someMidTowner
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If bleuenciaga ever became a city planner I could picture a mass exodus of Torontonians shortly thereafter
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University Avenue - Toronto's Grand Avenue?
- Thread starter dt_toronto_geek
- Start date
If bleuenciaga ever became a city planner I could picture a mass exodus of Torontonians shortly thereafter
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
sMT:
Let's just say one of the first things you learn is working with multiple interests - including those with views divergent from your own.
AoD
Let's just say one of the first things you learn is working with multiple interests - including those with views divergent from your own.
AoD
junctionist
Senior Member
University Avenue isn't fine. It's supposed to be a grand boulevard, but its landscaped median is dysfunctional as a public space. It's disjointed and cramped. The median doesn't draw a lot of people or interest to the monuments that it contains. The sidewalks are sterile concrete with trees that never seem to grow large in those concrete planters. Cafes and restaurants have apparently not been encouraged. The vista of Queen's Park is under threat by a development proposal. It needs a lot of intention.
dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
I've supported the status quo on a couple of areas listed above, others I've commented on but never said "works fine the way it is" on most (i.e. Bay Street, High Park, Waterfront (!)) but I get your point, I do get stuck or nostalgic for the past sometimes and resist change with what I like or think works well. Admittedly, AoD nails problems with University Ave. well, there could indeed be some improvements as noted and I like ambitious ideas but I shudder at the cost for upgrading a boulevard where people pretty much disappear after 7pm (save for around Queen St.) and I just don't see that changing.
bleu
Banned
People disappear because there is absolutely nothing to do on University Ave.
As the widest boulevard in the city, this is pretty pathetic. Street life should be brought to University Ave, then again you might say "I don't want University to be another Yonge or Queen. I like the way it is....".
Tewder
Senior Member
I'm not sure I see the problem. How many Londoners are hanging out along the Mall after hours?
University is a hub for hospitals and institutions, with a somewhat grand ceremonial vibe leading as it does to Queen's Park. There are plenty of other thoroughfares in Toronto that are given over to commercial activities. Again, not that I think this necessarily precludes a café here or there as I'm sure this would be appreciated by many visiting the various institutions in the area, but that the real issue here is the condition/state of repair of what is supposedly our 'grand' avenue. In a city where beauty is gravy or where beauty is politicized as socially irresponsible we can't be shocked that University languishes, fountain and all.
University is a hub for hospitals and institutions, with a somewhat grand ceremonial vibe leading as it does to Queen's Park. There are plenty of other thoroughfares in Toronto that are given over to commercial activities. Again, not that I think this necessarily precludes a café here or there as I'm sure this would be appreciated by many visiting the various institutions in the area, but that the real issue here is the condition/state of repair of what is supposedly our 'grand' avenue. In a city where beauty is gravy or where beauty is politicized as socially irresponsible we can't be shocked that University languishes, fountain and all.
metropolis
Active Member
Does anyone have any update on the Queen/University fountain? Is it near completion?
That work has been going on forever.
That work has been going on forever.
Johnny Au
Senior Member
University Avenue is also the only major thoroughfare in Toronto that prohibits billboards advertising products and services from businesses.
AndreaPalladio
Senior Member
I happened to walk by there at lunch. It does not look near completion. I looks like they have poured a new concrete basis for the pool and fountains, but no progress beyond that. They are there working though.
mrgrieves
Active Member
That's really interesting. Would be great if that could be expanded to other parts of the city.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
I subscribe to the philosophy that it is OK for a large city to have different kinds of areas with different emphasis and function. There can be over-arching principles set but I feel some people, in the name of sound planning concepts, want to beat every inch of the city with the same stick. I question if this concept isn't just like the 2.0 version of those people in the past who tried to pave over the city with highways and garden city projects?
Maybe University Avenue is and should be a traffic sewer lined with institutional buildings. Maybe we should soften it up. Maybe we should foster more 24hr activity (why our hospitals aren't 100% 24hr is beyond me). But maybe it shouldn't be a 24hr mixed use community?
Maybe University Avenue is and should be a traffic sewer lined with institutional buildings. Maybe we should soften it up. Maybe we should foster more 24hr activity (why our hospitals aren't 100% 24hr is beyond me). But maybe it shouldn't be a 24hr mixed use community?
thecharioteer
Senior Member
They're timing it to be complete for the PanAm Games.....
M.R.Victor
Active Member
The base of the equestrian statue at Queen's Park (just north of the provincial legislature) looks to have been fenced off, partially re-built and then abandoned for the better part of the last month. Every time I pass by there is no sign of further progress.
thecharioteer
Senior Member
They're timing it to be complete for the PanAm Games.....