Johnny Lombardi Monument Essay

Through exploring the geography of everyday life within Toronto, we are also able to explore the presence or absence of power. One of the ways in which we can view relations of power within a city is through the use of analyzing and exploring monuments. Within the GTA, there are numerous amounts of monuments present that commemorate or provide remembrance of the city, various individuals or a variety of different groups and communities. According to Donohoe (2002), we all encounter monuments however we may not necessarily notice them within our everyday lives. A Monument is a structure that calls for individuals to be reminded and mindful of important events or the lives of individuals (Donohoe, 2002). They provide the power of retelling history

and also have the power to organize public space. One important monument in Toronto is the Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument in little Italy. This monument serves as an example of how individuals can visit monuments, plaques or memorials that offer aspects of both the history and culture of Toronto.

As a result, this paper seeks to explore the Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument to demonstrate the ways in which monuments establish a sense of meaning to a given area. Exploring how this monument is used as a way to view the city as a cultural artifact will demonstrate the importance of history. In addition, the monument helps to recognize the importance of place and time. Lastly, this paper will investigate how the Lombardi monument demonstrates how urban spaces can often be viewed as creating assertions of power.

It is important to understand that, many individuals believe that monuments play various roles within urban spaces. For instance, James Mellon (2008) understands the city as a work of art and expresses the notion of space, place and meaning in order to emphasize how place

matters within urban areas. The article mentions that landmarks may be viewed differently depending on the individual as well as the different points in time. This relates to the role in which monuments play because they have the power to affect individuals differently. For example, a monument can make one individual have emotions of being sad while another feels happy. They have the ability to connect to an individual’s identity and also connect people to certain communities. Mellon states “ different identities and contending conceptions of the same identity hold different narratives, and look to discern and to promote recognition of those narratives in the cityscape around them” (p. 4). By having monuments present throughout the city, individuals are able to visit certain places and connect themselves to the physical environment in which they may not do on a daily basis. However, the ideas of Wells, demonstrates that monuments are used as a means of governmental power within the city. For example, she recognizes that monuments can be used as surveillance through reminding the individual who is viewing the monument that other individuals may see their actions. In her article, she also mentions that, the government uses monuments in order to mark urban space with “symbols of its rule and its frequent failure to impress the significance of these symbols on the urban population” (Wells, 2007 ). Wells also believes that most monuments are ignored and disregarded within society, which may not always serve a correct purpose as they are often intended to do.
By understanding that monuments serve various roles, the Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument also helps raise questions and concerns in relation to history and power. The monument is located on the corner of College and Grace Street in Toronto, in an area also known as little Italy. The space in which the monument occupies is on a sidewalk within the public sphere. This monument is accessible to every individual and also contains a seating area with trees. The site contains two plaques, the first Piazza Johnny Lombardi, which describes the importance of the monument and the purpose that it serves. The second plaque, Johnny Lombardi, provides background information on Johnny’s life and why he should be considered an important figure to remember. The monument also contains a seated area that is curved along the wall with two statutes present. According to the plaque, Johnny Lombardi was from an Italian immigrant family, however born in the city of Toronto. Lombardi was known for being the owner of Lombardi’s Italian Foods located on College Street. He was also known for being a broadcaster for CHIN radio in which he founded in 1966. This radio station was one of the first stations in Canada to provide multicultural radio and today broadcasts in 30 different languages. He is best known as a “pioneer in the promotion of Toronto’s cultural diversity”.
In relation to where the Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument is located, this allows us to consider the importance of place and time. Often, individuals move throughout spaces without thinking about the historical background or having knowledge on the areas in which they visit. As Mellon (2008) mentions, place can be associated with three elements which include the locale, location and sense of place. Place has the power to locate people in a given space and time which controls aspects of their daily lives. It provides orientation within society because our experiences contain geographical dimensions. The Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument contributes to this relation because it provides individuals with a reminder that this area was constructed to provide a symbolic purpose to a large number of individuals creating a certain sense of place. It allows people to recognize that regardless of when we visit this place, the monument will always be a reminder of Johnny Lombardi’s spirit.
Another significant aspect to explore in regards to understanding what monuments provide to everyday spaces is how they are able to allow individuals to view the city as a cultural artifact. Wells mentions the notion of how cities can be seen as cultural artifacts through the various objects and images that make up urban spaces. In this case, monuments participate in providing the city with a foundation of historical information that needs to be recognized as important. For instance, the story that the Piazza monument provides allows individuals to understand the importance of multiculturalism in Toronto. Toronto is home to many immigrant families and contains a wide range of cultural diversity. Since Johnny Lombardi was one of the first individuals to provide Toronto with multicultural radio, he should be viewed as an important figure to those living in Toronto as well as those who visit little Italy. The monument further provides a story through the architecture of the curved seating and statues placed on this seating. The plaque states that the monument seating was deigned to be curved in order to represent “the ocean and radio waves that brought Johnny Lombardi together with the diverse cultures he celebrated”. The statues represent Lombardi himself as well as a young boy who is wearing his hat. The seating area also contains a map of the world to further represent nations and people coming together in which Johnny always imagined and inspired to create. The city of Toronto as well as local business and the Lombardi family created this monument when Johnny passed away in 2002 to commemorate both his life and work in Toronto. According to Barber 2002, in an article written for the Globe and Mail, Toronto residents also express how this monument tells a powerful story. The city of Toronto constantly promotes cultural diversity and Lombardi’s monument is able to give this to the city through his work in demonstrating that “ being different has value” (Barbar, 2002). The plaques represented for Johnny can also be directly related to the power that he had in inspiring Canada to be a multicultural country. The plaques also mention that Johnny’s memory still lives on through the CHIN international picnic that Toronto hosts every year in celebration of multiculturalism. As a result, this monument is an example of how the city can be viewed as an artifact because it can be seen as a tool that produces the cultural significance of Toronto.
Having considered the importance that monuments have in establishing a sense of place and time as well as demonstrating the city as a cultural and historical artifact, monuments also have the power to show us that urban spaces can create power for certain neighborhoods and communities.

