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Toronto St. Clair West Transit Improvements | ?m | ?s | TTC

I cycled down St. Clair from Yonge to Keele yesterday to take in the ROW project. It's taken so long, but the street light poles around St. Clair West are still crooked old concrete poles but with the new "heads" mounted on them. West of that, a long stretch of St. Clair still has the thick black hydro wire along the side of the road. The most unfortunate part was that pretty much every signalized intersection gives priority to left turning cars with what's a relatively long light cycle. It's not like on arterials where some intersections have priority for left turns and some don't.

Also, St. Clair and Avenue Road, in spite of all its density and beautiful architecture, was surprisingly dead. It really made the lack of business space at that new condo at Avenue Road, The Avenue, seem all the more unfortunate. There were some pedestrians but the numbers were fickle and seemed to consist of locals. Just one cafe could have provided a destination for the many people in the area and enhanced street life.
 
junctionist said:
I cycled down St. Clair from Yonge to Keele yesterday to take in the ROW project. It's taken so long, but the street light poles around St. Clair West are still crooked old concrete poles but with the new "heads" mounted on them. West of that, a long stretch of St. Clair still has the thick black hydro wire along the side of the road. The most unfortunate part was that pretty much every signalized intersection gives priority to left turning cars with what's a relatively long light cycle. It's not like on arterials where some intersections have priority for left turns and some don't.

Also, St. Clair and Avenue Road, in spite of all its density and beautiful architecture, was surprisingly dead. It really made the lack of business space at that new condo at Avenue Road, The Avenue, seem all the more unfortunate. There were some pedestrians but the numbers were fickle and seemed to consist of locals. Just one cafe could have provided a destination for the many people in the area and enhanced street life.
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I just want to point out that the area in question has always been like that i.e. no retail - not much pedestrian activity, basically after you go a block west of Yonge and St. Clair all the way to Avenue (a bit west of this as well) ... so this wasn't in any way caused by the ROW. I agree though, this area really does have some amazing architecture that get's little to no coverage - it would be great if there could be a lot of retail to go along with that.
 
The stretch between St. Clair, and Avenue is quite lively. I do not know what time you visited, but I walk that area everyday, and it is busy much of the day.
 
Justin10000 said:
The stretch between St. Clair, and Avenue is quite lively. I do not know what time you visited, but I walk that area everyday, and it is busy much of the day.
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I'm guessing outside of working hours it's not so busy - seeing how there's really nothign on the street it self.
 
It was about 7:30 in the evening. There are some office buildings in the area, like this very sleek Modernist tower so I can imagine that it's lively during the day. Most of the rest of St. Clair was doing better in terms of liveliness. But even here, I still saw people on the streets but much fewer than on other parts. It seems as though only the built form is preventing the area from being more vibrant into the evening.
 
junctionist said:
It was about 7:30 in the evening. There are some office buildings in the area, like this very sleek Modernist tower so I can imagine that it's lively during the day. Most of the rest of St. Clair was doing better in terms of liveliness. But even here, I still saw people on the streets but much fewer than on other parts. It seems as though only the built form is preventing the area from being more vibrant into the evening.
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How so, it's perfect east of Avenue i.e. before the LRT goes underground ... the fact there are no retail shops has nothing to do with the built form ... I think :) Not really sure what the 'build form' is in this case.

Anyway, how was it further west? - where the LRT resurfaces that's the area hurt worst by construction - last time I took a ride a did see a few new establishments but still a long way to go. The condo's going up in the area should help matters ... slowly ...
 
^^ Help matters slowly? St. Clair is probably the single street in Toronto with the most new businesses.
 
Jaye101 said:
^^ Help matters slowly? St. Clair is probably the single street in Toronto with the most new businesses.
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Really? That's why I was asking :) There were a lot of vacanies when I took a look about 1 year ago (west of st.clair west) that is.
 
I was on St. Clair yesterday, I hadn't been up that way in awhile, and I am impressed with alot of the business' that set up shop there. I didn't notice any of those predatory 'Cheque Cashing' business' that are all over my area of the city, and I didn't notice any Pawnshops either- another business that is associated with crime quite often. St. Clair looks like a real thriving part of the city. I live not too far from Danforth East and I have a good friend who lived in this city since he arrived in this city as a young man in the 1950's. He tells me that when the Danforth had streetcars, before the subway was put in that stretch, tge area had better stores as well. Good clothing stores and dining were easily found. I think that streetcars supports local business' better then subway but the subway is much quicker to get downtown of course- unfortunately small business' pay the price.

I hope they extend the St. Clair ROW past Gunn's Loop to Jane St. to help that stretch of St. Clair as well.
 
There used to be a pawn shpo on St. Clair. I personally do not mind pawn shops. You can find some treasure, if you look carefully. I have found lots of quality music, and electronics in pawn shops.
 
Quite often by going to pawn shops you are in fact supporting crime- its unfortunate but true I learned.
 
GTS said:
I was on St. Clair yesterday, I hadn't been up that way in awhile, and I am impressed with alot of the business' that set up shop there. I didn't notice any of those predatory 'Cheque Cashing' business' that are all over my area of the city, and I didn't notice any Pawnshops either- another business that is associated with crime quite often. St. Clair looks like a real thriving part of the city. I live not too far from Danforth East and I have a good friend who lived in this city since he arrived in this city as a young man in the 1950's. He tells me that when the Danforth had streetcars, before the subway was put in that stretch, tge area had better stores as well. Good clothing stores and dining were easily found. I think that streetcars supports local business' better then subway but the subway is much quicker to get downtown of course- unfortunately small business' pay the price.

I hope they extend the St. Clair ROW past Gunn's Loop to Jane St. to help that stretch of St. Clair as well.
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On the streetcars, one can see the storefronts, where the store's sign becomes an advertisement for the store.

On the subway, one sees only the advertisements on the subway walls. Hopefully, some stores have put their own ads in the stations in their vincinity, but I don't know if the TTC would except ads for just one or two ads in a single station.
 
GTS said:
Quite often by going to pawn shops you are in fact supporting crime- its unfortunate but true I learned.
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Remember: his mama was scared by a pawnbroker's sign

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