ben.thebean1 said:
Honestly, I was a bit surprised they named it Pioneer Village in the first place, for this exact reason. It might just be because I'm young, but it did seem odd to me considering the "current political circumstances" if you will.
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It was established in 1960, some 63 years ago; a very different 'circumstance' then to be sure.

ben.thebean1 said:
On a further non-political note, I think a name like Black Creek Village, or even just Black Creek sounds a lot better than Pioneer Village. That's just a personal opinion though, and I still think this is going to be a lot of money which could've been used for much better things.
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The name as it is/was may not be brilliant, but on the other hand, it's functional, it's not merely a collection of late 18th C, early to mid 19th C homes, it's a 'village' devoted to educating people on what life was like for early settlers to Toronto. No electricity, no source of heat other than fireplaces/wood stoves; no such things as supermarkets, one often made their own butter and such.

It shows you an assemblage, including staff who relate the daily lives of a largely agrarian society, with just nascent urbanism creeping in, such that one might not be expected to have their own cow, and milk would be delivered daily by horse and such.
In other words pioneer life; I suppose it could be called 'settler' village instead, LOL But really, let people be called what they called themselves; relating their struggles and daily life is not an endorsement of all their world views or actions or those of their governments either.
 
ben.thebean1 said:
I was referring to the station itself, not the actual Pioneer Village. Should've added that context, sorry
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Honestly I would have been happy with 'Steeles West'. I prefer geographic names for the most part over 'venues' or names more likely to change with time.
 
Northern Light said:
Honestly I would have been happy with 'Steeles West'. I prefer geographic names for the most part over 'venues' or names more likely to change with time.
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Oh, the irony in the fact that the station rendering at the top of this page says ”Steeles West”…

Who was the councillor that demanded the renaming to Pioneer Village in the first place? Maybe they should pay for all the associated signage changes.
 
"The Village at Black Creek" eh? Perhaps we should check with various local minority groups if they are okay with the colour reference? Jesting aside, I see this as another feel good deflection from more serious indigenous issues.
 
The Preservationist said:
"The Village at Black Creek" eh? Perhaps we should check with various local minority groups if they are okay with the colour reference? Jesting aside, I see this as another feel good deflection from more serious indigenous issues.
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You mean it wasn't name after Sirius Black?
sirius-black.gif
From link.
 
I’m honestly getting tired of this ”1984”-style renaming of everything. It started with the renaming of LeBreton (Flats) station in Ottawa to Pimisi (dishonouring the history of the fire that destroyed the community), then Dominion to Kichi Sibi. Then on the GO network, Lincolnville got renamed to Old Elm, despite there still being a Lincoln Fields (interchange) station in Ottawa, and a Lincoln station in Vancouver, which didn’t get renamed. Then Dundas. Now we’re going after a new station that was already renamed twice just a decade ago. First to Black Creek Pioneer Village, and then at the behest of Maria Augimeri to Pioneer Village.

I’m all for honouring our Indigenous Peoples, and reconciling their atrocious treatment in the past, but couldn’t we instead strive for a multilingual approach to signage, respective of each distinct group geographically. It would be nice to have English/(French)/Indigenous language signage/announcements. My country pulls this off well with two official languages, and then English in the South, and an Indigenous language in the North.

For the record, I didn’t like it when they renamed Steeles West the first time. We’re now renaming it a third time before ”LightSpell” has ever (properly) been activated, and fare integration for the segment of Line 1 north of Steeles is even in place.

Anyone who’s studied the Bolshevik Revolution should be able to see the similarities here… it’s beyond silly by now.
 
I think the name "Pioneer," aside from being not-great from an Indigenous perspective (you can't be a pioneer if you aren't the first people), is pretty hokey. As @ben.thebean1 notes, it seemed strange they went with it originally (for the station).

As a fan of concision, I'd prefer "Black Creek Village." "The Village at Black Creek" sounds like a M. Night Shyamalan sequel.

And people who get upset about things being renamed, a reminder: renaming places has happened throughout all of human history. We live in a city that used to be called York, after all.
 
Parkdalian said:
I think the name "Pioneer," aside from being not-great from an Indigenous perspective (you can't be a pioneer if you aren't the first people), is pretty hokey. As @ben.thebean1 notes, it seemed strange they went with it originally (for the station).
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Here's the thing, 'they' called themselves 'pioneers' and thought of themselves as such. The Village is about the group known as Pioneers; if you rename them settlers or colonialists it's still about the same group.

Parkdalian said:
As a fan of concision, I'd prefer "Black Creek Village." "The Village at Black Creek" sounds like a M. Night Shyamalan sequel.
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This tells me nothing about why this village is somewhere to visit, or of educational value. Too non-descript.

Parkdalian said:
And people who get upset about things being renamed, a reminder: renaming places has happened throughout all of human history. We live in a city that used to be called York, after all.
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I'm not attached to celebrating anyone or anything; though doing what many American cities do and naming streets and schools and congressional districts with just numbers is quite dull.

Having said that, if we choose to give something a name, endless reopening the matter adds no value and does cost money. We have homeless people that need housing, and sick people that need healthcare and an environment that needs nurturing, in that context, I don't feel flushing a few hundred thousand or million dollars down the toilet on renaming is a good use of funds.
 
junctionist said:
I'm not a big fan of names like "Steeles West". The reason is that the name doesn't answer the question, "where on Steeles Avenue West?" It's a very long street.
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I don't think that's a question that needs answering when you're on the subway; you need to know the name of your stop and the stop name should be the name of the street at which you are stopping. In most cases, most Toronto subway lines run roughly in line with a major road, providing implicit coordinates. The Yonge Line, Sheppard Station is at Yonge and Sheppard.

The Spadina line does angle and so it isn't quite as automatic; though there are maps everywhere to help one place the station in context.
 
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