Get off the Road: Toronto street festivals take the whole city hostage. Jan Wong says that it’s time we learn to say no
One of Toronto’s biggest, most aggravating problems is traffic. In a recent poll about the upcoming mayoral election, Torontonians ranked congestion as one of their most significant concerns, above even the economy. Gridlock costs Toronto untold millions in lost productivity. Then there’s everyone’s wasted time, not to mention missed flights and appointments, and overall frustration. “Our roads and transit systems are strained,” says Julia Deans, CEO of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, who believes efficient roads are critical to our competitiveness and quality of life.
This summer, if getting from one part of the city to another seemed particularly hellish, that’s because it was. The 2010 municipal capital budget is 50 per cent larger than last year. In addition, road repairs ramped up as the city eagerly spent federal infrastructure stimulus funds that will expire at the end of March.
How is city hall addressing congestion? This year, it’s green-lighting about 500 special events that will shut down roads, creating even more gridlock. These days, we treat our roads not as roads, but as a means of expression. Toronto is choked with protest marches, disease-related charity runs, ethnic festivals, holiday parades and car races. We love our street parties: the Taste of Lawrence, Taste of the Danforth, and Salsa on St. Clair. There’s the Beaches Jazz Festival, Luminato and Nuit Blanche—plus not one but two marathons. Woofstock draws tens of thousands of dogs and their owners for such events as the Stupid Dog Tricks show and a Ms. and Mr. Canine Canada Pageant. Unfortunately, the festival also shuts down a key stretch of Front Street for an entire weekend in June. Then BuskerFest shuts the same stretch down for four days in August.
I have nothing against the Cure. Or Caribana. Or, for that matter, something called Toronto Chinatown Festival 2010, which in late August shuts down much of Spadina Avenue (for two days!). Of course we should raise money for good causes. But can’t we Crochet for the Cure instead? Must we always close our streets? And if we have to use our roads for non-transportation purposes, shouldn’t we set some limits? We appear to have put ourselves at the mercy of every interest group, ethnic group and splinter group. There’s even a parade for Protestants cheering a 17th-century victory over Catholics in Ireland. Every July for the past 190 years, the Orange Association has held a march that typically begins at the Moss Park Armoury and goes up to College and Yonge. Why not march in memory of Genghis Khan, too?
I raised my concerns recently with Gary Welsh, Toronto’s general manager of transportation services and the city’s road-closure czar. “You’ve got all these cultures that want to celebrate their heritage, and council wants to encourage that,” Welsh said. “Other activities like road races and marathons are part of the ‘be healthy’ kick. In general, special events make Toronto an exciting place to be.”
To shut down a road, a city resident fills out a simple form and, if approved, pays $74.19. “We are receptive to requests and try to accommodate permits wherever possible,” Welsh added, noting there was a road-hockey tournament tying up the Esplanade as we spoke. Any limits? “Well,” he said, thinking for a moment. “You can’t have a family get-together on Yonge Street.”
Welsh’s solution to the frustration of roadblock season is publicity: his office issues press releases. A new Web site announces road closures, and he’s quite proud of a new sign: a round, orange alert sign that’s screwed to the top right corner of regular rectangular road-disruption signs. All this, he suggests, will provide enough notice so people can plan to take alternative routes, stay home or get out of town.
“If someone’s going to drive across town on a Saturday morning,” he told me, “they should be aware of road closures and leave enough time.” He added, rather breathtakingly, “If a member of the public is caught in traffic, he should be saying to himself, ‘I should almost be mad at myself.’ ” How Canadian. You step on my foot, I say sorry.
Our city wasn’t always thus. The Santa Claus parade started innocently enough in 1905. The man in red arrived at Union Station by train, was greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Eaton and then proceeded up Simcoe Street to their department store. Then, somehow, it evolved into the giant six-kilometre, 1,500-participant extravaganza it is today.
