Public Spaces Exercise: Sociology 205Y Urban Sociology

Whose Space is Public Space?  An investigation of Postering, Signage, and Freedom of Expression in Toronto's Downtown Public Spaces

A proposed bylaw in Toronto will limit the practice of posting fliers in public spaces.  The Toronto Public Space Committee, a group opposed to these new restrictions, claims that these limitations will suffocate freedom of expression and an essential advertising medium for the cultural and arts community (and people who have lost cats). 

The proposed changes to the postering law include:

• Posters will only be allowed 4,000 of the city's 160,000 utility poles
• Posters cannot exceed 8.5" x 11"
• Identical posters cannot be posted closer than 100 metres from each other (even though commercial billboards only have to be 60 metres apart).
• Glue and wheat paste are not allowed - staples and tape only.
• You must put your personal name and phone number on every poster, as well as the date it was posted.
• Posters may only be up for 30 days.
• If you break this law, the minimum fine is $60 per poster. There is no maximum fine.

Proponents of the bylaw, including the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area (BIA), argue that small posters are unsightly and object to the way they're plastered on mailboxes, private garbage bins, decorative lampposts and private property. The BIA has said that Toronto cannot be a world-class city unless it puts a halt to the practice. Other proponents object to the sometimes bawdy nature of some homemade posters.

Opponents of the bylaw, many of whom are associated with the Toronto Public Space Committee, stress that as currently written the regulation would endanger freedom of expression, stifle local culture and restrict public expression to those able to afford commercial billboards, the issue is not that simple. "Everybody's putting out way too much paper," says Reg Hartt, one of Toronto's most infamous posterers. "I'm against the bylaw," Hartt explains, "[but] you've got your commercial posterers postering everything in sight... you can't expect people not to feel upset about it." (Note: Excepts of this were taken from Eye magazine article "Small Time Posterers win Reprieve" 6/20/02)

For this exercise, we are interested in the extent and balance of types of signage in several of Toronto's public spaces.  In a democratic society, how well do our public spaces enable us to hear competing voices of varying economic and political power. While we are only focusing on one form of expression in public spaces (signage rather than spoken or performed expression), signage is so pronounced, routine, and embedded in the mosaic of our daily environments that we often fail to realize its influence on us.

For this exercise, please do the following:

1. Go to your assigned public space.

2. Walk along the periphery (outside edge) and internal sidewalks within your assigned space.  Examine all of the signage (commercial and otherwise) within, on the periphery, AND viewable from that public space. 

3. We want you do a "Census of the Signage" and a "Mapping of the Signage."  We are not only interested in the signage within that space, but also the signage that is VISIBLE from the public space. 

Here are the things I'd like you to report for each "sign"

1. Describe the location of the signage (e.g. on a pole, on a building, on a rooftop, on a bus stop, on a window, on the sidewalk, on a tree)
2. plot the approximate coordinates on a map of each observation
3. describe the product being advertised (e.g. a show, a pair of jeans, alcohol, a lost cat, religious service, a dentist, etc),
4. Name of advertiser (Starbucks, Clintons, Church of Eternal Damnation, the Gap)
5. Does the advertiser's business operate in a location adjacent to the sign (i.e. is it a store front?)
6. Approximate size of the advertisement
7. The condition of the advertisement (e.g. is it ripped, stained, discolored, partially covered, date of the show passed)
8. In the case of utility poles with posters, does the pole look to be frequently used for that purpose (i.e. are there layers of posters).
9. Think of which 5 signs are most prominent in that public space and indicate those by circling them or highlighting them on your map and table.
10. Anything else you think is important.

Here are the things I'd like you to report for the overall public space.

1. On your map of the area, indicate what occupies the property on the periphery of the public space.  For example, if there is a cafe on the north side, please mark that on your map (give specific name).  If there are homes along the west side, mark that on your map.
2. Draw a line indicating the path that you walked.

Please turn in an organized copy of your work.  I expect you to turn in two things:

1. A spreadsheet, table, or organized list that can be understood by someone else; give each observation an identifying number.
2. A one-page map/plot with numbered observations that correspond to your spreadsheet.