Quote:
Originally Posted by niwell
Good post - I had the same thoughts as you on the subject. I think the bigger issue is one of affordability, which applies to an area much larger than central Toronto. And a topic for another thread. There's certainly no lack of things to do outside of Toronto's west end (including many of the best new restaurants and bars), and the type of living constraints related to old / substandard housing certainly applies in a place like Montreal.
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No, I don't think it's affordability. I think it has to do with the fact that the commercial areas where Toronto creative types want to settle is remarkably constricted and has seemed to hit a glass ceiling.
MonkeyRonin was right in a roundabout way: if more people with urban affinities supported the businesses around them, then Toronto's urban fabric (which is not just physical, but social) would expand. But they don't, so we're stuck pining over the same areas. If those areas expanded, then Toronto would be more 'affordable', in the sense that we would bring the desirable amenities closer to more people. Moving the mountain to Mohammed, so to speak.
I mean, yes, the area that is considered 'cool' has expanded and now places like Bloordale Village and the Junction are much more vibrant than when I left 10 years ago (well, sort of, these areas were already getting there when I was here before), but, given that Toronto's urban population has grown by 20%, or so since the boom started, and its wealth even more so, I was kind of hoping there would be more of a spread of vibrancy rather than a super-concentration of it.
In a way, I'm arguing against what Kool Maudit is applauding.
Final point: I try to support the businesses in my fledgling area around Bathurst and Wilson, which is the outermost point of Toronto that could be considered 'urban' in any way. I even walk to these places, even though driving would be easier. Beyond me, it's pure suburbia. I like the Filipino restaurants up here, and I also have a soft spot for the Jewish businesses further south of the 401 on Bathurst, but I can't get anyone to come up here and give it their time of day. Also, the good Filipino restaurants aside, I can't walk to a full selection of stores and services that meet my needs, so the area has limited appeal to me. A lot of Toronto's inner suburbia is stuck at that sort of Los Angeles-level of walkable limbo, that I think turns people off. On a more serious and less navel-gazing level, this area is very dangerous for cyclists and pedestrians. There's a flower tied to the pole outside of my building indicating that a pedestrian died there not too long ago. When I ride my bike, I ride on the sidewalk since the road is a traffic sewer. It's yet another part of the outer 416 where the distance between traffic lights means that people dart across the traffic just to reach a bus stop going in the opposite direction. In the areas where I live the city has built these bizarre traffic islands that permit pedestrians to cross to a sheltered midpoint, but leaves the act of crossing the road wholly in the pedestrian's hands. There isn't even a sign warning motorists that pedestrians might cross. A walkable area will not be cultivated here under these circumstances.
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