While the Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument wishes to evoke a sense of remembrance of multiculturalism, Nicholas Harney (2006), expresses his concerns that certain monuments can create power for groups of individuals over others. He believes that “ the placing of monuments and institutions are assertions of group presence in, familiarity with and control over specific territories.” (Harney, 2006, p.26). The Piazza Johnny Lombardi monument can be seen as an example of this because it is placed in a location that is prominently of Italian individuals which can be viewed as the Italian community having claims over this urban space. Having this monument present in little Italy, allows for the image of the Italian community to be consumed by the public. Although, the creation of the Lombardi monument was not to give power to the Italian community over other communities within Toronto, this raises many questions and concerns with the politics of power in certain places. This can also be related to the ideas that Wells (2007) provide in demonstrating how monuments are created as a way of governmental power, however in this case it can be viewed as the power of the Italian community. The ideas of

Harney (2006) demonstrate that the construction and location of certain monuments may result in groups of individuals claiming a higher status over others and misrepresent their intended purpose within the landscape. Exploring the presence of monuments allows us to view how urban spaces are socially constructed and maintain discourses of power. As a result the physical placement of the monument is important because it can be interpreted as a way to control given spaces and reproduce certain spatial representations.
Ultimately, critically analyzing the creation and use of monuments allows individuals to realize that they are much more than a physical site of remembering events or important figures. Monuments recall historical and cultural aspects within society but also demonstrate the way in which everyday space is used. The presence of monuments within the city has the ability to show individuals how the city can be seen as a site of cultural artifacts. They provide historical information through storytelling on the plaques as well as statues that gives rise to the cultural significance that the city contains. In addition, monuments further demonstrate the importance of place and time throughout our everyday spaces. They teach us that place has the power to control aspects of our daily lives throughout different points in time. Lastly, understanding that monuments can create power over certain communities and individuals allows us to recognize the control they contain over urban spaces.