CultureClub

BY SEAN BAILEY

Toronto councillor Kyle Rae says, while walking through Yonge-Dundas Square, he finds himself looking up at the ads that surround it.

“I find that they add light, colour, movement, sometimes humour,” Rae said. “Unfortunately, some advertising tells us that we think we need. And that’s the part where I just turn off.”

He believes the ads are a part of the culture within the city and they belong in the square.

The advertising that surrounds Yonge-Dundas Square is reflective of what’s happening in cities such as New York with Times Square and London with Piccadilly Circus. Toronto planners believe the square can become a centre for culture and community gathering. However, one arts organization, based in Toronto, argues the square isn’t fulfilling its purpose.

“Many people view Dundas Square as a cultural space, as a cultural centre,” said Robin Sokoloski, community arts director for them.ca, a non-profit organization for the advancement and promotion of young urban artists. “Now it’s overwrought with media advertising.”

The site has proposed the Beautiful City Billboard Fee, which it says will beautify Toronto, create jobs for artists, promote community ownership and diversify community in public space. The proposal, currently under review by the city, wants to impose a billboard advertising fee of $6 per square foot of space. This money will then subsidize local artists.

Allan High, vice-president of marketing at Clear Channel Outdoor, says he is opposed to such a change.

“Why billboards?” High asked. “What gives an artist a right to say ‘I’m going to take control of someone’s business and put an artificial tax on there for my benefit’? It’s not that we don’t support the individual’s right to display their product, it’s using our product and taxing us when no one else is getting taxed.”

Sokoloski disagrees with High. She says those advertising in a public space have a duty to those around them. They have to make sure there is a fair balance between having billboards, public art and green space.

Rae says there is a divide between advertisers and artists when there shouldn’t be. He believes the two groups are of the same mold.

“I’m just getting tired of this attitude that there’s artists and then there’s advertisers and I think they’ve come from the same place,” he said.

Rae also believes Yonge-Dundas Square is a perfect fit for billboard advertisements. He says it could work in no other place in the city such as residential neighbourhood or commercial strips.

According to a Pollara opinion poll, 66 per cent of Torontonians support the proposal to add a fee to billboard owners and 15 per cent are opposed.

“I think (Yonge-Dundas Square) is a unique situation,” High said. “It’s a vision that is based upon what they’ve done in New York in Times Square, but a much more controlled vision. (In New York) literally every-inch of every building, going up 10 or 12 stories, is a covered with form of sign. That’s not the desire in Toronto.”