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Two weeks ago, on the fifth anniversary of the blackout, we reclaimed the streets. At 9 p.m., three parades became one and marched into the intersection of Bloor and Spadina. And took it over. For five minutes. Or maybe it was ten. Chris Bilton says it was fifteen. There were jugglers and fire dancers and trombones and drums and trees and a picnic table on which sat a kiddie pool in which there was standing a "human statue" spraying water with a hose. For one tiny fraction of one day of the year, the intersection did not belong to cars, although they could turn right if they wished. It was ours. Not "ours" as in pedestrians or cyclists or hipsters or activists or whatever. Just ours. Public. Space.
We were there until the cops showed up. A couple squad cars coming from each direction. After a short speech from Mickey Mouse, we dispersed quickly and calmly, some walking down Spadina but most moving over into the newly-liberated Matt Cohen Park at the southeast corner to continue partying, Newmindspace style. The police weren't angry, just confused. They handled it well and, once we were out of the intersection, went on their way.
Cycling activist and filmmaker Martin Reis (aka Tino) made a video, which he sent to us the other day. Enjoy.
After the fold are both sides of the communiqué/manifesto that was distributed in leaflet form.
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so wait, to honour the fifth anniversary of the blackout, we celebrated with and electronic dance party???
Why not? We don't celebrate Rememberance Day by getting shot.
I find it ironic that a group devoted to public space (whatever that means) would choose to celebrate the anniversary of a major failure of public administration. Whatever, good excuse for a party I guess, and the manifesto is (unintentionally?) hilarious.
love the non-related link to illegalsigns.ca it's like all of goldsbie's hobbies all rolled into one article regardless of how unrelated they are.
I find the letter quite funny. People so concerned with friendly public space (leaving our boxes) are obviously the ones that don't leave their own boxes. I talk with and to my neighbours EVERYDAY. I LEAVE my homebox and strike up conversations with complete strangers EVERY DAY.
Some of us don't need to be forced to act in our communities. Those of you that do, annoy the hell out of the rest of the 'public' when you take hostage public space that only a small percentage of the 'public' is going to use to act in a way that a lot of people do on a daily basis. You know there are the 'rest of us' right? Or are we not the 'public' if we don't fall in line with your maligned political views?
So I guess I just don't feel guilty like the author and his cronies above and have to 'schedule' a day a year to be a human being.
At least they are being a hindrance to the transportation system for 15 minutes and only once a year unlike the TTC workers.
I like anyone who promotes the idea of a car-free city, but the link to a hydro blackout doesn't make sense to me.
The black out was the first taste a lot of people had.
If its public space then what right did you and your rag tag band of hippies have to interrupt the motorists who also tried to use it?
I remember the streetcar and subway being down, but cars were working during the blackout. A car-free city would be very dependent on hydro.
But yes, it was a time people congregated outside and talked to each other.
The blackout anniversary is a great time to reflect on public space (and therefore public infrastructure). It was a pretty huge event.
And pickletoes, those were not hippies. Have you ever met a hippie? Those were citizens who care deeply about Toronto, and they were engaging in a little polite civil disobedience to make a point.
Tuds: Apparently my dad was once a hippy so I guess that counts. Joking aside, blocking traffic and negatively impacting the many neutral citizens who intended to use the roads for transportation is a disproportionate amount of havoc to cause in order to share "...the good company of friends and strangers alike".
I know the city can be very impersonal (which is one of the reasons I don't really like urban environments). However, the end of making friends and spurring a more human like accord between one another really seems to conflict with the means if you go about it by causing stress and inconvenience to others. Have your public parties but do it in a space better suited to accommodate the gathering without negatively impacting the bystanders. What about a park? How come nobody thought of that?
These people (Reclaim the Streets, Critical Mass, other Torontoist pet causes, et. al.) don't care about Toronto at all. A city is always larger than individual interests but it seems that every time I hear about them they thought their cause was so important that it warranted the subjugation of people who weren't involved. While you and I own public space, so does everybody else in our society. Make no mistake Tuds, what we have here is selfishness greed on great scales.
Nonsense. These groups care greatly about Toronto, they just feel they are under-represented and that their values/model of development would be a huge boon to the city and its people if only given proper support by city hall. Nobody shuts down the streets to deliver a personal Fuck You to the individual motorists sitting at the lights wonder WTF. And as they see it the selfish greed of the motorists rules 99.99999% of the time, so fair is fair.
Cyclists and pedestrians are (tax-paying) people too.
I just attended part of the Critical Mass portion of this rally, because I'd never been in one. However, as soon as we got southbound on Yonge, I couldn't resist continuing to barrel down the street unimpeded by cars and take it all the way home.
I missed out on the dance party. But frankly, that's not the way I choose to pay homage to the 2003 blackout. A simple "lights out" campaign would have been enough for me. I guess the lure of wigs, glowsticks and drum circles is just too irresistible to the counterculturalists.
Here, here, Rek ....