Edgewater Hotel Sign Comes Down
Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Vandalist: My Dog's Name Is "Shadow"
Todd Barry a Not-So Excitable Boy
Skin Deep
Businesses along Dundas Street West are channelling the visual language of the American president for a local protest poster campaign.
Organized by the Dundas West Business Improvement Area, the posters oppose the proposed removal of rush-hour parking along the street. Emblazoned with an image of Adam Giambrone, councillor for the area and chair of the TTC, they state that “Our neighbourhoods are destinations, not highways!”
The posters were noticed by the National Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer yesterday, who missed the appropriation of the iconic Obama Hope poster made by street artist Shepard Fairey, instead interpreting the look as Soviet-era propaganda. Given Fairey's influences, that's not altogether wrong, but the references to the more recent source couldn’t be more clear; the red and blue, the high contrast reduction of the portrait, the upward glance, and the simple switch from Hope to Nope.
While the adaptation of this particular artwork—now so deeply entrenched in the public consciousness as an embodiment of positivity and potential—for a protest campaign feels awkward and a little heavy-handed, the issues at stake are deeply rooted and locally relevant.
The posters claim that “Adam Giambrone wants to remove rush hour parking on both sides of the street—CITYWIDE! April 29 City Council will vote on taking it away from Dundas W. Queen Street might be next. This will turn our streets into dangerous highways, hurting pedestrians, cyclists and small businesses.” (This isn’t the first time that Giambrone has been the subject of a street-level postering campaign: during the controversial discussions about the narrowing of Lansdowne Avenue, that neighbourhood was emblazoned with signs against the proposal.)
Dundas West has enjoyed parking on one side of the street during rush hour since September 2007, when City Council voted in favour of a recommendation made by a councillor for a one-year trial period. The Dundas West BIA believes that this parking is integral to the economic vitality of the neighbourhood and cites that the commercial vacancy rate has dropped from 19% to 12% during this trial.
According to an open letter from the BIA to City Council, the reason for the move to rescind the street parking stems from a negative report released in October of 2008 by City Transportation that cites substantial “TTC delays.” Interestingly, the councillor who originally recommended the on-street, rush-hour parking back in September of 2006 was Adam Giambrone. Two months after this recommendation, Giambrone was re-elected and, shortly thereafter, was also elected to the position of TTC chair.
Giambrone's office says that the signs "are clever, but they're also misleading and inaccurate." According to Kevin Beaulieu, Giambrone's Executive Assistant, the TTC and the Dundas West BIA Chairs met just two days ago, and, says Beaulieu, are in the midst of working on a model that will include limited parking spaces while not sacrificing streetcar service. The parking on the street, Beaulieu says, was always on a "trial basis"; there was always a "sunset clause." But they're expecting a good new model that should work for everyone in about a day, and the intention is absolutely "not to create a highway"—not on Dundas West nor anywhere else.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Looks like someone else got inspiration from the Hope Generator.
http://obamiconme.pastemagazine.com/
Looks like someone should've read that study about most people getting to stores by TTC/biking/walking: http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/593880
I ride my bike all over town, i sympathies with our plight in this city - with hardly any usable bike lanes, idiot drivers etc... but I also now that there's a lot of people some are elder, some have large families, some are in construction that use these shops everyday. Bikes and the TTC are great but they're not an option for every one. Many Portuguese also come from out of town to get their fish, breads and meats. Are they supposed to only go to the big box malls cause they don't live downtown?
We love mom and pop shops but don't want their customers to park in front of their stores, you can't hate franchises and then not support small local businesses.
A case in point on how important parking is to retail business - look at the LCBO's and Beer Stores, all the ones I can imagine have huge parking lots right out front, (to be used only for their customer). They have and advantage and they know it makes business sense to have parking nearby.
As a cyclist I fully support the removal of parked cars on Dundas Street West (and Queen West too for that matter). I find the biggest danger on these streets is not the moving cars but the parked cars opening their doors into the path of cyclists, without looking to see if there's anybody coming beforehand. The Chinatown stretch of Dundas is especially bad for this. I hope parking is removed and cycle lanes installed permanently.
I agree. As someone who cycles on Dundas all the time, I can say most of my close calls have been from parked cars giving me the door prize, not moving traffic.
I wish downtown Richmond Hill had street parking disallowed; the bottle neck is a pain in the ass and makes it a hassle to drive through it. As for downtown Toronto, that would mean that people might be persuaded to *gasp*, only cross at intersections. I doubt it though, nothing says 'neighbourhood' like human roadkill. This won't change driving habits since people will still drive like shit, but it will lessen the things that can go wrong.
The best walking neighbourhoods are those where one doesn't go to the end of the block and wait for the light to cross.
Jay walking is convenient and rewarding; it should be an aim of the city to make jay-walking safer in the more pedestrian friendly centres. It shouldn't be discouraged.
Having to walk to the corner in order cross is, to me, a sign of an unfriendly neighbourhood. When faced with the choice of moving to an area where I can safely (relatively) cross the street where I please & one where I have to go to the corner, I'm almost always going to chose the former, regardless of whether or not I'll be arriving by car, foot, or TTC.
Queen West between University and Spadina should be car-free, period.
As a seasonal tour guide in NYC, I have maintained for some time that Toronto should go the one-way streets route. Sure, New York is known for it's awful traffic, but that's only because of the sheer quantity of people and cars, and comparatively few roads. One-way streets allow traffic lights to be synced up and help cars get from point A to point B in a flash. An overhaul of the East-West streets in the downtown core to continue the existing alternating one-ways of Adelaide and Richmond seem like an obvious starting point, to me.
They say that what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander.
In my view, we need to focus on making the city more friendly for active transportation, not cars.
I look at Richmond Adelaide, and don't see results worth emulating elsewhere.
"Queen Street might be next"
Queen Street (west at least) alreaddy has no parking during rush hours. No big deal.
I disagree with dcooper regarding one way streets. Sure they are fine for moving vehicles, but they are a disaster for the businesses on them.
"The posters were noticed by the National Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer yesterday, who missed the appropriation of the iconic Obama Hope poster made by street artist Shepard Fairey, instead interpreting the look as Soviet-era propaganda. Given Fairey's influences, that's not altogether wrong, but the references to the more recent source couldn’t be more clear; the red and blue, the high contrast reduction of the portrait, the upward glance, and the simple switch from Hope to Nope."
Judging by the political leaning of the Nazi (whoops, sorry, Freudian slip there) National Post... Well, let's just say that it's not at all surprising that they'd "misinterpret" the artistic style as "Soviet-era propaganda". :-/
I disagree with dcooper regarding one way streets. Sure they are fine for moving vehicles, but they are a disaster for the businesses on them.
I thought we were talking about moving the vehicles out of the way so that pedestrians and cyclists could have their share of the road. One-ways allow for wider sidewalks, bike lanes, parking, and overall fewer emissions by timing lights and moving traffic better, even when accounting for increased travel distances. There is no data to suggest that one-way streets hurt businesses, and plenty to suggest that they're even safer for pedestrians [pdf] than two-ways.
I think our main problem is that whole period from December to February every year, where nobody wants to leave their homes, never mind walk outside.
My guess is that most residents of Toronto aren't naive enough to believe that if Dundas, Queen, or King were to become a one way street that it would result in bike lanes, wider sidewalks, street trees etc. The precedent the city has set with Richmond and Adelaide are wide busy streets that are not good for pedestrians, cyclists, street-life or businesses along the street.