This city has been too quick to pave over past, Star blogger says

Robert Kirsic – Your City My City

How can you know where you are going if you don’t know where you’ve come from?

For far too long Toronto has been quick to pave over the past for the sake of progress. I’m all for progress, but there should be a plan and some rational thought used for the development of the city.

Façades of former buildings are kept strictly for aesthetics on condos, sports arenas, and business towers. The tavern where William Lyon Mackenzie launched his famous rebellion in Upper Canada no longer exists. The buildings that once stood are quickly forgotten once new structures rise in their place.

The City does not do a good enough job at promoting and protecting its history. I recently visited the Toronto Archives and realized how much of a hidden gem it is. The Archives is a great start but it does not go far enough as it is a very small operation that is funded, and controlled, by the City.

I would recommend the City of Toronto create an independent, arms-length, Toronto Historical Society with the intention of securing, protecting, and promoting the city’s history.

A society overseen by a group of historical experts, architects, business leaders and, most importantly, citizens, with a clear purpose, mission, and the ability to raise money, will make it effective and politically neutral.

The Toronto Archives, sites like Fort York and the EX, need to belong under one protective umbrella. They need to be used as a conduit to promote and attract tourists and, more importantly, locals into taking an interest in the history of Toronto.

The society’s mission shouldn’t be narrowed to only buildings and artifacts. Many great people over the last 300 years have contributed to Toronto and they should not be forgotten.

Currently, people who have made considerable contributions to the city only have small alleyways, streets or parks named after them.

Is this how we want to remember these people? Their contributions deserve greater recognition. These efforts should also be coordinated and not become what they currently are – one-off photo-ops and events only to be forgotten the next day. The society can work with individual neighbourhoods to help promote the people that made them great.

Cities like Paris, London and New York are great historical cities that seem to be able to save their collective past. Toronto should be able to do the same.

What makes something special, and worth keeping, are the memories (good or bad) attached to a particular building, neighbourhood or person.

By not taking the steps to save these memories, we lose out on educating future residents on the way Toronto was. Remembering how Toronto was is important in learning what Toronto will become in the future.

————————————————————————————————————–

Contact the Jeffrey Team for more information  –  416-388-1960

————————————————————————————————————–