[Tulse]

The dumpy looking businesses are part of the charm.

Personally I'm fine with "charm", but I'm not sure if the main street in largest city in Canada should be littered with down-at-heel head shops, nail salons, and strip clubs. There are places for those kind of businesses, I just don't think our main thoroughfare is it.

Do we really want Yonge Street to be an outdoors version of the Eaton Centre?

I think there's a fair distance between "Eaton Centre" and "suburban strip mall fallen on hard times".

 

[Tulse]

they could spend more on cleaning brick facades, doing better/classier sidewalks, introduce more greens, that sort of thing.

All those things would make the street more desirable, which would raise rents.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

The dumpy looking businesses are part of the charm. Renovate or rebuild the street and rents will go through the roof. At that point all we will have for retail is Shoppers, Subway, Pizza Pizza and a bank multiplied by 50. Will look nice but it will have no soul. Unless the same corporate chains over and over is again is what you like. Do we really want Yonge Street to be an outdoors version of the Eaton Centre? Not my idea of progress.

I think it is inevitable at this point in time though - the writing for the old Yonge south of Bloor is on the wall.

AoD

 

[Lenser]

True too. The developmental pressures are such that small businesses simply won't be able to manage the rents landowners will demand.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

True too. The developmental pressures are such that small businesses simply won't be able to manage the rents landowners will demand.

What the city should try to encourage is narrow, multiple storefronts. Street frontage is a valuable resource and should be treated as such through planning mechanisms.

AoD

 

[Irishmonk]

High end retail and restaurants would be the the ultimate best case, and most likely, scenario for Yonge St.

 

[TransitBart]

Yonge Street has some interesting buildings, businesses and street life, but I hate the dingy retail, the cramped and inadequate sidewalks, the vagrants, how it's dark at night because of inadequate street lighting, the cheap pavements, the heritage buildings that are falling apart, and the lack of greenery. There are so many ways it could be improved, and I try to avoid it if possible because it reeks of civic indifference. "Who cares if the street is an ugly mess with cramped sidewalks? Just do your shopping and go back home to the suburbs. Don't worry about the state of Yonge Street."

Don't be shy. Bare your soul and tell us how it really strikes you.

 

[TransitBart]

High end retail and restaurants would be the the ultimate best case, and most likely, scenario for Yonge St.

If everyone wants high end retail and restaurants and we all do...I like to eat out as much as the next guy.

Then where do we put low end retail? Kingston Road? I can browse the mink mile, but not shop it with any frequency. Wouldn't some average retail be ok too?

Where are all the high end people going to come from and do we have enough of them to keep the high end retail solvent?

We'd better create a shit-load of professional and tech jobs with all those Americans buying Toronto on sale (31% discount to USD) or escaping from Trumpland.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I don't/see it being completely high end - it's not really Yonge Street. A mix of low-end (profit through volume) to mid-high would be nice. More micro-retail would be great too - increase in residential density should help with this.

AoD

 

[alienhenny]

All those things would make the street more desirable, which would raise rents.

Are you suggesting that it being more desirable is a bad thing?

 

[Logan]

I never thought this building would be completely visible from the CN Tower but looks like it will be. You can see it between FCP and the Simpson Tower.
Toronto from the CN Tower by Tony Brasier, on Flickr

 

[Freddy]

You can also see a bit of 88 Scott...but I digress.

 

[thecharioteer]

The mosaic floor panels have been returned to the future lobby and will be protected until later:

 

[G.L.17]

From yesterday:

This is just gonna take off now.

 

[freshcutgrass]

I think it is inevitable at this point in time though - the writing for the old Yonge south of Bloor is on the wall.

AoD

Even I have to concede that the Strip many of us were lucky enough to know and love is already gone and it's never coming back. Time to move on. Just like 60's Yorkville and 80's Queen West, zeitgeist seems to have a shelf life, and 70's Yonge's has expired (Kensington...you're on notice).

Best to go get a copy of Goin' Down the Road.