I think one of the big factors to keeping this indoor/outdoor mall feeling really 'high end' will be whether security can keep the people suffering homelessness out of it.

I'm not making a statement on whether that's right or wrong, I'm just saying that the plain reality of it is that if all the corners and staircases start smelling like piss and if the trip down to the underground parking garages is a disgusting one and if there are people lying around or begging for change it's going to have a really different feel to the place really fast.

Again, not saying we don't need affordable housing, services to help etc, but rather that the stark business reality is if you start getting people setting up little tents/shelters in here and pissing all over the place like you get at Yonge & Dundas or most of the downtown parks, this is not going to be a place anyone goes for very long.

However, given that this is 100% private property and not like a public park or public service (think TTC or Green P parking) I assume the security guards can basically treat people experiencing homelessness the same way they would treat them if they were pissing inside First Canadian Place or trying to sleep inside the Eaton Centre.

We'll see....
 
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hawc said:
I was responding to evandyk who said:

"It has enough shelter that it probably would never be uncomfortably cold."
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I suppose I was wrong about that. Though the windchill yesterday was pretty bad, and it's not often that cold in Toronto.
hawc said:
I think one of the big factors to keeping this indoor/outdoor mall feeling really 'high end' will be whether security can keep the people suffering homelessness out of it.

I'm not making a statement on whether that's right or wrong, I'm just saying that the plain reality of it is that if all the corners and staircases start smelling like piss and if the trip down to the underground parking garages is a disgusting one and if there are people lying around or begging for change it's going to have a really different feel to the place really fast.
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You can walk around the Path all day and see very little evidence of homelessness. Any time somebody slightly disheveled enters, there are three security guards following them immediately. I imagine the Well will be the same.
 
It’s bitterly cold outside at this moment, but If you dress for it, it’s totally fine. There is plenty of street use by pedestrians when it’s cold in Toronto, this mall will be no different, and certainly along the east-west paths within the mall, you will in fact be more sheltered from the wind. It’s the north-south passage that would feel the coldest.

I’d be more worried about the work from home factors decreasing shopping numbers, than the few and decreasing number of days each year where it’s actually chilly.
 
It's also a little off the beaten path, which I'm sure has been mentioned here already.

It's south of the King/Queen shopping corridors and west of the Yonge/Bay shopping scene.

Not really a shopping area, but maybe that will change.

That Indigo was really impressive.
 
I think once some of the projects surrounding this get going, it will make a big difference re: making it feel a bit less like an island and give folks more of a reason to pass through the complex vs around it.

400 Front will bridge the gap to the east, 46 Spadina to the north, 467, 485 Wellington, and 18 Portland to the west, and hopefully the Metrolinx Spadina Front TOD project to the south.
 
ProjectEnd said:
The security here are wiiiiildly overbearing. There's barely time for shoppers to linger or folks to get coffee in Building G's lobby before you're accosted by rent-a-cops (it's happened twice to me at different times last year). It's wild.
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If your reputation as a troublemaker has preceded you here, I swear it wasn't me that tipped them off. LOL

****

In all seriousness, that's no good. Though, perhaps not entirely surprising.
 
Northern Light said:
If your reputation as a troublemaker has preceded you here, I swear it wasn't me that tipped them off. LOL

****

In all seriousness, that's no good. Though, perhaps not entirely surprising.
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I remember this also being the case in the early days of Dundas Square. I was once taking photos from there (for UT) shortly after the square opened, and security asked what I was doing in a confrontational manner. It's probably just a bit of over-zealousness that'll taper off after time.
 
cassius said:
I remember this also being the case in the early days of Dundas Square. I was once taking photos from there (for UT) shortly after the square opened, and security asked what I was doing in a confrontational manner. It's probably just a bit of over-zealousness that'll taper off after time.
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Post 9/11 paranoia too. I’ve last count the number of times security or police have hassled me for taking photos. This didn’t really stop until everybody’s phone also became a camera.
 
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