{"id":17132,"date":"2011-01-09T15:48:41","date_gmt":"2011-01-09T19:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=17132"},"modified":"2011-01-09T15:50:11","modified_gmt":"2011-01-09T19:50:11","slug":"rock-roll-urbanism-the-pretenders-my-city-was-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/01\/09\/rock-roll-urbanism-the-pretenders-my-city-was-gone\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock & Roll Urbanism: The Pretenders & My City Was Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/embed><\/object><\/a><\/p>\n

With the Empress Hotel fire on Yonge Street last week our thoughts have been turned to the city’s built form and how to better preserve the worthy buildings we have now. Many times this week lines from The Pretenders’ “My city was gone” song have come to mind. A fine song from 1982, it’s about just this kind of loss and as close to an urbanist anthem as there’ll ever likely be.<\/p>\n

I went back to Ohio
\nBut my city was gone
\nThere was no train station
\nThere was no downtown
\nSouthtown it had disappeared
\nAll my favorite places
\nMy city had been pulled down
\nReduced to parking spaces
\nAy! Oh! Where did you go, Ohio?
\nI went back to Ohio
\nBut my family was gone
\nI stood on the back porch
\nThere was nobody home
\nI was stunned and amazed
\nMy childhood memories
\nSaw this world past
\nLike the wind thorugh the trees
\nAy! Oh! Where did you go, Ohio?
\nI went back to Ohio
\nBut my pretty countryside
\nHad been paved down the middle
\nBy a government that had no pride
\nThe farms of Ohio
\nhad been replaced by shopping malls
\nAnd Muzak filled the air
\nFrom Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
\nSaid Ay! Oh! Where did you go, Ohio?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Empress Hotel fire on Yonge Street last week our thoughts have been turned to the city’s built form and how to better preserve the worthy buildings we have now. Many times this week lines from The Pretenders’ “My city was gone” song have come to mind. A fine song from 1982, it’s aboutContinue reading “Rock & Roll Urbanism: The Pretenders & My City Was Gone”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[2476,916,16836,16837,16835],"class_list":["post-17132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urban-design","tag-empress","tag-ohio","tag-porch-there","tag-southtown","tag-station-there"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRock & Roll Urbanism: The Pretenders & My City Was Gone - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2011\/01\/09\/rock-roll-urbanism-the-pretenders-my-city-was-gone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rock & Roll Urbanism: The Pretenders & My City Was Gone - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the Empress Hotel fire on Yonge Street last week our thoughts have been turned to the city’s built form and how to better preserve the worthy buildings we have now. 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