Gay Pride, which also began modestly, has spawned triplets: a main parade, a dyke march and a trans parade. Likewise, Ride for Heart, which originally commandeered a few streets, now shuts down both the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. (The Heart and Stroke Foundation, for the record, does not clog arteries in any other Canadian city.)
Are we getting the world’s biggest outdoor dog festival, the longest-running Santa parade and the charity bike-a-thon with the highest number of participants because we’re Canada’s Number One City? Or is something else at work here? Are we perhaps Canada’s Number One City of Suckers?
Maybe I shouldn’t blame the sorry-you’ve-stepped-on-my-foot reaction on being Canadian. Perhaps Toronto-specific DNA lacks the protest gene. We didn’t call a general strike when the provincial government off-loaded the cost of social services onto us. We voted against amalgamation, then submitted to it. We put up with garbage, literally. For five weeks last summer, we obediently hauled our reeking bags to designated sites.
Then there was the G20. We wanted it to be held at Exhibition Place. When the feds decided instead to shut down the heart of our financial district—thus paralyzing much of the city—they didn’t even bother to consult our mayor. And we swallowed it, just as we’ve swallowed the Harmonized Sales Tax. In British Columbia, opponents have filed a constitutional challenge, and 700,000 people signed an anti-HST petition. No such mobilization here.
Perhaps our meekness is a psychic remnant of our identity as Toronto the Good. This is, after all, the city that drew curtains across shop windows to avoid tempting Sunday shoppers, that still has a street called “Temperance.” Or maybe we’re multicultural cowards, afraid of raining on someone else’s parade. We continually congratulate ourselves for living in harmony, for being a city where even historic enemies like Turks and Armenians, Chinese and Japanese, Pakistanis and Indians get along. No one wants to destabilize this delicate dynamic. If we get our festival, you most certainly can have yours—as long as you pick another weekend this summer.
At least we put our foot down in the marathon department—sort of. Until this year, we had duelling races every fall. A city manager had to shuttle back and forth, Middle East peace talks style, until GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon finally conceded the coveted autumn slot to Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Starting in 2011, GoodLife will plug up the roads every May instead.
If this keeps up, we’ll become hostages in our own city, glued to Gary Welsh’s Web site, desperately seeking an alternative route.
So I’m putting my foot down. Please don’t ask me to support your charity walk or run. I’ll pledge money for almost any cause—if you’ll weed my lawn. Ten cents a dandelion, as long as you get the root. Or you can rake my leaves. I pledge $2.50 a bag, placed on the curb. It’s good exercise. It eliminates leaf blowers. And it keeps you off my streets.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/get-off-the-road-toronto-street-festivals-take-the-whole-city-hostage-jan-wong-says-that-its-time-we-learn-to-say-no/&title=Get off the Road: Toronto street festivals take the whole city hostage. Jan Wong says that it’s time we learn to say no&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/festivals.jpg&description=
[caption id="attachment_35909" align="alignright" width="320" caption="(Image: Jack Dylan)"][/caption]
One of Toronto’s biggest, most aggravating problems is traffic. In a recent poll about the upcoming mayoral election, Torontonians ranked congestion as one of their most significant concerns, above even the economy. Gridlock costs Toronto untold millions in lost productivity. Then there’s everyone’s wasted time, not to mention missed flights and appointments, and overall frustration. “Our roads and transit systems are strained,” says Julia Deans, CEO of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, who believes efficient roads are critical to our competitiveness and quality of life.
This summer, if getting from one part of the city to another seemed particularly hellish, that’s because it was. The 2010 municipal capital budget is 50 per cent larger than last year. In addition, road repairs ramped up as the city eagerly spent federal infrastructure stimulus funds that will expire at the end of March.
