[Northern Light]

On Corner Stores (zoning change) and the bizarre fears of some, a good column from Ed Kennan in The Star:

Edward Keenan: Why can’t Toronto have nice things? Ask the people who won’t let neighbourhoods have corner stores

Instead of trying corners stores in neighbourhoods and seeing what happens, councillors have sent the proposal back for more consultation.

www.thestar.com

 

[old boy]

On Corner Stores (zoning change) and the bizarre fears of some, a good column from Ed Kennan in The Star:

Edward Keenan: Why can’t Toronto have nice things? Ask the people who won’t let neighbourhoods have corner stores

Instead of trying corners stores in neighbourhoods and seeing what happens, councillors have sent the proposal back for more consultation.

www.thestar.com

It's sad that the ' what if " syndrome predominates our discussions about change which in many cases is organic like corner stores and the like. These are the very things which make the neighbourhood vibrant. I think mostly we all want this kind of city, yet we constrain ourselves with overthinking the possible negative exigencies. Put another way, we've become expert at shooting ourselves in the foot.

 

[Admiral Beez]

On Corner Stores (zoning change) and the bizarre fears of some, a good column from Ed Kennan in The Star:

Edward Keenan: Why can’t Toronto have nice things? Ask the people who won’t let neighbourhoods have corner stores

Instead of trying corners stores in neighbourhoods and seeing what happens, councillors have sent the proposal back for more consultation.

www.thestar.com

I wish they’d stop using the image of Park Snacks in this piece. It’s not a corner store, it’s a failed former sit down restaurant (used to have great brunch) and is now a sometimes-open ice cream window, with no public access. It is not, and has never been (in my thirty years here) a corner store. Anyone who knows the neighbourhood will quickly discern that Kennan has lazily chosen misleading imagery to support his article.

For Cabbagetown, the history of our corner stores in more dire. In my three decades we have lost all of the last corner stores to remodellers. There are no corner stores outside of the Gerrard and Parliament commercial streets. Keenan knows this, and should report accurately and portray the situation accurately.

Throwback Thursday: The corner stores of Cabbagetown – Cabbagetown Residents Association – CRA

 

[sixrings]

It's sad that the ' what if " syndrome predominates our discussions about change which in many cases is organic like corner stores and the like. These are the very things which make the neighbourhood vibrant. I think mostly we all want this kind of city, yet we constrain ourselves with overthinking the possible negative exigencies. Put another way, we've become expert at shooting ourselves in the foot.

I think lots of people want stores in walking distance to their houses. But the fear is it will be immediately next door and that’s where people draw their line. But consultation is such a pathetic excuse for not making a decision either way. It’s like my friend who loves being a family dr because any time they suspect someone’s terminally I’ll they send them to a specialist. Obviously to help them but more importantly because they don’t want to be the bearer of bad news.

 

[christiesplits]

I think lots of people want stores in walking distance to their houses. But the fear is it will be immediately next door and that’s where people draw their line.

I suspect that if the proposal forbade liquor licenses and cannabis shops you would see most of the opposition disappear.

 

[sixrings]

I suspect that if the proposal forbade liquor licenses and cannabis shops you would see most of the opposition disappear.

Well cannabis stores are half the cities shops. So I don’t know what is going to go in there. Dundas west in the junction which was supposedly gentrifying got rid of so many coffee shops during Covid and replaced them with weed stores. Now no one needs the majority of the stores on a street to sell coffee but the same thing rings true for the weed stores. If there’s a 100 stores on a street and 50 of them are weed stores you really only have 51 store so to shop from. But hey that’s my rant.

 

[txlseries4]

I think lots of people want stores in walking distance to their houses. But the fear is it will be immediately next door and that’s where people draw their line. But consultation is such a pathetic excuse for not making a decision either way. It’s like my friend who loves being a family dr because any time they suspect someone’s terminally I’ll they send them to a specialist. Obviously to help them but more importantly because they don’t want to be the bearer of bad news.

There’s a lot of fear over a restaurant going in and being allowed to serve alcohol, and then turning into a rowdy, noisy bar. At committee it was explained that AGCO rules allow for any business to apply for a liquor license and permits are reviewed and granted/denied case by case, and that is out of the city's control. Some “explaining” that in terms of footprint in a neighbourhood, a restaurant/local bar wouldn’t have the space to accommodate large crowds to begin with, and that current laws/bylaws address certain concerns already, like amplified sound on a patio. Also that it isn’t possible for the city to prohibit a business from serving alcohol because that’s provincial jurisdiction, not municipal.

 

[sixrings]

There’s a lot of fear over a restaurant going in and being allowed to serve alcohol, and then turning into a rowdy, noisy bar. At committee it was explained that AGCO rules allow for any business to apply for a liquor license and permits are reviewed and granted/denied case by case, and that is out of the city's control. Some “explaining” that in terms of footprint in a neighbourhood, a restaurant/local bar wouldn’t have the space to accommodate large crowds to begin with, and that current laws/bylaws address certain concerns already, like amplified sound on a patio. Also that it isn’t possible for the city to prohibit a business from serving alcohol because that’s provincial jurisdiction, not municipal.

A serious question but isn’t the retail we currently have hard to fill because of more competition from online shopping, work from home, and or landlords refusing to rent to anyone who isn’t a high end store.

I haven’t been too many places since Covid but downtown ottawa is dead not only because of the work from home government workers but because the property owners refuse to rent anything at a lesser price than precovid. But business is definitely not precovid.