Forget Dundas Square......

.....Comrade Miller and his cohorts current media event is anything to do with the waterfront.

Toronto the Square

It's lifeless without Harold

By MIKE STROBEL

Something is missing from Dundas Square.

And I don't just mean souvenir seller Harold Garnett, 66.

Harold, as I reported Wednesday, was run off the square by city bylaw officers, his hands in cuffs, his goods in garbage bags.

Harold had balked at their orders to move his cart from its place of 21 years to an Eaton Centre wall frequented mostly by pigeons.

Well, the pigeon poop hit the fan.

Harold was on Oakley, Jim Richards, and others. I was flooded with messages from folks Harold had helped over the years. A meal or a train ticket for a runaway. Or just a smile for a stranger.

On Wednesday, a cop bought him a Tim Hortons. Construction workers asked for his autograph.

"What they're doing to you is horrible," bartender Nicola Buisseret, 42, tells him yesterday at the Hard Rock Cafe.

She turns to me.

"I was very sad to read about this. He's part of the heart of the city.

"Of all the people to pick on."

Which gets us back to what's missing in Dundas Square.

City Hall bills this as The Heart of Toronto.

"But look at all the grey," says the great Andy Donato, gazing up at the towers that rim Dundas Square.

I've asked Andy, with his artist's eye, to join me and Harold and his friend Ali Sharrif, 44, a writer at somalicanadians.ca.

We seek the heart of Dundas Square.

The brain, eyes and other organs are easy. Just look up. A glaring wall of screens 10 storeys high. Things to buy. TV celebs. Sexy models. Eye candy.

Fine, but a sugar high does not last.

Those screens should serve heartier meals, too: Leafs games. Election returns. Weather forecasts. Rick Mercer. Air Farce reruns. Anything to break the grimness of the place.

"Grey, grey," Donato says again, with a grimace. "I bet if you took a black and white photo, it wouldn't look much different."

Now, drop your eyes. More grey. Granite slabs cover the square proper (officially Yonge-Dundas Square). Everywhere else, concrete.

True, the flat, barren landscape makes it easy to cram in 12,000 people for concerts on the stage.

But otherwise, there's nothing to do. Especially at night, when the place should jump.

"This is a dead corner," says Harold, mournfully. "Even on a Saturday night."

But it's The Heart of the City, Harold.

"Well, try to get a coffee, or a drink, or have a pee around here after midnight."

Adds Ali: "It's like the designers were remote from the users.

"There's no warmth about this place."

There's an idea. Heaters. In winter, Donato wonders, could they use the 20 fountain vents for warmth?

So you can sit and watch the hockey game. Or shop. And not just at the Eaton Centre.

"Kiosks," says Andy. "This would be much more interesting with kiosks scattered all over."

Not to mention the bars, clubs and restaurants that make a square a place to go, not just to pass through.

And buskers, streetdancers, seers, sidewalk painters and all the other flavours of great squares from Pigalle to Piccadilly. Maybe we can persuade the Naked Cowboy, a legendary Times Square crooner, to move north in the summer.

Dundas Square needs a Naked Cowboy.

Harold is a bit past it, though he does play guitar.

I'll settle for City Hall giving him a fair shake with his cart.

No word yet, but I have faith Councillor Kyle Rae will fix it. Great faith.

With a stronger beat at ground level, Dundas Square can be a true Heart of Toronto.

Without Harold, well, break out the defibrillator.