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Not a 24 Hour City

http://www.nowtoronto.com/minisites/24hour/
Here is a Now Magazine list of 24 Hour business around town.

I agree there is a need for a 24 hour service complex in the city. Something with Restaurants, coffee shops, book stores, a grocery store and pharmacy and a dry cleaners, and maybe a walk in clinic.
 
Except the subways and commuter rail lines which all shut down around midnight. Many a politician has pushed for 24 hour service on key lines and many a politician has been threatened and occasionally beaten for it.

This might have something to do with the fact that the vast majority of the taxi companies are owned by Yakuza families.

Tokyo's still a city that never sleeps, regardless of what time the trains close.
 
For all the hype, New York is not even a 24 hour city - the city starts to get very quiet after midnight, apart from the Times Square/Theatre Districts and a few nightlife areas. Much like Toronto.
Agreed. The "City That Never Sleeps" moniker isn't really apt as we truly don't have any genuine 24-hour cities in North America. Yes, NYC's subway runs all-night on some routes, but also infrequently. Sure some of the bars are open until 04:00, but that's something that will happen here (likely within the decade) and there's plenty of after-hours in Toronto if you ask the right people. At street-level, both cities are pretty darn quiet after 01:00. NYC hasn't been a huge party city either since the 1980s and much of the all-night stuff is on a "down low" basis. Due to its size and importance there is clearly more all-night possibilities in NYC, but I think Toronto holds its own just fine (save our archaic "last call").

Europe and Asia do 24-hour better, but as said already, even a place like Berlin (where you truly get a sense that nobody sleeps), it is impossible to find an open store late at night (or heck, even on a Sunday). Schwarma aside. ;)
 
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When I lived downtown, I used to shop for groceries at Rabba at 2 am.

I also used to drive to Home Depot to get that last gallon of paint I needed to finish off that room at the townhouse or whatever. Luckily painting a room doesn't generate as much noise as say putting up cupboards, so it's fine to do it at 2 am.

Now that I live in Scarborough, I can shop at metro at 2 am too, but I don't bother. I'm older and my sleep is much more important to me. ;)

OTOH, I hated trying to find a higher end dinner place in Italy, since many didn't even open until 8 pm. People ate at 9 pm, whereas I wanted to eat at 6:30.
 
Tokyo's still a city that never sleeps, regardless of what time the trains close.

The trains are part of it though. Many more people there rely on transit -- so if you want to have a night out on the town, you have to commit to staying out all night long. With such an early 'curfew' it's real easy to get stranded.

(On the other hand you see people who want to catch the last train home drinking hard really early and passing out on the pavement before sunset.)
 
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In Tokyo, lots of folks go to a Magna Kissa which provides internet, comics and a comfortable place to hang out. They'll go there, wait until the trains open in the morning, and then head back home. It is a way to kill the time from after your last drink and before the first train.

Perhaps what Toronto really needs is a few capsule hotels? ;)
 
When I was in Hong Kong earlier this year, and not adjusting to the time difference very well, I would end up out on the streets at 5am with my travelling friend. One morning in Kowloon we came across an open bar, the "Hair of the Dog", in the dim morning light, with a few souls still inside. It was a very charming tableau.

Though I have to say, at my age the appeal of all nighters has pretty much disappeared.
 
I don't have a hard time finding places that are open 24 hours. I guess you just have to know where to go. The longer you live here, the more places you'll find. I too have been to many American cities and all of them seem to close up shop much earlier than
Toronto, except for New York and Philly...maybe Boston...

The only thing I'd like to see changed are earlier service on the weekends and 24hr trains....if not during the week, then at least on the weekends. You'd have a lot less people driving around drunk...I don't understand shutting down for 4 hours.
 
Maintenance. If the subways weren't shut those four hours there'd be all kinds of intermittent delays during the day. Really, Toronto has no need for a 24-hour subway. Hardly any city (including London and Paris) have 24-hour subways. In fact, many close earlier than Toronto. Moreover, we have an excellent Blue Light service that is still the envy of many. Sunday mornings are a huge issue though. The system should clearly start at the same time as it does other days, but the TTC seems to be ignoring the call.
 
