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Union Station: Northwest PATH Expansion

Not in my experience. I see the same ones almost every day around rush hour.

I think that journalist was taking some license by including that quote about being unwelcome if you don't fit the "normal profile."

There are definitely homeless people down there. They're not setting up camp in the food courts or anything, but they certainly aren't being cashiered back to the streets by the PATH gestapo.
 
PATH gestapo.
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well in certain sections they are rather easy about it but in certain sections they are told rather quickly to leave like in the Commerce Court area...
 
A friend of mine has a Jugo Juice store in one of the food courts (The Lane food court) at Adalide and York. He's been vandalized twice during after hour. He's by himself, so every time he had to go to the storage room, he locked up his counter. Just last week, he was down in the storage room for about 15 minutes, by the time he got up, his "tips bucket" was stolen. His neighbours acknowledged that too that there are thieves in the PATH after 6pm. Besides the tips bucket, food that were displayed at the counter usually got stolen.
 
lordmandeep said:
well it is a good thing, but they are usually quickly kicked out....
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I'm not sure if it's a good thing because I usually feel uncomfortable. I feel bad that they open the door for me. At the same time, I don't have the obligation to give them $$$. So usually, I walk the other way.
 
it is just that in the winter most are genuine people.

However in the warmer months, you should not trust them. Thats when the scamers start coming...
 
Venti de Milo said:
A friend of mine has a Jugo Juice store in one of the food courts (The Lane food court) at Adalide and York. He's been vandalized twice during after hour. He's by himself, so every time he had to go to the storage room, he locked up his counter. Just last week, he was down in the storage room for about 15 minutes, by the time he got up, his "tips bucket" was stolen. His neighbours acknowledged that too that there are thieves in the PATH after 6pm. Besides the tips bucket, food that were displayed at the counter usually got stolen.
Click to expand...

:eek: how is this even possible in such a close circuit surveillenced area, crawling with corporate suits and security guards nontheless? Hope things improve for your friend.
 
Among other things...

Skydome
CN Tower
Air Canada Centre
Metro Convention Centre
Metro Hall
Roy Thompson Hall
Opera House
City Hall/Nathan Phillips
Eaton Centre
several theatres and concert halls including Elgin Winter Gardens

Practically everywhere that's anywhere has a link to PATH.
 
When I lived in Montreal, I was amazed by how many tourists came up to me and asked for directions to the "Underground City." They really market it there as a major tourist attraction.
 
Many of the complexes in Montreal's underground city have been built as architecturally impressive destination shopping cenrtes - mini Eaton Centres if you will - whereas here, other than in the case of the Eaton Centre itself, most other parts of the PATH system have been built as fairly run-of-the-mill convenience retail meant to serve the 9-5 crowd working above them. The galleria at Brookfield Place is an example of an exception to the broad statement above, where another destination has been created with the soaring architecture and vast space, and the tourist pull of the Hockey Hall of Fame and the Marché restaurant, but the retail there is still 9-5 oriented.

The only way I see our PATH becoming more of a destination is to have more hotels and condos connected in, and to make each new connected section pretty spectacular. I assume the BA section will be nice, but will they go for spectacular?

Another bit to watch attached to BA: PATH through The Bay. If that Bay store ever gets either upgraded, or cut up a bit, a new spectacular bit could be a three storey section engineered into the store between the Eaton Centre connections 1 floor below ground and 1 above, and the BA connections. A three storey high galleria through there with some attempt to incorporate restored details from the century old store could make for a grand statement.

42
 
I think the PATH would be a tourist draw for many even if the aisles were bare concrete walls. The idea of a vast, continuous network of underground pathways is alluring, but I agree that it's probably not enough. And calling it a mall is a bit of marketing deception. Malls don't have the same 8 stores repeated every few hundred metres (although at last count the Eaton Centre's Starbucks count is four... oh, and two Aldos).

I like that idea about The Bay.
 
Perhaps what is needed for PATH to become more attractive is to market it as one of Toronto's neighbourhoods (if you can really call it one). Toronto prides itself in neighbourhoods above ground, so why not apply it to the underground as well. Maybe PATH vendors should establish a BIA or something.

Imagine all the events a PATH BIA might be able to do... Taste of the PATH, Doors Open PATH tours, Cavalcade of Lights in the PATH, PATH parades, etc.

Architecturally, a couple of stunning atria in buildings connecting PATH with street levels and a few floors above is a really great idea.
 
There are far too many bored security guards down there, and far too few ruffians and vagabonds to keep them occupied, at the moment. A little unforseen mayhem now and then would liven the place up.
 
Is the BA/The Bay connection even being looked at for upgrades? I thought the only missing link was the Scotiaplaza/BA connection.

I can't see The Bay's link being upgraded until BA III is built. Otherwise you'd have a beautiful three storey atrium connected to... a parking garage.
 
On the whole, though, there may be an argument made that PATH's mundane-yet-honest unspectacular unassumingness is its own best quality, in an eminently Toronto way (cf. my 4SC/Leslie-Feist-at-the-Grammys analogy)
 
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