3 ms·

I'm a Toronto native and the PATH is very cool, but I don't know how great of a third place it is. It does have public seating and tables, but they are spread

I'm a Toronto native and the PATH is very cool, but I don't know how great of a third place it is. It does have public seating and tables, but they are spread out and often not very large. Also almost all of the shops are closed down on weekends (it is basically a ghost town) including the washrooms. Together this makes it seem much more like a large cafeteria and shops for people going to or from work. But I don't know if that qualifies it as the best third place. That being said Toronto is decent at third places, we have decent park density and a good handful of public spaces like city hall and a good distribution of quality public libraries. So maybe I am just coming from a place of privilege.

neom 2y ago
They just completed a bunch of renovation in the last few months, if you've not been in the blocks around Bay and King recently, go check it out, it looks great! If they do that to the whole path, it will really open it up a lot.
- kevincox 2y ago
  I was there. (I am admittedly not a regular but did recently go on a "PATH walk".) I don't think that renovation is the main problem. The PATH is very nice and comfortable. I see the main issue is it being closed weekends (I don't think most shops are not allowed to open, probably not the food ones at least as the bathrooms are locked.) I understand that this would be a tough problem to bootstrap. Because obviously no one is there because no shops are open, but no shops are open because no one is there. But it does seem surprising to me that Starbucks or some other coffee shop next to a huge array of fairly comfortable tables couldn't make a profit on weekends, even if it took a while for the word of this nice location to get out.
  - neom 2y ago
    It's a good idea, even if they zoned/mandate some of it as such (coffee shop in work area open on weekends), technically the city is in charge of the path. I know a few councilors through work, guess it's worth mentioning.

neom 2y ago

They just completed a bunch of renovation in the last few months, if you've not been in the blocks around Bay and King recently, go check it out, it looks great! If they do that to the whole path, it will really open it up a lot.

kevincox 2y ago
I was there. (I am admittedly not a regular but did recently go on a "PATH walk".) I don't think that renovation is the main problem. The PATH is very nice and comfortable. I see the main issue is it being closed weekends (I don't think most shops are not allowed to open, probably not the food ones at least as the bathrooms are locked.) I understand that this would be a tough problem to bootstrap. Because obviously no one is there because no shops are open, but no shops are open because no one is there. But it does seem surprising to me that Starbucks or some other coffee shop next to a huge array of fairly comfortable tables couldn't make a profit on weekends, even if it took a while for the word of this nice location to get out.
- neom 2y ago
  It's a good idea, even if they zoned/mandate some of it as such (coffee shop in work area open on weekends), technically the city is in charge of the path. I know a few councilors through work, guess it's worth mentioning.