Yesterday:


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isaidso said:
I'd like to focus on the building but I can't get past the crude, depressing public realm. And it's not just this block, but practically every block in our city.

After watching a walking tour of Melbourne (link below), it hammered home how awful our public realm is. Stop using concrete on your sidewalks Toronto! It's primitive and cheap looking. We also need to cut in half (at the minimum) the amount of space we devote to car lanes.. We can spend billions on buildings but till we learn how to build a quality public realm and city built for people instead of cars we'll NEVER have an attractive city. I've been waiting for 25+ years for Toronto to fix this but running out of patience.

Melbourne makes Toronto look like a provincial backwater. You'd never know we're the bigger city with the bigger economy/tax base. Their sidewalks are triple the width of ours. Black pavers instead of concrete. Trees/quality planters. Canopies. Cars banished completely from major streets. The kicker is that our built form is very similar.

We could have the exact same thing but it's not even on the radar of most Torontonians. Most see no issue with 4-6 lanes of asphalt and argue it looks fine. That said, you can't desire/demand more, if a crappy public realm is all you've ever known.


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Couple of reasons for this.
1 - We are besides the United States so our cities do resemble US ones especially in the realm of car culture vs Melbourne which is near Asia and Asian influence of public transportation, pedestrian shopping lanes seep in.
2 - The harsh winter weather makes increases the odds that we drive everywhere instead of walking which puts emphasis on car lanes rather than pedestrian lanes vs Melbourne which is a warm climate region.
 
Mercenary said:
Couple of reasons for this.
1 - We are besides the United States so our cities do resemble US ones especially in the realm of car culture vs Melbourne which is near Asia and Asian influence of public transportation, pedestrian shopping lanes seep in.
2 - The harsh winter weather makes increases the odds that we drive everywhere instead of walking which puts emphasis on car lanes rather than pedestrian lanes vs Melbourne which is a warm climate region.
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Always remember, winter ruins everything.
 
Mercenary said:
Couple of reasons for this.
1 - We are besides the United States so our cities do resemble US ones especially in the realm of car culture vs Melbourne which is near Asia and Asian influence of public transportation, pedestrian shopping lanes seep in.
2 - The harsh winter weather makes increases the odds that we drive everywhere instead of walking which puts emphasis on car lanes rather than pedestrian lanes vs Melbourne which is a warm climate region.
Click to expand...
I agree that comparing our city to Melbourne is a bit silly, but that should not be used as a excuse for us to be less pedestrian friendly. That seems more like a conscious decision than a necessity, IMO.
 
Who do we have to call to replace that god awful train shed with a proper tall glass canopy over the entire station?
We are so quick to lose truly valuable heritage through facadectomy (or outright demolition), and yet Union still has its dimly-lit ugly-ass shed which granted is old, but in the vein of "is this art", I am going to suggest, no, sir, it is crap!

I don't know why I am so amped at 7am. I just find that space to be horrible, considering the reno we did in the remainder of this station.
 
Mercenary said:
Couple of reasons for this.
1 - We are besides the United States so our cities do resemble US ones especially in the realm of car culture vs Melbourne which is near Asia and Asian influence of public transportation, pedestrian shopping lanes seep in.
2 - The harsh winter weather makes increases the odds that we drive everywhere instead of walking which puts emphasis on car lanes rather than pedestrian lanes vs Melbourne which is a warm climate region.
Click to expand...
Actually a lot of big American cities have really nice public realm downtown and in select areas. Trees, beautiful parks, interesting public art, sidewalks that are not just poured concrete. Of course, their less desirable areas are REALLY bad - they make Dundas & Sherbourne look good. I'm not saying we should spend crazy money to improve downtown and neglect our less privileged neighbourhoods, but there has to be a better way than 'it'll do if it's functional'.
 
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