How is city hall addressing congestion? This year, it’s green-lighting about 500 special events that will shut down roads, creating even more gridlock. These days, we treat our roads not as roads, but as a means of expression. Toronto is choked with protest marches, disease-related charity runs, ethnic festivals, holiday parades and car races. We love our street parties: the Taste of Lawrence, Taste of the Danforth, and Salsa on St. Clair. There’s the Beaches Jazz Festival, Luminato and Nuit Blanche—plus not one but two marathons. Woofstock draws tens of thousands of dogs and their owners for such events as the Stupid Dog Tricks show and a Ms. and Mr. Canine Canada Pageant. Unfortunately, the festival also shuts down a key stretch of Front Street for an entire weekend in June. Then BuskerFest shuts the same stretch down for four days in August.
I have nothing against the Cure. Or Caribana. Or, for that matter, something called Toronto Chinatown Festival 2010, which in late August shuts down much of Spadina Avenue (for two days!). Of course we should raise money for good causes. But can’t we Crochet for the Cure instead? Must we always close our streets? And if we have to use our roads for non-transportation purposes, shouldn’t we set some limits? We appear to have put ourselves at the mercy of every interest group, ethnic group and splinter group. There’s even a parade for Protestants cheering a 17th-century victory over Catholics in Ireland. Every July for the past 190 years, the Orange Association has held a march that typically begins at the Moss Park Armoury and goes up to College and Yonge. Why not march in memory of Genghis Khan, too?
I raised my concerns recently with Gary Welsh, Toronto’s general manager of transportation services and the city’s road-closure czar. “You’ve got all these cultures that want to celebrate their heritage, and council wants to encourage that,” Welsh said. “Other activities like road races and marathons are part of the ‘be healthy’ kick. In general, special events make Toronto an exciting place to be.”
To shut down a road, a city resident fills out a simple form and, if approved, pays $74.19. “We are receptive to requests and try to accommodate permits wherever possible,” Welsh added, noting there was a road-hockey tournament tying up the Esplanade as we spoke. Any limits? “Well,” he said, thinking for a moment. “You can’t have a family get-together on Yonge Street.”
Welsh’s solution to the frustration of roadblock season is publicity: his office issues press releases. A new Web site announces road closures, and he’s quite proud of a new sign: a round, orange alert sign that’s screwed to the top right corner of regular rectangular road-disruption signs. All this, he suggests, will provide enough notice so people can plan to take alternative routes, stay home or get out of town.
“If someone’s going to drive across town on a Saturday morning,” he told me, “they should be aware of road closures and leave enough time.” He added, rather breathtakingly, “If a member of the public is caught in traffic, he should be saying to himself, ‘I should almost be mad at myself.’ ” How Canadian. You step on my foot, I say sorry.
Our city wasn’t always thus. The Santa Claus parade started innocently enough in 1905. The man in red arrived at Union Station by train, was greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Eaton and then proceeded up Simcoe Street to their department store. Then, somehow, it evolved into the giant six-kilometre, 1,500-participant extravaganza it is today.
Gay Pride, which also began modestly, has spawned triplets: a main parade, a dyke march and a trans parade. Likewise, Ride for Heart, which originally commandeered a few streets, now shuts down both the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. (The Heart and Stroke Foundation, for the record, does not clog arteries in any other Canadian city.)
Are we getting the world’s biggest outdoor dog festival, the longest-running Santa parade and the charity bike-a-thon with the highest number of participants because we’re Canada’s Number One City? Or is something else at work here? Are we perhaps Canada’s Number One City of Suckers?
Maybe I shouldn’t blame the sorry-you’ve-stepped-on-my-foot reaction on being Canadian. Perhaps Toronto-specific DNA lacks the protest gene. We didn’t call a general strike when the provincial government off-loaded the cost of social services onto us. We voted against amalgamation, then submitted to it. We put up with garbage, literally. For five weeks last summer, we obediently hauled our reeking bags to designated sites.
Then there was the G20. We wanted it to be held at Exhibition Place. When the feds decided instead to shut down the heart of our financial district—thus paralyzing much of the city—they didn’t even bother to consult our mayor. And we swallowed it, just as we’ve swallowed the Harmonized Sales Tax. In British Columbia, opponents have filed a constitutional challenge, and 700,000 people signed an anti-HST petition. No such mobilization here.
