[URBAN NOTE] "‘Toronto’ sign will stay in square until at least fall"

[rfmcdonald]

I hope we find a way to keep this icon going. From</> the Toronto Star's David Rider:

The popular “Toronto” sign will light up Nathan Phillips Square until at least autumn, but hopes for a smaller mobile “T.O.” sign have gone dim.

The city’s economic development committee voted Wednesday to have city staff take another look at the request for $150,000 to maintain the illuminated 3-D sign, improve the lighting and study the idea of the smaller, two-letter sign that would move to special events around the city.

But, while telling staff to “fine-tune” the request and report back Oct. 24, the councillors said to forget about the proposed mobile sign that might have cost about $200,000.

Councillor Norm Kelly compared the TORONTO sign, installed as a temporary Pan Am Games celebration feature, and left in place after it became a hit with photo-snapping visitors, to the CN Tower as an “iconic statement.”

“I think that we would be penny-wise, pound-foolish if we did not appreciate the importance of that sign in marketing the Toronto brand in the 21st century,” he said. “The mobile sign — nice to have, but it's not an imperative.”