Well, the day did not start well. The barricades did not go up until 11:50 so little more than 2 hours of a street closure really. However, nice to see Yonge Street being closed all the way to Queen instead of the advertized Dundas to Shuter Street only deal. Bonus. But not awe-inspiring. Apparently it's 'The Bombardier Car Free Day' now. Interesting. Thankfully, Streets Are For People brought their giant Scrabble game (double points if the word was car-related as in "Noise') which attracted tons of onlookers. Others too chose to enjoy the brief but pleasant carfree streetscape.
Public attendance was low apart from that since most had no idea what was going on or that it was supposedly Car Free Day (WCFD is really on Sept. 22) In the end, the huge electronic billboard put the whole day in perspective (see photo top left corner)... most Canadians were too busy heading south of the border to buy cars with the dollar being practically at par. As for the City, I still don't believe they know what 'Car Free Day' is all about. I think Poochie on the 10 square foot patch of sod had it right ... nice try, but still a yawn. Now if only they had the guts to let Streets Are For People and the many enthausiastic volunteers organize the event their way next year. Now, that would be inspiring!
3 comments:
Fabulous photos (and report) Tino! Can't wait for Saturday's Parking Meter Party on International Car Free Day :)
The truth is - Caronto is carrupt. And thanks to those who put their time in that "tilting at windshields" that you've highlighted martino.
It's totally baffling that works managed to screw up that badly. Somehow I can't see that happening for Caribana, or Pride. Seriously. That said,there's a detail that I'm not totally clear on. I was speaking to the organizer and she said the cops were on time and 'just standing around' when the works guys weren't there. Why didn't they just throw up some tape and close the street themselves? They're cops. They do this stuff all the time. I mean she had copies of all her permits on her right? What's the deal? was anywone there who knows how it went down?
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