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^Best part of that article - Ryerson wants to buy the collapsed Gould Street building! GIVE IT TO THEM. Rye will restore it.
 
5 St Joseph will revitalize that corner, but these developments only come along from time to time. I would like to see the city provide tax credits or other incentives to restore the 2-4 floor historic buildings south of Yorville to Dundas. As we dont have continous frontage, about 50% of structures have been razed over the years, we wont achieve any sort of historic district. But that is fine, the chaos is exciting, some of the more recent infills are almost compelling in their ugliness - for example those bizarre bungalos above the Papaya Hut south of Wellsley. The mixes style, quality, era is more energizing than a continous stretch of restored store fronts.

That said there are many really interesting buildings that desperately need restoration, waiting for that to happen as part of larger condo developments would take decades.

For example, wasn't there talk of stripping away the tacky frontage blocking the Clocktower north of College?
 
Smitherman has pledged to create a sort of "heritage police" to make sure historic buildings are being maintained. It's one thing to make promises: another to keep them. I sure want to believe him, though!
I'd love to know what rules the Swiss and Germans have. Now these are countries with A LOT of old buldings, yet ALL (and I'm not exagerating much) are maintained. You just don't see peeling paint over there. I can't believe that all Swiss and German property owners are conscientious citizens, maintaining their buildings for the sake of civic pride. We need some of their rules. Even mediocre architecture becomes quite tolerable when it's freshly cleaned and painted.
 
Better maintenance of buildings is one thing, but an improved public realm is also important. On Yonge, the two need to be hand in hand. In terms of the public realm, the plan of narrowing it to two lanes with bike lanes, wider sidewalks and trees is a good plan. Pedestrianization gets suggested often, but I think that only the stretch around Dundas could work at this point. The sidewalks should be granite. More sidewalks downtown should be paved granite, and maybe even some stretches of road, like cobblestones at major intersections. The city should just buy a quarry somewhere for this purpose and perhaps cover some of the expenses by selling it off to the private sector.
 
My friend and I were walking around last year, commenting on how dark Yonge Street north of Wellesley was - then we noticed that all the overhead streetlights had been eliminated. The whole strip had become quite dark and a gloomy feeling.

Now, although the sidewalks have been retouched, the streetlights seem to have been replaced by bright white box lamps attached to the fronts of buildings. They look awful - like something out of a prison yard - and don't do much to illumnate the street.

Does anyone know if these things are temporary? Now that the sidewalks have been redone, let's hope so.
 
Actually, IIRC the overhead streetlights were removed when the Yonge Subway was built (that's back when overhead lighting was viewed as urban blight). The original wall-mounted streetlights were porthole/diving-helmet-like affairs, some of which survive (eg. on Dickinson's Prudential Building at King + Yonge); by the 80s they were being replaced by the black-box wedge lights of which you speak. Which in recent years have fallen into neglect and disrepair; meanwhile, those stretches of Yonge under BIA jurisdiction to the north and south have had street lighting reinstated, so don't be surprised if this stretch follows suit...
 
junctionist said:
Better maintenance of buildings is one thing, but an improved public realm is also important. On Yonge, the two need to be hand in hand. In terms of the public realm, the plan of narrowing it to two lanes with bike lanes, wider sidewalks and trees is a good plan. Pedestrianization gets suggested often, but I think that only the stretch around Dundas could work at this point. The sidewalks should be granite. More sidewalks downtown should be paved granite, and maybe even some stretches of road, like cobblestones at major intersections. The city should just buy a quarry somewhere for this purpose and perhaps cover some of the expenses by selling it off to the private sector.
Click to expand...
A cheaper alternative to granite is concrete unit pavers. They're not granite but they look a lot better than poured concrete slabs. They're more expensive than poured concrete but well worth it imo.

Were Toronto's streets ever paved in cobblestone? Toronto should be uncovering the brick paving on its older streets. Often they're on side streets where you don't need a smooth driving surface.
 
some parts of yonge st (downtown toronto/northyork) need to be rebuilt, other than to be revitalized a little.
tear down those ugly 2 storey bldgs, and relocate those bargain stores, cheap restaurants, strip clubs, adult DVD and other adult stuff stores somewhere else. do you think that those aged buildings and shopfront plastic signs are just as ugly as those in africa and india? don't tell me that they are successful business.

to build brand new luxury condos/skyscrapers (aura, one bloor, etc) standing side by side with those bargain stores and strip clubs, does it make sense? one million dollar home owners would go shopping at bargain stores? or tourists from west europe and east asia would shop there? an ugly main street like yonge st of TO would kill tourism.

benz mercedes, lexus, bmw,..., they have showrooms in ave des champs elysees of paris, you can get your coffee and posters for free there. what would you get in yonge st of toronto? something from a dollarshop, or an adult DVD?

what are those toronto's city planners doing? or does the city of TO have those experts? if TO doesn't have any, please hire them from europe!
 
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To be fair, city planners have no power to decide the tenant mix of streetfront retail, or to relocate bargain stores to somewhere else. That's for the market to decide. Until now, the market has decided that Toronto's equivalent to Champs Elysees is Bloor Street or maybe Queen, but not Yonge. The public realm on Queen is a mess too, but that's a whole other conversation.
 
computist said:
some parts of yonge st (downtown toronto/northyork) need to be rebuilt, other than to be revitalized a little.
tear down those ugly 2 storey bldgs, and relocate those bargain stores, cheap restaurants, strip clubs, adult DVD and other adult stuff stores somewhere else. do you think that those aged buildings and shopfront plastic signs are just as ugly as those in africa and india? don't tell me that they are successful business.

to build brand new luxury condos/skyscrapers (aura, one bloor, etc) standing side by side with those bargain stores and strip clubs, does it make sense? one million dollar home owners would go shopping at bargain stores? or tourists from west europe and east asia would shop there? an ugly main street like yonge st of TO would kill tourism.

benz mercedes, lexus, bmw,..., they have showrooms in ave des champs elysees of paris, you can get your coffee and posters for free there. what would you get in yonge st of toronto? something from a dollarshop, or an adult DVD?

what are those toronto's city planners doing? or does the city of TO have those experts? if TO doesn't have any, please hire them from europe!
Click to expand...

You've got to be kidding, right? If not, wander no further than Yorkdale mall, it's safe in there.
 
dahusbandofbath,

I'm Swiss, and the Swiss and South German culture really do put more emphasis on everything being orderly and perfect. That said I think the property ownership and rental culture in those countries makes a big difference. Returns on real estate investments are very low. Properties are rarely listed and tenants occupy their units (commercial and residential) for very long terms. By contrast we live in a highly transient society. Think how different people's attitude to where they live or work would be if they rented the same place for 20 years. A short-term lease environment is dynamic and has its advantages but from the perspective of up keep and aesthetics it creates a vicious cycle of tenant not willing to take responsibility for their space and owner not giving a crap. Ideally the opposite should be true, the renter and owner should work together to create a mutually benefitial environment.
 
Thanks for that, TrickyRicky! I can see how longer tenancies could lead to more pride of place, but I suspect well kept Swiss, Badish and Bavarian buildings have mostly a culture of orderliness and perfection to thank. I can think of many old buildings in Toronto with very old tenants who have never developed a sense of responsibility for their premises. I suspect that if we went after unkept buildings the way New York went after graffiti in the subways, we'd see a virtuous knock on effect as did New York.
 
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