Sometimes I'm not even sure how to contribute to the conversation in these threads because you guys occasionally come across as a bunch of grumpy old suburbanites! I know there's nuance to what's being said here, and I know most of us are well traveled or have lived in amazing cities. However, it genuinely sounds like these days you guys just pass through downtown sporadically, and are mostly relying on random anecdotal snapshots to base your opinions on. Do you guys also notice the office workers eating their lunch in the grass accross from London Life everyday? Do you notice the people relaxing on a benches quietly reading books, having coffee, chatting? The people getting together in the afternoon sun on patios literally all fucking over downtown?
The way you guys talk you make it sound like downtown is a bombed out wasteland. Like it's the Bronx in the 1970s. You're either being dramatic and laying it on so damn thick, or you're totally out of touch with what day to day life is like downtown.
I've lived downtown near Dundas and Richmond for the last 16 years or so. For about 8 of those years I've also worked 3 different jobs downtown. I'm on my 4th year at my current job on Richmond Row. I grew up in Woodfield, and went to highschool downtown. Aside from my time in KWC for post-secondary, I've pretty much lived in the core or near downtown my entire life. The only times I leave downtown are for recreational bike rides around the city, or for rides out of the city. I also travel somewhat frequently, which obviously also takes me outside of downtown.
The way you guys talk about there being nothing to do downtown, nothing drawing you downtown, is exactly how I feel about the donut of London surrounding our downtown. I love living and working down here, and mostly loathe ever needing to venture out of central London. Pretty much anywhere post-war is not worth visiting (hyperbole but not far off from how I feel). I bike a lot and definitely visit and enjoy our amazing parks and natural areas throughout the city. I take the odd night rides through quiet suburban neighbourhoods making loops out of convoluted meandering streets.
me plotting downtown and OEV vibrancy 2026 - source my feelings
So obviously I love downtown, but I'd like to think I can look at things objectively as well. Things aren't great right now. In a lot of ways things are definitely the worst they've ever been. But I'll be blunt when I say this, I think blaming our current situation downtown on homelessness and addiction is ignorant and naive. Downtown has experienced a persistent decline for decades, with a brief exception in the 2000s. I mostly think the addiction and homelessness we're witnessing downtown is just one of many symptoms of this persistent decline, and not the cause of it.
Downtown is no longer an everyday shopping destination. The critical mass of retail and department stores is long gone and never coming back. Ubiquitous and convenient retail/commercial sprawl and online shopping has decimated downtown retail. The only retail that can thrive or even just survive downtown is specialty/boutique retail. Covid and work-from-home decimated service/food business downtown and it's yet to bounce back. Dry cleaners, tailors, cafes, diners, lunch spots, variety stores all closed and have largely remained vacant. Again, specialty/destination restaurants and clubs have mostly remained healthy. Side note: Dundas Place. Years of construction really did kill the momentum on Dundas in the second half of the 2010s. Stores were already struggling and closing, which lead to Dundas having an even harder time weathering the pandemic.
Truly the only way to save downtown is to keep adding people like me down here. People that live or work down here, and spend the majority of their money down here. Investing in festivals and events that encourage other Londoners to visit downtown (actually giving them a reason to visit) is great, but it won't be the silver bullet to save downtown. Just like busing all the homeless to another city won't save downtown. Our problems downtown are complex, and they're also extremely fucking common. The decline of downtown has been chugging along since the 60s, it's going to take decades to reverse the trend.
I promise that I know firsthand the gravity of the problems downtown. I see random small fires in doorways and people screaming at the sky every night. I see garbage, homeless peoples' belongings, feces, drug paraphernalia, broken glass, etc every day.
But I also see CoL workers constantly cleaning downtown and watering plants. Contractors like Goodbye Graffiti power washing sidewalks, front stoops, and bus shelters. I see a constant police presence downtown. I see foot patrol and bike cops at least a dozen times a day. I see cop cars idling in driveways and laneways, or surveying the backs of downtown buildings and tucked away parking areas. Once or twice a month foot patrol will pop into our shop asking if we've had any problems, and always making sure to give us updated contact information, access to different services to call, etc.
I do mostly agree with Molson and Snark's solutions regarding our homelessness crisis, but I also agree with Snark that it will be ages until the crisis is solved. I also don't think downtown's health, vibrancy, or success necessarily have all that much to do with the homelessness crisis.
Improving the homelessness/addiction crisis downtown might stop the bleeding, but it won't fill the dozens upon dozens of vacant storefronts in the core. Unfortunately downtown really just needs another 10 or 20 thousand more people living here. With maybe another 10 or 20 thousand more people living in near-downtown neighbourhoods for good measure. Until then, I don't expect downtown to dramatically improve.
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