The big difference between today and the 1960's is the focus on keeping taxes low. Many politicians have the same nerve, intelligence and creativity as back then. They just don't have the budgets. And just try raising taxes to build today's Science Centre or Ontario Place. They certainly were not looking to the private sector to build these kinds of things back in 1968.

It's not even the taxes per se - it's the optics of spending money on anything joyful is seen as a frivolity that's the problem. This way of thinking permeates both the public and private sectors. Now being careful with funds is important - but demanding excellence is also important.

AoD
 
Somehow the expenditure of public funds for mediocrity is seen as prudent, but the expenditure of public funds for excellence is seen as frivolous. It's the squandering of tax dollars on mediocrity that is the waste.
 
This is hardly surprising though. Life is just less affordable than it was in the past. Prices on everything just keep going up, yet people that get even inflationary raises yearly are in the minority. It is no longer acceptable for companies to make a good profit...they must maximize it or risk having to deal with activist investors. With things getting less affordable every year it shouldn't surprise anyone that more and more people are exerting pressure on their politicians to take less of their money away in the form of taxes. I don't see this death spiral ending until society as a whole decides that everyone working full time deserves a decent livable wage.

In other words, don't expect government approaches to these kinds of projects to improve any time soon.
 
Executive salaries, their bonuses and, their severances have a much bigger impact on what the rest make than some activist investors. You here about layoffs all the time to cover a vacating executive severance and the signing bonus for the next one. It's also definitely hard to say they have earned it being in these positions when it boils down to who you know to have a chance at the top.
 
Executive salaries, their bonuses and, their severances have a much bigger impact on what the rest make than some activist investors. You here about layoffs all the time to cover a vacating executive severance and the signing bonus for the next one. It's also definitely hard to say they have earned it being in these positions when it boils down to who you know to have a chance at the top.

Yes, that definitely has a large impact as well. The point was though that average Jane/Joe making far less than a six-figure salary are facing steadily decreasing affordability on just about everything. Since they make up the largest portion of the electorate, it shouldn't be surprising that politicians are facing a lot of pressure to keep taxes down. Until that trend reverses itself, the situation is unlikely to change.
 
Life is just less affordable than it was in the past. Prices on everything just keep going up, yet people that get even inflationary raises yearly are in the minority. It is no longer acceptable for companies to make a good profit...they must maximize it or risk having to deal with activist investors. With things getting less affordable every year it shouldn't surprise anyone that more and more people are exerting pressure on their politicians to take less of their money away in the form of taxes. I don't see this death spiral ending until society as a whole decides that everyone working full time deserves a decent livable wage.

In other words, don't expect government approaches to these kinds of projects to improve any time soon.

Most of this is either not true or shows how schizophrenic were are in our thinking...it all contradicts itself.

Where to start??? We have become addicted to our throw-away lifestyle, which is really more expensive in the long run. Our fast-food lifestyle is both more expensive and worse for our health. Music unsurprisingly sucks now because we want it for free. Appliances cost less now in real dollars than it did 40 years ago (seriously...check a 1976 Eatons catalogue) because they were made of higher quality here employing people who supported their families and we repaired them at local repair shops rather than toss them within 5 years.

Public transit service was way better. People used to make jokes about how clean this city was. Garbage pick up was twice a week...not once every two weeks. We used to have beautiful flowers in our parks. there were (working) drinking fountains all over the city. Don't even get me started on heath care. I could go on and on....and on.

We live in a world of corporate welfare now and we have learned to lower our standards to accommodate this. We've been conned, plain and simple.
 
Most of this is either not true or shows how schizophrenic were are in our thinking...it all contradicts itself.

Where to start??? We have become addicted to our throw-away lifestyle, which is really more expensive in the long run. Our fast-food lifestyle is both more expensive and worse for our health. Music unsurprisingly sucks now because we want it for free. Appliances cost less now in real dollars than it did 40 years ago (seriously...check a 1976 Eatons catalogue) because they were made of higher quality here employing people who supported their families and we repaired them at local repair shops rather than toss them within 5 years.

Public transit service was way better. People used to make jokes about how clean this city was. Garbage pick up was twice a week...not once every two weeks. We used to have beautiful flowers in our parks. there were (working) drinking fountains all over the city. Don't even get me started on heath care. I could go on and on....and on.

We live in a world of corporate welfare now and we have learned to lower our standards to accommodate this. We've been conned, plain and simple.

