I'd say everything south of Bloor needs to be double width. Have you ever tried walking between College and Bloor during rush hour? I usually can't walk at my normal speed on this section because the sidewalks are so congested.

Id say if you are going to double width a part then you might as well double width the entire thing south of bloor as well. The reality is that with more and more development on yonge street there will be increased pedestrians so it is only a matter of time until it is needed anyways. If you start a project it might as well be consistent throughout.
 
Double the width?!? Yonge is busy and wider sidewalks would be nice but, I hardly find the current width to be a hazzard. I find flow is decent where the sidewalk isn't narrowed to construction and despite self absorb people stopping to chat right in the middle of it.

But shouldn't we be encouraging people to linger and chat and socialize on our main strip? applying the logic that the sidewalks are solely for moving people between destinations is a flawed idea, and i don't insinuate you are. If people want to linger then why should we not expand the sidewalks and embrace a vibrant, active and socially comfortable public realm?

I too get frustrated when I'm walking on any sidewalk and there is a group of people chatting on it bu then i ask myself, why is this such a problem? Better this than a pedestrian highway
 
Yonge Street isn't geared toward a "leisurely stroll downtown." It's a tourist mecca and the Southern part is directly attached to a massive Financial District as well as the main source for hundreds of thousands of people coming in and out of the city everyday. If you wanted it to be a walk in the park... then we need bigger parks, College Park and Dundas Square don't cut it for the sheer amount of people on Yonge. As well most bars/cafes/businesses on this strip are only there for profit alone. When is the last time you had an amazing meal at a place on Yonge? Its not meant to be a take-your-time kind of area. Yonge is meant to take you to where you need to go, not where you want to be.
 
Yonge Street isn't geared toward a "leisurely stroll downtown." It's a tourist mecca and the Southern part is directly attached to a massive Financial District as well as the main source for hundreds of thousands of people coming in and out of the city everyday. If you wanted it to be a walk in the park... then we need bigger parks, College Park and Dundas Square don't cut it for the sheer amount of people on Yonge. As well most bars/cafes/businesses on this strip are only there for profit alone. When is the last time you had an amazing meal at a place on Yonge? Its not meant to be a take-your-time kind of area. Yonge is meant to take you to where you need to go, not where you want to be.

All businesses exist for profit, it's their nature. But I don't see why we can strive to make a street more inviting to linger on. especially one with such great architecture starting to sprout up around it. Why can Yonge be a place we want to be? Widen the sidewalks, reduce traffic lanes and landscape the hell out of it and you'll see a retail turnover geared towards the type of place you see yonge as not being.

Toronto has many retail strips to offer businesses and services to people. Yonge should strive to be more.
 
I'd say everything south of Bloor needs to be double width. Have you ever tried walking between College and Bloor during rush hour? I usually can't walk at my normal speed on this section because the sidewalks are so congested.

Yep, the sidewalks are frequently packed, but there is relatively little vehicle traffic in comparison. At least 1 lane needs to be removed, ideally all of them.
 
When asked how he will measure the success of the building, Mizrahi explains it will be how The One embraces the community and those that use it. A building, he says, needs to have a soul, it needs to make people feel welcome and lift their moods when they enter. “It needs to make you feel like you want to belong there and you want to be there,” he says. “And you want to be able to look around and be wowed by all the details and the experience that you have. That’s the way we’re going to measure success on this building: does it do that? Can you feel the soul of the building?”
And as work begins on The One in the coming months and years, that’s something that will be impossible to miss....http://www.dolcemag.com/general-inte...elopment/16929

Haha, a soul:confused:..... When all is said and done, Toronto City Planning will find ways to rip the soul apart:D
 
maybe they should just build another "soul" condo here, instead of up at Fairview mall..

8202335_orig.jpg
 
But shouldn't we be encouraging people to linger and chat and socialize on our main strip? applying the logic that the sidewalks are solely for moving people between destinations is a flawed idea, and i don't insinuate you are. If people want to linger then why should we not expand the sidewalks and embrace a vibrant, active and socially comfortable public realm?

I too get frustrated when I'm walking on any sidewalk and there is a group of people chatting on it bu then i ask myself, why is this such a problem? Better this than a pedestrian highway
Yes, but you shouldn't block the flow of people by standing in the middle of a sidewalk and chatting with a group of people. Go off to one side, it's not hard. So frustrating.
 
Doubling the width of the sidewalks on Yonge would also allow restaurants to open small patios on the street which would be a huge plus for this part of town.
 
Doubling the width of the sidewalks on Yonge would also allow restaurants to open small patios on the street which would be a huge plus for this part of town.

That would do plenty to enliven the street, though at the expense of really not resolving the crowding issue. I would say that should only be allowed at new developments where there are significant setbacks (or more commonly, along side streets branching from Yonge). That should be the extent of allowing patios on the street, unless we're talking about full pedestrianization of Yonge (which probably won't happen).

AoD
 
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Found this Dolce Magazine article, Dec. 18th - "The One-Billion Dollar Building"

http://www.dolcemag.com/general-int...m-mizrahi-1bloor-east-condo-development/16929

The building he envisions is both “epic and iconic,†a landmark on par with renowned structures of other world cities. “We wanted this to be the Rockefeller Center or the Chrysler Building or the Empire State Building for Toronto. And this is the corner to do it in,â€

Sounds pretty ambitious! Hopefully it will include an observation deck just like in NYC.
 

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