24 hour-ness

Haven't been to Toronto, so obviously can't comment on whether it is, or is not, a 24-hr. city. But the idea of a city's "24 hour-ness" has always fascinated me. So here are some observations about the "24-hour-ness" of New York City (which has been mentioned in other posts as a point of comparison) -- having been born and raised here (and having lived in Greenwich Village for 40+ years).

Two main thoughts:

1) It seems to me that the 24-hour-ness of cities can change over time, even without the physical city itself changing all that much.

When I first moved to the Village I was disappointed at how un-24-hour NYC turned out to be. Looking back, I suspect that by the late 1960s NYC had become a lot less 24-hour then it had once been (e.g., due to suburbanization, crime, etc.). Things seemed to get worse in the 1970s. But, now, NYC seems once again to have blossomed into a true 24-hour city.

For instance, just in Greenwich Village alone, in addition to the obvious "after hours" clubs, and 24-hour fast food franchises, etc., there is NYU's enormous 24-hour (for students and faculty only) library; a large 24-hour supermarket (see more below); a 24-hour laundromat; a 24-hour self-service storage facility; a 24-hour newspaper stand (although with the internet, who knows for how much longer); a large 24-hour chain store pharmacy; numerous 24-hour "Korean" grocery stores; a very late night haute cuisine restaurant that is an after hours hang-out for other restaurant workers. Until recently, when it was torn down for the construction of condos, there was a large, busy 24-hour gas station. And while I'm not sure if it is actually all-night, there is even a storefront place to play chess on Thompson Street that is open until the wee hours of the morning! (I think it was still open at about 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. when I've passed by.)

Twice last summer I had to get a 3:30 a.m. bus from the Port Authority bus terminal to Boston (there were also buses to Boston at 4:30 and 4:45 a.m.). Since I didn't want to take the subway that late at night (felt safer on the street), I walked -- and I was surprised at how crowded the streets were in an area that had once been something of a no-man's land between Greenwich Village (expectedly crowded) and Times Square (expectedly crowded). There were even a few food carts (actually trucks retro-fitted as food stands)! I thought the bus itself would be near empty, but there were so many people waiting that not everyone made it onto the 3:30 a.m. bus, and some had to wait for the 4:30 a.m. one.

And that's not to mention the other parts of town (that are still in Manhattan), and "hidden away" third shift workers (especially in the financial services industry which, due to trading being done in other time zones, has become more of a 24-hour industry).

Interesting to note, in the 1970s, the 24-hour supermarket in the Village that I mentioned was only open until 9:00 p.m. Plus banks, which were only open Monday through Friday, usually closed at 3:00 p.m., except for some that had sidewalk windows that were open until maybe 7:00 p.m. or so. (And, remember, in those days there were no ATMs, and credit cards were not as acceptable as they are today.)

2) I think in any city, the 24-hour-ness is not always going to be readily apparent. For instance, for years there has been a commercial bakery a few doors away from me, and only recently did I find out that it had a 3rd shift.
 
A 24 hour district is definitely a good idea, and the area around Yonge and College already has a number of 24 hour places in a small area. There's:
  • A grocery store (Metro)
  • A pharmacy (Shopper's)
  • Two restaurants (Golden Griddle and Fran's)
  • A convenience store (7-11 slightly to the north)
 
Well I saw just yesterday that Grey Region, a 24-hour hobby/comic/games/memorabilia geek haven on Yonge just south of Wellesley has closed.
 
A 24 hour district is definitely a good idea, and the area around Yonge and College already has a number of 24 hour places in a small area. There's:
  • A grocery store (Metro)
  • A pharmacy (Shopper's)
  • Two restaurants (Golden Griddle and Fran's)
  • A convenience store (7-11 slightly to the north)

Plus the two McDonalds between College & Wellesley, a few adult video stores, a bath house, Sobey's, Rabba, other assorted variety stores in the area and I'm likely missing a few others in the area.
 
Ok let's have the YMCA become 24 hours, and the Tim Hortons at college park street level shouldn't close. Starbucks too, and I believe there is a Country Style which closes at 10 too.

I'd say a library, but I'm afraid it will just become a makeshift homeless shelter.

What else?
 
The Tridel Store. Sometimes, I really get the urge to go purchase a new home at 4am, but alas, the condo sales centres never seem to be open at that hour. They could make a killing off people like me who make rash purchase decisions when drunk in the middle of the night.
 

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