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Sign Me Up

By Amanda Factor

20090521beach1.jpg

20090521beach2.jpg
Photos by Amanda Factor/Torontoist.


Today’s mini-celebration at the corner of Queen Street East and Lee Avenue was a historical event three years in the making. In early 2006, the Beaches BIA proposed the idea of branded street signs. Plans for new street signs citywide were put on hold while the city tried to secure a contract for street furniture, and they remained on hold until late 2008. Meanwhile, area residents were asked to vote on what name would appear on the signs: the Beaches or the Beach. Out of 2,113 eligible votes, 58% preferred “the Beach”—a somewhat surprising choice, since the neighbourhood seems to be most popularly known as “the Beaches.” Glenn Cochrane, journalist and author of The Beach, spoke to this in his brief speech to the crowd today. “A few years ago, there would have been an uprising over the choosing of this new name over the other name, which I’m not going to mention because I don’t want to start anything.”
Fortunately, the unveiling of the new street sign design didn’t inspire sparring over the new moniker, and the festivities continued with live music, street sign–shaped cake, balloons for the kiddies, and tomfoolery courtesy of the Beach mascot, Beach Buddy. When you’re living in a neighbourhood equated with “good living and a good life,” according to Councillor Sandra Bussin, who cares what it’s called?

Comments

  • http://undefined Svend

    Will the Beach Library be forced to apologize and correct their century old cornerstone to right their historic wrong?

  • CanadianSkeezix

    Well said. It’s fine to have a personal preference in the great Beach vs. Beaches debate, but those who say that the Beach is the true historic name don’t know what they are talking about. Robert Fulford has a good discussion of the origins of this debate in his book The Accidental City.

  • http://undefined montauk

    Is it just me or does that sign have the same design aesthetic as an Astral Media garbage can? Like, wouldn’t they want something a little more…quaint?

  • http://undefined McKingford

    a somewhat surprising choice, since the neighbourhood seems to be most popularly known as “the Beaches.”
    And because it is a neighbourhood composed of several distinct beaches, as opposed to one…

  • http://undefined McKingford

    It’s not just you – good call, montauk.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Judge a city by it’s spirit, rather than by it’s aesthetic ‘value’. The latter seems a tad too shallow for my liking.
    Toronto isn’t a great city because of it’s garbage cans or street signs. Likewise, it would never be a crappy city because of these reasons either.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Perhaps that’s why it’s called the Coordinated Street Furniture Program?
    Iono, seems logical to me.

  • http://undefined montauk

    I wasn’t judging the city. I was judging the street sign.

  • http://www.torontoist.com David Topping

    You assume that a city’s aesthetics has no effect on its “spirit,” when it so obviously does.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    That’s your belief, that’ fine, although I’d be interested in hearing your reasoning.
    I’d also say people from Winnipeg or Saskatoon would most likely disagree with you.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    My comment wasn’t directed at you, it was a general comment.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Sorry also forgot to mention that I find Montreal to be horrible on the eyes. For such a large city, it looks so run down and dirty all the time. However the culture and people who live there are amazing.

  • http://undefined davedave

    Wow, that is horrible, horrible design.

  • http://undefined torontothegreat

    Sorry Montauk, that comment wasn’t directed at you either lol.

  • http://undefined montauk

    Hahahaha. “I’m sick of these corporate looking street signs! Fuck it! I’m moving to Vancouver!”
    This discussion reminds me of this kickass assessment of Michigan:
    http://flipfloppingjoy.com/2009/02/09/rethinking-walking-bfps-second-walk/
    I think we can all agree that the aesthetics of a place, generally speaking, can’t drag it down independently – no matter what Joe Clark says – but if your area is already rotting from the inside, a poor appearance just rubs in the hopelessness of being trapped in hell. I remember the case of the Sayisi Dene, an Aboriginal tribe in Manitoba, who were forced into slum conditions so shitty and debilitating that they packed up and moved back into the wilderness (so to speak; Tadoule Lake) in a final desperate bid for survival. Ila Bussidor, who had been chief of the tribe at some point, described the new location as “…so beautiful that I was speechless. I had never seen or dreamt of anything so beautiful. The air smelt fresh, clean…there were trees everywhere…” I’ve heard similar accounts from inner city kids living in dire poverty who got to experience parks and camping for the first time. I don’t think aesthetics necessarily make any difference in and of themselves, but I do think they can have a reinforcing effect on people.
    Of course, this is a far cry, significance-wise, from street signs for the Beaches.

  • http://undefined David J. MacKay

    How very…functional.
    The street sign looks like it was designed by Rubbermaid.

  • http://undefined rek

    I am really annoyed by the shrunken “St” and “Av” and “Rd” on the new street name signs going up on TTC shelters, and now on street signs themselves. What’s the point?

  • http://undefined Svend

    It’s no longer enough to say “I’m going to the Beach”, we need a distinct name to separate it from Cherry Beach or Sunnyside?
    Why not call the whole area “Kew Beach”?

  • http://undefined joeclark

    Montauk, what, if anything, are you talking about?

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

    Forget the sign fug—the cheap-ass perforated metal pole says “class” to me.

  • http://undefined montauk

    Oh, nothing, nothing.

  • http://undefined Amanda Factor

    I gotta say, I didn’t expect my post to generate this kind of reaction. But it just goes to show that people care about how Toronto neighbourhoods are represented.
    The last line of my post was meant to capture the attitudes of the Beaches, sorry, Beach residents I observed today. The ceremony was really fun and lighthearted. But I was shocked when I learned the results of the vote. The Beach? Come on. I have never, ever heard anyone call it that.

  • http://undefined minou

    Holy plastic. How many winters before it cracks and falls off?

  • http://undefined montauk

    Yeah, what the hell? Graffiti is not my thing but the temptation to pluralize “Beach” is very trying.

  • http://www.publicspace.ca Jonathan Goldsbie

    It’s the same designer, Jeremy Kramer.
    The City settled on his street-sign designs before the street furniture RFP ever went out. One of Astral’s advantages in obtaining the contract was outbidding the other billboard companies for Kramer’s services; among other things, they were thus able to integrate the then-upcoming street signs into their original renderings and models.