Public space vs public interest

During the 2004 Summer Olympics Toronto’s Dundas square showed live event coverage on its giant screens so that people could relax in the square, socialise, and bond with respect to the sporting events of common (if mild) interest. If you walk through Toronto nowadays you’ll see crowds outside any store window featuring a TV which will invariably be playing coverage of the FIFA World Cup. It is clear that there is great public interest in the games. It is often a very social situation when you stand on the sidewalk and watch the match with fellow Torontonians but we’re never able to forget that we’re blocking the sidewalk on a busy street. Ohmpage has asked the people who run Dundas Square – which they so love to promote as the heart and major public space in the city – if they could show any World Cup matches in the square (even if only the final match) to which they responded by declaring that it was a great idea but they have absolutely no plans of doing so. We can only wonder how something can promote itself as being a grand public gathering space while simultaneously and knowingly rejecting what is arguably the most conducive event to public gathering which we are likely to see here for a long time. Please email them yourself and let them know what you think of this and how they could please the public more with how they use the space and how they let the public use it. (Thank Taku for providing the photo)