Demolition by Decay: The Tale of the Edgewater Sign

Postcard image of the Queen and Roncesvalles corner, taken in the 70s.

I thought I knew what I was going to write about as my second blog post, but I guess sometimes our subjects find us instead of the other way around...

Two Sundays ago, I noticed a hole in the sky. I was crossing Queen at Roncesvalles and glanced up to see—nothing. Nothing where there should have been something. And for me and many Parkdalians, that something was a beloved fixture in our visual landscape—the Edgewater Hotel sign. A battered but characterful old vintage 50s neon beauty, the sign whispered of boozy nights at the lobby bar and legions of travelling salesmen schlepping their sample cases over from the Sunnyside bus terminal next door. Only a few short months ago, writer Rick McGinnis traced the history of the corner, its buildings—now a McDonald's and a Howard Johnson's—and their wonderful signs in a BlogTO article.

So I felt sick, and sad, and ruminated on the situation for a few days, and then I got mad. Mad enough to work up the nerve to contact a local insider about the situation and to ask his advice on how to proceed. I wanted to know why the sign had been taken down, and by whom (my faint hope was that it was to repair and restore it). He told me what he knew and suggested I put the word out and then start making a stink to the city.

I contacted a wide range of media types, alerting them to the situation. I also contacted my Ward 14 city councillor, Gord Perks (councillor_perks@toronto.ca), and attended the Parkdale Residents' Association meeting last Thursday, at which I asked Gord directly about the status of the sign. The news was not good. He told the sorry tale of "the previous administration" doing a deal with the owners of the building in which they were allowed to keep a ginormous third-party billboard above the hotel (which, according to Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.ca, also contravenes bylaws) on the condition that the Edgewater sign, supposedly under heritage protection, be kept.

Despite repeated warnings from the city about the situation and likely consequences, the owners allowed the sign to rust away until it became a safety issue, and the city was forced to order it down. I said, "So it's gone?" and Gord said, "Yes." Then I asked, "But what about the legal requirement that they maintain it...." and he interrupted with, "There was no legal requirement that they maintain it; only that they keep it or lose the third-party sign." I said, "And is that going to happen? Will they now lose that sign?" His response was that the enforcement process was in the works, but that it was likely to be lengthy and they'd probably appeal, yadda yadda yadda.

I shuffled home devastated and furious in equal measure: at the city for not better protecting our built heritage, and especially at the building owners for their greed. In a 2006 article, Toronto Star architecture critic Christopher Hume described the practice of "demolition by decay," by which heritage building owners sidestep their responsibilities by simply letting the properties rot until they fail safety inspections and have to come down. Potentially costly problems solved!

It all comes down to what we value, I guess, and whether we have the foresight to do what's necessary to preserve it before it's too late. Anyway, NOW magazine and Torontoist both covered the story, tanks Gott, for which I'm very grateful, and they even included some excellent before and after photos. I hope the coverage shames the owners of 14 Roncesvalles into regretting some of their choices, or at least into thinking twice about future ones.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to find out what happened to the sign. Maybe if it's still out there somewhere, and my neighbours care about it as much as I do, it will someday grace the 'hood once again. A long shot, I know, but it's that "Imagine"-slash-Miracle on 34th Street time of year, isn't it?

Stay tuned for updates.

NOTE: Check out my instructor's version of this post here and let me know what you think!