Toronto Bloor Street Revitalization | ?m | ?s | Bloor-Yorkville BIA | architectsAlliance

AoD, why are these things micro interests? We are all equal-opportunity enjoyers of sidewalks and trees, no?
 
Amazing what some trees will do. These'll look even more beautiful in a few years. We really need more greenery in the downtown core.
 
nier said:
Amazing what some trees will do. These'll look even more beautiful in a few years. We really need more greenery in the downtown core.
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Although some newly treed areas in the past decade or so are not always successful because of our climate, neglect and vandals, our downtown area is very green.
 
It's nice to see Bloor Street being improved. Maybe one day it'll be half as nice as Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive. Although, those streets are just better due to more high-end retail.
 
How much more high-end can you get than Bloor? Is Hermes too ghetto these days?

The issue is a growing understanding that the condition and beauty of our public spaces are important. Tax funding is not just about responding to special interests, we need to reserve the lion's share for that which benefits all. Hogtown grows up.
 
Tewder said:
How much more high-end can you get than Bloor? Is Hermes too ghetto these days?

The issue is a growing understanding that the condition and beauty of our public spaces are important. Tax funding is not just about responding to special interests, we need to reserve the lion's share for that which benefits all. Hogtown grows up.
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No one said anything about it being ghetto. But Rodeo Drive and Fifth Avenue seem a little more extravagent than Bloor Street. This is because I hardly consider Winners, H&M and GAP to be high-end, not to mention every corner of Bloor has a bank.

To be fair though, it seems like the high end retail is dispersed throughout Yorkville and not just Bloor Street.
 
Cooool said:
It's nice to see Bloor Street being improved. Maybe one day it'll be half as nice as Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive. Although, those streets are just better due to more high-end retail.
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Rodeo Drive? Have you seen that place? It looks like an outdoor shopping mall designed by Disneyland. It's about 2 blocks long and surrounded by suburban type housing. That's not exactly my idea of something to emulate.
 
Fifth Avenue bisects all of Manhattan. You can't expect it to be high-end retail all the way throughout Manhattan, that would be impossible. The high end retail is between 49th street and 57th street. Just like Bloor has the high-end retail inbetween Yonge and Avenue Road.

And I think Rodeo Drive looks very upscale. But the suburban nature is moreso typical of Beverly Hills.

But I do understand the reason these two shopping districts have more and look better is due to the fact that Los Angeles and New York are much wealthier cities than Toronto.
 
And Fifth Avenue has a Gap, H&M and even a Disney Store between 49th and 57th.
 
There's an upcoming Bloor Visioning Corridor meeting on Nov 10 at the Toronto and East York Community Council at 10:00 a.m. This is with respect to an official plan amendment to introduce area-specific policies on Bloor Street West, between Avenue Road and Bathurst Street.

This process started a couple of years ago and sort of fell off the radar. It will be interesting to see where the city is at in terms of design concepts and potential funding models or if this is just going to be a few small zoning changes regarding built-form, densities and massing along the corridor.

Please note this is a different project than the current Bloor Street Revitilization between St. Paul's Square and Avenue Road on Bloor - however it seems to fit this thread well as an eventual revitilization of the next few blocks west of the current project.
 
Here is the staff report and draft report from Nov 10 TEYCC:

TE29.4 ACTION 10:00 AM Ward: 20

Bloor Corridor Visioning Study - Draft Official Plan Amendment and Urban Design Guidelines

Background Information
TE29.4 - Staff Report - Bloor Corridor Visioning Study - Draft Official Plan Amendment and Urban Design Guidelines
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-24709.pdf

TE29.4 - Attachment - Bloor Corridor Visioning Study
http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2009/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-24933.pdf

Tewder:

why are these things micro interests? We are all equal-opportunity enjoyers of sidewalks and trees, no?
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Micro as in only a small percentage of people are truly interested in it to the point of taking action; and others so called "special interests" groups can also make the claim that supporting their cause benefits everyone (or counterclaim that a project like revitalizing that particular segment of Bloor benefits "special interests" that are the local businesses - not that I buy into that).

AoD
 
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Fair enough, I'm not sure what the litmus test should be but but more macro issues probably come with a wider jurisdiction.
 
College Street should be next...

The Bloor Street revitalization is a model that can be followed by other prominent streets with strong commercial backing.

Does College St. have a BIA? Almost every building between Crawford and Bathurst are thriving businesses owned by wealthy entrepreneurs. If they got together, they could do something similar.

King St. is quickly becoming another good example of a business corridor that could benefit from such a model.

Dundas and Queen on the other hand are mostly mom and pop stores (although Queen West is changing) so the potential for a neighborhoo revitalization isn't as strong.
 
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