Perhaps our meekness is a psychic remnant of our identity as Toronto the Good. This is, after all, the city that drew curtains across shop windows to avoid tempting Sunday shoppers, that still has a street called “Temperance.” Or maybe we’re multicultural cowards, afraid of raining on someone else’s parade. We continually congratulate ourselves for living in harmony, for being a city where even historic enemies like Turks and Armenians, Chinese and Japanese, Pakistanis and Indians get along. No one wants to destabilize this delicate dynamic. If we get our festival, you most certainly can have yours—as long as you pick another weekend this summer.
At least we put our foot down in the marathon department—sort of. Until this year, we had duelling races every fall. A city manager had to shuttle back and forth, Middle East peace talks style, until GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon finally conceded the coveted autumn slot to Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Starting in 2011, GoodLife will plug up the roads every May instead.
If this keeps up, we’ll become hostages in our own city, glued to Gary Welsh’s Web site, desperately seeking an alternative route.
So I’m putting my foot down. Please don’t ask me to support your charity walk or run. I’ll pledge money for almost any cause—if you’ll weed my lawn. Ten cents a dandelion, as long as you get the root. Or you can rake my leaves. I pledge $2.50 a bag, placed on the curb. It’s good exercise. It eliminates leaf blowers. And it keeps you off my streets.){kind=link}
poor old Jan Wong. She was much better when she took chicks out to lunch and then slimed them in her Globe column.
Why is the Chinatown festival o.k, JAN WONG ? I think the more street parties the better. Let different cultures celebrate. Let orginizations do fun things that inspire participation ,for charity. Why do you want to kill fun in Toronto? Because it took you an extra 10 minutes to get where you going one day. I have friends and family who visit T.O. in the summer and they love the atmosphere that these festivals provide.
Aww, poor Jan. Caught in traffic a few too many times because you failed to listen to the traffic updates on the news? That’s quite the sob story you tell. I can’t say that I agree with you one bit. Street Festivals are what bring out the people to celebrate the city’s diversity, beauty and all it has to offer. If you know enough to check the traffic and keep up with what’s going on in the city, you don’t run into these problems. Street closures happen for more reasons than just festivals. Street repairs, traffic accidents, charity marathons, etc…but of course you don’t see people up in huff about them.
Don’t complain just because you were careless enough not to keep up to date on the city’s goings-on. We always check the weather forecast when planning an outing…checking the traffic before you go out should be no different.
Yes Jan, it is your fault that you got stuck in a traffic jam this past weekend. Suck it up.
Never really have this problem on my bike.
I have to partially agree with this.
There are plenty of other ways to celebrate without causing major traffic paralysis. Some people work on weekends too, you know! and TTC is not the most reliable option lately, or not even an option sometimes (especially when streets are blocked).
How about hosting this events in the many, many parks/parking lots/general empty spaces you see all around the city, even in downtown?
This is the way it’s done in various other cities and countries, and I was fairly shocked when I arrived to Toronto that we had this many street festivals. Not that I don’t enjoy them, but I think there should be a better filtering when it comes to closing down roads.
Jan Wong, perhaps city life is not for you.
Street festivals are a great part of Toronto. As a concierge I recommend these all the time to tourists. These events happen every year and with enough notice in the news. It is very easy to work around these events.
Buzz kill much, Jan Wong?
We only have three legitimate months of summer, let us enjoy it for what it’s worth.
They’re called walking shoes, dear.
Wow…wah wah wah…this has got to be the stupidest article I have ever read. Do you want some cheese with that whine? Why don’t you turn on the radio or the TV before you leave, even the night before, to find out how these amazing festivals THAT BRING LIFE TO THE CITY will interfere with your drive?
Articles like this, ones where the writer basically complains and whines about things that are happening in the city really irks me. And then they will probably write about how there’s nothing to do and how Toronto is such a boring city. What a waste of time.
