Yonge Street now more pedestrian (and patio) friendly

Is it complete? I passed it by yesterday and didn't really see the appeal of the patios ie sitting in Yonge Street traffic breathing in its fumes basically. There are nicer patio locations. Most of them seemed occupied though. The little park in your last two photos was a nice surprise.

Walked by this yesterday afternoon and didn't see any real new pedestrian areas. They essentially took the public lanes of traffic and gave them over to private retailers. Even EB games had a tent set up. There were a few random tables and chairs for public use but nothing substantial. Based on how the media has been describing this I was expecting to see simply an extension of the sidewalk for pedestrian use. I still think this project is a good idea but it should be presented to the public more honestly.

I think the ideal plan is to have Yonge transformed into a Complete Streets project with widened sidewalks, a bike lane and single lane traffic in either direction. They need to get buy-in from the local businesses and this is the best way to kick it off. It will also allow drivers that use Yonge (for whatever reasons) to get used to the idea of single lanes. Sure there'll be some teething pains, but everyone's gotta lose their baby teeth.

I'm also not too psyched about eating next to idling traffic but looking forward to visiting these fine establishments to show my support. As a local resident, I'm excited for the future of what could be on Yonge.

This is just Toronto's failed attempt at trying be be NYC's little brother. Fail.

Make it permanent.

This is a nice idea, but giving the Pickle Barrel a sidewalk patio isn't quite enough to make we want to eat at Pickle Barrel.

Shut up, hippie

It kinda looks like a wannabe Times Square. Except it's not as great or vibrant as TS.

They should close that section of Yonge entirely and set it up for pedestrian use. It's not a useful road anyway for cars. It's a good idea. Yonge is such a hot-spot for pedestrians and it's so ugly right now, it deserves some patios and green space.

Yum: steak, salad and fumes.

One step at a time, folks. I think this is great. Let this be a chance for business owners on the strip to see the value in this, and for drivers to think of other options for visiting downtown.

It's not that uncommon. Nicollet Mall (actually it's not a 'mall' - it's an avenue; but in the 1970's there was this push in downtown Minneapolis to build a pedestrian-only avenue that stretches 15 blocks, and showcases the best stores/outdoor patios. Unfortunately, with the Salvation Army, City Jail and bus terminal all within about a 4 block walk from here, one can not sit down at any sidewalk cafe on Nicollet without the 'gotta smoke?', 'got any money?' 'hey, I'm carrying around an empty gas can because my car ran out just over there!'...every hooker, junkie and bag lady has a sob story and of course they hit up anyone trying to enjoy one of the few peaceful, sunny Minneapolis days. In order for these things to work, there has to be enforcement of existing laws on the books - otherwise your customers with money will never come back. The other problem with Minneapolis - and I'm not sure how Toronto would do this with Yonge - is that Metro Transit has to run it's buses down Nicollet Mall (so it's not exactly vehicle free - completely) because there are only so many north-south avenues downtown; with over 100,000 downtown workers and not much of an LRT it would take hours to coordinate getting all these people home without using Nicollet Mall. But yes, I would love to see Yonge Street mirror something more like this.

Using Minneapolis as an example, one of the things they've talked about with Nicollet Mall is the concept of either a heated sidewalk in the winter, or some sort of canopy (seriously) so that it's semi-encolsed to still attract shoppers who spend a lot of time downtown. Once again, as is the case in Toronto, there has to be some enforcement of laws on the books. When people are constantly bombarded for money, harassed by junkies and hookers, begged for money after 1) paying for parking and 2) paying for whatever they came downtown for, they're simply going to head for the malls in the suburbs. There also has to be more of a presence of making sure kids are in school because there is no excuse for 14-year-olds to be running wild around Eaton Centre during the school day when they're clearly supposed to be in school.

This is fail. What are those cars doing in the middle of a street festival?

Maybe kids are running around Yonge Street because schools are only 25 minutes subway ride from downtown, and there' a lot of places to eat? Why are people like you so hateful of kids being on the high street of a city, and why does it bug you?

Why do people constantly have to compare things to New York? New York is one thing, Toronto is another... Deal with it or move to Syracuse so you can be in the middle and whine about everything.

Walked by on the weekend and it was great. They may as well just close down Yonge during it completely though, traffic was barely moving and there were still so many pedestrians that the sidewalks were filled. This festival doesn't actually add any sidewalk space, since it all got filled up with booths/patios.

I loved the giant chess set and connect 4 set, those looked like a lot of fun and a bunch of people were gathered around the chess set watching the match. Stuff like this really brings people together.

Amazing - here's the city trying to do SOMETHING pedestrian friendly, which we all claim we want and all anyone on this site can do is bitch and complain that its not Time Square, or that you don't want to sit on a patio next to car fumes or in a "cage". What the hell do you expect for a one-month temporary experiment? Why not recognize that this is big friggin deal for a city like ours, to even consider restricting car access on Yonge St in favour of a more pedestrian friendly setup.

Seriously its "professional" complainers like you guys who are part of the reason this city is so conservative about trying anything different. You guys just sound like the lefty version of old cranks like Doug Holyday.

Why you don't you try contributing something to society other than your sad bitterness.