Two summers ago, our city's advertising campaign Toronto Unlimited seemed merely vacuous and uninspired. This week, it seems like a cruel joke.
Toronto. The city that can't afford to clean its streets or fix its roads. Just call us Potholes Unlimited.
The service cuts announced last week by Mayor David Miller – in the aftermath of city council's refusal to raise taxes to pay the freight – might well have done what endless high-priced ad gurus couldn't. They have very likely branded us.
Toronto. The Grinch of a burgh that won't open its public skating rinks at Christmas. The town that closes its golf courses a week earlier in a land where summer already speeds by in a heartbeat. Couch Potatoes Unlimited.
Branding – other than in rare circumstances such as I Love New York – is not something always done by design. In the real world, both individuals and institutions tend, by their deeds or misdeeds, to either brand themselves inadvertently or to have it done for them by circumstances.
Not since Cleveland found itself known far and wide as the city so filthy that the Cuyahoga River flowing through it caught fire, has a municipality been fitted for such an unflattering public relations albatross as the one Toronto placed on its own shoulders last week.
Toronto. The town that won't plow the snow off sidewalks for seniors. Broken Hips and Wrists Unlimited.
What a mockery it makes of all the talk about the need for "visions," all those weekend features with titles like What If?, the books with clever titles like uTOpia, all the blueprints for revitalized waterfronts and networks of elevated tubes for cyclists to speed through town in eco-friendly bliss.
Toronto. The town that plans to close its libraries on Sundays and its community centres on Mondays. Deadbolts Unlimited.
What's proposed is an abomination. It is the nearest thing to a class war. It makes those whose resources are most meagre and whose pleasures are simplest – those in circumstances and areas where the odds are already stacked against them – carry the cost of this budget, of council's cowardice, of our collective short-sightedness.
It takes the pain and sacrifice and largely shoves it onto, say, temporary and seasonal workers whose hours and jobs will be cut, onto those without personal wherewithal or private clubs to go to.
In November, a national study showed how connected physical health was to income level, to neighbourhood and social circumstances. Disadvantaged neighbourhoods reported lower levels of good health. So the city's solution? Fix the game even more.
The service cuts are an attack on both public spaces – the sinews that bind us together, the places that reflect our commitment to civility. They are an attack on public institutions – those things that help to level the playing field, to give those who might otherwise do without places to exercise, play, meet, learn. In short, places to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit.
Back in the silly days of Toronto Unlimited, the would-be branders –essentially undone by their own laughable overkill – trilled that the city "is nearly indefinable, nearly infinite in its possibilities for the traveller and nearly impossible to forget once you've been there."
Last week, the mayor – grappling with the triple whammy of downloading, amalgamation and tax cuts and freezes – was less ethereal and found the consequences of the budget easy to define, saying: "All these things are a diminution of the quality of life in Toronto."
Understatement Unlimited.
Jim Coyle usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
3 comments:
oh my. The melodrama.
Wasn't it a while ago that amusing article that pointed that no one cared about Toronto? Yeah. I'm laughing about that right now. I was going to say that, Toronto doesn't give a crap either. But this, is even funnier. Do you really think someone in say Calgary or New York gives 2 craps whether or not a certain segment here gets their sidewalks cleared, or that a remote subway that they more than likely would never take anyways may close?
What tags can I add to that article.... hmmmm
dramaqueen!
lmao.
Jim Coyle is a well known columnist in Toronto who usually writes sticks to the Five Journalistic Ws but in this case he seems to over-rated the ability of some to understand his satirical overview of our politicians and their actions.
Sometimes when one looks past the satire, there is substance.
However perhaps for some the satire is like looking at the pretty pictures...
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