What a moron! Get out of your car, and join the revolution. Nobody cares about guzzling gas and lattes in their car while driving at a steady speed. There will always be traffic, so get smart but a bike, walk, TTC, or stay home! We want culture and community events! Wake up Wong!
Jan Wong, the only reason I read whatever you write is to check whether you are getting less insipid as years go by. Sadly, that’s not the case.
I totally agree with Jan – the city is becoming unlivable. But it’s not just the street festivals – it’s also the road construction (have you seen Avenue Road lately? It’ll be under construction for another two years!!) and the new bike lane on Jarvis – in sum, it’s unbearable. And public transit doesn’t solve the problem – surface routes get caught in the same mess.
For your challenge today, count how many of these comments don’t know the difference between attacking to opinion and attacking the person with the opinion, nastily and personally. Sad.
wowwww… if you dont like the festivals you should move to somewhere else… lol and for all of you dont live in downtown then dont even bother to come if you like to complaint. stay where you are. and drive around your neighbourhood LOL… I live and work in downtown love my walking and biking . I hate the cars especially from out of Toronto,,, most of them stupid ignorant drivers anyway…
Wow, once Jan enlightened me about the dangerous of Mao and his regime. Now she’s pointing out the perils and hassles of dancing in the streets!
Thanks Jan. You obviously have alot of time on your hands these days.
Toronto’s roadways serve more than one purpose.
They not only get us from here to there but they also connect us to our city and our communities. A couple of my most entertaining days were spent “getting caught” in some street festival. I gave up getting around it and joined the party…. We could all use a bit of that in our busy lives.
Life is as much about the journey as the final destination.
The same holds true for our roadways.
Am I alone in noticing how insanely idiotic it is for someone who relies on roads to drive their cars on to complain about road construction? How do you think the roads got damaged in the first place?
I say more street closing festivals, more parades and more reasons for people to learn that you can live and move in a city without having to tote a giant hunk of metal with you everywhere you go!
Interesting point about “lacking a protest gene”.
So many of your readers were happy to proclaim G20 protesters deserved the police brutality they got for just being downtown.
Don’t like hectic traffic? Stay in the suburbs.
You’ll be doing those of us who like street festivals a favour.
I agree. If this parading needs to take place, why not use a location that’s built for it? The Exhibition grounds are usually empty most of the summer. Take it to the Island. Yes I live downtown, but I have to drive places to pick things up and drop people off from time to time. And I also ride a bike. Martin Goodman trail couldn’t go where I had to go to today. A parade down University would have seriously screwed me up from purchasing an item. Businesses suffer, and so do consumers.
You like festivals, then get off the street and into your festival. I’m all for reducing traffic downtown, but shoving festivals onto the streets is plain silly. There’s a time and place for everything.
Sounds like someone should move to Mississauga and work there too. Lots of open roads for you and not much culture. Enjoy!
I’d rather have a street festival take over a road than cars. At least festivals make the city a better place to live.
So the argument is that all of that pesky *living* in our city is making it too slow for those people who just want to pass through it quickly? I just can’t see this as being a real problem. Go live in Saskatchewan if what you really want is open expanses of empty road.
The vibrant public life of this city, including the many and varied street festivals, are a big part of what drew me to live downtown and what keep me here happily year after year. One of the residential streets near my house has an annual street party just to celebrate another year of being great neighbours. That’s the kind of thing that keeps Toronto awesome.
Once a Red Guard, always a Red Guard.
Don’t like the fact that the city lacks a good central public square and is closing streets right, left and centre during the summer? Then go to the stupid suburbs where there is no “culture” — because a street party is apparently the pinnicle of cultural achievement, never mind the TSO, the Opera, the Universities or the ROM.
Wow, great inclusive attitude everyone! Not at all self-centred and condescending. I have no idea why so many people from outside of the GTA hate us Torontonians.
The fact is that Toronto is an important enough place that most of us can’t just voluntarily give it up. People work weekends, want to go see a ball game, go do any of the thousand other things in the city that aren’t necissarily related to whatever city-sanctioned festival is going on. And until they ban cars in the downtown core, then it is ENTIRELY reasonable to expect that one can drive downtown without ridiculous detours.
