Yonge Street Revitalization (Downtown Yonge BIA/City of Toronto)

[confusion]

I don't care what anyone else says, Yonge St in its current form is disgusting and completely ignores the large audience that it captures. Toronto needs to take advantage of this opportunity to reinvent Yonge before that audience is gone and Yonge turns into the even worse rendition of itself reflecting its past of the 70's and 80's. This reinvention can occur by giving the street to pedestrians and a complete overhaul of the entire street. Yonge should be a woonerf.

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

For me it's not so much the buildings but the actual street itself which is horribly rundown with gum stains, crumbling curbs and broken asphalt-patched scars everywhere. With friends from out of town last weekend we walked up Yonge to Bloor where the scene wasn't at all better, and even worse with all the construction and the empty lot on the southeast side. Happily there are at least signs of improvement along Bloor with the streetscaping that is coming. Still, from Queen to Bloor and Yonge to Avenue Road the whole place seemed like a bit of a war zone and it was a little hard to overlook. I felt a bit like an embarrassed parent showing friends through the house and having to rush ahead to shut the door to the messy teenager's room...

I agree.

I don't care what anyone else says, Yonge St in its current form is disgusting and completely ignores the large audience that it captures. Toronto needs to take advantage of this opportunity to reinvent Yonge before that audience is gone and Yonge turns into the even worse rendition of itself reflecting its past of the 70's and 80's. This reinvention can occur by giving the street to pedestrians and a complete overhaul of the entire street. Yonge should be a woonerf.

Again, what's so disgusting about it? Examples? I think the audience that it captures goes there because Yonge Street offers what they want, otherwise it wouldn't be one of the most heavily traveled streets in the city. Do you propose that the City takes over the street, buys up the properties and gentrifies it somehow?

Although it's only a personal opinion, Yonge Street was a much more exciting place to walk, drive, shop and play in the 70's & 80's. It was much more vibrant and there was so much more to do.

 

[SunriseChampion]

Although it's only a personal opinion, Yonge Street was a much more exciting place to walk, drive, shop and play in the 70's & 80's. It was much more vibrant and there was so much more to do.

I wouldn't know anything about this seeing as I've only been breathing since the mid 80s but I find Yonge Street to be a very interesting street to walk. Time and again, I'll arrive at Union Station from the east, buy a TTC day pass with various Yonge Street locations on the itinerary and end up walking to all of them. Up, down. I just can't stop myself. I can't say I'd do the same for Dundas East, for example.

Perhaps, I too, will come to have a certain nostalgia for the street as it is now, twenty years from now.

Maybe it has more to do with where you were in life at the time?

 

[dt_toronto_geek]

Maybe it has more to do with where you were in life at the time?

Most certainly. I was a movie freak as a teen in the late 70's (still am) so I used to come downtown most every weekend to take in several movies at the dozen or so cinemas which used to line the street from Bloor to Queen Sts. so that made it very exciting for me. I loved the games palaces which were great while waiting for my next movie to start, Sam's, Cheapies and A & A's were the best places to buy records and warranted a weekly visit and the general edginess of the area added a little "bad boy" excitement for me too. Living in the area since the 80's I've seen it slowly, continuously change and evolve, which is a good thing except the demise of all those cinemas that I loved so very much. As the nighclubs/bars began to close one by one the area also changed considerably.
Some frontages need to be renovated (mainly from Gerrard up to Bloor), some could come down and make way for live/work spaces but more than anything Yonge Street needs it's night life back, again from about Gerrard up to Bloor Street.
I so hope that a future incarnation of 1BE includes a cinema complex in the podium. A six or eight screen complex would make a perfect replacement for the doomed Cumberland Cinemas, and Carlton Cinema complex.

 

[SunriseChampion]

That explains it.

I always hear about how crazy and grand it used to be "back in the day" and wonder what that must have been like.
My main attraction has almost nothing to do with the physical space of the area, however, as much as it does with the people I see and meet which is why I don't see it as too shoddy of a strip at all.

I guess I wouldn't be opposed to certain changes but I quite like it just the way it is.

 

[SP!RE]

The Downtown Yonge area is a HUGE asset to Toronto tourism. A missed opportunity? "fix things before it's too late"? What?! Not at all.

Clearly many posters in this thread have no concept of tourism in Toronto or how the different BIA's interact and work together to create the mosaic that is Toronto.

