maybe some of them will tap into Toronto’s vast design talent and get a unique, locally built cart. Then let them serve whatever they want. Then send around Toronto’s great food inspectors, who enforce some of the world’s toughest food hygiene laws, and see if they’re up to code, just like we do with restaurants in this city. If they’re clean, they would have lineups of austerity-weary customers immediately.
- the creative entrepreneurial spirit in Toronto can move at the speed of light — all that creative city stuff we keep hearing about — but only if we let it happen
  - Exactly! - on 2008-05-30
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22 May 08

» Book Review: Urban Nation, by Alan Broadbent • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Book review of Alan Broadbent's Urban Nation, by Spacing's Dylan Reid. From May 2/08 (missed this when it came out).

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alan_broadbent spacing.ca cities canada municipal_funding infrastructure_funding

With the publication of his book Urban Nation, Broadbent is stepping our from behind the scenes into the limelight. The book succinctly summarizes his thinking about the role and challenges of cities in Canada, developed over years of discussion with experts, advocates, and politicians.
The essential premise of the book is that, as the title indicates, Canada has become an urban nation, but our self-image and our government structures have not yet caught up to this new reality. Broadbent traces the transformation of our nation from a largely rural one into an urban one, with almost 80% of the population living in cities, over the course of the 20th century.
7 more annotations...
- Particularly interesting is his distinction between two phases of urbanization. With industrialization in the mid-20th century, all cities expanded rapidly, both large and mid-sized. From the 1980s, however, he shows that urbanization has been concentrated in the largest cities, especially Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. He argues that they are becoming a new kind of city in Canada, with distinctive needs, and require new powers and a new way of thinking if they are to sustain their leading role in Canada’s economy. These are the cities he focuses on (he fluctuates between the cities themselves and their larger metropolitan area, depending on the issue).
- Broadbent shows the shortcomings of the current model of large-city municipal governance, in which cities of millions of people, with complex social and infrastructure needs, are governed according to rules set out in 1867 when Canada’s largest cities were little more than towns. While there are many individual problems, such as revenue sources restricted to property taxes and fees, the crucial problem is that cities are entirely dependent on provincial governments for permission to do anything new in any field of activity.
- This situation makes it impossible for Canadian cities to develop coherent, long-term programs and infrastructure to deal with the challenges faced by jurisdictions with millions of residents and billions of dollars of economic activity, because funding and powers can be arbitrarily changed or removed at any moment. The various current programs and proposals to “share” federal and provincial revenues (gas taxes, 1% of GST) are not much use because they can be taken away at any time, wrecking whatever programs were dependent on them. Broadbent argues
  
  Control of destiny is at the heart of the new deal for cities. Cities need to be able to have a vision of their future, to create a credible plan to get there, and to implement the policies and programs that make that future vision a reality. (76)
- But his most spectacular proposal is that the three major cities should get province-like powers, or even become provinces.
- One possibility Broadbent does not really examine in detail is the intermediate idea that cities could get more complete power over those areas of jurisdiction they are currently assigned, becoming genuinely autonomous municipal governments. What if cities had the power to assess any kind of user fee within their boundaries, such as congestion charges, without referring to the province? What if cities could develop their own system to assess properties for taxation, or to organize their government structure?
- People worry that cities would make mistakes, but, as Broadbent notes in a key passage:
  
  The practice of provincial and federal governments treating city governments like children tends to make them act like children. And anyone who has raised children knows that they become responsible people by being given responsibility. (77)
  
  It’s time that big city governments were allowed to take full responsibility for managing municipal issues as they wish, with all the risks and possibilities that entails.
- Ironically, Broadbent unwittingly provides the answer himself in his own exploration of the importance of big cities. He notes that big cities are where people go to get the best jobs, where the economy is directed from and managed. While big cities may be emasculated politically, in economic terms they are dominant — more so than at any time in the past. This fact is crucial to understanding why big cities get no sympathy. Such dominance inevitably creates resentment and resistance from the rest of the nation.

22 Apr 08

» The ROM CAN… well, pretend to be accessible • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Great (short) article by Leah Sandals on Spacing Toronto re. Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and its admissions pricing/ policies. Best of all is the comments thread, where several people really let T.O. have it in terms of pointing out how dreadfully expensive it is, especially compared to places like New York City, where even private museums have policies that allow the less-well-off to have free (or pay what you can) admission to museums/ institutions on a regular basis.

Canada has a democracy deficit, and this article (plus comments) shows how and where it plays out.