Why can’t the question be asked? Why can’t the city – at the very least – try harder to encourage festivals to take place on less important streets over major ones, particularly in the downtown core? Do Spadina or University really need to be shut down over Peter or John? College or Bloor over McCaul?
The lack of any really good, centrally-located public square or park in Toronto is a massive oversight by city planners, considering almost every city built before it was designed with a central square in mind. Jan Wong is entirely correct in rebuffing the transportation manager’s assertion that it is OUR fault that we assume that, on a weekend, traffic flows.
What a brutal article.
Do you want Toronto to be more like Detroit? No festivals, no events, and no reason for people to come to the city. That would surely solve our gridlock problem!
That’s not the kind of city I would want to live in.
Get a bike and stop your whining.
C’mon.. this is a joke right?
Street festivals a bad thing? They are limited to weekends, there is plenty of notice, they are fun, THEY ARE ON WEEKENDS!!, get a life Jan. Go out and enjoy the streets and don’t expect everyone to hide in their homes so you can drive around the city.
I’m all for more festivals, more road closures, and let the car curmudgeons move to the suburbs.
If there is anything about this article that sounds reasonable it is that the city’s infrastructure and transit system obviously needs some attention. However Jan, that’s the only sensible thing you’ve said. Congestion is congestion, with or without a parade, event, festival, ect. Traffic is a daily occurrence in this city,and most of the time it is NOT due to some cultural event. The consequences of closing down a street is very small compared to the standstill traffic of rush hour, which happens daily. It strains our temperament, our manners and costs our city’s businesses dearly.
You also suggest that these events are tolerate silently by Torontonians, who passively grind their teeth at the closures and road blocks. Come on, thats completely unfounded. Explain then the massive attendance of people from around the city at these events? If it were so, the popularity of open festivals would be apparent in lack of presence throughout these events. You even said that these event continue to grow!
Also the logical reasoning behind your article, Jan Wong, would also suggest it would be reasonable to move and ban jobs, and workplaces to make it an easier ride around town. Too many people? Too many cars during rush hour? Move and ban our businesses. It’s ridiculous how you don’t equate the importance of a lively city of leisure with a place of money making and business. An active city, that’s engaging, workable and livable is one that does not neglect spaces, it is one that is continuously activated. Our streets are not ruled simply by the Car, but also the people that walk and live around them. We have a right to this space as much as anyone else, even if its just for a sliver of time out of the year.
Jan, you are not looking at the larger picture, your view is myopic and narrow, for any journalist this surprises me. For a driver your experiences and bemoaning do not translate easily with me. I live in the downtown core and i own a bike and take transit. I agree that I share this place not with just those that live directly around me, but with the whole GTA. However you cannot dictate to me what is reasonable and unreasonable about your distress and frustrations about traffic congestion caused by open events, and neither can I complain about the presence of your car on the road.
If you cannot generously give me space to live, work and play in my city, as I do for you, then you are simply not welcomed here. You would not be welcomed in any community for that matter.
Ha! I love it how gay pride is only mentioned in the “Related Tags” and not the article. Trying to keep away from the ire of the gays, huh, Ms. Wong?
You won’t fool us!
I like Jan Wong, she knows how to press buttons like this one. The reactions make me laugh. Here’s my 2 cents. Some of my neighbours close our little street every year for their microscopic street jamboree. They’re twits on every other day of the year too, but in the big picture, I agree these events contribute to a good sense of pride of ownership in respective communities, and are good for small businesses, like the one my wife and I operate.
Oh, boo hoo. Be a bit better informed about road closures and a bit smarter about how to get around the city instead of trying to kill what little vitality this city can scrape together. That goes for you up there in Lytton Park, Jan Wong, along with the rest of your Mothers Again Fun contingent.
