Toronto One Bloor East | 257.24m | 76s | Great Gulf | Hariri Pontarini

Too small a section, unfortunately. The entire street should be narrowed from Davenport to the lake.
One step at a time. This is a long enough section to prove or at least test the plan.

42
 
My concern is that it'll be halted after public outcry, leaving a mere 200 or so meters redeveloped and the rest of the street unchanged. I'd like to see it at least up to Dundas, but of course up to Bloor is where it's really needed--especially north of College. Needs a major overhaul up there.
 
What's needed is a competent Master Landscape/Streetscape Plan like Queen's Quay/Waterfront that specifies the material palette and broad strokes of the design - and then sticking religiously to it. The One Bloor E/W block should serve as a transition between the Bloor Street style to the Yonge Street one.

Personally, I would love to see a return to brick (or brick like, for the sake of durability) street paving for Yonge. That, and decent tree plantings - there are few if any along the corridor.

AoD
 
IMG_6844.jpg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_6844.jpg
    IMG_6844.jpg
    1.2 MB · Views: 1,413
From the other day:

DSC08992.jpg

DSC08979.jpg


42
 

Attachments

  • DSC08979.jpg
    DSC08979.jpg
    703.3 KB · Views: 1,065
  • DSC08992.jpg
    DSC08992.jpg
    656.2 KB · Views: 1,093
^Europe is also full of large cities with wide streets. WW2 blew up many of their medieval towns. I'm not a fan of the seemingly common perceptions that European cities ignore cars entirely. There are often 6 lane arterials directly outside of the medieval cores. The Europeans love their cars, don't doubt that.

But yes, Yonge needs to have its sidewalks widened.
 
What would be really big city would be to close Yonge between Bloor and Front to cars entirely, and turn it into the cold climate equivalent of Las Ramblas, but we're not there yet. I'd settle for a step towards that, and look forward to what's going to be happening between Gerrard and Queen later this year.

42
 
More cars on Yonge would make it feel like a small town. Like Peterborough or something...

Any town or city can have a big wide street full of cars, only a select few cites can have a street with massive pedestrian traffic basically 24/7.
 
Bay st and Jarvis are for cars. Yonge street is not. If you really want or need to drive down it. Expect it to be slow moving and full of pedestrians. If this is not your perception of what Yonge street should be, than I don't think Yonge st is really a place you'd want to be anyways.
 

Back
Top