I noticed that the floodlights on BCE Place and the CN Tower have been out for months now. City Hall is also sporadic at best in keeping its twin towers lit. I read that there is a lobby group that seeks to prevent migratory birds from flying into lit towers by pressuring property owners into turning the lights off. Of course, owners would be happy to oblige - it's a politically correct way to reducing their energy bills. While I wouldn't want to inflict death on helpless birds, I must confess to disappointment that our landmarks cannot be lit up and make our downtown exciting. The CN Tower, especially, is quite invisible at night except for the transport beacons.

What gives? Is this the only reason for the darkness? I haven't been in Toronto for a full year yet, and does anyone know whether the lights are put back on in the winter when the migratory birds have left?
:eek2:

Anyone know of whatever happened to the Cityplace Warm by Night project?

The lights were originally supposed to go on in December of 2002
Then there was a delay until June 2003

I haven't heard anything since.

The wastfull use of energy and light pollution are both hot potatos that cause such things to stop.

Now, I don't like the waste of energy or light pollution but I think that the city looses something by not having these structures lit up.

hey if birds can't see where they are going then they shouldn't be flying anyways! ;)

I like floodlights! :D

I wrote a letter to The CN Tower today. i hope they respond. It was not an angry one, but one of disapointment regarding the above. Only Toronto would build such an amazing thing and then hide it.

Yes, let's all waste electricity so that we can feel good about our city. What are we, afraid of the dark? The blackout of 2003 was fantastic. I wish we could turn out more lights. Then we could see some truly spectacular ones up in the sky. Anyone remember what those things are called? Stars, I think.

Toronto's skyline is really a shameful during the evening.......I was driving up the niagara escarpment last night on my back to London from T.O., and on a clear night Toronto was barely visible. If I didn't know where the city was located on the horizon, I would've never been able to pinpoint it. I had pulled over to take a picture from up there but it was pointless since you wouldn't be able to make out the skyline. During the day the skyline looks great up there.

Well, not being 100% crazy, building managers are trying to switch over to cheaper light sources, more efficient bulbs, different lighting systems, etc. I know the Cityplace project is using efficient lighting--- that may be a consideration, along with bird migration -- which may still be happening in large numbers.

You'd think birds would fly AWAY from lit buildings so tyhey don't hit them, wouldn't you? Our buildings are pretty lit up at night (because of the street lights) and the only things that ever hit tyhem are santa's and witches, and everyone know they're fake :P

According to these farcicle lobby groups birds apparently migrate 365 days a year.

I find it a bit hard to believe that birds try to fly into buildings that are well lit. I agree with Vid that it would seem to make more sense for the birds to want to fly away from the buildings.

My comment to CN TOWER WEBSITE:

I entertain many people from the US and other countries through out the
year. All ask about the tower. But nearly ALL can not fathom why it is
so poorly lit. The most recognizable landmark in Toronto is all but
invisible at night.

Please don't tell me it's for the birds as the lights are almost always
non existent. Yet i have pictures from a few years ago that show much
better lighting. What gives here? And are there any plans to truly
illumenate this awesome structure?

Response
Jeff,

There is two reasons why our lights are turned off currently.

The upper lights are still turned off for the annual bird migration
times twice a year. We do not want our little avian friends to crunch
their heads on the tower - see www.flap.org.

This year we will also have the lights off through the winter to allow
repair work to proceed through the light portal accesses.

Further to this we have investigated several applications to light up
the total exterior but nothing has shown to be effective yet.

September 8, 2004 to January 2, 2005 the CN Tower will be hosting an
exciting exhibit celebrating the work of set decorators called The Secret
Life of Sets: Set Decorators at Work. See the below CN Tower website
link for more details.
http://www.cntower.ca/events/special/l3_events_special_secret.htm

Thank you for your interest in the CN Tower,
Canada's National Tower and Wonder of the Modern World. We look
forward to seeing you soon.

Regards,

CN TOWER/LA TOUR CN
Canada's Wonder of the World/Notre Merveille du Monde
301 Front Street West/301, rue Front Ouest
Toronto, Ontario M5V 2T6
t:416 86 TOWER
www.cntower.ca

exactly... despite the fact that many of you have pushed aside the bird migration as being a falacy, recently an employee of the tower told me that the reason is that birds are attracted to the light and it becomes dangerous for them. many birds died every night when the lights were on.

weird.. Why not have seom sort of ultrasonic signal that repels the birds away from he tower, but doesn't effect humans?

i think that would only work with bats? i don't know what the cost of that would be also, even if it did work.

No, birds are sensitive. i have never seen birds on radio towers that were operating before. THere is a radio tower near my school that operates from 7PM to 7AM, and the birds are on it during the day, but not at night, when it's broadcasting. I think the radio signals might effect them. Or I just don't notice. But they are eeffected by things like that, just like bats. THey can hear things we can't, and see colours we cant.