Oh, and I guess this is the kind of street event you want to get rid of:
http://www.newsfix.ca/2009/06/04/cyclists-stage-bike-in-to-remember-tiananmen-square/
伪君子。
*Against
Jan, you got it right by saying that our roads and transit are in a bad way. Unfortunately you seem to want to fight a war to the bottom, rather than look at the proper culprits: namely the provincial and federal governments. More transit means people have alternative routes they can use to go around disruption, more road repairs likewise.
Like many have said, a simple check before you leave the house isn’t too much to ask. And it’s not like these events have been sprung on everyone – as you yourself admit, the Santa Claus parade is over a century old, the Pride marches and the marathon(s) have all been here for years. For the major events, like the ones just mentioned, they always happen around the same time of the year and are easily planned for. You sound like you’re angry at yourself for being caught in a traffic jam, and then choosing to blame other people for it.
If I wanted to live somewhere where it was always easy to drive my car everywhere, I’d move to Whitby.
And yet these street festivals are full of people! Someone is having fun, but it isn’t Jan Wong so it’s a Bad Idea. Cry me a river.
The street fairs are becoming too popular. It was all but impossible to get around and see acts at the Buskerfest.
There must be some way that we downtowners can arrange it so that the 905’s have to bike or walk in.
Not a totally bad hot button Jan but way below what your talent should be directed to. Please look around and find some of the things in TO that really need to be criticized. For example: how can a city with an exploding tax base, feeding off inflated realestate prices and levying an additional tax on every sale,swimming in parking punishment fees be going broke?
Arterial roads are for driving. Once and a while is great for a closure. Toronto is a hostage to these things. I also ride the bike lots, but for god sakes. We should not be burdened with more than a few closures a year. Go to the beloved parks and enjoy your day there!
ARE YOU KIDDING ME JAN WONG? WHAT A HATEFUL SELFISH AND SMALL MINDED PERSON YOU ARE. YOU DISGUST ME. TORONTO LIFE – YOU PAID THIS WOMAN FOR THIS GARBAGE? I was just gifted a Toronto Life subscription and this article was in my first issue. Jan Wong doesn’t speak of the Toronto I want to live in. CITIES ARE FOR PEOPLE JAN WONG! NOT FOR CARS! GET OVER YOURSELF. Street closures need to happen when there is more room for cars in this city than there is for celebrating life! THIS IS WHO TORONTO LIFE EMPLOYS? SARAH FULFORD, YOU APPROVED THIS ARTICLE. SHAME ON YOU TOO. WHERE YOU ON SUMMER VACATION? WHERE’S YOUR JUDGEMENT? I’M CANCELLING MY SUBSCRIPTION TODAY AS I DON’T WANT TO BE SUBJECTED TO BOGUS ARTICLES LIKE THIS. SERIOUSLY, JAN WONG SHOULD MOVE THE HELL OUT OF TORONTO AND SEEK OUT SOME THERAPY FOR HER MISERABLE AND NEGATIVE THINKING. PULL YOU OWN WEEDS JAN! AND TORONTO LIFE IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO PULL JAN WONG!
HEY TOBY! I’M ATTACKING THE STUPID PERSON WITH A STUPID OPINION AND THE STUPID PEOPLE THAT PAID HER AND THE STUPID PEOPLE THAT PUBLISHED THIS CRAP.
IT’S HER OPINION AND IT SAYS A LOT ABOUT HER SO NO WONDER SHE IS BEING ATTACKED. SHE’S AN AWFUL PERSON.
How especially embarassing for our city that this rubbish article is in Toronto Life during the month of TIFF when we host so many from around the world. Let’s hope none of the visitors pick up a copy of Toronto Life and get the impression that all us us are as ignorant as Jan Wong. Wong’s thoughtless argument is a disgrace. Ms. Fulford -why would you put this in your magazine indeed!
LINK BAIT. The title, the horrible argument. Yeah, I’m totally falling for it too having commented myself…
Well played, though, TO Life. Stir the Anger Pot and watch the comments just stack on top of each other in a pissed off heap.
