Love in Toronto

Posted on December 14th, 2011 , by charley

There has been a lot of love in Toronto with many of the greatest love films being shot on location in this fantastic city, but a new kind of love hasn't been taken too well with the city officials.

Love padlocks, which were first found in Paris, have been spotted on Toronto’s Humber Bridge.  These padlocks sometimes have little messages written on them to promote their love for certain things, partners or their love for the place of Toronto, but with so many causing an eye sore and a possible problem to the workers on the Humber Bridge, it has cause the city officials to spark a removal operation.

A team of 4 community works set out at 7:30 am to cut down the 40 plus love padlocks that have been locked onto the bridge.  One padlock that was too big for these 4 men to cut down was a red heart shaped locked that is usually used in the shipping industry.

The reason why these 40 plus padlocks got the snip was because, “Aesthetically, they just don’t look good,” said city parks manager Kevin Bowser.  “That’s a really picturesque point of the city. If we’ve got all kinds of hanging, rusting locks there, it just won’t look that appealing,” he said.

Problems to the bridges structure could be affected if the Toronto hot spot became a love lock destination, he added.

Love locks have become a part of a global phenomenon, seen on bridges and on the streets of Paris, Rome, Cologne and Moscow.  Padlocks in different shapes, sizes and colours symbolize the enteral love left by the passers by.

This isn’t the first time that the Toronto city officials have had problems with love locks, they have fought for people not to place them there before.

Most recently in 2010 a bridge in Paris has had over 1000 locks snipped of from the bridge to try and preserve the integrity and stability of the structure.