Yonge and Dundas: A Tale of Two Sidewalks

2008 photo of the Yonge Dundas intersection, by Sam Javanrouh and Matthew Blackett.

The Eaton Center has been in the news a lot lately, thanks to a shooting inside its food court earlier in the summer. Most recently, there was a horrifying tale of one person urinating on another (who was sleeping) outside. I could link some articles about them, but certainly I've linked enough to the Toronto Star recently. Regardless, there has been some recent discussion as to whether the mall is to blame; I think it's a bit bigger than just the Eaton Centre.

The general feeling of the Yonge/Dundas corner is that it's both incredibly successful, yet incredibly troubled. I think that identifying the intersection as dangerous (thanks to said shooting and urinator; I also know of one of my Ryerson professors getting mugged nearby) is unfair however. These incidents are really anomalies in the grand scheme of things (the shooting wasn't even outside, for example). When you look at the intersection as a whole, there is a lot to like about the area:

• It's very pedestrian friendly. You can see the "scramble" crosswalk above, which does a great job of pushing the enormous amount of pedestrians through it. Both the Dundas streetcar and the YUS Subway meet here, making it very accessible by public transit.
• There are lots of great amenities nearby. Whether you have a negative opinion of the Eaton Centre or not, there is still a movie theatre, several nearby shopping draws (Shopper's Drug Mart, Future Shop, Canadian Tire), a decent sitting area, several coffee places and eateries, and of course, the Ryerson campus.
• There's always a lot of interesting activity occuring near the intersection. During the day, you can find buskers (including Batman), and at night there are drummers and break dancers who stake out some territory near the corners.
  

There are some downsides to the area however:

• Yonge Dundas Square does not fit in well with the sidewalk. The area is not "public" property in the traditional sense; it is under management by a board of directors whose goal is to make the square profitable (or at least, revenue neutral). What this means for buskers, is that they are charged a higher fee to use the space (about $170/year versus about $34 for general city property), pushing them onto the other corners, particularly across the street near the Sears entrance to the Eaton Centre. This can make that side very crowded during the day, while the sidewalk across the street stands empty, save for the loud (sometimes obnoxious) performances in the square. It's not always fun to walk through!
• Speaking of the Eaton Centre, it exists near the corner, but is isolated from the public realm. If (instead of Sears) there were some smaller shops bordering the street (such as what you typically see on Yonge Street) you'd have more eyes on the sidewalk, making it a safer area overall.
• Constant proselytizing from various religious groups. Okay, the "Believe in the Lord!" guy is pretty charming (in a somewhat creepy sort of way), but you can't walk past the west side without being asked/shouted at by three different people for three different religions. This is potentially a result of being shut out from the Square side, but it makes the area a bit intimidating to move through at times. Worse yet, there appears to be a bit of an escalating arms race, with more proselytizers turning to microphones and portable amplifiers to get their message heard above the rest.

The solutions are generally practical (albeit not necessarily cheap):

1. Reclaim the sidewalk bordering Yonge Dundas square truly to the public. Allow buskers to use the space for the smaller fee (or better yet, get rid of the fee entirely). This will (hopefully) spread out the proselytizers, preventing them from clumping up and lessening the need for electronic assistance.
2. Move some uses inside the Eaton Centre onto the curb. The Sears there already has both a Starbucks and a sports shop inside (for Blue Jays); these are two uses that could be potentially "moved" such that they interact with the public realm. There is a H&M on the Dundas side that would be more difficult to work with, but perhaps an inviting entrance at street level could work. As a benefit, with more uses on the street, you would have more eyes to deter crime.

Obviously, these solutions aren't necessarily simple, but I think they would do a lot to make the intersection (with its already positive attributes) better. You're not going to stop crime entirely, but by making the intersection more friendly, you can potentially reduce it.