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Water the Trouble

By Jonathan Goldsbie

“This is why we’ll never have the Olympics,” remarked one of Torontoist’s companions last night, as we spotted the large and impressively deep pools that had formed in the stairs leading down to Osgoode Station. We then heard an announcement over the public address system: a water main had burst and flooded Union Station, necessitating evacuation. So we headed down University to get a look.
(The puddles at Osgoode and St. Andrew, we were told, were not caused by pipe bursts but rather by a combination of the rain, the melting snow, and the fact that the remaining snow had clogged up the on-street drains, resulting in an overflow into the stairwells.)

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  • http://null Gauldar

    At least the floors are cleaner now.

  • http://tomtoronto.ca TomToronto

    Check out the St. Patrick station stairs on the SE corner of Dundas & University. It’s perpetually wet, slippery, and hazardous.

  • http://null Astin

    Or the NW corner of St. Patrick during a thaw. The landing is often a wading pool when the drains get clogged. Lots of people tip-toeing and hopping through it after navigating the deathtrap slippery stairs.

  • Pan Von Sol

    This morning Union subway station stank of, in addition to the quaint smell of barf, horse.

  • http://null Brad Ross

    To clarify, the flooding at Union Station last evening was *not* caused by a watermain break. Toronto Water continues to investigate the cause.
    Given the amount of water, it is, perhaps, an understandable conclusion, but an incorrect one.
    Brad Ross
    Toronto Transit Commission

  • http://null PickleToes

    A dirty place made even more disgusting. But still I read countless Torontoist articles romanticizing the TTC. I can never understand why.

  • http://null rek

    It’s hard to imagine there are people who think Toronto is the ‘clean’ version of New York or wherever else. Seas of cigarette butts and black gum on the sidewalks, garbage-smeared silver bins, newspapers blowing everywhere, slick black puddles in subway stations, plastic bags caught in trees…

  • http://undefined DaveH

    and grafitti…….

  • http://undefined nippleholic

    Obviously you’ve never been to New York…

  • http://null AR

    To be fair, this is the time of year when it looks the worst since the snow concealed a lot of garbage which is impossible to clean until it melts.

  • http://null rek

    and grafitti…… to brighten up the dark corners and make drab places interesting. Always looking on the bright side, eh DaveH?

  • http://www.bitpicture.com Marc Lostracco

    The thousands of cigarette butts scattered outside bars and restaurants are incredibly repulsive. Apparently, for many, many smokers, the world is their ashtray. Disgusting.

  • http://null montauk

    Cities are going to get a bit messy. But you’ve got to be kidding me if you think we’ve got the same mess level as New York. I mean, cigarette butts? Garbage in the garbage bins? Gum on the sidewalks? That’s the worst of it?

  • http://undefined rek

    That garbage shouldn’t be there in the first place to be hidden by the snow. What’s so difficult about putting garbage in garbage cans?

  • http://undefined rek

    I shouldn’t have to visit New York to think Toronto is clean.