The intense volume of pedestrians that frequent the downtown portion of Yonge Street is growing by the day, so the city is looking to make some serious changes to accommodate the growth.
The City of Toronto has an online survey asking residents to weigh in on a possible redesign of downtown Yonge Street.
Imagine taking a stroll down Yonge Street, walking past Dundas-Square and not seeing a car in sight. Weird right? Well, that's what one Toronto Yonge Street project, yongeTOmorrow, aims to do after an increase in pedestrian demand in the area.
Being a pedestrian on Yonge Street in Toronto is often an absolute nightmare, but soon enough the street will undergo a complete redesign to better accommodate those on foot.
Every few years, right on cue, the city decides it must do something about Yonge Street. It’s not hard to understand why. For much of its length, it has become depressingly ordinary, a bit run down, vaguely tacky and, given expectations, hugely disappointing.
Rarely a destination street and currently not hip or cool, Yonge’s been off the cultural radar for a long time. Don’t confuse that with being dead though as there is always life on Yonge, but it isn’t easily packageable and doesn’t have just one identity. Like Toronto’s population, it is a diverse street.
It's long been Toronto's most iconic street — and its busiest.
But now, the city is looking to transform one particularly bustling stretch of Yonge from Queen Street to College Street, where pedestrians are often spilling off the narrow sidewalks due to lack of space.
Downtown Yonge is the epicentre of Toronto’s growth and change, with rising condo towers, increasing office employment, shifting retail patterns and a growing student population. But the street itself hasn’t kept up with the times. Downtown Yonge Street today looks much as it did 50 years ago: four vehicle lanes flanked by narrow sidewalks with little greenery and few places to stop and linger.
It’s a situation at odds with modern approaches to city-building, and one that may soon change. With Yonge scheduled to be torn up for water-main work, between Queen and College streets, Toronto will be facing a generational question. After decades of the roadway staying the same, what should come next?
Yonge-Dundas Square. College Park. The Eaton Centre. Then the street unfolds in theatres, soaring towers, and fine-grained 20th century retail, before reaching down to the Lake, and stretching past Bloor Street, midtown, uptown, out of town, and into a seemingly endless north. This is Yonge Street, Toronto's most famous thoroughfare, which forms the spine — and perhaps the heart — of the city. But it doesn't look it.