I wouldn't say Bay Street is lifeless - but it's not got quite the kind of life I think of as engaging and invigorating. It feels a bit decorous and tidy - like a long outdoor parlour.
Someone said that Toronto is interesting in that it's best walking streets are east-west, but not north-south. I think that generally holds up. I don't know why that's come to be. Maybe because north-south you're always going up or down an incline? Yonge Street has plenty of activity and all sorts of life, but walking along it still feels like you're being funnelled up one side or down the other. It's part destination, part a street you have to put up with walking along in order to get somewhere else. It's crumbly, jumbled, provisional and racuous.
Bay is sort of the anti-Yonge. Planned unto vapidity. But it shares Yonge street's peculiar sense of a place you use, rather than a place you dwell. Even though it's getting remarkably crowded, residentially, which I think has improved it.
I think if Bay Street wants to become more engaging it would have to rework the first few storeys of almost all it's building fronts, from Queen to Bloor. The built form is fairly large-scale and rather inalterable, so tinkering skillfully with the streetfront might be the only way.
There's retail, food and business there, but you'd hardly think so. Maybe an un-planning incentive might help? A touch of anarchy, free zoning, relaxation of restrictions? That, and some demolition and rebuilding of recalcitrant frontages? I can't really see that happening any time soon.
Maybe we should accept and play up the uptight nature of the stretch. Really go for a comprehensive design that makes your ass and jaw clench and your collar feel tighter just thinking about it.
Are the residents happy with the way it is, or would they want an increase in crowds, outlets, varieties of uses? I suspect a lot of people who live right there might be happy with the current mood of the street.