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spacing.ca museums access toronto rom free cultural_support democracy_deficit canada

you’ll still have to fork over the usual $20 on Tuesdays. Oh, and on Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday and most of Wednesdays and Fridays too. If you can plan your week around getting a look at the stuff your own taxes pay for, you might want to save up for $10 Friday evenings or try the one hour of completely gratis access on Wednesdays from 4:30 to 5:30.
While I think the United Way and so many other hardworking Toronto organizations rock, this still in no way addresses the bulk of the ROM’s mandate, which is to provide equitable access to all Ontarians to their own heritage.
10 more annotations...
- Second, all this “access outsourcing” the ROM is doing is a bit worrisome. It started with the Museum Arts Pass Program, launched in June of last year, which is essentially administrated by the Toronto Public Library. Now, they’ve passed some more access responsibilities along to the United Way and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. Essentially it’s the arts-and-culture version of Mike Harris’s social services downloading of the 1990s.
  - Holy smokes! (She's right.) - on 2008-04-22
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- There are so many other very reasonable access options the ROM has effectively decided against: Free access to the permanent collection. Free access for a day or an evening. Keeping all admission fees at $10 or under. Having concession fees for the underemployed. Admission by donation. The list goes on. Almost every museum in Canada has some combination of these strategies–and has to, in order to keep their funding and their reputation.
  
  By throwing more money at the ROM without keeping them to a truly equitable public mandate, McGuinty is basically encouraging bad behavior in their museum management. Maybe he can abide by that. But I certainly can’t.
- Shame there was no mention of museum access in other cities. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Toronto the single most expensive city on the planet Earth for visiting the centrepiece museum? Isn’t there something wrong with that? Something that letting a few students in for free will not exactly address? Just as Pearson is the world’s most expensive airport (landing fees), but no one seems to care, there is a surprising tolerance for this gouging.
  
  Cities, TTC, museums, airports - exactly how poor a country is Canada when it comes to government funding of anything other than health care? Think about that while you pay the world’s highest prices (plus GST!) for transit fares, airline tickets, ROM admission….
- They don’t call it the “Royal” Ontario Museum for nothing.
- They have also canceled the free access for teachers to preview exhibits for field trips which is a drag.
- I agree that TO is not the most expensive city in the world. But the ROM fees are still far from reasonable and fair. This is particularly so for their permanent collection, which are the objects the public in effect owns. That’s why in MTL at the fine arts museum it’s free to see the permanent collection, extra for special exhibitions. Same at the Tate in London.
  
  Also, the Louvre (9 euro daytime admission) has a variety of access strategies that the ROM does not: Discounts every day after 6pm. Free for all the first Sunday of every month. Free for those under 18 all the time. Free for those under 26 on Friday evenings. Free for those with disabilities, and their companions. Free for the unemployed. Free for those on social benefits. And these are obtained right at the gate, no need to get in line for rationed passes.
  
  And the American Museum of Natural History permanent collection access is always by donation. They suggest certain donations, but ultimately all visitors regardless of income, can, yes, see the dinosaurs. Temporary exhibits require payment, as with the Tate and other museums.
- uSkyscraper, there is a tolerance for price gouging in TO. Partly it has to do with a generally higher cost of living compared to other Canadian cities. And partly it has to do with costs downloaded from the province. But partly I think it also has to do with the idea that we can’t be “big time” until our cultural events are expensive. It’s really ridiculous. The MoMA in NYC charges $20, but it is a private museum, a rather different situation. Oh, and one more potential reason: many museums of late have mistaken “press coverage” and “tourist draw” for “quality museum management.” Not the same thing.
- A London monthly card for zone 1-2 is 93 pounds but that is also good for rail. A Twin Pass for GO/TTC is no longer available but for a comparable region it would cost far more than $185.
  
  Based on purchasing power (relative to salaries, etc.) I still stand by my statement. Toronto is a bargain when it comes to skating rinks or housing or cost of living in general, but anything civic or infrastructure-related tends to be very, very expensive. To add to my list of “most expensive” — per-km toll highway, commuter train fares, observation decks…(ok, that last one is private and not civic but I still find it annoying.)
  
  Leah is quite correct — all museums in New York that receive any city funding must use pay-what-you-wish admission or lose city funds. A noble principle that should apply to the ROM. MoMA is private and costs $20, but even that museum is free on Friday nights (4-8 pm).
- Admission to the ROM, what with all the public funding it receives, should be based on suggested donation, along with possibly an admission ticket required for special exhibitions and the such. This way, let the clueless tourists shell out the suggested admission and everyone else get in for whatever they want to pay.
  
  I am a New Yorker, and one of my favorite things about growing up there was how I could go to the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the same day for, well, 5 cents each, with a stroll through Central Park thrown in. My high school was a short walk away from the Met, and we would go there to hang out after-school (dorky? yes. awesome? yes)
  
  And as a UofT student, I would love to go to ROM on a regular basis - and now I will be able to. But it would be ultimately better for everyone if that were the case for all of us. Toronto would do well to create a stronger sense of civic pride and belonging, and cultural institutions of course play a huge part in that.
  
  But the ROM does not at all feel like it is a public institution. I remember being annoyed when I heard about how they were having a ’special’ opening for the rich (or whoever) before the ‘official’ opening of the crystal last year - and really, wtf was that? Sure, throw a ball for those that contributed money - but to have it before the public opening just told me that they did not want to have them in there after us common folk contaminated the place.
  
