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Retooth, Reuse, Recycle
Toronto has an unusual problem: too many mayors’ offices. After the dying years of the last century saw Metro‘s five cities and one borough reduced into a single bureaucratic mess, the city was left with the prickly issue of what to do with the palatial digs of Alan Tonks and six mayors left sitting barren in the far-flung civic centres and City Halls throughout the megacity (which, when pronounced with the proper cynical inflection, rhymes with mendacity).
Stoking Toronto’s desired reputation as a city of ideas, culture, and recycling, our fearless leaders have been busily dreaming up poetic reuses for the many dusty offices of our former mayoralty class. The old East York council chamber and mayor’s office, for example, became home to the Bellamy inquiry into Tie Domi’s strange relationship with his brother. Is there a more poetic reuse of a former mayor’s office than to dedicate the space to exposing greed, corruption, malfeasance, and a serious case of brotherly love? We thought not.
Next in line for an extreme makeover is the former mayor’s office in the North York Civic Centre, in which Toronto proudly declares that it’s not yet finished dishing out the irony. What plans do they have for internationally-renowned Mel Lastman‘s nerve centre? While East York’s mayoral office was used to figuratively root out corruption, North York’s will be used to quite literally root out decay: construction is imminent on a new Toronto Public Health dental clinic in the very place where Mayor Mel (North York Edition) wheeled and dealed for so many years.
For all those who have ever declared that they’d rather have a root canal than cut through the red tape to get a parking permit, your chance to do both will be coming this winter.
Torontoist celebrates the long-overdue construction of this public clinic that will modernize dental services to eligible residents in North York. We also soundly applaud yet another creative reuse for a former municipal centre of power. We can’t wait to see what comes next.
Photo by ::| EYES OPEN |:: from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.