Great timing! I just moved to Toronto a few days ago (I’m from Montreal and have been living in Vancouver, Taiwan, and until last week, Paris) and upon purchasing my first Metropass with which to set out and discover the city with, I found myself grimacing down at the gaudy little troll of a card, feeling a bit disappointed. To my surprise when I looked up, the TTC attendant was grimacing back at me. Welcome to Toronto.
But the Metropass is part of a larger issue.
Now I’m not a Toronto hater at all. I’ve lived in enough cities to recognize that Canadians have great cities and that the Toronto bias is just senseless Canadian tribalism. As I discover the city, I find myself really loving it, but I do come away with a vague feeling of having moved to a second rate metropolis. Not because Toronto is second rate, but simply because this city seems to be somewhat challenged in the realm of presentation and the Metropass is part of that. I paid $109 for something that looks like it was dreamt up at for a grade six computer class project in Sarnia or something. I see similar poor design choices all over the city, from the city’s own Toronto logo to the horrible TTC emblem and colour choices. Toronto is an enormous, functional, impressive, and often beautiful city, but it lacks any cohesive sense of aesthetics. I find myself often wondering if I now in fact live in 1998 or 1983. It’s confusing.
By far the worst offender though is the TTC. The TTC is a brand and it’s a business as well as a public service. It has an important responsibility as an iconic part of great city to present itself as a functional and appealing alternative to full automobile domination. How the TTC presents itself has real effect on quality of life in the city and on the decisions people make for their daily commute. It has an effect on business and tourism as well. I often see my own hometown, Montreal, featured in magazine or websites because it’s a really stylish place to live. I’m a bred Montrealer but I’ll readily say that that Montreal is often shamelessly ugly and startlingly tacky, but it has much better presentation of itself as a brand than Toronto and it has confidence. (and better bagels and poutine)
Toronto is full of inspired young people, many of whom are obsessed with issues of design, public space, transit, bike lanes, etc. Toronto is a great city which is on the cusp of being an iconic one. The city needs to tap its vast local talent. The TTC needs to poke it’s head up and see how the world has changed while it’s been sleeping.
**(the TTC website is horrible!! It’s like a time warp. I had to rip out my ethernet cable not to get sucked in! ….close one.)
Comment by Atanga
January 9, 2008 @ 10:35 am