My Guelph: Editorial about improving my hometown.

Sorry for the delay on Part 3 of this series.

Bus shelters should have street names like in Toronto, on the side facing the buses direction. This allows people to see what road they are at and where the stop is. Simple things like that would make it so much better for our city.

My Guelph Part 3 of 3

So there you have some of my opinions and ideas on this topic. There is so much more I could write but I will hold off for now until Council does something to bring it to the public.

Review 

Saying Guelph’s street amenities like newspaper boxes, bus shelters, garbage bins, and benches with advertising on them, are often ugly and visually intrusive is to really understate the obvious. Sadly, many Guelphities have learn to ignore these blights for years. Personally, I think it is like a survival tactic, if we pretend they do not exist out there, then we will not have to deal with them.

Some years ago, Guelph added brown benches with ads on them at many bus stops. Paid for by our tax dollars and the result of thousands of civic choices,our city is not one large advertising surface, yet we allowed this big, ugly benches on our streets. Why because of the ad dollars the city could get as part of the deal with the provider of the benches. When we start to treat street furniture as a commodity for ads, then we truly devalue the contribution of previous generations. Many have worked to create social spaces that show us who we are as a city and culture. We are not the sum of a bunch of hair product brands for example. We all have pride in our city’s history and how it has shaped our community. That is what needs to be reflected across the city.

So what does our city need to do? In my opinion, if advertisers want any access to our streets, then they should being giving us the highest quality street amenities possible. In Toronto, a competition was launched, and is currently going though the public process. When the contract comes up in Guelph for the review of street amenities, I want a competition to happen, so that we can have better looking city all around.

For the past parts of this series: Click here: Part 1, Part 2