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06 Oct 08

"TEDCO gets whacked. Who's next?" by Christopher Hume (TheStar.com)

Hume rips into municipal politics, as well as provincial rights over cities, in a way that to my mind evokes parallels with Victoria, BC. The point of departure is Toronto's seeming inability to develop its waterfront with any sort of sensibility or vision. Sounds familiar (re. Victoria). See notes & annotations for more.

www.thestar.com/510714 - Preview

thestar toronto christopher_hume canada cities infrastructure municipal_politics tedco waterfront

the need for intervention has been apparent for years, if not decades. But in a city known for timidity and political cowardice, that means little.
From the moment the waterfront agency was set up, TEDCO treated it as a rival. Using the city-owned land it controlled as leverage, it commissioned parallel master plans and made deals for iffy projects such as the Corus headquarters building at the foot of Jarvis St. and the film studio in the docklands.
9 more annotations...
- the fact is that the governance structures of Canada, let alone Toronto, are so ineptly framed and out of date it's a wonder we manage to get anything done. Many would say we don't, that we lurch from crisis to crisis always reacting, always playing catch-up and rarely, if ever, leading.
  Perhaps that's why the quality of leadership at all levels has fallen so low. From the received banalities of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the pompous inanities of Toronto City Council, the options range from bad to worse. We inhabit a nation where no leadership is good leadership.
  - That criticism applies broadly all over in Canada, unfortunately. - on 2008-10-06
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- The truth, however, is that Canada and Toronto have many TEDCOs, many governmental entities whose role, intended or not, is to block progress, maintain the status quo and generally serve as obstacles.
- Then, of course, there's Toronto City Council itself, overstuffed and underperforming, it desperately needs to be rethought. Because of its size and ward-based politics, it can no longer cope with the issues that face the country's largest city. Indeed, as far as our civic representatives are concerned, Toronto isn't a city so much as a series of small towns, each with its own boss. Little wonder leadership here no longer comes from city hall but the cultural, corporate and institutional sectors.
  - - interesting that Hume castigates the ward system, which Sue Woods (candidate for Victoria council) proposed as a possible solution to our amalgamation (or: avoidance of amalgamation) issues. Victoria is currently 13 municipalities, each its own fiefdom, each with its own mayor and council. But the city would benefit from a stronger provincial and national presence through amalgamation (which is fiercely resisted by Oak Bay and most of Saanich, however). But would a ward system really alleviate the feudal mentality? According to Hume, it hasn't done so in Toronto... - on 2008-10-06
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- Still, it's the provinces that provide the most glaring example of Canada's failure to keep up with its own evolution. Not only have they outlived their usefulness, these relics have become a divisive force that stand in the way of Canadian cities, which is where the future will unfold. Just look at Calgary and Edmonton, which despite being the most populous centres in Canada's richest province, are dull, dreary and decades behind the times.
  The fact is that the gap between Canada and its political system has grown into a chasm. Our leaders – civic, provincial and federal – no longer reflect or operate in the real world. Unencumbered by the demands of reality, they are free to devote their time to their own needs and inter-governmental squabbling. It's really all they are able to do.
- 1. Ontario Municipal Board
  The Issue: Created in the late 19th century, the widely despised OMB has had final say in civic planning decisions ever since. Unelected, unaccountable and unacceptable, the board has run roughshod over city plans and residents’ wishes too many times. Its powers also have a deadly infantilizing effect on city politicians and planners, especially in Toronto.
  
  The Gain: Abolishing the OMB would force cities to grow up and take charge of their own destiny
  - - happily, I don't think we have a BC equivalent of this organization, which sounds frightening in terms of its ability to interfere in municipal self-governance. - on 2008-10-06
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- 2. The Toronto Parking Authority
  
  The Issue: The TPA showed its hand earlier this year when it announced plans to buy Club Matador at Dovercourt and College to make way for a parking lot. The main users of this proposed lot would have been visitors to the nearby YMCA.
  
  The Gain: The 1950s are over and Toronto is trying desperately to redefine its relationship with the automobile. The city needs to focus on pedestrians and bike riders, not drivers. Its useful days are over.
  - - ditto, we don't have anything as asinine as this. - on 2008-10-06
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- 3. The Toronto Port Authority
  - - we do have this; we have probably about 5 levels of government owning and interfering in Victoria's waterfront: the Feds, the Province, the Port Authority, the CRD, the City.... the military (or is that the Feds again?, probably), and so on... - on 2008-10-06
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- 4. The Toronto Planning Department
  - - some parallel problems here in Victoria, insofar as Planning is routinely interfered with by councilors. - on 2008-10-06
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- 6. The Provinces
  
  The Issue: Established at a time when Canada was little more than its landscape, the provinces have failed to keep up with the country’s emergence as a post-modern, overwhelmingly urban nation. The British North America Act gives provinces control over cities and allows them to become major obstacles. Until they are eliminated or reduced, they will continue to stand in the way of Canada’s ability to realize its potential.
  - hear, hear. - on 2008-10-06
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02 Oct 08

How to Create a Vibrant Waterfront | Project for Public Spaces (PPS)

Portal page for two additional links, "10 Qualities of a Great Waterfront" and "The 9 most important steps in revitalizing a waterfront." The main worry for the authors here ("A common challenge is how to revitalize places where the river, lake or sea has been cut off from the rest of town by wide roadways or hulking industrial facilities") doesn't apply to Victoria, whose waterfront is *not* cut off by road arterials or industrial areas. But in general terms, there are still some nuggets on the linked-to pages.

www.pps.org/...to_Create_a_Vibrant_Waterfront - Preview

project_for_public_spaces waterfront urbanplanning urban_design

23 Jan 08

Sure footing on Jarvis slip by Christopher Hume (Toronto Star)

This is the article that accompanies the video (also linked to today). It's about the three finalists in the competition to redesign T.O. waterfront along the Jarvis Slip. Best quote: "Though the three finalists are all quite different, in their own way each takes conventional notions of public space and carefully turns it upside down. This is exactly what Toronto's waterfront needs."

www.thestar.com/295532 - Preview

christopher_hume jarvis_slip public_space toronto waterfront

The likely winner, however, is Toronto landscape architecture firm, Janet Rosenberg Associates. It envisions a square by the water, hard-surfaced and dotted with armchairs. The highlight would be an environmental artwork by California-based Ned Kahn.
The three-part piece would have a shallow pond, a "roof" and a giant 20- by 13-metre "screen" made of clear "pixels" that blow in the wind.
The idea is to embrace the weather, to make it a part of the square, to illustrate it somehow and actually make it visible.
The double row of trees that extends along the lake's edge would break up here to allow for maximum access to the water.
Though the three finalists are all quite different, in their own way each takes conventional notions of public space and carefully turns it upside down. This is exactly what Toronto's waterfront needs.
It's reassuring, too, that the square will sit on land that could easily have been ignored and left untouched. Yet it is precisely this sort of detail that will bring the waterfront to life and attract an audience beyond the immediate.
Perhaps the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. – now Waterfront Toronto – should create an idea bank, an inventory of schemes that can be brought out when opportunities arise. In this case, all three finalists have done projects on the waterfront; it might be that this familiarity allowed them to produce such excellent schemes.
"I'm very excited," says Chris Glaisek, Toronto Waterfront vice-president of planning. "This space didn't exist, but now I think it's going to be one of the best public places on the water's edge. It'll be a space people love to come to."

Enhancing the Jarvis Slip by Christopher Hume (TheStar.com - Video Viewer)

The Toronto Star put up a video of Christopher Hume explaining the 3 finalist contenders for re-making Jarvis Slip, a T.O. d/t lakefront public area.

This makes me think of how important speech (vs. the word as read) is when thinking about any issues, and of how important the speaker is (his/her manner/ abilities at conversation). Hume has done an excellent job on other videos posted to the Toronto Star, explaining the city's architecture for downloadable walking tours.

www.thestar.com/...295439 - Preview

architecture christopher_hume jarvis_slip public_space toronto video waterfront

24 Dec 07

Waterfront plan: A magnet and, hopefully, model (Toronto Star)

Dutch landscape architect Adriaan Geuze's vision for T.O.'s waterfront: "The point must be that we won't have to live on the waterfront to feel at home there." In this article by Christopher Hume, some really interesting discussion (by Geuze) about cars, how they've taken over urban spaces, why all-pedestrian zones aren't necessarily a good idea ("scary at night"), and that cities today compete with one another.

www.thestar.com/...288394 - Preview

cars christopher_hume development pedestrians toronto urban_parks urban_renewal waterfront

Relax, Toronto, all is not lost; the wheels of change grind no slower here than in any other city.
So says Dutch landscape architect Adriaan Geuze, whose firm, West 8, is now redesigning the central waterfront in partnership with Toronto's DTAH.
"Bureaucratic resistance is normal," he says, smiling reassuringly. "It's the same everywhere."
Geuze and his team won an international competition last year to redesign the waterfront between Bathurst and Parliament Sts. It is a huge project, including the narrowing of Queens Quay from four lanes to two, the planting of thousands of trees, the construction of a boardwalk along the water's edge and bridges across various slips.
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- "Today it feels like the pedestrian is a guest on the waterfront," Geuze says. "But in the future the car will become the guest. We're going to restrict traffic to one-half of the street, but we're not going to torture it. We'll keep the flow and create a more readable situation. It's not that we don't like cars, but we need more balance."
  As Geuze explains it, Europeans love their cars every bit as much as we North Americans. The difference, he argues, is that we have gone too far.
  "Devotion to the car is the same here as in Europe," he says. "But in Europe there are some guiding cities. And we're not talking about medieval cities, but modern urban communities with large commercial centres – Strasbourg, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes, Zurich, Copenhagen. ... There's a competition between cities now."
  - - great point re. pedestrians feeling like guests in some parts of the city
    
    - also, that today cities compete amongst themselves (echoes Florida's mantra about creative economy revolutionizing the global economy) - on 2007-12-24
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- Geuze makes it clear he's not advocating the complete abolition of the car; he feels a certain amount of traffic is healthy. Besides, he adds, large pedestrian zones can "become scary places at night."
  The intention, he insists, is to establish a state of equality between cars and people: "People will be happy, shop owners will be happy, and police will be happy."
- He sees Toronto's waterfront as a perfect example of the vast potential of the city, but also of how much needs to be done. "North America is about the car," he says. "But Queens Quay can mark a revolutionary change. It will be a magnet for anyone who wants to walk, jog, cycle or stroll. It will be a place for merchants to make a living, and that will attract people."
  - - this articulates a vision based on USE, = important, vs. doing things based on "style" or "height restrictions" (Victoria) or other physical characteristics. The physical characteristics should flow from the uses planned - on 2007-12-24
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- In this respect, one can only hope the post-Geuze waterfront will become a model for the rest of the city. Though there has been much debate in recent years about the car, it's clear that Toronto has a long way to go before it catches up with Europe. Indeed, we are falling further and further behind. Worst of all, we have allowed public transit to deteriorate. For many Torontonians it is not an option; they have no choice but to drive.
- "Toronto is ready to have a waterfront with its own identity," Geuze asserts. "It's a marvellous site, a south-facing waterfront. What more you could ask for?"
  The answer, many might say, is greater public access. As well as controlling the car, we must ensure the waterfront is as inviting as possible. That's not to say people won't be living and working on the lake – they definitely will – but as Geuze likes to say, it's a question of balance. The point must be that we won't have to live on the waterfront to feel at home there.