City Hall Toronto Skating

City Hall Toronto Skating
Originally uploaded by James @ mannequindisplay.com.

How about a skating rink on the old convention center site right now (well, when it gets a bit colder)? Or close off 8th Street between H and G Streets, leading up to the Reynolds Center (National Museum of American Art and the National Portrait Gallery) during the Winter.

People don't do stuff downtown because there isn't enough to do. Although I have to say, there is a lot more happening then there used to be, especially along the 7th Street corridor. In fact, with the Verizon Center, decent restaurants, and retail (yes, even if it is mostly chains like Urban Outfitters, Ann Taylor Loft, etc.) you see so many more people in that area at all hours of the day and night. Too bad that Hecht's didn't stay in its old location across the street from the Museums. Now it would be paying off big time.

All the reason to add more stuff to do, as Fred Kent suggests (he calls it "layering") in this article from Governing Magazine, "Pride of Place."

Friday night, around 7:30 pm, 700 block of 7th Street NW

By the Lansburgh (Shakespeare) Theater, 400 block of 7th Street NW.

Mid afternoon on a Saturday, 700 block of 7th Street NW.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking