[Ed007Toronto]

Disagreel

The retail is dissapointing because there is nobody around during the evening or weekends. This means that the stores need to make enough money to survive based on a four hours a day 5 days a week (two at lunch and two in afternoon rush).

That really restricts your options, especially with the high rent they pay.

Put 30000 permenant residents in condos between University / Yonge / Front / Queen and now the restaurants and stores have enough of a market to add a little variety to the lineup. Add in large set of tourists looking to kill an evening in hotels but who don't want to venture very far past closed stores and we can make serious headway on PATH activity on a weekend

There's lots of people on the streets. The problem is this retail is below grade. Great for the towers but bad for anything else.

I live at King and Church. I never use the place because they turn their backs on us. They shut down at six and are for the most part closed on the weekends. Main reason I hate PATH.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

I found the experience of St. Paul, Minnesota with skyways over a decade ago to be interesting because of class issues. It turns out that the more affluent people would use the downtown skyways, while the poor would tend to use St. Paul's surface streets more. The reason attributed to this class-basedsplit: The affluent would park their cars in downtown building garages often parking at the 2nd floor or higher. Leaving their autos, they would go to the skyways directly or take an elevator to the level the skyway was located. Those not wealthy enough to own an automobile would go to downtown St. Paul by bus and get off on the street and generally stay at street level during there stay downtown.

Not to mention most of these places are private property meaning the homeless can't be there.

 

[EnviroTO]

I live at King and Church. I never use the place because they turn their backs on us. They shut down at six and are for the most part closed on the weekends. Main reason I hate PATH.

Most of the stores in the PATH are repeats of what is available on the street already. How many Grand & Toys do we need at street level after 6pm? How many Shoppers Drug Marts do we need? How many fast food and sub shops? The stores in PATH aren't meant to be a tourist draw... they are meant to be convenient to people working in the offices above. There isn't enough storefronts on the street to even handle the number of storefronts in the PATH... and thank goodness for that because the drive through downtown with a TPH, Grand & Toy, Shoppers, Mr.Sub, Post Office, Gift Card store, Gateway Newsstand, and coffee shop on every block would be quite a boring drive... but that is what the people in the offices are using so those stores would be there before the clothing outlets and specialty stores that exist in Eaton's Centre.

 

[Brighter Hell]

Who would shop outside in Dallas when it is 38'C outside every summer?

people managed the heat before the tunnels were built. same with toronto, street retail survived the winter before PATH, and it still does in other parts of the city.

Without the PATH, Torontos rush hour downtown would be a sea of people similar to New York's rush hour.

would that be a bad thing?

i've never been to new york. what kind of retail is downtown, the same as in the PATH?

 

[Ed007Toronto]

The stores in PATH aren't meant to be a tourist draw...

I'm not a tourist. I would use certain stores if they were open. The LCBO if nothing else.

 

[building babel]

Bymark has shown that an establishment can survive and prosper at all hours in the PATH.

 

[unimaginative2]

There's virtually no retail in the heart of downtown New York. Most of it was in the basement of the WTC.

 

[Ed007Toronto]

Which is something they regreted almost from the get go as they realized it sucked life from the street. Locals complained that they lived next to the biggest mall in NYC and yet couldn't shop there because of the hours. They want to change this with the new plans.

Meanwhile what do they do in midtown? Street level shopping all the way. Part of the reason this is the most vibrant part of Manhattan.