Toronto Dundas Square Gardens | 156.05m | 50s | Gupta | IBI Group

^ I agree with a lot of what you said, but I am afraid you have a romanticized view of small independent business in general.
Sure, it is likely that the best and most unique products/food are from the smaller stores, but for every one of those, there are 5 or 6 uninspiring other small business that are just like chain stores, only with inflated prices.

I don't think McDonalds or Wendy's are "awful" (I know it is a cool thing to despise chains on this forum). But for that price range at least, you can't say they are so bad. You can't expect everyone to throw $10 on a burger at Holy Chuck all the time.
 
gab said:
Also NYC has become a mecca of overpriced flagship stores and corporate chains. Pushing the smaller independent boutiques either out of business or to the outer boroughs. It's happening in Toronto.
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It's amazing how much New York has changed, since I started going there in the 1970's. I used to love all the small, quirky, independent stores in Manhattan, especially in the area from Greenwich Village to Times Square. I used to always buy lots of things. Now when I go to NYC, it's mainly just the same corporate stores that we have in Toronto and I buy very little. Each trip to NYC gets more and more disappointing. New York has become bland. I still enjoy the museums and the culture but the shopping is of little interest.

I fear downtown Toronto is headed in this same direction, not only with the type of store but also with the dull, repetitive architecture of retail spaces in condo buildings. The walls of glass, turn me off more than anything. As much as I hate suburbia, I think the retail options out there is becoming more interesting, than in the city. They certainly have more interesting restaurants when it comes to casual dining/street food. I've had lots of good food in Scarborough and North York.
 
ksun said:
^ I agree with a lot of what you said, but I am afraid you have a romanticized view of small independent business in general.
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No, like I said, this has been empirically proven. There's observable evidence of this. Refer to any intro to microeconomics textbook.
 
Torontovibe said:
I fear downtown Toronto is headed in this same direction, not only with the type of store but also with the dull, repetitive architecture of retail spaces in condo buildings
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This is happening world wide unfortunately. The chains are growing bigger and bigger making it harder for the independents to thrive.
 
There is a kind of tyranny to this propagation of big chain retail. It's a smothering effect. As it spreads, cities become less distinctive, more blandly similar. Meh.
 
Put me in the “size matters” camp. I don’t think we should be surprised when big chains lease big units.

It doesn’t have to be this way. As uninspiring as some of the architecture is, NYCC offers some good examples of how new condos and street-level microretail can happily co-exist:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7765...4!1sMuRflHo_OEshHw5z9Of5nw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7755...4!1stH1MRvWonZ7zsNde5JyvWw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7750...4!1skWIre84Z2fZmkW5AKAsmow!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.7782...4!1s-dZ9QY4JP9yOie1BAVyvTA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
I've always loved those parts of NYCC. They feel like some of the strongest and most-pedestrian-focused stretches in the whole area. Thanks for illustrating!
 
Just easier and probably more lucrative for a residential condo developer to sell off the retail space to a holding company than it is to sell retail condo units to end users.
 
Edward Skira said:
This is happening world wide unfortunately. The chains are growing bigger and bigger making it harder for the independents to thrive.
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But it's not just the big chains that is the problem. There is also the fact that almost all new downtown condos come with a retail podium that consists of a wall of glass. If Toronto was getting a few new towers a year, it wouldn't be so overwhelming but as you all know, we are getting dozens of these types of buildings. The over-all effect on the city, will be a very dull street level experience. Every main street will start to look and feel the same and how would that be good for Toronto? We promote the city with rhetoric, like "Diversity is our strength" but then we do everything to kill the diversity of our neighbourhoods and retail streets. The city needs to crack down on this now before every ounce of charm, creativity and warmth is destroyed. It seems like it's just a matter of time.
 
Overview of the soon-to-be construction site from the southwest:

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torplanner said:
Is there a date scheduled for demo?
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Not that I'm aware of. As of the weekend, the hotel was still operating, though I expected that it would close soon after New Year's Eve.

EDIT: The hotel is now closed. There are no more room bookings available, starting with tonight.
 
The fact is we enjoy having independent and eclectic retailers around; but we don't tend to shop in them often. Proof is in the pudding since they are disappearing.
And before we hate on the banks and chains, they are the ones that ultimately pay for the restoration of historic storefronts like Five etc.
 
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