Preville on Politics

Toronto’s shit smells of roses, says Dr. Florida

Posted on January 14, 2008 by Philip Preville

In case you missed it, the weekend Globe featured the latest in its series titled “Richard Florida Ingratiates Himself.” In each installment, Florida heaps his brainy-sounding flattery upon a different area of Toronto while appearing photographed in its midst with a shit-eating grin.

First it was Kensington Market, then Dundas Square, now the U of T, which he praises for being nondescript—sorry, I mean “seamless.”

The description strikes me as either an insult (“That was a campus I just walked through? I thought it was just a few low-rise office towers amid some churches”) or a pleasant fib. If anything, the U of T’s border streets (Bloor, Spadina, Queen’s Park, College) do an excellent job of signaling to passersby that there’s nothing much to see inside the quad—it’s a subtle but highly effective cloistering. But don’t listen to a sourpuss like me. Just read the final paragraph of the story, in which Florida—pardon, that’s Dr. Florida to you and me—lays on the positivity thick and brown as Nutella:

“I wonder,” he says, standing in front of the main gates leading into King's College Road, “if having the University of Toronto here in the centre of the city, creating a kind of meritocratic, open-minded, pluralistic mentality, didn't have something to do with Toronto's emergence as one of the most tolerant, open-minded, accepting and inclusive cities in the world.”

Meanwhile, look forward to the following future installments in the series:

• Dr. Florida shops at Bad Boy. His take, in a nutshell: Every city has a discount appliance retailer, but nobody has this appliance retailer. If you can tune out the shrieking pitchmen, it’s seamless.
• Dr. Florida visits the Don Jail. His take: Inmates represent a key segment of the population whose creative capacity isn’t being tapped, despite the fact that prison populations can be so remarkably diverse. If you stare at your feet so that you can’t see the bars on the windows or the guards on their smoke breaks, it’s seamless.
• Dr. Florida at the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. His take: Even the most creative city produces effluent , but Toronto’s is such a tolerant, open-minded and inclusive waste stream. And when you think of how we send it back into Lake Ontario, which is where we also source the water that quenches our life’s thirst, it’s seamless. What greater testament to Toronto as a waterfront city?

No Ivory Tower on This Campus: Source [Globe and Mail]

Comments

Neither the author nor Toronto Life necessarily agree with the comments posted below. Editors will not correct spelling or grammar. Toronto Life reserves the right to edit or delete comments entirely. Read our full policy

joe January 14, 2008 at 12:36 p.m.

Can you see the good in ANYTHING? Holy crap. Go live out in the woods if you have to complain about every single thing in life. Actually, no - that isn't a life you have - it's an existence filled with complaining and negativity - not much of a life at all.

Mark Dowling January 14, 2008 at 12:41 p.m.

Ouch! I guess it's better to be revile than ignore, which is what I am choosing to do with our newest saviour-guru.

I suppose you never ingratiated yourself with the locals when you arrived, Philip? :)

Raymond January 14, 2008 at 12:52 p.m.

Why is it that whenever anyone points out that maybe, just maybe, there's a better way of talking about this city of ours - they're immediately branded as negative and "unable to see the good in anything"? I read into Preville's missive that it's high-time we get over this incessant celebration of the banal that we seem to do so well here in Toronto. Do we really think that Toronto's largely banal buildings / urban environments are what make for a great city? Imagine had Baron Haussman said "I want streets for Paris that are nice... nothing grand, just nice". A lot has changed since the early 19th century - but one constant is that cities that thrive are those where citizens CONSTANTLY question, reconsider and yes, annoy the more complacent among us. If you want to see a more critical attitude in play - and the amazing effect that can have on the urban environment - go to Barcelona. I can guarantee you that nobody EVER called their mayor negative when he said "we have to reinvent this city if we want to compete". At no point did he say "ok, good enough - stop complaining". But why just look at Barcelona... just look at what many American cities are up to these days - the creativity might surprise us. Frankly, when Florida came to Toronto, I thought it would make us truly question what makes this town tick. Sadly, he's just another apologist for the master narrative that has turned this city into anything but a creative hotbed.

Josh January 14, 2008 at 3:07 p.m.

Here here, Raymond! I am endlessly sick of Torontonian cheerleading. I would, however, like to add to your last point: Toronto COULD be a creative hotbed, but when public projects are so watered down by politics and bureaucracy, yet still praised to the heavens, we end out with what we have: a city built by committee. Blech.

Jonathan January 14, 2008 at 4 p.m.

Florida really isn't worth our time. I concur.

He and David Brooks should take a long walk off a short pier.

That's about all the attention they deserge.

scott January 14, 2008 at 4:29 p.m.

Florida's ideas are not original or new and I honestly don't understand the power he seems to have over Spacing regulars among others. Florida is a phony.

Lisa January 14, 2008 at 5:13 p.m.

"He's just peddling a bunch of easy answers."
"And how!!"

Phil January 14, 2008 at 7:57 p.m.

Amen! Someone needed to say this.

