City
Bloor Street's Perpetual Construction
Working in the Yonge & Bloor neighbourhood definitely has great advantages: huge selection of restaurants, nice choice of retail, and free samples and promotions all over the place. But very few things could possibly compensate for the omnipresent construction that has consumed Bloor Street for over a year.
I started working in the area about a year and a half ago. From what I remember, you could still park at the meters on Bloor Street in 2007. However, in May 2008 construction went full-blast and the transformation of Bloor Street began.
A part of the street has been taken away from the traffic in order to accommodate crowds of pedestrians and flowerbeds. My daily trek to work became increasingly interesting, as construction fences were moving constantly from one side of the street to the next, and you could never predict what route you might be taking the next day! But the noise and the dust from drilled asphalt became contributing factors to an onset of headaches, and even the free facials from The Bay couldn't alleviate the stress.
Never mind the things that are a work in progress... given that financial and scandal problems are abounding, there are growing (perhaps premature?) concerns that what was supposed to be erected at the corner of Yonge & Bloor (the Bazis International condo aka 1 Bloor East) may never come to be. Remember, a whole block of old townhouses housing local restaurants and retail had to be knocked down in order to make way for the Bazis mega-tower project. What would go it its place were it to all fall out?
The rumour-mill has this site becoming another city park or something like the Dundas Square - but who knows?
These thoughts are racing through my mind, as I brace myself for yet another trek down Bloor Street. And while the local restaurants and retail are recovering from limited customer access, in the midst of recession, my co-workers and I are hardly enjoying the sounds and smells of construction.
Bloor Street might eventually be a whole lot prettier on top, but right now, we're headed for the underground - a peaceful shelter from construction madness above.
Writing and photography by guest contributor Lana B.
Discussion
14 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
Why was the street only widened in front of the HBC? The Manulife Center is the same age; Holt Renfrew is newer. A six-lane avenue with a treed boulevard would have been fantastic for this city; instead, one of the worst bottlenecks is Church and Bloor, with all the taxis/delivery vehicles parked there all day.
Lana, you need to stretch your memory farther back: Bloor St. has been interminable lane restrictions and detours for more than a decade! Each new condo that has been built from Sherbourne to Park Rd., resulted in more than 18 months of restrictions, then there was the bridge restructuring over Mt. Pleasant. Yet, the net result has been the same grossly inadequate 4 lanes of traffic.
It is a crime what this city has done to Bloor. I will never use it to walk or drive on again.
decides to do the same thing to Young and Bloor it will become another place to avoid.
I'm not sure why you would need a second, competing square up the road. Esp. considering there's no central place like the eaton centre next door to draw people to the square. I don't think putting a square in will change how people use the area.
Why stop at 6 lanes? They could get rid of the sidewalks and businesses and make it 12!! From the sounds of it you only use this road to get somewhere else. This construction is being done by business, for business. Let me tell you that the traffic will not get better when construction is complete. It always has been and always will be a bottleneck. People will gravitate back to it from other routes like Wellesley and Gerrard once it is complete.
Maybe. Or, you wind up with University Ave. I think I'll pass. Actually I agree with the comment re: haphazard planning -- except that I lean the other way in terms of # of lanes.
The other memorable nearby Bloor St. construction restriction that comes to mind was Bloor and Spadina. Years in the making.
What fantastical rumour-mill are you in touch with?
It is privately owned land. It will be FOREVER. The Official Plan designates it for maximum density development. No one with any decision making authority, at any level, in the city has ever said they want it to be otherwise.
No pedestrians could use the mid-street platform. They used
the sidewalk entrances instead. So, the width of two streetcars
and two secure passenger platforms take up a lot of width in the street. After 1968, it all came to naught when the subway opened and the platforms and streetcars were removed.
There is an oddity on Carlton Street. The streetcar tracks come closer to the sidewalks while passing what was Maple Leaf Gardens.
That was done in anticipation of a left turn lane for cars to enter the underground parking for the new(?) Loblaws in the old Gardens. They even installed a mid block traffic light, too.
So, you've been puzzled by a remnant of bygone days. Here's one for you. Why was there a second bus platform at St. George Station? The Avenue Rd. bus entered the station on both north- and southbound trips. It was too much of a time waster and the project was disbanded a few years after its commencement.
Yet another vestige of what once was.
It was just a thought, something this city seriously lacks.
OAA does not help Ontario when it allows a 500K suite to be build smaller than 75m2.