The East York logo will officially live on.

At its Oct. 4 meeting, Toronto city council approved the motion to allow the logo to be displayed on street signs in the former borough.

Beaches-East York councillor Janet Davis made the motion for East York signs, while Toronto-Danforth councillor Mary Fragedakis extended it for all former municipalities to be able to display their logos on street signs.

While some see retaining the logos as a reminder of Toronto’s history, other councillors opposed it, saying the city should move forward as one amalgamated Toronto.

“That’s the past and I don’t want us to live there or dwell there,” said Scarborough-Agincourt councillor Norm Kelly, a strong supporter of amalgamation. “We should be doing everything we can to build a unified spirit … and build a Toronto brand.”

Another concern raised was the potential violation of the city’s corporate identity program, put in place in 2000, outlining the use of logos on street signs to represent the newly amalgamated Toronto.

Davis argued she does not believe the addition of logos to street signs would threaten the program.

“The logo of the city of Toronto will remain prominent on the signs,” Davis said in the council meeting. “The logo simply provides a geographic identifier that people respect and value and want to have there.”

It was concluded the policy would be amended upon council passing the motions.

Fragedakis added the corporate identity program is in need of an upgrade and that legacy city logos are not a threat to Toronto’s identity.

“I’m trying to be fair and allow other legacy cities to have it and identify with their community,” Fragedakis said. “Torontonians want to acknowledge their heritage and their history and I think that is really key to this.”

Don Valley West councillor Jaye Robinson doesn’t like the idea of stickers consuming street signs. “I am concerned about clutter. I have had a lot of feedback saying ‘I have a hard time reading the signs’ as we have an aging population, there’s  a lot of information on these signs… we need to have nice clean signs.”

She asked to delay the motion for a month to get it assessed by the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee. The deferral failed to carry in an 18-19 vote.

Davis’s and Fragedakis’s motions passed, respectively, 27-10 and 28-9.