That's the exact effect I was referring to. Head on with no direct sunlight, they're dark, almost black. At an angle with direct light, they range from brown to a bronze. I like it.

Ah yeah, that is interesting effect. Man I love bridges like these, or any bridge with some structural or aesthetic flair put into it. And this bridge is special for me because one of my first memories was the circular floor pattern on the old one.

I swear that corner requires a cleanup - with the amplified loud, obnoxious, path-blocking preachers and whatnot. It's a displeasing dump.

I'm okay with deranged preachers, at least they're doing something. My issue is crusty bums just camped out in the area. The sidewalk's not big enough for them, and nobody wants to be grilled at.
 
I swear that corner requires a cleanup - with the amplified loud, obnoxious, path-blocking preachers and whatnot. It's a displeasing dump.

AoD

Every big city has a spot like this. Unfortunately, this is Toronto's. At lest it's easy to avoid.

I can't see how you'd "clean up" this corner. It's perfectly legal to congregate in a public space. All the crazies like to have an audience and there's no bigger (unwilling) audience than at this corner. They seem to attract each other too. That idiot Ron Bannerjee is there all the time. He's not a busker or even a public speaker. He just sticks around to cheer on the shit disturbers.

The only strategy I can think of is public space engineering tactics but they might not work here. There's that case of a store owner who's front door happened to be where all the neighbourhood kids would congregate, smoking weed, skateboarding, scaring away business. The man discovered that when he played opera in the store, the kids took off. "It's not cool to be around opera. Let's split!" So he installed speakers outside his store and played opera all day. No more kids.

I don't think opera would work on the crazies. Maybe the Eaton Centre can install their own speakers and music. That might discourage some of the buskers but I doubt it'd move along the preachers. Is the guy with an amp plugging it in somewhere? Maybe remove those outlets.

Nevertheless, they'll just pick up and move some place else which will itself become the new problem.
 
I swear that corner requires a cleanup - with the amplified loud, obnoxious, path-blocking preachers and whatnot. It's a displeasing dump.

The city is sanitized enough. Stay inside the mall to avoid this. I like the craziness on the corner. Yonge Street in my heyday was much more interesting than today because of people like this. Adds charm.

Bridge is looking good.
 
I think a lot of the problem i that those type of preachers and christians don't want to listen to anyone that contradicts their view. A couple of years ago I was down there after Pride and one was bad mouthing the LGBTQ+ community, someone stepped up to talk and when they didn't like what they had to say they pulled the mike from them and began screaming into it about how that person was going to hell for supporting them. I noticed in the video above that they were trying to provoke people to hit them and taking video of everyone around as wll.It relly disgusts me tay someone would treat religion this way.
I agree that people who indulge in hate speech should be challenged and in serious cases, the authorities should be called.
 
I can live with Preachers, they're mostly well intentioned. But not the same surly, boring panhandler and his boring brown cat. He's been pimping her for 2 years now.
 
Here's the seminal article about the use of classical music to deter teenage loitering: http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/businesses-using-music-to-deter-crime-and-loitering/

Note that it doesn't work on teens who enjoy classical music (and they happen to loiter less anyways, so it's still effective).

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a powerful non-lethal weapon to combat loitering.

For preachers, play prayers of various religions (oh, and rants by atheists such as Richard Dawkins could work as well).
 
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The city is sanitized enough. Stay inside the mall to avoid this. I like the craziness on the corner. Yonge Street in my heyday was much more interesting than today because of people like this. Adds charm.

Bridge is looking good.

I beg to differ on this - preventing people using megaphones 24/7 to the point of it being the only thing you can hear in the vicinity isn't sanitizing - it's maintaining a modicum of order. Besides. there is nothing particularly interesting about a guy spewing the same old spiel - in the most obnoxious manner possible.

AoD
 
The city is sanitized enough. Stay inside the mall to avoid this. I like the craziness on the corner. Yonge Street in my heyday was much more interesting than today because of people like this. Adds charm.

Thats a good point. I do kind of miss the seediness of 80s Yonge Street. I'd say it has less than a decade left before all the large condo towers and street revitalization brings Yorkville south.

I can live with Preachers, they're mostly well intentioned. But not the same surly, boring panhandler and his boring brown cat. He's been pimping her for 2 years now.

When I walk by and there's some breakdancing or a brass band, I stick around and watch with my dog by my side. This pisses off the cat pimp like you won't believe. I have the most well behaved dog who just sits there and engages the cat in a staring contest. It's the only time I ever see the poor cat move.
 
Thats a good point. I do kind of miss the seediness of 80s Yonge Street. I'd say it has less than a decade left before all the large condo towers and street revitalization brings Yorkville south.



When I walk by and there's some breakdancing or a brass band, I stick around and watch with my dog by my side. This pisses off the cat pimp like you won't believe. I have the most well behaved dog who just sits there and engages the cat in a staring contest. It's the only time I ever see the poor cat move.

That is so funny. Cat pimp is a very grumpy young man. I can't really imagine that obese cat moving, but suppose it's possible.
 
You don't have to look any further than Toronto for this. Few years back a string of stabbings and other violence at Kennedy, and I believe Warden station led to the TTC doing this at a few station right after school day ends.

Here's the seminal article about the use of classical music to deter teenage loitering: http://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/businesses-using-music-to-deter-crime-and-loitering/

Note that it doesn't work on teens who enjoy classical music (and they happen to loiter less anyways, so it's still effective).

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a powerful non-lethal weapon to combat loitering.

For preachers, play prayers of various religions (oh, and rants by atheists such as Richard Dawkins could work as well).
 
Somewhat related, I just noticed this re: sears office space:

http://www.altusinsite.com/index.php?page=searchengine&attri_40_1641=4230&attri_40_1641=4230&attri_20_11[]=920&attri_20_11[]=921&attri_20_11[]=922&location=Greater+Toronto+/+Downtown+Toronto&UpdateCompany2=&attri_40_1740_1=1&attri_40_1740_2=100,000&check_divisible[]=1080&searchbasicbtn1=Find+Space
290 Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario
4 90,000 Office Lawrence Barrett, Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited
5 90,000 Office Lawrence Barrett, Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited
6 90,000 Office Lawrence Barrett, Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited
7 70,000 Office Lawrence Barrett, Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited​

Does this imply that Sears will be vacating their Head Office location at EC?
 

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