Toronto enjoys many main street pedestrian festivals over the course of the summer (Taste of the Danforth being possibly the most famous and well-attended), but few of them take place north of Bloor/Danforth. That’s starting to change with the first official pedestrian street festival on St. Clair West this weekend (there are unofficial ones whenever Italy wins the World Cup, of course). An interesting twist is that although the streets will be closed to vehicles, streetcars will continue to run along the new St. Clair right-of-way during the festival, including free heritage streetcar rides on Sunday. The Sunday event also conveniently coincides with Italy’s World Cup game against New Zealand that morning, which should result in cause for celebration for the Italian community if the game goes as expected.
St. Clair Feet on the Street
St. Clair Ave. West between Vaughan Rd. and Winona Dr.
Saturday June 19, 5 pm-11 pm
Sunday June 20, 9 am-8pm
16 comments
Is this a replacement for Salsa on St. Clair?
The fact that streetcars will be running will make it unusual. I hope the ROW won’t feel like a barrier.
Salsa on St. Clair is also happening – it will be the next step in St. Clair street festivals.
http://www.mystclair.com/events.php?id=213
Dylan is correct — Salsa will take place as usual in July.
The hope is that the ROW doesn’t feel like a barrier. In fact, it is really part of what makes this practical on St. Clair — stopping streetcar service is a major disruption to the neighbourhood.
The ROW IS a barrier – no point in pretending it’s not. Separative, divisive and cumbersome….an unfortunate mistake.
With that kind of sensitivity ed, what other things in the world do you see as barriers?
Well there’s no doubt it will separate street festivals into two tiers, but thoughtful organization of activities and vendors might make it a non-issue. Street festivals will definitely feel pleasantly Torontonian on St. Clair with streetcars passing by.
St Clair is so much better off with the ROW.Its looks 100% better. And I have no idea how the ROW is a barrier: a 6-inch curb? Really? I’m so tired of the lame excuses for the anti-streetcar crowd.
Matthew,
Visiting St. Clair West last weekend, I noticed that the power lines have a way of splitting the street in half. The power poles and lines themselves obscure much of the vista. Compare St. Clair and Spadina:
http://stevemunro.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/512ViaItaliaE70.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/CLRVs_on_Spadina.jpg
The rails on St. Clair have a lot of dead space between them. It’s space that can’t be used for anything: streetcars, bicycles, cars, or pedestrians.
Actually, could potted plants be put in this space? That would greatly improve the liveliness.
It’s not anti-streetcar to be against badly done streetcars.
Sorry Chad, a centre pole for wires is much better than the wires hanging across the street on every other streetcar route. No doubt there are ways to improve St Clair, but its not nearly the nightmare it was pegged to be.
Now, the process of the ROW can be debated for years and is worth the debate. Much of the delays were not even TTC-related, but came from the utility companies, water mains, etc.
But the end result is much better than expected and I think improves the streetscape of St Clair. As a former resident of the area pre-ROW I am envious of the improvements made the street. It was a dive before and now has a fleeting shot at being returned to the grandeur of its past.
The middle pole is great — one of my favorite design elements of the new ROW.
Centre poles impede the passage of emergency traffic and shuttle buses. The poles should have been placed at the sides of the ROW (not from the sidewalk), perhaps alternating to prevent the appearance of a barrier being on one side of the street. The side-pole arrangement can already be seen along small portions of the ROW.
Mark> Centre poles work well in all kinds of other places — and emerge vehicles can still go down a streetcar track, yes? And even if not, they can still go on the street as they do on any street.
This argument is why we may never have grass under a ROW, which is on some of Waterfront TO’s Queens Quay renderings (and again, exists in other cities).
While the EMS and shuttles can go down the ROW in theory, in practice the drivers seems to avoid them, probably because the tolerances are too low to drive at the appropriate speeds. Remember the Fire Chief initially objected to the ROW but then curiously fell silent.
As for a grassed ROW, the Queensway ROW is available if you want to lay some sod. You should make a deputation at the next Commission meeting.
However, unless you use some kind of drought resistant variety that’s going to require watering I guess. Laying FieldTurf would be one option but would probably make some a bit queasy with the hypocrisy of natural-looking-but-fake greening.
Water it. Straight from the lake. Just like green roofs are often watered. Green roads.
One option I have thought of for green tracks (such as along the realigned Queens Quay) is “grass pavers” which are honeycomb structures which can accommodate grass growth but which can take more weight than turf alone. These are sometimes used at the edge of airport runways to accommodate emergency vehicles or aircraft which miss their turns.
In the event that Queens Quay and Queensway were greened, these pavers laid over the rail ties could possibly allow occasional usage of wheeled vehicles, as well as possibly absorbing more rail noise. It would be terrific to see it tried – but the TTC meetings are usually during times when I’m working 🙂