Observations Better civic thinking through conceptual theft

It’s rare to find a group of adults advocating theft on stage—and at a library, no less—but the five-finger discount was the primary motivation behind last week’s Steal This Idea!, a free panel discussion held at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library, although the focus was on the pilfering of concepts rather than objects.

Presented by the Diaspora Dialogues and the Literary Review of Canada, the sold-out event featured local celebs Olivia Chow, Sook-Yin Lee, and Rick Smith, each presenting a municipal idea that another city has embraced and that they hoped Torontonians would “steal.” After introductions courtesy of Toronto Star columnist Royson James, each presenter delivered their spiel, which was met with a short rebuttal courtesy of Sheldon Levy, president of Ryerson University.

Environmentalist Rick Smith kicked off the evening with a bold claim: “My idea is bigger than Margaret Atwood’s Twitter following,” he boasted, and proceeded to launch into his vision: green concrete. According to Smith, concrete is made of limestone and an aggregate material, like sand or gravel, and requires tremendous energy to mine and create. By recycling already constructed concrete and shifting to environmentally approved aggregate materials, the city would reduce emissions by 60 percent, as well as protect water streams, wildlife, and green spaces from the consequences of quarry development. As evidence, Smith noted that in many European cities, 90 percent of the aggregate in their concrete is recycled, while Toronto’s is a lowly 7 percent.

Shifting from environmental issues to public transit, MP Olivia Chow’s idea was about lessening the cost of transit for the unemployed. Chow proposed that the federal government implement a program where anyone out of work could receive a voucher for a half-price monthly Metropass. In her vision, the program would operate similar to Employment Insurance, and assist the one in 10 Toronto residents who are currently out of work in getting back on their feet. Chow cited a number of cities that have adopted transit discounts for people looking for jobs, including Berlin, London, Bangkok, Seattle, and even Calgary.

Last up to bat, Sook-Yin Lee was a bit scattered in the specifics of her presentation, although the general focus was on public art. By citing examples of art projects in her hometown of Vancouver, Lee proposed that Toronto lessen the bureaucracy around public art to allow more community participation. Citing several examples of public art in Toronto (the thimble at Spadina and Richmond, the Al Waxman statue in Kensington Market) that had little involvement from the communities they exist in, Lee suggested moving towards a model where residents contribute and create art themselves.

Assigned the role of provocateur for the evening, Sheldon Levy admitted to the audience that he wasn’t very comfortable being contrarian. Yet in an attempt to show the other side of the coin, he mustered up a few short criticisms of each idea, the bulk of which revolved around the cost of implementation and the possibility that the projects would be difficult to control. After he delivered his opinions, the presenters gathered onstage to discuss each other’s ideas and answer several questions from the audience.

While the evening’s hour-and-a-half timeframe allowed for less examination of each idea than was probably necessary, the different issues and options addressed by each presentation were stimulating despite their brevity. By the end of the talk, even Levy shrugged off his critical demeanor and articulated the mood of the evening: “The common theme tonight is wanting to make Toronto a better place,” he said. Gesturing to the trio of civic-minded presenters, he added, “Your ideas were great, but what was greater was that you had ideas.”