Decrepit Harbord Village signpost makes neighbourhood look 'slummy,' but no one can agree on who should fix it

City staff and Harbord Village residents are struggling to find common ground over who's responsible for an iconic Harbord Village signpost that's fallen into disrepair.

Local businesses, represented by the Harbord Street Business Improvement Area (HSBIA), say the deteriorating sign on the northwest corner of Harbord Street and Spadina Avenue is the city's responsibility.

But city staff say they can't confirm that. Calls and emails from CBC Toronto to the office of the local councillor, Dianne Saxe, have gone unanswered.

Meanwhile, no one has been looking after the signpost's upkeep, which locals say has gone from being a neighbourhood landmark to a neighbourhood eyesore.

"It's awful," HSBIA chair Neil Wright said. "It's something that didn't need to happen. It's a disgrace to the area. It doesn't show who we really are."

Once 'a piece of art'

The signpost was conceived and designed in 1996 as part of a joint project by the TTC and City of Toronto, with input from the HSBIA and the local residents' association. The idea was to bring some extra flair to streetcar stops in some of the area's neighbourhoods, like Harbord Village and Kensington Market.

It's unclear when the signpost was actually erected, but both Wright and Rory Gus Sinclair, of the Harbord Village Residents Association, say it was some time between 1997 and 1999.

In its heyday, the marker was a local landmark, adorned with the neighbourhood's unofficial logo: a stylized, bright yellow sun with the word "Harbord" spelled out in green vertical lettering. It even had an illuminated electric guide to local shops.

"Amazing" is how 34-year resident Sinclair describes the original three-metre signpost. "After a while, it was part of the scenery. It was a piece of art in the middle of our neighbourhood."

If it is artwork though, city staff say it's not theirs.

"The gateway marker is not part of the City's public art collection," city staff told CBC News in an email. "We are continuing to look into other details and will update you when we have further information to share."

Right from the start, Sinclair and Wright say, there was confusion about who was responsible for maintaining the sign.

At first, it wasn't a major problem, Sinclair told CBC Toronto. Residents groups and the BIA would clean it up occasionally, as time and money allowed. 

Business directory now a trash-filled hollow

But about five years ago, the marker had deteriorated to the point that it was becoming an embarrassment to the neighbourhood, he said.

"The thing started to fall apart," Sinclair said. "It started to feel slummy, which we're not."

Today, the sign's lettering is broken, it's covered with grime and graffiti. There's an empty hollow, with exposed wiring and filled with trash, where the old illuminated business directory once was.

Wright and Sinclair say both their organizations have been in ongoing discussions with the city over who should take responsibility for rehabilitating the landmark, but so far a deal doesn't appear to be close.

"This is on the city sidewalk, it's not in our bailiwick," Sinclair said.

However those talks end, both Sinclair and Wright say the signpost in its current form is likely a thing of the past. It will either be torn down and replaced or re-furbished on its existing base, they say.

Wright said he favours a re-design on the existing base. "Something fresh that would designate who we are as a community....I think it will bring a new vibrancy to the area," he said.

Sinclair says he'd prefer a complete rebuild, from the ground up — "something new and different."

In either case though, both say it's important to establish once and for all who will be responsible for the care and maintenance of the new, improved signpost moving forward.