The pictured sculpture, if one can call it that, is intended to grace the side entrance of a new condominium building on Redpath at the corner of Roehampton. Nearby is St. Peter’s Estonian Lutheran Church. Also the Roehampton hotel, much in the news lately, thanks to the building having been turned into a residence for the homeless who have brought with them numerous problems, most having to do with security and hygiene. Resulting, in one instance the building of a high fence and locked gate in front of a previously open parking lot, abutting the hotel. Three houses, including one that serves as a pre-school day care centre were forced to take this step for their own protection.
Section 37 of the Toronto Planning Act permits the City to authorize increases in permitted height and density as required by zoning laws. In return the developers must provide community benefits. Either with groomed green space, or in that nebulous category of public art. The first requires maintenance, the second is, after purchase, worry free. And if some locals do not consider that to be art, well, that is along-lasting debate, is it not. All the developer wants is more money, higher buildings, and the density in an already crowded neighbourhood is irrelevant with view to the bottom line.
Local zoning bylaws, in fact, are the reason that avaricious developers have backed out of purchasing Toronto’s Estonian House. Even the present deal is not set in stone, as DK Acquisitions and their partners, silent or otherwise, wish for greater density, a higher building. The local ratepayers association there will have a say; alas, in the Mt. Pleasant and Eglinton neighbourhood it was the city that went against opposition, siding with the offer of public art instead of much needed green space.
St. Peter’s church was not mentioned by accident. The homeless have repeatedly desecrated their property. They are there temporarily – for two, perhaps three years, the city is not saying – ruling the neighourhood. The blue sculpture in the photo is sending a call to the yellow multi-legged monstrosity across the street, in front of another new condo building. Straight outta John Wyndham’s “Day of the Triffids”. (That book addressed the plight of mankind, allegorically blinded by a meteor shower, assailed by a huge invasive plant species. The yellow thing on Redpath could easily be such; it is not a recognizable figure at all. And if Wyndham was prescient, anticipating COVID-19, he was not the only one). Mayhap that beast is slouching toward Bethlehem, waiting to be reborn, to paraphrase W. B. Yeats’ classic end-of-time poem “The Second Coming”.
Or is it one of Joshua’s trumpeters at the battle of Jericho, where the Israelites were following the clarion call of their leader towards their promised land? For the homeless, those unfortunately addicted to the degree that they have no neighbourly emotions other than satisfying short-term desires it may signalling another message – here be no law except our own.
Forty years ago, when the neighbourhood was known as The Young and Eligible, with T.G.I.F just steps away a reveller might have been scared sober, going home after last call at that watering spot. Art it is not, for some, but it is definitely in your face and public. That trumpeter certainly is heralding a change today, one maybe not wished for by the majority.
TÕNU NAELAPEA
Public Art.jpg caption At the Walls of Jericho, calling to the downtrodden.
Photo: TN
