Urban planning soap operas

November 18, 2003 at 12:00 AM

Category: Urban Legends

Remember that episode of The Simpson's when Springfield wins a $3 million lawsuit against Mr. Burns so they hold a City Council meeting to decide the fate of the unexpected budget surplus?

Marge suggests that they spend the money on Main Street, severely deteriorating with gigantic potholes, but she's overshadowed with a song and dance routine for a monorail system. (Sing along... ""Monorail!"") Except the monorail is a disaster and it's added to the pile of other useless things City Council have spent money on: the 50-ft magnifying glass, the escalator to nowhere, and the popsicle skyscraper.

While the real City Council isn't as exciting as The Simpson's, Toronto sure does spend a lot of money on useless stuff. Remember how angry everyone was about Dundas Square? (Like, was Mel Lastman just trying to get a few more squares named after him before his inevitable curtain close?)

Anyways, I just finished a gruelingly-long essay about the Gardiner Expressway. I swear it's Toronto's longest-running urban planning soap opera along with the Waterfront Revitalization Project. If you care to read it, I will post the .pdf here shortly and also worth checking out is Zack Taylor's Masters thesis project about the Gardiner.

So I wonder what Miller, McGuinty, and Martin have up their sleeves? Time will tell.

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urban shadows

November 12, 2003 at 12:00 AM

Category: Urban Legends

Admist my research for my urban geography class, I found this article (old but really good) that was published in Eye Magazine about the relics of Toronto that wait.

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