April 2, 2008
Redefining Local News
Riverdale has long been known for its innovative use of utility poles. Continuing the tradition near Broadview and Danforth, this notice appeared last weekend alongside more typical community posters advertising lost cats and student painters:
Sylvia Herman
has passed away
a former resident of the Chester Village old age home
March 10, 2008
A scattering of her ashes will be held in the Spring.
Please watch for further notice.
A utility pole seems like an odd place for a death notice (and an even odder place to "watch for further notice"), but is it really any more strange than the back pages of a newspaper?
Long-term care facility Chester Village was located a short block away from Broadview and Danforth before relocating last year to Warden and Danforth, about seven kilometres down the road. The move could easily have cut residents off from any friends they may have had in the old neighbourhood. Is there a better way to inform those lost friends of sad news than to tack up a notice at a familiar corner or old haunt? Utility poles would seem to be the future of hyper-local news.
Photo by Val Dodge.
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This is actually quite touching. A sad reality of getting older is checking newspaper obituaries more frequently, and perhaps Sylvia Herman was known to the area. RIP.
Toronto is, I think, one of the few cities left that has utility poles at all, never mind wood ones. The use of them for informal bulletin boards is probably a cherished urban quirk at this point. I wouldn't be surprised at all if a class is being taught somewhere about the connectivity of Toronto neighbourhoods as expressed via utility pole.
I agree that this is very touching, even if we never knew her. It reminds me a bit of my family's small town in Italy, where upon someone's death, notices are pasted up in the public squares (literally pasted to the old stone walls, like this and this). Depending on who makes the printed notices in each area, they actually have their own unique charm. I saw many in a few small towns that were done on old-style letterset printing presses, probably owned by the old local church or funeral director.
RIP Sylvia
I've seen notices on the poles in this neighbourhood before. They are commonly used when an itinerant, homeless or otherwise disenfranchised person who has been well-known in the neighbourhood passes away, although that may not be the case here.
They are often the only memorial some of these folks get.
Fucking taggers! No respect for other people's property! Blah blah blah!
But really, I think it's a perfectly good example of why we as private citizens need free and public outlets. Where and when utility poles have been made obsolete, posting pillars should be erected.
Has anyone ever taken a good look at the number of rusty staples in old wooden hydro poles? It's quite amazing! Some of them seem to have thousands of bent, old staples dating back decades. Memories of garage sales and driving school ads of yesteryear.
Doggiez, I have a photo that I took as part of the TTC project of a utility pole outside of Bathurst station covered in staples and remains of posters. Some people got grumpy when I posted it here, but I liked it for pretty much the reasons you and other people are talking about above: it's pretty cool to think about the history that is (literally) embedded in it.
Hi David,
Cool photo - I like the texture. Last year, someone (a city worker or individual with obsessive-compulsive disorder, perhaps) pulled literally HUNDREDS of rusty old thumbtacks, nails and staples out of an old wooded utility pole near our house in The Beaches. These were left on a pile at the base of the pole, and looked like some enormous, weird colony of black ants.
It'd be cool to do a stop-motion of a pole (or the outside of a construction site, for that matter) over weeks, or even months, to see what's been posted, torn-down, etc. I remember being disappointed when I first saw concrete, poster-free poles -- old wooden poles add a unique characteristic to Toronto. By the way, does U of T still have those plstic sheets around poles on St. George street?
Easy there Rek. I don`t like grafitti, but I`ve also never been bothered by the postings up on poles and I read them all the time. Maybe it`s because they aren`t anonymous, don`t stand out as much to me, aren`t as permanent, or just aren`t as unsightly as grafitti generally is. Maybe the grafitti people could post their stuff up on the poles and we could all look at it and decide if we like it or not. eventually it would be removed or covered up.
Sweet dreams Sylvia.
Not sure about the sheets you're talking about Doggiez; I've lived down there for a few years now but I can't recall seeing anything like that (and that maybe means that whatever sheets you're talking about are gone).
And DaveH, I actually think that someone doing art on (or with) the poles in some way would be really really cool. (Incidentally, as street art, it would also absolutely quality for inclusion in Vandalist.)
I think it's a sweet idea...not everyone reads the obituaries...maybe someone is just trying to find a new way to get a message out to the community. good on 'em.
Hey David,
God, I wish I could remember what these plastic thingies around the concrete poles were called. There was some media coverage at the time. Light beige, they were strapped around concrete poles on campus, and intended for posters, etc. U of T's (and the city's) intention was to have these poles be used as designated places for postings, and not have posters affixed to other places. This was at the time when the city was also on a rant about how "unsightly" lost pet posters, garage sale ads, etc. were on utility poles. Personally, I think they're fascinating, and help add a unique aspect to the city's lanscape. One man's trash is another man's treasure...
They were called collars. There are still a few of them around, but they're all discoloured, cracked, and useless.
Hi Marc,
Are the collars still used by posters?
The funny thing is that all the stapled postings are around the collars on the wooden section of the post, while the collars are blank. It seems that once you have some staples stuck in the plastic collars, it becomes difficult to staple more stuff on top because the plastic and the space between the plastic and the space between the existing staples on top is too much for a new staple to get purchase underneath. Useless!