I took this photo on Sunday and aside from the office lights, the skyline is poorly lit up except for skydome which reflects onto the CN Tower:

http://www.inclearimage.com/images/Toronto/November/november22/moneyshot.jpg

fair enough, but seeing as how the CN tower is a communications tower and that there are dozens of radio stations downtown whose signals would be affected, do you think it is worth it to a.) spend alot of money on this and b.) get the radio stations in a fit, just to have some lights on the tower?

"I find it a bit hard to believe that birds try to fly into buildings that are well lit. I agree with Vid that it would seem to make more sense for the birds to want to fly away from the buildings."

So it must be a conspiracy then? The birds are attracted by the light, but they can't see the glass. When the light is out, they can see the window as a solid object. They've shown this problem on the Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel, Citytv, CBC; I thought this issue was common knowledge. Thousands of birds die every year. Not to mention, WE'RE WASTING ELECTRICITY!!!

fair enough, but seeing as how the CN tower is a communications tower and that there are dozens of radio stations downtown whose signals would be affected, do you think it is worth it to a.) spend alot of money on this and b.) get the radio stations in a fit, just to have some lights on the tower?

It uses a differnt signal. it would be just like adding another transmitter to the tower. It wont affect much.

Yeah, it is wasting electricity....but so is lighting up NPS with thousands of christmas lights....where do you draw the line at beautifying the city? The sad thing is that cities in a far worse state than Toronto, such as Detroit and Cincinnati, have much more gorgeous and colourful skylines at night.

exactly... despite the fact that many of you have pushed aside the bird migration as being a falacy, recently an employee of the tower told me that the reason is that birds are attracted to the light and it becomes dangerous for them. many birds died every night when the lights were on.

The bird migration happens twice a year, and every other city takes this into consideration and dims or turns off unneccessary lights to minimize the deaths of migrating birds. However, once the migration times are over they turn the lights back on, except for us, we're in some bird migratory Bermuda Triangle, all year round there are birds migrating through the downtown core.

The whole bird issue is just an excuse for the company who owns the CN Tower not to spend money on lighting it up.

...we're in some bird migratory Bermuda Triangle, all year round there are birds migrating through the downtown core...

:hilarious

add that to the list of great quotes!

The whole bird issue is just an excuse for the company who owns the CN Tower not to spend money on lighting it up.

I totally disagree with that statement. The CN Tower is not 'cheapening' out to save cash on electricity - if anything lighting up the tower makes it more noticable and would attract more tourists and patrons to the tower. But the situation now is that it is virtually invisible at night.

I understand the bird migration thing, and repairs, and saving electricity, but all that aside, when they do plan to eventually light the tower, you'd think they could find an affordable solution that would work using fiber optics. Maybe they should hire me and I'd show them how to do it.

Go to most happening cities around the world and they know how to attract attention at night, we suck. I am still waiting for cityplace to get back up. Atleast that new one on the gardiner has it's top lit. We should all send the dome a thank you letter as that thing looks stunning at night.

As for Electricity, screw it! You got to give to get. you want tourists to go oooooh, light that puppy up! Show it off. make them in awe, and then tell their friends. Where ever you go almost, the CN tower just looks SO FREEKING BIG. It looks even more impressive at night. Let peple go home and talk about the Glowing looming giant in the city

Look at The Eifel, Shanghai's tower, Petronas Towers, the LA Book tower, The Empire State Building in New York, London's Mellinium Tower, The Bell South Tower in Nashville for God sakes ETC ETC ETC ETC.

Sometimes I feel like I shoud move back to Oshawa and give up

Parts of Cityplace were lit up Thursday. One of them looked AMAZING with an ever changin "laser" type light!

I am pleased to announce that the CN Tower was lit up last night, in case no one noticed. I do hope that this continues. Kudos to all that wrote to the tower!

Will there be pictures?

CIty place is looking really good now!

There is two reasons why our lights are turned off currently.

The upper lights are still turned off for the annual bird migration
times twice a year. We do not want our little avian friends to crunch
their heads on the tower - see www.flap.org.

This year we will also have the lights off through the winter to allow
repair work to proceed through the light portal accesses.




Have the geniuses who run the CN Tower considered doing the repair work during the migration periods, when the lights are off anyways?!!

I was in Montreal this summer and I've noticed that there is much more decorative lighting happening there. It's surprising what an impact it can have on the buildings and streetscape. The city hall and parts of old Montreal were really beautiful. Nevertheless, low rise buildings don't really pose a threat to migrating birds.

Pic with the CN Tower and Skydome lit up. Seems pretty recent:
http://www.inclearimage.com/images/Toronto/November/november22/moneyshot_small.jpg

Fuck the birds; the city is for the people. Someone should tell FLAP to shove it.

Nice attitude. While we're at it, why don't we kill all cats and dogs too, just so there isn't even a remote chance that we'll step in feces... unless they're left by a homeless street person that is. Hey, maybe we should also...

lol, Mr. Man, that comment was sure good for a laugh!

Toronto: full of people, but apparently killed all its animals!