Here is some good news to tide us over until the “Save the Revue” battle is won. It is also evidence that community action can influence the shape of our neighbourhoods. According to the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) June 2006 newsletter, Toronto City Works has recommended that the City Council reject the Eucan MegaBin contract. NorthRonces.com has been following this issue since its inception and is pleased that reason and good taste have won out over greed and bad design. Unfortunately, the TPSC notes that the trial MegaBins are still on the street and probably won’t be removed until the new Street Furniture project is in place—unless we make a fuss, of course. Read the follow excerpt to find out what you can do:

EUCAN’T – WE CAN! ~ one more email, then we party!

Ding dong the witch is dead! It isn’t quite official yet – City Council has to confirm the recommendations (probably June 14), but thanks to all your hard work, the Eucan bins have been thoroughly quashed. The Works Committee has recommended not extending Eucan’s contract and not installing any of the thousands of planned megabins. (more…)

I had mentioned, a couple of posts back, that the City of Toronto report on the MegaBin/Eucan trial engaged in some interesting number juggling and justification concerning the community’s response to the trial. Most interestingly, the authors of the report had concluded that the 2,387 on-line surveys, of which 85% were negative, could be marginalized in favour of the 199 interviews conducted on the street, of which, “83% support the initiative citing revenue generation as the primary motivator.”

The on-line survey was concluded to be “interested” in that the people filling out the on-line survey quite possibly came to it with an established opinion formed through reading newspapers stories on the trial or engaging in some independent research of their own. God forbid! (more…)

I was pleased to see The Roncesvalles Village Business Improvement Area (RVBIA) speak out against the MegaBin trial in their Spring 2006 Business Bulletin. This supports the findings of the City’s report which states that while 4 BIAs supported the trial, 8 disapproved and 5 of those who did, including our RVBIA, officially rejected the trial.

Hats off to the RVBIA from NorthRonces.com.

Here is the pertinent passage from the report:

4 BIA’s expressed their support of the new bins, while 8 BIA’s expressed disapproval. Furthermore, 5 BIA’s (Roncesvalles Village, West Queen West, Kennedy Road, The Danforth and GreekTown on the Danforth) expressed their official rejection of the Eucan proposal either verbally, via signed statements, or via community petitions.

The report on the Eucan Ecomupi-MegaBin trial (somewhat humourously, in the report the City still stubbornly calls them “EcoMupis” despite Eucan’s attempt to rebrand them as “MegaBins”) has been submitted by City Staff who are recommending a go ahead despite the fact that their online survey produced mainly negative results and that the majority of Toronto’s Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) have major concerns with the massive garbage bins, including competitition with local advertising and the threat of the large bins being used as mugging blinds. Luckily, the Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) showed up and challenged the city on their interpretation of the numbers and so the Works Committee has delayed the project until May 3, 2006. I am currently reading the report and will shortly highlight the City’s politically inspired manipulation of the numbers. For now, here is the TPSC’s latest missive:

MONSTER BIN BATTLE, HARMONISATION WAR ~ Planning Meeting!

The results of the three-month Monster Bin pilot project are in: Torontonians don’t want billboards masquerading as garbage cans! Although Eucan and, sadly, city staff attempted to spin the numbers and declare the pilot project a success, a TPSC intervention prevented this deceptive staff report from being accepted. This victory gives us more time to send a strong message to City Councillors: Stop Selling Our Streets!

The timing is crucial that City Council hears this message loud and clear, as they are about to embark on a “Street Furniture Harmonisation” process that will award a lengthy contract to one single company to design all of our benches, shelters, garbage cans, etc. This will massively shape the visual environment of our city for years to come. (See item #2 for more details.)

Come to our campaign planning meeting to help discuss and strategize how to encourage City Council to invest in our public spaces rather than sell them off for pennies – and for decades!

Wednesday February 15th, 6:30pm
Metro Hall, rm. 314 (King & John)

More info at: http://www.publicspace.ca/monster.htm

Due to work and life demands it has been a while. I hope to change that in this new year. I also have been speaking to a local writer who is interested in contributing to NorthRonces.com on a regular basis. For now, here is an update on the megabin issue from Public Space:

We are about to launch into the home stretch of this campaign, and it’s going to be a battle. The staff report that compiles the public’s responses from the pilot project has been released and will be presented at Works Committee on Thursday. This is an open public meeting but we are not encouraging public deputations. The Committee is expected to simply pass the report on to the Community Council meetings on February 7th. THAT is when we really need you to show up in numbers and be heard. (More details on that soon…. )

The first part of our campaign was directed at the public; the next part is directed at City Council. Eucan has hired one of the top lobbying firms in Toronto and is even running MegaBin television ads. They have people working full time to make sure that thousands of Megabins will be placed on our streets and stay there until 2015.

We don’t have any expensive lobbyists. We have you. If you would like to become involved with this project, we invite you to come to our planning meeting, where we will discuss the path the issue will take on its way to a final vote at Council and how we are planning on countering Eucan every step of the way.

Campaign Planning Meeting!
all welcome!

Wednesday January 11 2006
7pm, City Hall (Committee Room #4)

more info: http://www.publicspace.ca/monster.htm

I just read a great article in Saturday’s Globe & Mail, highlighting the work of the Toronto Public Space Committee against the commercialization of Toronto’s…well, public spaces. The article, by Anthony Reinhart, focuses on the total marketing strategy that has overwhelmed the TTC Subway stations. You are probably familiar with this latest in advertising trends where a single product/company buys up all the advertising rights to a particular location for a period of time. They then proceed to apply ads to every possible surface including the floors, walls, stairs, garbage bins, as well as those places usually reserved for ads such as billboards, poster hoardings, etc. The result is that the subway platform becomes one giant all-encompassing ad. Currently, Global TV and Homer Simpson has taken over Union Station. And this is not to mention the new TV monitors and their constant sell.

The Toronto Public Space Committee is leading the charge against this colonization of our city and our imaginations by what are essentially private interests. One of their more interesting projects is called “The Better Way; Redesigning the TTC: Replacing Ads With Your Imagination” an invitation to Torontonians to recreate a TTC without ads:

Artists! TTC Riders! We invite you to re-imagine the TTC without any commercial advertising. Using this new blank canvas as a starting point, you can redesign the interior or exterior of entire vehicles, or subway stations, or focus on a specific feature such as a turnstile or a fare box.

Feel free to explore different media including photo illustrations, sketches, paintings, animation and sculptures.

Deadline for submissions is: October 31st 2005

This is a great way to draw attention to a growing problem. As the ongoing Eucan MegaBin issue indicates, the City of Toronto has been seduced by advertising dollars to give up our streets to commercial clutter. As citizens we just take for granted the inevitability of self-interested visual garbage. Here is a chance to fight back.

Finally, you may be wondering why I have not provided a link to the Globe story mentioned above. Unfortunately, the article is “subscription only” and unavailable for wide public consumption. So, just as our material public space dwindles so does our virtual public space. The result is a reduction in our ability to have an open discussion about important issues.

Just a heads up on Tuesdays, Sept 13, 7:30 PM meeting of the High Park/Parkside Residents Association at Howard Public School, 30 Marmaduke Street, main entrance.

Councillor Sylvia Watson will address:

This last item will be interesting. We have to make sure we ask whether the second stage of the Eucan trial, with its removal of a number of the OMG Silverboxes in favour of the EcoBin (see below), makes it more difficult for the City to pull out of the Eucan deal. It will also be interesting to see if Councillor Watson is still supporting the City’s position about the need for the public to experience the new billboards before we can comment. Well we have seen them now and, personally, I am more set against them than I was before.

See you at the meeting.