Closing out the last days of summer, tourists clamber over the giant letters of the marquee Toronto sign in Nathan Phillips Square, snapping photos — mementos of a visit to Canada’s largest metropolis — while others wait for burgers from a nearby snack shack. But at the footsteps of city hall, there’s not much else to do, with much of this public square paved over with blank concrete, embellished only by the broken disappearing fountains and garbage bins for wayward coffee cups.
“It’s totally blank. It’s bland,” observed Sandra Winfrey, a first-time visitor to Toronto standing in the square. She gestures to the grey expanses, a void except for the bureaucrats and commuters who quickly scuttle from one end to another. “It looks like just a place to walk across.”