The Yonge Street strip (Image: John Douglas)
Yonge Street dollar stores, strip clubs and head shops be warned: an ambitious new plan for revamping Toronto’s main drag is looking to erase some of the ramshackle shabbiness on the stretch between Dundas and Gerrard streets, adding wider sidewalks, a narrowed roadway and high-quality retail stores. Spearheaded by local councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, the plan is set to be fully unveiled Wednesday—in the always exciting form of a report—and is designed to look at ways to improve the troubled stretch following a suspicious fire that ripped through a heritage building at the corner of Yonge and Gould in January. The loss of that building served as a wake-up call to businesses and residents, highlighting the fragile and often overlooked history that exists on Yonge, particularly north of Dundas. But while we welcome any changes to the historic street—and, really, it should be one of downtown Toronto’s finest—we have to wonder: will this kind of thing make it past council with the Rob Ford regime running city hall?
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