Also, re: cleanliness. The sidewalks may be a mess, yes-- but all of Toronto is like that. The Downtown Yonge Clean Streets Team keep every pole (including all those new black light poles up Yonge) clear of illegal posters, etc. They work hard every day to keep the area's amenities/infrastructure as clean as possible within the BIA's working parameters.

As for facade incentives, and all that-- the BIA aggressively promotes such things. Graffiti removal is free for any BIA-area business.

Please don't make comments if you don't know the inner workings of the areas. It's easy as a bystander to make criticisms. I personally think Downtown Yonge is evolving quite nicely and the plans for the new signage above storefronts along Yonge Street (Ginza-style) are really going to improve the area even more.

 

[SunriseChampion]

^Doesn't that BIA's territory end at Gerrard? What of everything between Gerrard and Bloor?

Not that I have complaints, as previously noted.

 

[toraerach]

Also, re: cleanliness. The sidewalks may be a mess, yes-- but all of Toronto is like that. The Downtown Yonge Clean Streets Team keep every pole (including all those new black light poles up Yonge) clear of illegal posters, etc. They work hard every day to keep the area's amenities/infrastructure as clean as possible within the BIA's working parameters.

What makes the posters illegal? If there isn't another place to poster in the area, it is within the poster's right. Are there community events boards? If not, I'm afraid there's nothing illegal about those posters and they have every right to be there.

 

[deerparker]

^Doesn't that BIA's territory end at Gerrard? What of everything between Gerrard and Bloor?

Not that I have complaints, as previously noted.

The Downtown Yonge BIA ends at Alexander, north of College. http://www.downtownyonge.com/finding_us

Yonge Street north of Alexander doesn't have any BIAs until Charles Street where the Bloor-Yorkville BIA begins.

 

[lordmandeep]

What makes the posters illegal? If there isn't another place to poster in the area, it is within the poster's right. Are there community events boards? If not, I'm afraid there's nothing illegal about those posters and they have every right to be there.

however there is no right your posters can stay up there.

 

[Tewder]

Toronto needs to take advantage of this opportunity to reinvent Yonge before that audience is gone and Yonge turns into the even worse rendition of itself reflecting its past of the 70's and 80's. This reinvention can occur by giving the street to pedestrians and a complete overhaul of the entire street. Yonge should be a woonerf.

That's what Dundas Square/TLS was supposed to be, no? The whole idea was to attract large mainstream flagship retailers/resto chains to the area. This has happened to some degree but it is the city that has dropped the ball. Simple maintenace would help but a make-over, similar in scale if not tone to Bloor Street is probably in order. Until then I don't really blame retailers for still regarding the area as questionable or the public as still regarding it as sketchy. The whole place needs a clean sweep before anybody will take it seriously...

 

[Tewder]

The Downtown Yonge area is a HUGE asset to Toronto tourism. A missed opportunity? "fix things before it's too late"? What?! Not at all.

'Huge'? Really? Please explain, I just don't see anything compelling about Yonge. I could see your point some years ago maybe when it truly was gritty and interesting (sex shops, cinemas, record shops, neon everywhere etc.) but those days have long gone.

Also, re: cleanliness. The sidewalks may be a mess, yes-- but all of Toronto is like that. The Downtown Yonge Clean Streets Team keep every pole (including all those new black light poles up Yonge) clear of illegal posters, etc. They work hard every day to keep the area's amenities/infrastructure as clean as possible within the BIA's working parameters.

I think we've really lowered the bar of our expectations when we are supposed to 'cheer' that city employees work 'hard', that the city removes posters or sweeps. As taxpayers we should expect these things and a whole hell of a lot more. Other cities do a far better job at this than messy ol' Toronto.

Please don't make comments if you don't know the inner workings of the areas. It's easy as a bystander to make criticisms.

Nonsense. All taxpayers have a right to critize, indeed an obligation! This 'put up with it and shut up because you don't know better anyway' attitude is insulting - you don't work for the city by the way do you?

 

[SP!RE]

The Downtown Yonge BIA ends at Alexander, north of College. http://www.downtownyonge.com/finding_us

Yonge Street north of Alexander doesn't have any BIAs until Charles Street where the Bloor-Yorkville BIA begins.

It goes to Grosvenor

 

[deerparker]

Apologies, it goes to Grosvenor on the west side, just north of Alexander on the east

 

[SP!RE]

No but on a more serious note, the BIA should be expanding its boundaries in the next couple of years.