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Church-Wellesley Village

I argue that Yonge Street is not Toronto's "Main Street" or even "Toronto's main street". It seems to still have a mythical importance to some by virtue of it's historical status as the city's main street and it's centre of the map location. Those factors are years, possibly decades removed from relevance.

People's tastes changed and new entertainment areas flourished closer to where they lived or had a more trendy status. Their sucess came at Yonge's expense. Now, Yonge actually has very low pedestrian traffic at night, leading to the strange situation where the dozens of restaurants north of college are mostly a day/evening operation and the street is dead by 11.

I think the street is approaching the critical mass necessary to transition into a destination again, especially given the imminent local population increase. Those who will lead the renaissance of Yonge probably won't even remember it's heyday (I don't,) which is probably how these things normally happen anyway. At some point in the next twenty years, it could be downtown's main street again.

Talking Yonge Street downtown south of Bloor I'll argue again that it's pretty much dead to pedestrian traffic (save for Gerrard to Queen) as most of the late night attractions are gone. No more club destinations, and no more movie cinemas. Those establishments used to feed the smaller pubs and restaurants which used to keep Yonge Street hopping well into the morning hours. Compare just ten years ago to today and it's very dramatic how pedestrian activity has changed late at night.
 
Disagree,

Yes it's not as crowed late at night as it was 10 years ago - but I do find it more crowded during the day.

Morever, even at night, and by that I mean pre - 11pm "dead" is pushing it - in the summer in particular, even on week nights it's quite crowded I'd argue the closer you get to Bloor the less crowded it is but even around College - Charles it's still pretty well used. The restaurant them selves serve as an attraction.

Also, I still think there's a club or two still - I know there's a comedy club closer to Bloor
 
Disagree,

Yes it's not as crowed late at night as it was 10 years ago - but I do find it more crowded during the day.

Morever, even at night, and by that I mean pre - 11pm "dead" is pushing it - in the summer in particular, even on week nights it's quite crowded I'd argue the closer you get to Bloor the less crowded it is but even around College - Charles it's still pretty well used. The restaurant them selves serve as an attraction.

Also, I still think there's a club or two still - I know there's a comedy club closer to Bloor

"Dead" was the wrong word for me to use. I do agree that it's busier during the day, figure how many people have moved into the areas on each side of Yonge Street from Bay to Jarvis in the past 10-15 years, thousands would be a very conservative guess.
I walk Yonge St. 2 sometimes 3 nights a week with my dog from Bloor to Wellesley between 11-1am, there's very few people around. Ten... twenty ... thirty years ago Yonge Street was almost as busy late at night as during the day. Not anymore. Vehicular traffic on weekends has dramatically changed too. From about May to September on weekend and holiday evenings traffic on Yonge Street was bumper to bumper from Bloor to King Street with people "cruising" the strip in their vehicles. Not anymore. That cultural activity slowly came to an end in the past 7-10 years.
As the late night record stores and cinemas closed so did most late night restaurants & pubs plus the bars slowly migrated down to the entertainment district and over to Church Street. Yonge Street nightlife drastically changed.
The area between Gerrard and Queen has continued to thrive late at night as the area transitioned from a sketchy nightlife area with porn shops/cinemas, crappy eateries and grindhouse cinemas through the "cleanup" to a more commercial area through the 90's and this decade with the AMC cinemas, Yonge-Dundas Square, late night food outlets and the two live theatres south of there.
 
Could it be argued that Yonge Street is Toronto's "main street" from a tourist point of view, but in reality Toronto doesn't have a single "main street" but multiple main streets?

For example, might College not be Little Italy's main street? Danforth is the main street between Broadview and Pape? Front is the main street in St. Lawrence Market?

I didn't live in Toronto 20 years ago. Perhaps Yonge, in the grand scheme of things, was Toronto's "main street" back then. But today, in the grand scheme of things, is there really a single main street for the city as a whole?
 
According to the below Toronto Life article Woody's leases their space but they have many years left on the lease:

Quote from Toronto Life:

"Those skittish about losing yet another venerable Village pickup joint can rest easy. Woody’s manager Dean Odorico, assured us that despite the high rent, they still have about 10 years left on their lease."

http://www.torontolife.com/daily/da...or-yonge-street-where-it-will-surely-re-camp/

Aaah okay, my bad. So Woody's must have sub-leased the space to Priape.
 
Just talked to a business owner in the neighbourhood and here's some info he passed along. Don't know about the reliability of it but maybe someone else can confirm. Greenwin has purchased most, if not all of the properties on the west side of Church between Alexander & Maitland and plans to build there. Georges Play has a demolition clause in their lease stating they can be kicked out with only a few months notice. The owner of Georges Play has thusly bought or leased the Yonge Street building that used to house Trax. Il Fornello's old spot is going for $27k a month and Zelda's old spot is going for $38k. And lastly, Woody's (the business) is up for sale.
 
