Toronto is failing on the small details that make cities work

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Cities spend a lot of time, energy and money on the big things that make them livable: roads, public transit, policing, public health. They often forget that, as the saying goes, it’s the little things that count. This is especially true in my city, Toronto.

While city hall splashes out on things like subway lines and public-housing projects, garbage bins overflow, pavement crumbles and fountains stand dry. When things aren’t breaking down, they are often simply ugly. For all its glories, today’s Toronto has an air of neglect and disorder.

All of this was sadly obvious on my ride to work on the Dundas streetcar this Thursday. Start with the streetcar itself. Mine had been subjected to a particularly aggressive form of what is called an “ad wrap.” Desperate for funds, the Toronto Transit Commission lets companies wrap some of its vehicles in advertising, turning them into rolling billboards.

My streetcar was wrapped by a big-box home improvement store, not just on the outside but in the interior. What a shame. The TTC’s sleek, red-and-white streetcars are an emblem of the city. Though not always a joy to ride, they are lovely to watch as they glide around city streets. The ad wraps ruin the impression.

Soon my streetcar passed one of those CaféTO patios. Since the pandemic, the city has been letting cafés, bars and restaurants put tables in the curbside lanes of some main streets in the warm weather. It’s a great idea. The patios have been buzzing this week as people get out to enjoy springtime.

But the execution is a mess. To protect patrons from passing cars, the city has walled off the patios with those great big wedge-shaped concrete barriers that contractors use for highway work. In an attempt to soften the brutalist effect, it has painted them blue and white this year, with the Toronto logo superimposed. Many patios have lines of bright orange plastic construction stanchions to boot.

So ugly. In a city full of artists and designers, couldn’t we find a better way?

Next I passed a nice city park. Tethered to a pole were a pair of trash bins: one grey for garbage, one blue for recycling. I know I am a little obsessed, but this system puts efficiency ahead of beauty, blotting the face of Toronto parks.

My streetcar passes right by City Hall itself on my way to work, so I got off to look around. Nathan Phillips Square, just outside, is one of the premier public spaces in the city, home of the famous skating rink spanned by concrete arches.

Another mess. Designed, like City Hall, by Finnish architect Viljo Revell, the square underwent a big reno about a decade back that was supposed to return it to its austere glory. The city has done a fine job since then of mucking it up. Big green or brown planters that look like they belong in a tacky suburban estate home are scattered all about. The elegant old concrete planters stand empty and crumbling. The grass is uncut and ragged around the statue of Winston Churchill, who looks suitably displeased.

Up above, on the raised podium that surrounds City Hall’s famous curving towers, the green roof has gone to seed. The attractive native plants put in there to keep the building cool and make the podium more inviting have been overtaken by grass. The surrounding walkways boast a healthy assortment of weeds. City workers in orange vests were doing some desultory weeding when I walked by, but they admitted it was a losing battle.

I walked up to the corner of Yonge and Dundas streets to catch another streetcar, but first I ducked down into the Dundas subway station. Again, a mess.

Dundas is among the subway system’s original stations and one of its busiest, with an exit into the giant Eaton Centre shopping mall. It has undergone several piecemeal renos over the years, to little effect. The space is cramped, confusing and, with its mustard wall tiles, frankly hideous.

At the bottom of a narrow stairway to the sidewalk above, a yellow floor sign warned: Keep Moving. Thanks. What must visitors to Toronto think when they pass through this depressing portal?

Considered on their own, these are indeed little things: mustard tiles, cheesy planters, garish ad wraps. But having a healthy, functional city means getting the little things right. Toronto is failing.