Torontoist: Grey Is The New Beige, Part Two: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Maps.

rival_oms

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:47:54 -0500

I don't don't think Svend meant the kind of brain washing that programs you to assassinate the prime minister. Astral Media wouldn't be offering the city so much money unless they thought they can make people subconsciously prefer one product over another. I think that's a more appropriate, realistic use of the word. Worse yet, tinfoil is not adequate protection against the power of suggestion. Although, I agree about the cameras not being a big issue. Cameras on ATMs and apartment building are so ubiquitous that it's hard to get upset about a few on the info pillars. I'm sure Astral is just trying to be careful. As torontothegreat pointed out, I'm sure a number of people would like to beat these things in (although I still don't think that reflects on the general membership of the TPSC).

james a

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:41:59 -0500

brain washers? seriously? loosen your tinfoil hat man! as for the cctv thing.. i can only assume that the cameras will be very localized, and therefore not really an issue (at least to me). i mean- does the TPSC have a problem with banks installing those ATM cameras? it seems like the same thing to me, you wouldn't actually be recorded unless you intentionally walked right up to it. i suppose it remains to be seen how they'll implement it though. i don't see anywhere on the demo model where a camera might even go.

Svend

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:32:53 -0500

At least the Mega Bins were useful, these giant in-your-face barriers are in the way and offensive brain washers.

andrew

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:49:46 -0500

torontothegreat: wait, they don't love the info pillar like you love it. alright, it was a stretch.

torontothegreat

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:36:42 -0500

@rival_oms It's called Art Attack and my co-workers and I personally witnessed them destroy the pillar outside of Roy Thomson Hall. They tried to rip the door open where the poster goes, only to get mad at it and kick it in. Rumour is that they were reported to police and very much like by-law officers the police did nothing.

rival_oms

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:58:43 -0500

I don't think the TPSC has any interest in vandalizing street furniture. I don't suppose you want to give us any examples or evidence to support that. A few months ago, I heard that Rami Tabello was vandalizing billboards. Supposedly there is video footage of it, but I don't know anybody who has seen it.

x_the_x

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:47:24 -0500

As I've said before, that the special interest activists oppose this isn't all that interesting, since that is what they have organized to do, and the issue has been covered to death here (its pretty well all the author posts about). I chalk it up to reader fatigue.

tyrannosaurus_rek

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:21:59 -0500

Really? The headline is getting more attention than the obvious problems with the ad pillars, the security cameras, or torontothegreat calling TPSC a bunch of vandals?

ked

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:44:38 -0500

wait yeah yeah yeahs silly spelling before

ked

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:39:38 -0500

maps by the yeh yeh yeh's I likes the title - gold star for Goldsbie on that one.

Amanda Buckiewicz

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:36:35 -0500

I still don't get the headline. I hang my head in shame.

rival_oms

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:34:45 -0500

Man, I just got the headline pun. It was bothering me all day. You couldn't think of a reference more obscure?

tyrannosaurus_rek

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:57:59 -0500

I notice they're English-only. I really wish the City would come up with a signage/utility plan that was tourist- and newcomer-friendly. Language by Population (Toronto CMA) * Chinese: 355,270 * Italian: 206,325 * Portuguese: 113,355 For every resident that speaks another language there are countless friends and family members elsewhere, who only speak their native language, who will come to the city to visit. Plus the hundreds of thousands with no other connection to the city other than business or as a tourist location. This small town thinking will keep Toronto from ever becoming a "world class city". And we want all these international events, like the Olympics and Pan-Am Games, to come here? The very least they could do is localize these ad pillars to include Chinese in/near Chinatown, Korean in/near Koreatown, etc, as appropriate. Seoul, by comparison, puts English, Chinese and/or Japanese on every street map, info booth, in subway stations, and even Romanizes the street signs. And that's a city where 99.9999% of residents' native tongue is Korean.

torontothegreat

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:29:13 -0500

James, Ked I also find the localized maps in MTL to be extremely helpful, hopefully these will be just as good.

torontothegreat

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:28:08 -0500

>But because they're expensive pieces of equipment, all of the pillars will now be armed with security cameras. While Astral will have to abide by the City of Toronto's Security Video Surveillance Policy, it's still rather shocking that a billboard company can put CCTV cameras on our streets more easily than the Toronto Police Service can. Not just that, but people like the TPSC vandalize them. TPSC is part of the problem here and now you're writing an article critizing Astral for fixing the problem. Perhaps, breaking open pillars to put ugly hand drawn pictures inside isn't so good for the gander then? Thanks for giving them a justification to install the cameras! The 'rest' of us really appreciate it :P I guess this year you can expect the police to show up at your place of residence/school/work to ask you to pay for your childish prank(s).

ked

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:17:08 -0500

Localized maps would be handy - The Montreal ones are great.

james a

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:42:33 -0500

I've always loved and used the info pillars in Montreal to find my way around a neighbourhood when I hopped out of the Metro and had no idea which way to walk. One huge failure of the original Toronto pillars in comparison to the MTL ones was that they didn't have localized maps; every single one just showed an unhelpful small scale map of all of downtown. Judging by the example in the picture, they will be correcting that problem. Hopefully that's actually the case.