The real problem, as I see it, is this: the only people who are going to give a whit about who Dr. Richard Florida is, or care what he thinks, are urbanist types. And those types have already, ahem, discovered Kensington, or noticed that there's a university in the middle of the city.

Philip Preville January 14, 2008 at 10:08 p.m.

Let me say this from the bottom of my shriveled little heart: contrary to many of the posts above, I think the jury is still out on Florida's "Toronto period." It will depend on what he does with his Rotman research institute after he's run his way through the dinner-party circuit. In the meantime, one would expect a well-traveled creative-cities guru to be full of lateral-thinking observations and suggestions on how Toronto could do things better. Instead, he talks of the place as if it couldn't possibly be improved upon, which, no matter how much you love Toronto, is false.

Yawn January 14, 2008 at 11 p.m.

Why is it that whenever anyone points out that maybe, just maybe, there's a better way of talking about this city of ours - they're immediately branded as positive and "sh!t-eating"? I read into Preville's missive that it's high-time we get over the incessant revulsion of the city's very exsistance that we seem to do so well here in Toronto.

The fact that foreigners that come to Toronto somehow manage to see the greatness in it while Canadians who relocate here from elsewhere in the country revel in their inbred hatred of the city is not new.

Shawn Micallef January 14, 2008 at 11:21 p.m.

I think "The Jury is Out" is also where we're at with Florida, and it can't be based on these Globe articles. He didn't write them, he was interviewed on a walkabout. So it isn't his scholarly work, or his research -- the stuff he is famous for. That's what we'll look to, when it comes out and hopefully there is part of it that is specifically Torontonian.

Max Fawcett January 15, 2008 at 8:22 p.m.

Couldn't agree more, really. I find it puzzling that so many eminent Torontonians are so eager to have smoke blown up their asses by this guy. If there was ever a sign that we're *not* a "world class city" (TM), that's got to be it.

Kef January 15, 2008 at 10:38 p.m.

Thanks for posting - I was beginning to worry about some sort of collective delusion surrounding Dr. Florida's ramblings about Toronto. Kudos to him though - his only original insight has been that it's actually pretty easy to persuade local politicians and bureaucrats to fork over loads of grants so that he can write a study extoiling the "creativity" (however he chooses to measure it) of the respective area, a study to which they can subsequently refer as proof of their creativity. I'm saying this not as a TO self-hater but as a Torontonian who doesn't really need a glorified economist wannabe to know TO is truly a wonderful place to live.

Here is his response, by the way: http://creativeclass.typepad.com/thecrea...

Josh January 16, 2008 at 8:47 a.m.

Thanks for including that response from Florida, Kef!

Wow - I am a little shocked at the sniveling tone of Florida's recent post on his blog (see link in previous comment). He clearly hasn't hung around Toronto enough to understand our sense of humour - especially the idea that criticism and comedy are a match made in heaven. This piece by Mr. Preville is skewering not just Florida, but also the way the media has been covering his ideas by wrapping them in sunshine and rainbows.

But that's beside the point. Florida missed the point of Preville's post: that endless positivity gets us nowhere. Florida cites Jacobs as an example of why Preville is wrong, but even she had some constructive criticism to recommend to Toronto. Florida: where's yours?

hackette January 16, 2008 at 9:26 a.m.

A great city doesn't need a wankster like Florida to tell it so....

Christopher January 16, 2008 at 3:44 p.m.

Since Preville seems to enjoy talking about bodily effluent so much, I'll add one more: Preville is taking a giant piss here to mark his journalistic territory.

The real shame here is that when people like Florida arrive here, before they have a chance to do anything good or bad, insecure journos like Preville like to have their nasty little swipes. It's pathetic.

Cupcake January 17, 2008 at 5:06 p.m.

So taking this conversation away from bodily effluent for just a mo... here's a question for all of you. If the fostering and presence of a "creative class" is what makes cities great and strong, as per Florida, then why is Montreal still such an economic laggard? Why does creative Barcelona trail business-like Madrid? Why does Berlin trail Munich and Frankfurt in growth, productivity, wealth and quality of life and general well being? Melbourne behind Sydney? Portland behind Dallas? Basically, why are almost all of the "creative" cities in the World such laggards by almost all measures of them being "great places to live" - as judged by creatives and non-creatives alike?
As a Florida poster-child myself (gay, youngish, entrepreneurial, successful and creative) - I dare say that the criteria that weighed into the decision for my recent move to Toronto from Montreal were simple: stability, better weather, slightly lower levels of taxation, more efficient links to other world cities, etc. etc.
Now, returning to effluvia: I think Florida is full of poop (and that's based on his writings, not on Preville's witty piss-taking).

KG January 30, 2008 at 1:09 a.m.

I'd bet a hundred bucks that Preville or any of the posters never even peeked at the guy's book.

Raymond February 12, 2008 at 4:37 p.m.

You owe me $100 bucks KG


Author Bio Pic

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.


Preville on Politics RSS Feed