  But really, everything, and I mean everything, in Toronto seems to be more expensive than what I experienced in NYC - and the quality is worse - and there is no reason why it should be that way.
- Do working poor people really have time to spend at any museum or gallery? I recall freebie nights at the AGO attracting mostly middle class but cheap Torontonians and some students–most of whom come from middleclass backgrounds.
  
  But yeah, make the ROM free from midnight to six AM!:)

19 Mar 08

» Cash-strapped Americans re-examine driving habits • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Spacing Toronto's Matthew Blackett presents some interesting statistics from a CNN Money article about a national poll on how gasoliine prices are affecting (and will affect) American driving habits.

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driving gasoline habits prices spacing.ca

• Rising fuel prices have caused most Americans to cut back on their driving. Of the over 1,000 American adults surveyed in the poll conducted March 14-16, 64% said they have made some changes to their driving behavior as a result of higher gas prices, with 19% saying they have cut back on driving enough to have a major effect on their daily lives. And 5% say they have stopped driving altogether.

• If gasoline hits an average $4.50 a gallon Americans say they will reduce the miles they drive significantly enough to affect their daily lives.

• If gasoline hits an average of $8 a gallon, Americans said they would quit driving altogether.

20 Feb 08

» The Hidden Jewel of Hull • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Interview with Marc Dube, "owner of most of the parking lots in downtown Hull." Parking lots are lucrative, as Dube's start in the business illustrates: "In the mid 1980s, Dubé and two others planned to open a restaurant in downtown Hull. The financing fell through after they had already signed the lease on a building. Dubé realized an alternate source of income: he could demolish the building and put in a parking lot. Since his partners weren’t interested, he began the business on his own." Read on from there.

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spacing.ca surface_parking_lots toronto urban_design urban_renewal

As he explained it: “We were three waiters that were supposed to renovate an old building into a restaurant…It was some kind of a deviation from the original idea.” Needless to say, his deviation was a success:

Well, 22 years ago the parking industry was not known at all here – like it was in Montreal, Toronto, busier cities, Ottawa. And now everybody knows about this business; but before, nobody. It was like a hidden jewel. It was something that nobody knew at that point and I just had the opportunity to go into that industry. And now, everybody wants to, would love to have parking because it’s a low maintenance company. Like once you add your trees and your paving and your booth you just wait for your customer to come in. It’s a simple industry. It’s not a complicated industry. And the beauty of it is that you get revenues that pay for your land, and your land keeps taking value. So then in 10, 12 years it’s a retirement fund, pension plan.
Not every parking lot he opened did well. When asked if there are ever unsuccessful lots that people just don’t use, Dubé replied, “Yes, because some of them are too far from the activity. So if you have to walk five miles after you park your car, it’s not convenient. So the people at that point are going to go to plan B, which is the bus or the train.”
3 more annotations...
- How did Dubé manage to build all of those parking lots without intervention from Hull residents, from the city, or from anyone else?
- Dubé says his parking lot clients are “mostly government people, business people, industry surrounding the government people – like the fax, photocopiers reparation, things like that. At night restaurants, bars –that’s mostly the clientele”. Hull’s lots were not built for the neighbourhood – although local entrepreneurs and businesses feel they need parking in order to have customers.
  - Yikes, sounds like Victoria's m.o. from late-70s, into 80s and beyond, now thank heavens changing because of residential pressures. - on 2008-02-20
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- In Dubé’s eyes, parking lots are temporary spaces biding their time storing cars before being developed into condos. Parking lots are spaces that change; owners don’t necessarily conceive of them as permanent. Eventually someone turns them into something else.
  - - their silver lining, I guess (unless they displaced older heritage buildings, in which case, "no lining for you, bub'..." - on 2008-02-20
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11 Feb 08

» Toronto Prairie: Our (almost) missing style • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Short post by Spacing Toronto's Thomas Wicks on Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style, specifically one lone example of same in Deer Park, a suburban T.O. neighbourhood. I added a comment, re. the house's use of what looks like the textile block system.

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architecture frank_lloyd_wright prairie_style spacing.ca textile_block_system toronto

» One Book: Natural Light • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Essay reflecting natural light usage in Victorian architecture by Spacing Wire's Dylan Reid. "Perhaps, in their appreciation for and management of natural light, our Victorian predecessors can remind us of an important consideration in city-building." I added a comment to his entry.

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adaptability architecture lighting spacing.ca toronto

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Yule Heibel's Library tagged spacing.ca → View Popular

» Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this (food) wall! • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

» Book Review: Urban Nation, by Alan Broadbent • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

» The ROM CAN… well, pretend to be accessible • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

» Cash-strapped Americans re-examine driving habits • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

» The Hidden Jewel of Hull • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

» Toronto Prairie: Our (almost) missing style • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

» One Book: Natural Light • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

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