Towered said:
Looking north on Spadina from Queen today it really struck me that Spadina has incredible potential to be one of Toronto's finest grand avenues with modern infill and a retail upgrade. Unfortunately, Chinatown is an obstacle to that becoming reality.
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Oh lordy! Let's hope that never happens. What an awful thought!
 
Towered said:
Looking north on Spadina from Queen today it really struck me that Spadina has incredible potential to be one of Toronto's finest grand avenues with modern infill and a retail upgrade. Unfortunately, Chinatown is an obstacle to that becoming reality.
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Chinatown is an integral part of the city, one of the major features that gives us our claim to multiculturalism, and adds deeply to the vibrancy of the city. To replace it with anonymous highrises and more yuppie stores would be a cultural crime.
 
Tulse said:
Chinatown is an integral part of the city, one of the major features that gives us our claim to multiculturalism, and adds deeply to the vibrancy of the city. To replace it with anonymous highrises and more yuppie stores would be a cultural crime.
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Truly. I love everything about Chinatown - who cares about a bit of smell in the summer. A much worse offender (by far) is the night that the garbage trucks pick up and empty the contents from those green organic bins. It smells like the whole city threw up at once for the next day or two afterward.
 
Chinatown is gentrifying.. slowly. The land here is very valuable and you see south of Queen towers are rising.
North of queen, the businesses will need to upgrade their facilities or they will not match the true cost of the land there, and they will go out of business.

I will admit, I'm a big fan of Chinatown, and do alot of my eating out there. and of course bargain purchases and DVD videos.

I was wondering, the ZARA store on bloor street is renovating, and they have already damaged the sidewalk for their hoarding. Who will cover the cost of repairing this? The City, the BIA or ZARA?

Just wondering....
 
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I admit, I've never gotten the love for Chinatown. Yes, it's bustling and vibrant, qualities that I certainly would like to see on more streets in Toronto, but it's always been an eye-sore to me and it's one street I've been hoping would get a serious makeover eventually, more like a grand, classy European avenue. Displaying hypocrisy though, I always seem to defend the scuzziness of Yonge street between Bloor and Gerrard. Maybe it's the schizophrenic variety of the retail on that stretch of Yonge that I like.
 
Towered said:
Maybe it's the schizophrenic variety of the retail on that stretch of Yonge that I like.
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Along with tens of thousands of others who walk, shop, play, work, drink and eat along that stretch each day, I like it too!
As for Chinatown, it's a wonderfully frantic area which has grown organically, changed and morphed over the years. It has firmly planted itself as a unique destination in the city, like so many other unique neighbourhoods in every direction. If you want a "classy" shopping street they can be found elsewhere - one of which being the name of this thread.
 
Towered said:
I admit, I've never gotten the love for Chinatown. Yes, it's bustling and vibrant, qualities that I certainly would like to see on more streets in Toronto, but it's always been an eye-sore to me and it's one street I've been hoping would get a serious makeover eventually, more like a grand, classy European avenue. Displaying hypocrisy though, I always seem to defend the scuzziness of Yonge street between Bloor and Gerrard. Maybe it's the schizophrenic variety of the retail on that stretch of Yonge that I like.
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It got its makeover in 1997 when the Spadina LRT opened. I can't see it being re-made again so soon. Perhaps within 15 years though.
 
Sure, Spadina is a bit grungy and could use some cleaning up in some places, but it is an incredibly lively and vital street. I'd hate to see that quality vanish.
 
When I was walking on the south side of Bloor, east of Yonge Street, I noticed there were 6 granite, slab benches, on the edges of the planters. I remember seeing 2 last time I was there, so were there 4 new ones put on recently? (or did I just not notice them last time) I wonder why they didn't put any on the north side, in front of the Bay? I see people sitting on the little, rough edges of the planters. (crushing the plants)

The more places to sit, the better. This city doesn't have nearly enough benches.
 
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Torontovibe said:
When I was walking on the south side of Bloor, east of Yonge Street, I noticed there were 6 granite, slab benches, on the edges of the planters. I remember seeing 2 last time I was there, so were there 4 new ones put on recently? (or did I just not notice them last time) I wonder why they didn't put any on the north side, in front of the Bay? I see people sitting on the little, rough edges of the planters. (crushing the plants)

The more places to sit, the better. This city doesn't have nearly enough benches.
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I'm pretty sure the six have been there all along. Not having anywhere to sit on the north side is perplexing, especially considering that there used to be 10 or so well used concrete benches in front of The Bay since the mid 70's.

As an update, most of the granite slabs have now been laid on the north side of Bloor Street between Yonge & Avenue Road save for the strip between about Starbucks (110 Bloor W.) to about Burburry (144 Bloor W.) plus details like the granite circular forms where trees will go, benches and granite trim around the landscape features but that's mostly west of about Belair St. Except for a couple of areas where underground work continues I'll bet that this will be pretty much wrapped up by the end of next week. Does anyone know if the S/E corner of Bloor & Avenue Rd. in front of The Gap is completed? It looks terrible there. Resurfacing the north two lanes also needs to be completed through this area.
 
this project is taking a huge toll on commuters who must cross town east to west and back each day. Bloor is terribly backed up for hours a day, and Wellesley provides poor relief. They really needed traffic cops helping direct the flow on these streets during peak hours because it only takes one car trying to turn left against the no turn arrow to screw everyone for a full cycle.
 
One last comment about Chinatown: it could definitely use some grand, spectacular, photogenic gates. The kind that announce with aplomb that you've definitely entered Chinatown, and the kind that tourists will love to snap.

Back on topic: is anyone able to post pics of the new benches, and the near-complete sections along Bay and Avenue Road??
 
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