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Church-Wellesley Village

Mystic Point said:
Someone should take a wrecking ball to Church and Wellesley. It's a D U M P.
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Care to quantify that remark? I don't understand this sudden hate-on with this neighbourhood.
 
RC8 said:
Maybe I'm just not the target demographic, but I've looked on Church for decent pubs (looking for craft beer), tea places, coffee shops, and restaurants, and have come out empty-handed over and over again. Maybe I'm just not the target demographic, but I never have that issue in any other retail neighbourhood in Toronto (see the Junction, all of Queen, Roncy, Bloor, Danforth, King West, Yorkville, Kensington Market, etc, etc.). Most restaurants and shops from what I remember look to be from the 80s.
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Hey RC8, I remembered your comment when I read this tonight (namely, craft beers):

http://www.xtra.ca/public/Toronto/Mmmm_beer-12560.aspx
 
It's not a big thing, but it's one little thing that, when combined with other little things creates an interesting and vibrant neighbourhood. This project was started in the so called "dumpy" Church-Wellesley Village, I believe it was initiated and paid for by the local BIA. Local artists did the painting on the utility boxes (I believe they are mostly Bell boxes) and they were paid for it too. Everyone wins. http://www.ryersonian.ca/article/23986/
 
I don't mean to pooh pooh this project since it has good intentions and is community driven, but the murals look very "great-grandmother friendly". It would be cool to see something a bit more provocative and bold!
 
Make Church St. pedestrian-only in the summer? Sounds like a great idea--and it's already been done in Montreal on the rue Sainte-Catherine. Or if not closing the street completely to traffic, what about removing a lane in each direction, like the recent Celebrate Yonge festival, and thereby widening the sidewalk? Was Celebrate Yonge ever officially declared a success or failure? Will it be repeated next year?

For the past five years, something exciting and visionary has been going on in Montreal’s gay village.

During the summer months, Sainte-Catherine Street East -- Canada’s largest gay strip -- closes to cars to create a pedestrian-only artistic wonderland. As a result, tourism and business are both experiencing a boom.

So, why can’t Toronto’s gay village follow suit?

That’s a question being asked by many in Toronto, especially as the city looks ahead to hosting WorldPride in 2014, when the world’s eyes will be on Church Street.

David Wootton, manager of the Church Wellesley Village Business Improvement Area (BIA), says he’s impressed and inspired by Montreal’s efforts to bring vibrancy into the village with Aires Libres (Open Spaces), their pedestrian-only mall. This year, the celebration also marked the 30th anniversary of the creation of the city’s gay village.

* * *

Wootton says the board is working on proposing a similar idea for Toronto’s Church Wellesley Village, even as soon as next year, and it plans to float the idea past area merchants at the upcoming annual general meeting on Nov 12. “I imagine some will be for it, others will not be for it.â€

“That is ultimately what we’d like to do,†he says. “We are looking in that direction for sure. Instead of waiting for the properties to change their look and feel, we need to dress around them."

Wootton says the BIA will also be approaching the City of Toronto for help ahead of WorldPride. "We want the same efforts that are being put to the Pan Am Games. We want to see more investment in beautification," he says.

* * *

Ward 27 Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam says she is open to the discussion. “Church Street has always been a combination of daytime business and evening business. The daytime activities are always much quieter. So you don’t want to close the street and not have any animation.â€

What works in Montreal may not work in Toronto, she says. “I understand people are very excited about pedestrian environments. Transplanting an idea from one city to another doesn’t always work as well as people would hope.â€

Back in 2004, Church Street and Kensington Market were chosen to be part of a city pilot project examining the feasibility of closing streets to cars during the summer.

