Saks Takes Over HBC Flagship

Looks like Bloor-Yorkville is about to get posher still, with the announcement that the eyesore Hudson’s Bay flagship store at Yonge and Bloor is about to become Toronto’s flagship Saks Fifth Avenue store, after the New York-based retailer was bought by HBC.

A recent Globe and Mail article says the Bloor-Yonge Saks would be about twice the size of nearby luxury goods rival Holt Renfrew a block west. The Globe also says HBC will put about $100 million into a reno, including changes to the exterior to, presumably, make it look less like a bunker.

If you can get your hands on the Globe article, it’s got a lot more detail about the retailer’s intended direction, and is well worth the read. For our purposes, it bodes well for those condos going up in the neighbourhood, like Chaz.Yorkville. This neighbourhood just keeps getting better. There’s a proposal right now to build an 83-storey mixed-use condo right above Holt at 50 Bloor Street West. It does make one wonder how those people are even going to fit on the sidewalk — and here’s hoping none of them own cars! — but if Toronto has ambitions to be a world-renowned skyscraper city, it is sure on its way.

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A report before the city’s Planning and Growth Management Committee today says city planners are ready to move ahead with taking a look at a relief subway to take pressure off our paltry existent Yonge and Bloor/Danforth lines. The first step will see council approve the study process, which The Star says is likely by next summer. Planners would then begin to develop a list of possible routes and stations.

It will be 2015 before that long list is down to a short list and the options evaluated. The first phase is likely to start somewhere on the eastern end of the Danforth line and work its way south to connect with the Yonge subway, and a west-end connection might run through downtown and up to High Park on the Bloor Street line.

The TTC is already taking measures to deal with capacity, like bigger trains and crowd management at busier stations, but TTC CEO Andy Byford has already said that extending the Bloor-Danforth line to Sheppard to replace the Scarborough LRT will put even more pressure on the downtown lines.

The provincial agency Metrolinx will also be involved, studying ways to extend options outside Toronto, perhaps including GO Train service. They were to have begun consultations this fall, but plans have been, shall we say, derailed.

“Given the depth of the study, we have determined that more work was needed to facilitate a robust and meaningful discussion with the public,” said spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins in The Star. “We anticipate launching a project webpage in early 2014, where updates and study materials will be available, and the public can submit their comments to us.”

It’s great that the discussion is happening, that the study is happening, and that maybe, just maybe, someday something concrete will actually happen, but oh, how sick I am of this governmental double-speak. Get on with it. Toronto’s population has been doing nothing but growing since ol’ York back at the turn of the last century. Are we really just figuring out now that we have congestion issues in the core?

Do we really have to talk about the things we will talk about before we talk about them? In the meantime, folks, you may want to get yourself a good bicycle.

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Speaking of congestion, apartment dwellers in Scarborough just east of the car-mad Beaches are finding themselves facing a plethora of parking tickets, says the Star. The former borough still designates a three-hour time limit on street parking, and with no permits available, much of the area’s real estate devoted to single-family homes, and many apartment buildings so old they have no parking, residents are waking to find their overnight spot cost them a few bucks.

Parking enforcement has reportedly been diligent lately owing to resident complaints, which is the only time they do bother to ticket overnight parkers. Some apartment residents are talking about moving, as the money they’re spending on parking tickets makes their reasonable rents seem not so reasonable.

Almost nowhere in Scarborough does permit parking exist, and in order to change that, a majority of residents would have to be in favour, and apparently they’re not. Scarborough Southwest Councillor Gary Crawford told the Star, “There is no real answer.” He said that even if they look at changing the bylaw (which he called a “complex and long-term process”), it doesn’t mean area residents, most of whom own nice wide lots and driveways, will agree to the changes.

I hate the un-neighbourliness of this. Face it — modern life entails cars, and cars entail parking. Is it really affecting you if your neighbour has a car on the street at 3 a.m.? Can’t we just live and let park?