What a dumb piece. Why WAS this published? Seriously, moderator, eic, ANYONE answer that question. This story sucks.
I’m with you, Jan.
I wonder how many of these people rallying against you actually live in the city?
If you’re a Bay Street exec in your early 20s who has a condo across the street from your office, then sure, the world is your oyster. You’re free of the stresses of most of the workaday shmoes who can’t afford to even live in the city they work in.
I live in the east end, and my work takes me all over the city. And though I appreciate the wonderful multicurluralism this city has to offer, I don’t understand why streets are part of that celebration. As was mentioned, there are a plethora of public places, halls, parks, lots, hotels, beaches, valleys, etc, where these events can take place.
Is there not a happy medium? Can you people really not see the problem here? A marathon than could easily be done at Birchmount or Varsity Stadium, is instead shutting down the Gardiner and the DVP?
Seems unreasonable to me, as is the argument, “If you don’t want to drive 4 hours to get to Newmarket, you shouldn’t live in Toronto!”
Jason, all of these people rallying against Jan Wong live in the city. Key Word = LIVE. LIVE in the city. More important that driving in the city. I’m no Bay Street condo owner just a Torontorian who thinks festivals are great and that Jan Wong is a joke.
A magazine that appreciated Toronto and it’s people wouldn’t publish this article.
Rubbish article? I’d say this is a needed sanity check. Festivals clearly add to Toronto’s character but there needs to be a balance. City of Toronto municipal officials clearly cannot be trusted to apply common sense to an abysmal and deteriorating traffic situation. And those hypocritical posters screaming ‘selfishness’ as they parade through their pet event don’t speak for all Torontoians.
I agree with this article. It’s so easy for a city officials and others who don’t drive for a living in downtown TO to say “suck it up, check for road closures and then plan an alternate route”. See what you think when you get way behind on a delivery or pick up schedule because of some stupid road closure that shuts down a major artery and then tell me if you still feel like “sucking it up”.
$74.19…what to do on my day off with $74.19???
I think I’ll submit an application to a budget deficite city to shut down Bay and Bloor on the eve of Christmas, grab a lawn chair, a friend and a bottle of pinot and watch the hustle and bussle of people trying to get to Holt Renfrew to buy a last minute pair of cashmire gloves for their drunken mother-in-law while I enjoy a luagh and $74.19 Christmas gift to myself well spent at the expense of the city.
Thanks for the idea Toronto…I may just take you up on that!
cheers!
The problem with this city is Jan Wong! Bring on the street festivals and close them off too traffic when we have them! If Toronto wants to be world class and it has a long way to go, it should take a note from the carless streets within European cities making walking, shopping and liveable cities a reality.
The G20 (which started a full week before the clowns got here) was the one street party Toronto could have done without.
Perhaps we can take all the other ones in order to balance out that horrible experience the citizens of Toronto were forced to endure.
No doubt a mayor such as Rob Ford will be putting an end to the green-lighting; his green lights lead all the way to suburbia instead.
I absolutely agree with other readers’ disgust about this article. This writer clearly complains way too much. What she fails to understand is that the street festivals are one of the many things that make Toronto the dynamic city that it is. Street festivals give people the impression (especially local residents) that they are taking back the streets. The core neighbourhoods are mostly Victorian and pre-war. As a result, they were not designed for heavy vehicle traffic, but instead for pedestrian traffic. They were designed so that people can come closer together. She clearly writes from the standpoint of a post-war, as author James Howard Kunstler would say “3000 mile caesar salad” perspective that supports the freeways versus the civic square. I absolutely love the core of Toronto and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. There are plenty of lifeless cities and those who don’t like it here are more then welcome to migrate out there. Hurrah for pedestrian-friendly events :)
Street festivals are great. We had the pleasure of setting up a booth last year and were offering some tasty treats! Love the multiculturism in Toronto – http://www.icater.ca
We now need to see more and more multicultural food carts all around the city.