Preville on Politics

Toronto, Antiseptic City

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Philip Preville

Yesterday’s post was an ode to cart food, and so is today’s. The humourless Royal Ontario Museum wants to shoo hot dog vendors away from its spiffy, angular new facade. Again I ask: why does a clean and beautiful city have to be a whitewashed, antiseptic city?

Though the new ROM is an architectural gem, let’s face facts: the act of plopping a giant crystal in the heart of the city is goofy and carnivalesque, so no one should be surprised when carnival-style acts (buskers) and vendors (hot dogs) are drawn into its orbit. They ought to be embraced, but the ROM, so enamoured of its own dramatic and pristine beauty, wants to erase any trace of playfulness from its doorstep. Not to mention any trace of proletarian welcome, which is a true shame. But I guess this is fair warning from the ROM: don’t stand in front of the crystal unless you look like you just stepped right out of an architectural drawing.

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Mark Dowling November 28, 2007 at 11:14 a.m.

The ROM didn't want to pay the fee everyone else does due to their crystal overhanging the public sidewalk, but are getting vendors who pay city permit fees moved on...


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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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