A strip of the busiest pedestrian street in Canada is being considered for a makeover, courtesy of some aging sewer pipes.The water mains under downtown Yonge St. need to be replaced, meaning the street has to be dug up, and the city wants to seize the opportunity to redevelop a stretch of the iconic roadway with a view to making it more pedestrian-friendly. Mark Garner, executive director of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area, says Yonge has structurally changed little since the subway went in nearly 70 years ago.“The last time Yonge St. was opened up was in 1948-1952 to put in the subway system. During that time period, in Toronto, we were still harvesting ice off of High Park Pond for refrigeration in Toronto,” said Garner.According to a new environmental assessment report from the city, some 238,000 people course down the sidewalks of Yonge between Queen and College Sts. over 24 hours on an average summer day.Car is not king in this congested neighbourhood — up to 75 per cent of people using Yonge here are pedestrians, and over the last 20 years, walking has doubled while driving has decreased by 17 per cent. But at the same time pedestrians have less than 25 per cent of the space, according to the environmental assessment, one of the first steps in the process of redeveloping the area.Read more:Experts explain why Toronto streets can feel like a battlefieldToronto’s King streetcar pilot project is now permanentCountdown signals safer for pedestrians, but risky for impatient drivers“We who live here are very much concerned about the crowding,” said Margrit Eichler, secretary of the McGill Granby Village Residents’ Association. “It’s very difficult to walk ... you have to sort of shuffle along at the speed of other people because you can’t overtake them. The crowding is really remarkable and it’s going to get worse.”An additional 8,500 proposed condo units are in development alo ...
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