Francine Kopun
Feature Writer
Toronto Star
August 7, 2008
Toronto sidewalks are for sale.
Pusateri's Fine Foods got a chunk for $75,000 – the cost of transforming part of the public sidewalk space on Bay St. at the store's Yorkville location into valet parking for four vehicles.
Now Holt Renfrew is about to get a chunk, too. The 46 parking spaces along Bloor St. between Avenue Rd. and Church St. will be eliminated as part of the $20 million Bloor Street Transformation Project, which calls for granite sidewalks, raised planters, special street lighting and public art. Holt Renfrew, meanwhile, will get a 20-metre lay-by at the front door, room for three cars.
"It's a problem. The sidewalk gets extremely narrow there," says Kathryn Holden, secretary of the Bay Corridor Community Association and a downtown resident who is legally blind. "If someone has a wheelchair or a stroller, that space is all used."
Lay-bys cut into sidewalk space to permit room for vehicles to load and unload or drop off and pick up passengers. Supporters say they improve traffic flow. Critics say they eat into public space, endanger the disabled and do not further the city's commitment to pedestrians and cyclists.
"Lay-bys are designed for cars, not for pedestrians, not for cyclists," says Shawn Tracy, president of the Bay Corridor Community Association. "There are a growing number of them. Once one establishment gets a lay-by others will want them – it sets a precedent."
There are at least 20 lay-bys downtown and the numbers are growing, according to figures from the city. They include the Pantages hotel, the residences of College Park, the Delta Chelsea and the Royal York Hotel. There is one in front of the Harbour Sixty Steakhouse at 60 Harbour St., even though there are large parking lots on either side of the building. The steakhouse has served $60 steaks to the likes of actor Harvey Keitel and former Raptor Charles Oakley.
The argument for one in front of Holt Renfrew was that there is no room to establish a loading zone behind the store, according to Doug Jure, chair of the Bloor-Yorkville Business Improvement Area.
The redesign of the shopping strip is intended to attract more pedestrians by eliminating the existing street parking and turning it into sidewalk, says Jure. The city is putting up $20 million to finance the improvements, which will then be repaid by businesses from the Bloor-Yorkville area.
Jure said Holt Renfrew is making "a sizeable contribution" to cover the project costs.
An additional lay-by for three taxis will be provided outside the Marriott Hotel.
The lay-by in front of Pusateri's has proven popular with patrons – and with cabbies making U-turns. Taxis headed north regularly swing through the lay-by to change direction and head south. Customers driving south down Bay glide into the lay-by, hand their keys to a valet and return a few minutes later to pull a U-turn and head back north.
"Pusateri's asked for it and they paid for it," says Councillor Kyle Rae (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale). "That's public use, isn't it? They're the public."
The city tries to discourage lay-bys, says Andr̩ Filippetti, manager of traffic planning for Toronto East York District. "Lay-bys are basically a no-no Рthey eat into walking space. Generally we try to avoid putting them in. We look at them on a case-by-case basis."
The city remains responsible for maintaining the property, says Filippetti, including clearing snow.
"I think you have to look at the city as a whole," he said. "There's a lot of them in front of schools. The TTC has lay-bys ... they're everywhere in the city. It's not strictly for hotels or people that can afford it. There has to be a justification from an operations point of view."
