When stores die on Yonge Street

Emptiness
Toronto, ON
April 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: Yonge Street, Thursday morning, rush hour. I'm walking from the subway to our Toronto offices for a day of shooting videos before heading back to London on a late train. Normally this stretch is choked with traffic, but this cold, windy morning is different. Something feels off as I walk on the nearly-silent sidewalk. There's no hum of traffic, no hustle to avoid oncoming phone-addicted pedestrians. I stop and look around, half-expecting to find myself either in the middle of a movie set or a possibly bad dream.

Across the street sits a row of derelict buildings awaiting their fate. A massive condo development is slated for this block, and and these buildings stand meekly, abandoned, as the construction closes in around them.

Not so long ago, these storefronts had an energy all their own, an endless string of activity that spilled onto the sidewalk and powered the streetscape. While the new development will include some street-level retail, don't count on the local, owner-operated stores ever coming back. They've moved on, retired, walked away. Retail isn't what it used to be.

Neither are these buildings. I stand on the dirty sidewalk and try to imagine what they must have been like during their heyday. I wonder if anyone stood here then and admired the streetscape as I do now. I use "admired" deliberately: This place is still compelling, still worth taking in. Soon, though, I'll get off the subway and it'll be gone for good. The inevitability saddens me to no end.

As I continue on my way, I think about the people who once gave this area life, and hope wherever they've ended up, they're doing well. Maybe the new retailers and residents who move into the shiny new megabuilding slated for this site will create something special, too. Maybe they'll bring life back to this now-lifeless stretch.

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