[Ladies Mile]

No, I was working double shifts at the New York office and trying to think of reasons not to kill myself.

 

[spaced]

Ravines are very characteristic of Toronto and Atom Egoyan called them "places of [urban] contact with very primal forms of nature". Very few cities have this, and we take it for granted. Unfortunately, most unbuilt ravines exist in lower density, primarily residential parts of the city where there is little walking potential, but there is one ravine downtown that could become a destination, and that is the Rosedale valley that separates downtown from Rosedale.

My idea is constructing a ravine "promenade" that would start at the NE corner of Sherbourne and Bloor and continue on the north side as far as Castle Frank subway station. It would be essentially a greatly-widened sidewalk, but it would extend out over the ravine's edge - my inspiration would be the Terrasse Dufferin in Quebec City. It would also have more access points (staircases) to get to the bottom of the ravine itself that would, themselves, be much more solid and permanent in design - featuring landscaping, stone paving and streetlighting.

Thoughts?

Fantastic idea Hipster. Especially since you stole it from me (I suppose it's not theft if I've never said it out loud).
I envisioned the promenade on the eastern side with no traffic, lots of cafes and restaurants where you look over the ravine and see the skyline in the background. There isn't a specific location I'm thinking of (I don't know the area that well (I'm a west guy)) but the view from Braodview (Google View) gives an idea of what I'm thinking. I see it being closer to the ravine though; the plan would take a lot of expropriation and re-development.
Nice to see I'm not the only one that has thought of this idea.

 

[adma]

I think the "cafes and restaurants" part is a bit overwrought: a simple promenade-like thing will do...

 

[Torontovibe]

I think The Don River Ravine could be quite nice if they cleaned it up a bit and made it into a real park.
[video]http://torontovibe.ning.com/video/the-don-river-valley[/video]
Here is some video of the ravine.