Every city has its Denzil Minnan-Wong, the guy at the back of the crowd shouting about the price of things long after the cheque has been cashed.

But in the case of Sugar Beach, the latest object of the councillor’s self-righteous indignation, the money was exceptionally, perhaps uniquely, well spent. By any standard, the place is a huge success; more important, it has changed the way people feel about the post-industrial waterfront. Thanks to Sugar Beach, and a few other Waterfront Toronto interventions, people are flocking to live in parts of the city they once drove through without noticing.

But if you’re one of those guys who knows the cost of everything but not its value, even Sugar Beach, wildly popular, certainly spectacular and utterly transformative, will never be worth the price.

What is excellence, after all, but another left-wing conspiracy to separate overworked taxpayers from their hard-earned cash?

Yet many would agree with the councillor from Don Mills. All they need to hear is that two enormous granite outcroppings shipped in from Quebec cost $529,800 and that three dozen umbrellas installed in the “beach,” were $11,565 each.

That’s a lot of money. But how much is stone worth? What should it have cost? The umbrellas, year-round industrial-strength pieces of equipment, must be strong enough to withstand sun, snow and gale-force winds, serve as light standards and be vandal-proof. Would it have been better to buy cheap stuff and replace it every couple of years?

One can’t help but recall the outrage unleashed when another large chunk of the Canadian Shield was blasted out of the ground and reassembled in Yorkville at a cost of about $250,000. Naturally the good burghers of Toronto and the press were shocked and appalled. But wander past the Yorkville rock on a sunny day and it will be crawling with visitors. They love it.

Like Sugar Beach, Yorkville Park has won international design awards and brought Toronto to international attention as a city that goes the extra distance to ensure brilliance.

For the Minnan-Wongs, however, excellence is an extravagance this poor little rich city simply can’t afford. If he’s right, Toronto, wealthiest city in Canada, has a serious problem on its hands. In a world driven by urban economies, cities must compete with one another for investment.

The problem is Minnan-Wong’s Toronto is dull, sterile and cheap. His bottom-feeder mentality suits the angry, the disengaged, the uninterested, the bored, the dumb, the cynical, the intellectually lazy, the city-haters, and presumably the people who support him. Like Minnan-Wong, they are comfortable settling for second-rate.

You’d think that residents of a city awash in mediocrity, political and architectural, would be thrilled by the occasional whiff of excellence. If Minnan-Wong and the tired journalists who lap up his blather are right, Sugar Beach is a scandal, another example of government incompetence.

In fact, Sugar Beach helped unleash the $2.6 billion the private sector has invested in waterfront revitalization so far. It is hugely successful, socially and economically.

Minnan-Wong, a board member of Toronto Economic Development Corp. which was disbanded in disgrace for its questionable waterfront activities, missed the point as usual. He might also want to remind himself that the beach was approved not just by city council but by the federal government as well. He might be interested to learn that Waterfront Toronto has been audited 15 times in the last decade. If that’s not transparency, what is?

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No wonder so many call him Denzil Minnan-Wrong.

Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca

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