[Authentic_City]

^Very true. The North Portage development was well thought out and had all the right elements, but it wasn't enough to turn the tide. Also problematic was the fact the all the residential behind the mall bordered the Central Park neighbourhood. In the early 90s, friends I knew who lived in those highrises were scared to walk around their buildings at night and simply drove in and out of underground parkade and never engaged with the local community as a pedestrian.

Also, keep in mind that Polo Park doubled in size at roughly the same time and really began to pull retail and shoppers away from the downtown. Until the early 90s, Eatons and The Bay downtown had the edge over the smaller stores in the suburbs, but that all changed pretty quickly, especially when Eatons folded.

As you say, poor timing. If a similar development was proposed today with all these elements - hundreds of residential units, nearly 100 retail units, movie theatres, restaurants, outdoor pedestrian promenades with street level storefronts, etc. all connected to the downtown skywalk system -- I'm sure we would all think it was the greatest thing ever for downtown. Heck, we'd call it True North Square.