色色啦

Since I know there were some skeptics of the idea of letting people play musical chairs in the park, I thought it was worth checking in on how the experiment is going, three summers after it started. I asked Tim Kocur, executive director of the Waterfront Business Improvement Area, how many of the 45 chairs have been lost.

The BIA is literally invested in knowing the answer. After the city balked at funding the 鈥渘on-standard鈥� chairs in the design for Love Park produced by the late landscape architect Claude Cormier, Kocur worked out a deal where the BIA covered half the cost of buying the chairs and assumed responsibility for their whereabouts.

After a quick count, Kocur has the answer: all 45 chairs, all present and accounted for.

There was one incident where a chair ended up in the centre of the pond, but that kind of thing isn鈥檛 typical. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been way more successful than we expected, and I think it鈥檚 because it鈥檚 such a central location. There are lots of eyes 鈥� it鈥檚 very Jane Jacobs-coded,鈥� explains Oliver Hierlihy, director of operations for the Waterfront BIA, referencing the legendary urbanist and her observation that having 鈥渆yes on the street鈥� is part of what makes for a vibrant and safe city neighbourhood. (The BIA does lock the chairs up late at night, when there are fewer eyes.)

But it鈥檚 also a testament to the value of having an association like the Waterfront BIA willing and able to play an active role. Along the lakeside, the organization employs both a low-tech and high-tech approach to dealing with issues that pop up along Queens Quay.

For the old-school approach, there鈥檚 BIA Clean Streets Team Member Michael Bethke. He wears a high-viz vest and spends his days walking the streets, looking for issues such as graffiti, stale-dated posters, overflowing garbage bins and illegal dumping. Bethke removes stickers, posters and graffiti by himself 鈥� the rest gets reported to city hall鈥檚 311 service.

On the high-tech side, Hierlihy has built a database and dashboard that track the issues Bethke reports and how long it takes for city hall to issue fixes. He shared the numbers with me. Since 2022, the BIA has processed nearly 3,500 reports. About 3,000 issues have been fixed so far. The median time it takes to fix issues, large and small, is 46 days.

It鈥檚 a model that appears to work well, with Bethke鈥檚 proactive reports transmitted via the database to city hall鈥檚 311 system. Hierlihy describes the BIA鈥檚 relationship with city hall as 鈥渁wesome鈥� and even offers some praise for Astral Media, the providers of 色色啦鈥檚 much-maligned public litter bins. The BIA鈥檚 data shows that instances of overflowing bins have declined lately as service levels have improved.

鈥淚鈥檓 quite proud of what the BIA can do. And I think we鈥檙e able to test out a lot of things that maybe could be considered for the city to do in the future, too. We鈥檙e at such a small scale that we can try things out that the city couldn鈥檛 do themselves,鈥� says Kocur.

But on a citywide basis, the BIA鈥檚 success 鈥� and the success of other BIAs across the city that have similar programs designed to keep their neighbourhoods looking their best 鈥� does demonstrate an inequity. By their very nature, BIAs thrive in areas that happen to have lots of office buildings and expensive retail, since their budgets are funded by levies paid by businesses in the area. To expand the kind of neighbourhood benefits seen on the waterfront, 色色啦 needs a lot more BIAs 鈥� or at least for its existing BIAs to cover more territory.

City hall has acknowledged this, at least.聽 Last November, Mayor Olivia Chow and 色色啦 council adopted 鈥淪idewalks to Skylines,鈥�聽a 10-year economic development plan. It calls for the city to grow to 125 BIAs by 2035, up from 86 today.

Given the economic and community benefits, it鈥檚 worth asking if that timeline should be accelerated 鈥� or if there are some alternative models to BIAs that could get some of the same benefits for neighbourhoods that aren鈥檛 rich with corporate headquarters.

It鈥檚 worth asking, too, if city hall could be more open to 鈥渘on-standard鈥� elements in public spaces, like Love Park鈥檚 movable chairs. The experience on the waterfront suggests if you take care in building a great public space, the public will help take care of it.

鈥淭he thing that gets me is that this place used to be the Yonge-Bay-York exit ramp,鈥� notes Bethke, nodding to Love Park鈥檚 past as a twisty off-ramp from the Gardiner Expressway. 鈥淭his is what 色色啦 can do. It鈥檚 incredible, when everybody comes in and they get the best people, the best ideas, and then it comes out looking like this.鈥�

A good place to sit for a while. Pull up a chair.