Not true? I don't know what world you're living in, but it takes only the most cursory of internet searches to bring up dozens of pages showing that both wage stagnation and growing income inequality are very real. The disposable economy of which you speak is by design, foisted on us by those very same corporations looking to maximize profits. I'm not saying human greed doesn't play into it from both ends, but it started at the top. Companies spend billions of dollars trying to convince us that we need more crap.
 
Not true? I don't know what world you're living in, but it takes only the most cursory of internet searches to bring up dozens of pages showing that both wage stagnation and growing income inequality are very real. The disposable economy of which you speak is by design, foisted on us by those very same corporations looking to maximize profits. I'm not saying human greed doesn't play into it from both ends, but it started at the top. Companies spend billions of dollars trying to convince us that we need more crap.

It appears you don't understand the gist of my post. But that just proves my point.
 
It appears you don't understand the gist of my post. But that just proves my point.

Or maybe you just weren't clear with your point. Are you disagreeing that wages have stagnated and income inequality is up? There is plenty of hard data showing this to be the case. Are you disagreeing that people are putting pressure on government to keep taxes down because they have less money in their pockets? I have no idea where we're actually disagreeing with each other.
 
All the above explains the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders but finally, the general public, the media, and politicians are paying attention!
 

Pulling out some pics from the Twitter profile (@MarkCarcGlobal) linked to in that article; very exciting stuff:

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What about the rest of Ontario Place and its great Zeidler buildings? See below
The Bulletin Journal of Downtown Toronto

Viewpoint: A watery new museum for lakefront Toronto?

Posted by: daletaylor in 0RSS, Opinion, Top Stories January 3, 2017 0 87 Views

Ontario Place -one of several locations along Toronto’s waterfront for a World Water Museum.

Museums are again in the wind in Toronto.

There has long been a need for a Museum of Toronto to locate large collections about the city’s history. That would attract mostly Torontonians.

An even better variant on that would be an “urban museum,” one that gives visitors from everywhere a sense of many actual and possible cities, from the past and into the future, a part of which would be dedicated to Toronto alone. Toronto, after all, is one of the most efficient examples of large and rapid urbanization in the world. That is our strength.

Perhaps the best place for that kind of museum is the Old City Hall. People are already working on that.

In the meantime, for the past few years I’ve been pitching another good idea for a new museum in Toronto. So far no take-up. It would be a World Water Museum.

Water—the human need for it and its uses, symbolic and real—is one of the key basics and drivers of the environmental revolution. Along with the air we breathe, water is our most basic need. It is a universal theme – all people, places and cultures have an essential interest in water. Water resources are in danger everywhere.

Why here in Toronto?

First, like an urban museum, it showcases a local strength, one that makes us even more unique: Ontario and Toronto are at the centre of the world’s largest fresh water supply. Second, we have several sites along our waterfront for such a feature – one already built and looking for new uses – Ontario Place (see photo)! Third, Toronto has all the resources and water related interests and groups to develop such a new museum. Indeed it builds on the idea of “soft power” in modern museology championed right here out of Toronto by the world’s largest museum related consultant, Lord Cultural Resources.

What would be the essential features of a WWM? Here’s a list that would together make for a premier attraction. I envisage such a museum in basically three halls, plus administrative space.

· Water Status Hall – this would contain various measures of water quality and quantity around the world, some in original glass containers. Visitors could check and compare their local water metrics with other parts of the world.

· Water in Life Hall – this would be a more conventional museum space dedicated to water objects and vessels from the ages and water in ceremony and symbolism from First Nations to all the other world’s cultures and religions.

· Water Gaming Hall – the water theme involves many complex and interrelated water policy issues in the world. Entertaining and educational electronic gaming would be developed at various skill levels to demonstrate and actually work on such issues.

· Offices, including World Water Keeper – a World Water Museum provides an opportunity for Toronto to establish and host a new global office: the World Water Keeper, an office that would champion maintaining global water resources.

Those interested in participating in an initial working committee to develop such a World Water Museum concept can contact daletaylor@rogers.com.
 
I remember going to Streetsville Arena in Senior Kindergarten for "Water Day". The arena was filled with interactive exhibits on water use and preservation. It was actually a fun little trip. I just remember using toothbrushes and various cleaners to clean oily bird feathers, which simulated the work involved with cleaning oil spills.

A water museum would be pretty neat, and could even incorporate some of TO's history since the lake was influential in the shaping of our city. I just think Ontario Place isn't the best location for such a niche attraction.
 
What better place in the world to celebrate and educate about a primary natural resource, water , than in Ontario and Toronto right on the shores of a sweet water " ocean ".
 

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