scottycameron
New Member
Small businesses thrive north of Sheppard Ave., which makes area's bad planning more poignant
August 25, 2007
Christopher Hume
Let's face it, North York is not pretty. In fact, it's a bit of a dog's breakfast. Despite this, Yonge St., north of Sheppard, is amazingly vital.
Those miserable strip malls that line Toronto's main street are filled with countless shops and restaurants – Middle Eastern, Japanese and Korean – that appear to flourish. But why does it have to be so ugly? Why does it have to look as though no one cares, or was willing to spend more than the bare minimum or provide more than is absolutely necessary?
The meanness of the built environment in North York is overwhelming – it is the single fact that unifies this otherwise disorganized whole. Here is a place that could have been so much better. The fact small businesses seem to do well only makes the failure of planning and architecture that much more poignant.
Of course, this is an area in transition; the postwar bungalows and mainstreet malls are being replaced by mega-developments. From gritty to garish in one generation; that seems to be the story up here.
Over and over, one has to ask: Why it is that we build our cities here without regard to anything larger than a single site, one lone project? Nothing adds up or makes sense. The growth-at-any-cost approach may appeal at the moment, but the results are disastrous, not to mention, depressing.
Somewhere along the way, Canadians forget that there are three pillars of design: commodity, firmness and delight. Commodity we're good at; firmness, too. But delight is hard to find in any part of the country, let alone North York. It's just that in North York there's a concentration of architectural banality and planning failures, enough to add up to a critical mass of awfulness that only gets worse as time goes by.
Through it all, however, the human desire for community – if not beauty – shines through. People will not be denied and have brought life to areas where it's least expected. In other words, this stretch of Yonge works despite itself.
Urban success means being on the street: The malls that house so many of these small enterprises face onto the sidewalk and contribute, however poorly, to the creation of a sense of place. By contrast, the projects built in the past decade have little relation to passersby, other than to provide an entrance.
But change has been constant in North York for several decades. For example, the nasty-looking mall on the southeast corner of Yonge and Sheppard seems to be on the verge of demolition. About time, too. Who knows what will replace it. But without a vision of how urbanity can be brought to North York, without an idea of how to harness the extraordinary vitality of residents, it will most likely be more of the same.
http://www.thestar.com/article/248602
August 25, 2007
Christopher Hume
Let's face it, North York is not pretty. In fact, it's a bit of a dog's breakfast. Despite this, Yonge St., north of Sheppard, is amazingly vital.
Those miserable strip malls that line Toronto's main street are filled with countless shops and restaurants – Middle Eastern, Japanese and Korean – that appear to flourish. But why does it have to be so ugly? Why does it have to look as though no one cares, or was willing to spend more than the bare minimum or provide more than is absolutely necessary?
The meanness of the built environment in North York is overwhelming – it is the single fact that unifies this otherwise disorganized whole. Here is a place that could have been so much better. The fact small businesses seem to do well only makes the failure of planning and architecture that much more poignant.
Of course, this is an area in transition; the postwar bungalows and mainstreet malls are being replaced by mega-developments. From gritty to garish in one generation; that seems to be the story up here.
Over and over, one has to ask: Why it is that we build our cities here without regard to anything larger than a single site, one lone project? Nothing adds up or makes sense. The growth-at-any-cost approach may appeal at the moment, but the results are disastrous, not to mention, depressing.
Somewhere along the way, Canadians forget that there are three pillars of design: commodity, firmness and delight. Commodity we're good at; firmness, too. But delight is hard to find in any part of the country, let alone North York. It's just that in North York there's a concentration of architectural banality and planning failures, enough to add up to a critical mass of awfulness that only gets worse as time goes by.
Through it all, however, the human desire for community – if not beauty – shines through. People will not be denied and have brought life to areas where it's least expected. In other words, this stretch of Yonge works despite itself.
Urban success means being on the street: The malls that house so many of these small enterprises face onto the sidewalk and contribute, however poorly, to the creation of a sense of place. By contrast, the projects built in the past decade have little relation to passersby, other than to provide an entrance.
But change has been constant in North York for several decades. For example, the nasty-looking mall on the southeast corner of Yonge and Sheppard seems to be on the verge of demolition. About time, too. Who knows what will replace it. But without a vision of how urbanity can be brought to North York, without an idea of how to harness the extraordinary vitality of residents, it will most likely be more of the same.
http://www.thestar.com/article/248602