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Just talked to a business owner in the neighbourhood and here's some info he passed along. Don't know about the reliability of it but maybe someone else can confirm. Greenwin has purchased most, if not all of the properties on the west side of Church between Alexander & Maitland and plans to build there. Georges Play has a demolition clause in their lease stating they can be kicked out with only a few months notice. The owner of Georges Play has thusly bought or leased the Yonge Street building that used to house Trax.

Here's what I can add to this to confirm what you heard.
I had a corner suite in the Alexus (the condo at Alexander & Church developed by a division of Greenwin) which had east and north facing windows. Shortly after I moved in I learned that the north side of the building was built to the property line and because of potential future development next to my building my north operational windows had to be permanently sealed shut because of Fire Dept. regulations. I was told by two real estate agents (one, a very good friend of mine) that all properties from Maitland Street down to the travel agency next to George's Play were all owned by an Ontario numbered Corp. and was to be developed into condos. The owner of George's Play (at the time it was Gatsby's Restaurant, a great place) was the only hold-out property that the developer wanted. Now I remember two stories; the owner of the George's Play property simply had no interest in selling and I also heard that perhaps he was holding out for the right price - no reliable sources there, that was the word on the street at the time. What androiduk writes above regarding developing this stretch coincides with what I knew a decade ago, the only change in the story is that it appears that George's Play has now been acquired, that Greenwin owns those properties and it sounds like they're finally moving forward.
This could account for no one else attempting to take out a lease & spend money renovating Crews/Tango if it's now owned by Greenwin and is potentially coming down in the next year or two.
Finally, I looked through the Yonge Street windows into Alibi a couple of days ago and everything that once gave the place charactor and charm appears to have been stripped out, all I could see was white drywall (painted) on the walls and ceilings.
 
^^^

the condofication of Church St ???
that could dramatically change the feel and demographics of the area forever within 10 years, and the village could be no more.
 
^^^

the condofication of Church St ???
that could dramatically change the feel and demographics of the area forever within 10 years, and the village could be no more.

But given the built form of Alexus as a benchmark + city main-streets policy, it makes raw "Paul Bedford" sense. Just stating, not advocating...
 
Here's what I can add to this to confirm what you heard.
I had a corner suite in the Alexus (the condo at Alexander & Church developed by a division of Greenwin) which had east and north facing windows. Shortly after I moved in I learned that the north side of the building was built to the property line and because of potential future development next to my building my north operational windows had to be permanently sealed shut because of Fire Dept. regulations. I was told by two real estate agents (one, a very good friend of mine) that all properties from Maitland Street down to the travel agency next to George's Play were all owned by an Ontario numbered Corp. and was to be developed into condos. The owner of George's Play (at the time it was Gatsby's Restaurant, a great place) was the only hold-out property that the developer wanted. Now I remember two stories; the owner of the George's Play property simply had no interest in selling and I also heard that perhaps he was holding out for the right price - no reliable sources there, that was the word on the street at the time. What androiduk writes above regarding developing this stretch coincides with what I knew a decade ago, the only change in the story is that it appears that George's Play has now been acquired, that Greenwin owns those properties and it sounds like they're finally moving forward.
This could account for no one else attempting to take out a lease & spend money renovating Crews/Tango if it's now owned by Greenwin and is potentially coming down in the next year or two.
Finally, I looked through the Yonge Street windows into Alibi a couple of days ago and everything that once gave the place charactor and charm appears to have been stripped out, all I could see was white drywall (painted) on the walls and ceilings.
[/I]


I was walking past the old Alibi building last week. I asked someone working on it what was going in. He replied "offices".
 
I wonder if that block would be developed as rentals or as condos.

I'd rather not see a big blockbusting development go up there, but I quite like Alexus so maybe there's hope. It would be great if they could do a true mixed-use development, with restaurant/patio spaces on the ground floor, some office space above, and then six or seven floors of residential.

And not that it would necessarily be compatible with the new residential uses, but I wonder if the city would relax the ban on new clubs given that any redevelopment would remove Crews/Tango
 
I'm surprised that nobody prominent is advocating for the city to scrap the ridiculous club restrictions. It's tantamount to "thow shalt not have any more gay clubs." Attempts to locate new gay clubs in the proscribed areas has been a total failure. Residential and entertainment uses mix elsewhere in the city, and because of grandfathering they already do in the village. This is just puritanical BS, and until it changes we'll be stuck with limited options and dance floors the size of a postage stamp.
 
I'm surprised that nobody prominent is advocating for the city to scrap the ridiculous club restrictions. It's tantamount to "thow shalt not have any more gay clubs." Attempts to locate new gay clubs in the proscribed areas has been a total failure. Residential and entertainment uses mix elsewhere in the city, and because of grandfathering they already do in the village. This is just puritanical BS, and until it changes we'll be stuck with limited options and dance floors the size of a postage stamp.

EXACTLY! A good way to get rid of the Gay Village.
 

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