Quote:
Originally Posted by wardlow
Traffic, and, more to the point, how it dominates the street, is *an* issue on Osborne for sure. The strip is bookended by two stroad-like areas (Confusion Corner to the south, and Osborne north of River) where pedestrians are an afterthought. Generations of city traffic engineers have tried to ram this traffic funnel through Osborne. No new building (or rezoning of existing buildings, I would think) could happen on Osborne without the City taking 10’-15’ off the front of the property for future road widening.
For owners and investors in existing properties, there’s no sense in spending too much on an exterior renovation if the building is just going to be demolished for an extra traffic lane someday. This may explain why Cornerstone Bar at the SW corner of River and Osborne, a great little bar inside, looks like Sage Creek-on-the-cheap on the outside; or why the great old three-storey building at the SE corner of River and Osborne hasn’t been upgraded since sometime before Seinfeld went off the air. In this way, traffic does play a role in the state of not only the street, but the buildings along it. And with vehicle traffic leaving no room in the right of way for trees, planting, benches, etc., the forelorn, crystalized-in-1995 buildings and shopfronts are more visible and tougher to ignore.
Add to this the undeniable fact that Osborne St. is no longer the city’s principle street for cool restaurants, pubs, boutique retail, yuppie housewares, etc. Over the past decade, the Exchange, South Osborne, and Sherbrook have become strong(er) draws for people wanting to wander around and shop, feel cool, or enjoy a nice night out. (Corydon is kind of hanging in there, too, more or less.) And, again, traffic’s domination comes into play: you won’t get splashed with gutter water by a racing bus on McDermot, Sherbrook, or South Osborne streets, but you certainly will on a wet night on the east side of Osborne.
After decades of being the biggest trendy/boutique/hipster/yuppie/whatever game in town, rents on Osborne are too high and many CRUs are too big for the reduced commercial demand. Property owners (mainly a small cabal of tired old holding companies) do not yet realize, or do realize but choose to ignore that this change is going on. And so a healthy transition is stunted, and “for lease” signs hang in dirty storefront windows for a long time. Small wonder most of the great new small businesses to crop up in the Village (Little Sister Coffee, Segovia, Super Deluxe Pizza, Nuburger) are not on Osborne Street.
Meanwhile, the BIZ is carrying on somewhere in the ether like nothing is going on, MIA aside from the occasional misplaced bleating in the news about homeless people.
Osborne Street is in a poor state. I say this not in an “it was cooler when I was younger” way, but as a fairly objective observation. I recently moved into the Village, and there’s many things I love about the neighbourhood, but Osborne Street itself is not one of them.
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- I'd say while traffic lessens the atmosphere a bit, it's definitely not
the issue. Better streetscaping, planting, and upkeep of the public and private realms of Osborne would make a big difference. There were all these improvements planned, about 1/3 of them have happened, and the ones that did look like someone who has zero design experience made the decisions: some sidewalks redone exactly as they were, a few new boring wood benches, those awful cement cylinders, and the hideous red bike racks with the outdated OV logo. Are those coloured light boxes actually done as planned?? What happened to the clock tower and plaza improvements? Can we seriously not replace the 20 year old string lights?
- Better cycling infrastructure for the whole village area does need to be a priority
- The Osborne BIZ director needs to be let go, and someone with vision and creativity brought in. It's a mess, and clear that there's no plan or vision in place.
- Cornerstone looks like that because the owners are cheap as hell. Have you seen inside or been to The Grove? They spend as little money as possible on the space, the furniture at The Grove is atrocious, and Cornerstone looks like an IKEA cafeteria. Both places have good food, and Grove is the only bar in the area so they do well, but they both have absolutely zero ambiance so I avoid going as much as possible.
- I think going through South Osborne is just as bad as the village in terms of look and feel. Any banners that somehow have managed to stay up are torn and faded. Sidewalk lamps out everywhere. Several businesses with massive parking lots. The MTS/McDonalds area kills any chance of contecting the two sides of CC well.
In much the same way as West Broadway and The Exchange have done: if you
improve it they will come. I have strong beliefs that a lot of the success of The Exchange and WB have to do with the fact the city and BIZs have made significant investments in the public realm of these areas, which not only makes them a more pleasant place for people to be, but gives businesses faith that setting up shop in that area is a good decision, as it shows commitment from the city and BIZ.
Quote:
Originally Posted by borkborkbork
south osborne is doing better in a lot of ways despite having much worse "fundamentals" as a neighbourhood in some ways (less density, more shitty street-facing parking lots, a bunch of dead spots without the possibility of continuous retail).
i know everyone blames basil, but he doesn't own the whole OV stretch, does he??
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Yes, he owns most of the buildings on the west side between River and Stradbrook, excluding Cornerstone and Music Trader I believe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by borkborkbork
it looks like the 15-story tower at stradbrook across from the RT station will be going ahead.
however, it (1) won't have the townhouses, and (2) with 1.2 parking stalls per unit, it's pretty clear this isn't actually going to be very "transit oriented" development.
on the upside, they've made some changes so the parkade won't be as much of an insult to the streetscape:
"The addition of a glazed activity room and a vestibule on the ground floor west of the tower. This will extend the "active space" visible to the street and help conceal approximately 1/3 of the parkade frontage... Active outdoor space in front of the parkade. A dog run area is planned, which wil linclude seating, landscaping and trees. This will help animate/ enliven this space and its presentation to Stradbrook Avenue.... An art installation on a significant portion of the parkade façade facing Stradbrook."
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That's an improvement I guess, now let's just hope the city holds them to that.
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