Science Centre needs fixing, not fencing

There's a famous scene in the 1967 film "The Graduate" when a young Dustin Hoffman receives career advice. "One word," says an older man. "Plastics." You see, there was a great future in the plastics industry then.

- SHAWN MICALLEF

The tall metal fence at the Ontario Science Centre runs for hundreds of metres along Don Mills Road, along the south side of the site and into the ravine below. Repairs and routine maintenance are what our governments should have been doing all along, Shawn Micallef writes.

For any new graduates in Toronto this year, though, that one word might be "fencing." It's seemingly a boom time for the fence industry here. Fences make good neighbours, they say, but let's look at the city through its fencing and you decide if it's good or not.

Last weekend I went to see the new fence at the Ontario Science Centre. A pilgrimage, really, as the fence is so big and extensive I consider it a wonder of modern instant infrastructure. It should have its own interpretive exhibit in, say, a local science centre.

The tall metal fence runs for hundreds of metres along Don Mills Road, along the south side of the site and into the ravine below, well away from the building itself. On Sunday, there were about a dozen security people along the fence and "private property" signs affixed to it. Even the massive sign on Don Mills, alternately flashing "Closed" and "Fermé," had its very own fence surrounding it as if it, too, was a threat.