Well, your first photo is a different situation. A straight thoroughfare looks entirely different from one that has two or more streetcar lines intersecting one another; organised chaos is unavailable in such intersections. In fact, far from poor planning those cross traffic intersections are actually a marvel of organisation; that is unavoidable. I'm quite sure you will find the same "chaos" in Melbourne at intersections where trams intersect one another. The wires are there in the Melbourne photo; they are just less noticeable because of the higher angle the photo was taken from. Sorry, but the wires look the same in both cities to me.

The first thing that struck me when I looked at the Melbourne photos is how ugly the colour of green is that they chose for their trams.

Maybe Toronto is going to a very untidy and messy Hell in a handbasket, and I don't even realise it!!

^^

Electricity poles (not street car cables) around Queen and Spadina is quite weird, since that's pretty downtown.

I mean I understand it in suburbs, but in more central areas, they should be underground...

^^ Quite likely, had the streetcars been ripped out of Toronto in the 50's like they have in most other cities that the power wires/poles currently on the streetcar lines like Queen or College would not be there now.

Battery operated streetcars will be a win-win situation.

They kept it in non street car streets too though.

Adelaide and Spadina

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.646...4!1sOy2j7B_HIMZlTWTZawXAZQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Taller said:

^^ Quite likely, had the streetcars been ripped out of Toronto in the 50's like they have in most other cities that the power wires/poles currently on the streetcar lines like Queen or College would not be there now.

Click to expand...

^^ Yes, I know there are still wires on other downtown streets and there are plenty of downtown streets with no wires, either. Lots of examples of those but as we are all familiar
with downtown I'll not bother posting them all. I think the truth is, if a person despises overhead wires, they will never see them as part of the groove of a neighbourhood. And if a person
is not bothered by them, removing them will not improve the neighbourhood one iota. Some neighbourhoods, like Yorkville, it makes no sense to have them. Other neighbourhoods it is just
part of the scenery, imo.




To be honest, as much fun as the wire discussion has been.... it really doesn't have much to do with a thread about downtown parks!

We can go back to talking about the city airport :troll: :troll:

Taller said:

^^ Yes, I know there are still wires on other downtown streets and there are plenty of downtown streets with no wires, either. Lots of examples of those but as we are all familiar
with downtown I'll not bother posting them all.




To be honest, as much fun as the wire discussion has been.... it really doesn't have much to do with a thread about downtown parks!

Click to expand...

Hehe! Or maybe London!

:jk::jk::jk:

Overhead wires for street cars are unavoidable. The issue in Toronto is that they made an eyesore 5 times worse by having over head wiring on every non-street car route too. Add on top of that an already shabby public realm and it's not a pretty sight. If we had quality sidewalks and/or greenery it would go along way in mitigating the wiring mess above.... but we don't.

Taller said:

I'm always surprised how important the visual of overhead wires are to some; it means nothing to me.

Click to expand...

Taller said:

I guess to people who visit from very neat, organized cities Toronto must look pretty third world and messy; but I kind of like the haphazard and often loosely regulated
atmosphere that is created.

Click to expand...

I will never get used to it. My dislike of it is as strong as it was the first time I came across it.

Okey doke! Back to parks! kay:

https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2018/05/ontario-place-park-beach-toronto/


Toronto is getting a huge downtown park and beach


Ontario continues to move forward with its $100 million renovation of Toronto’s most famous theme park-turned-ghost park-turned-beautiful urban park and trail.

Last spring saw the opening of several revitalized spaces at Ontario Place, most notably on the island's east end, while winter gave us a brand new outdoor skating rink.

Trillium Park and the William G. Davis Trail are once again yours to discover now that warm weather is moving into the region, but they're still only the tip of the iceberg.........




This map shows the plan for the Ontario Place grounds.


read it all here:
https://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2018/05/ontario-place-park-beach-toronto/

I wonder if people can swim at Brigantine Cove....

To me that lake is too cold to swim in.. even in summer. Brrrrr...
But then, I'd not go into any water cooler than Cuba's beaches.

I thought Echo Beach was fictional?

Not any more, apparently!

isaidso said:

I thought Echo Beach was fictional?

Click to expand...

I'll have to go to Echo Beach to watch the sun go down now.

That was one of the first questions I asked when I moved here in 1985... where is Echo Beach? And sure enough, there was one! Far away in time!



My fave song of theirs was Black Stations White Stations; it was a protest song against radio stations in the States that refused to play songs about
mixed race relationships. Ironically, this topic got it banned from some American stations. They changed their name to M+M and eventually moved to the UK for four years, then moved back to TO.



They also had other songs I liked, like Cooling the Medium. Okay, sorry to diverge off-topic.. back to parks!