Boring Places

I was walking down the street near my house and it occurred to me that, boring as I found the street, it was no more boring than the street next to the hotel I'd stayed at the last time we were in Toronto.

But my memories of that trip are not boring at all, even though we walked there just as I was walking here--similarly late at night, even. 

So I wanted to think: if it's not the streetscape that makes it boring, what might it be? Or, to think more positively, if that's not what makes somewhere interesting, what is it?

1. Connections

The most obvious answer is that nothing actually makes it more interesting in itself, but rather the Toronto spot was more interesting because of where you could go from it and how--the connections that the space had.

The space itself was similar, but from that spot in Toronto, even well after dark, I could easily get anywhere else I wanted, without a car and without much effort on my part. Partly from a light rail line, but also just because of buses.

Here in the Quad Cities, well, I could walk a long way or I could drive. That was it.

And either of those options requires a lot from me: time, if walking, and both sobriety and the willingness to be in charge of navigating, conducting, and parking a vehicle, if driving. None of that responsibility and much less of that time was required in Toronto.

2. Community

I'm not going to lie: there were not a lot of people in that particular part of Toronto all the time. The Don Valley Freeway was nearby, and Eglinton Ave was not hopping. But there were more than there were in the QCA, for sure--and the fact that I was on foot was not itself inherently remarkable or unusual.

Kinda different here.

Actually, very different.

In Toronto even on a quiet street, the presence of the connections (see #1) creates a sense that the space is intended to be potentially used by people even if they are temporarily absent. In the QCA, the design makes it so that the street is clearly not intended for anyone even if the street temporarily has someone walking by it. The sense of community is different, as one implies an absent community of souls and the other implies that any present community is a threat or an abnormality, not a good thing. One is not excited to see another pedestrian here; the question arises of why they're out, even though you are too.

3. Accommodation

Part of this feeling is the little bit of a lie I told above: the street design does indeed differ somewhat in a meaningful way. Even though both are pretty boring, the Toronto (technically North York) area site is clearly accommodating of pedestrians and the QCA is not, or at least no more than minimally.

For example: the beg buttons in Toronto not only actually work but some are labeled as "audible signal only"--that is, they are there for visually impaired pedestrians to know for sure they can cross, but the pedestrian light will change anyway. For another example, the sidewalks were actually maintained to a point I wasn't tripping as I walked. Seemingly obvious, but...

I could go on. There was a staircase where it was needed to connect sidewalks to businesses despite a hill. The bus stops (present in both locations, technically) were not only marked but sheltered in Toronto. And so on.

Again, not to mention the light rail line--the bus stops did this too. But I like the light rail line, so that's the picture.

One space accommodates people; the other doesn't technically ban them. The difference is palpable, even in places--like, I re-emphasize, both these spots--that are basic, boring, and pretty empty.

We could do a lot better here.