“In Kensington people love it, and it’s now become part of their cultural identity of the market,†Wong-Tam says. “We tried it on Church, but the merchants did not get involved.â€

Wong-Tam points out that Church Street is wide, with four lanes of traffic. “Kensington already has very urban, intimate streets, with vendors spilling out onto the sidewalks. Church Street, without street animatio, is just a four-lane-wide road
. . . It has a very different vibe.â€
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I'd like to see Church Street between Wellesley & Carlton closed on weekends & holidays from Victoria Day weekend through Labour Day. That would be a good "dry run" next summer for World Pride the following year. Closing the street for the whole summer would cause traffic chaos, problems for deliveries to businesses and although many businesses benefit from a pedestrianized street, not all do, such as in Montreal.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I'd like to see Church Street between Wellesley & Carlton closed on weekends & holidays from Victoria Day weekend through Labour Day. That would be a good "dry run" next summer for World Pride the following year. Closing the street for the whole summer would cause traffic chaos, problems for deliveries to businesses and although many businesses benefit from a pedestrianized street, not all do, such as in Montreal.
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I think it would take a few years to work, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. It's hard for some restaurants to survive now with limited patio options, but if they have a huge summer patio season, they could make it through the winter. So I think the retail mix might adjust to having the street closed in the summer. Deliveries is a non-issue.

Businesses would just schedule them for the mornings when pedestrian traffic is light. Delivery vehicles can be allowed during certain hours, but no through traffic.

I vote for closing it the summer of 2013.
 
Good luck getting that passed by Frad & company during the work-week. They are in the process of turning Jarvis (one street east) back into a highway for his beloved uptown taxpayers that were spending an extra 2-3 minutes in traffic each day because of two bike lanes and you think he'd support closing Church Street? Baby steps, weekends first is the only hope of this ever happening.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Good luck getting that passed by Frad & company during the work-week. They are in the process of turning Jarvis (one street east) back into a highway for his beloved uptown taxpayers that were spending an extra 2-3 minutes in traffic each day because of two bike lanes and you think he'd support closing Church Street? Baby steps, weekends first is the only hope of this ever happening.
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Like University Ave, I would say Jarvis is such a waste of opportunity which has been used as nothing but a north-south thoroughfare. It is a grand ave that has the potential to become something vibrant for pedestrians to walk and shop on, now it is just another boring street for cars to swoop by to get to downtown. We have too many such streets that serve no purpose other than a sterile highway, like University, Bay, Richmond and Adelaide. It is funny that whenever a street is not served by streetcars or buses in downtown Toronto, it automatically becomes a highway.

Why can't the city rezone Jarvis into a commercial street, adding more patio restaurants and boutique stores? There is apparently enough space. Now it looks like a suburban street.
 
The street has been studied to death but Council voted for the bike lane option instead of a beautification plan and wider sidewalks (and to improve the Charles/Jarvis/Mt. Pleasant intersection). Had the street have been beautified it may have organically grown from there as more condos sprouted up.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Good luck getting that passed by Frad & company during the work-week. They are in the process of turning Jarvis (one street east) back into a highway for his beloved uptown taxpayers that were spending an extra 2-3 minutes in traffic each day because of two bike lanes and you think he'd support closing Church Street? Baby steps, weekends first is the only hope of this ever happening.
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but closing Church Street wouldn't affect his beloved uptown taxpayers as it's not a N-S throughfare.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
The street has been studied to death but Council voted for the bike lane option instead of a beautification plan and wider sidewalks (and to improve the Charles/Jarvis/Mt. Pleasant intersection). Had the street have been beautified it may have organically grown from there as more condos sprouted up.
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This is true! The whole Jarvis St rejuvenation project began as a pedestrian-improvement project, but was basically hijacked by cycling advocates. I'm not sure why a compromise was never made between cyclists and pedestrians. I'd have loved to see the sidewalk widened, but also a bike lane installed. As a pedestrian project there would have been much less opposition (if any).

With the imminent removal of the bike lanes, Jarvis once again becomes nothing but a highway. Streets that are used just for cars are always the most awful. It reminds me of Sheppard Avenue up where I live. Yuck.
 
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