Raise the Hammer

First of all, if we're going to assess the success of two-way conversions, we need to look at the complete picture, not cherry-pick one street. Nevertheless, let's take a look at John South.

The street has challenges that two-way conversion on its own can't solve, in particular a much less coherent and intact street wall south of Augusta: a strip plaza set far back from the street at Forest; the blank, impermeable wall of an '80s-style apartment building across the street; another strip plaza at Young; and a service shop/parking lot kitty corner from the strip plaza.

Starting around Augusta, the street wall is more intact and we see several new restaurants opened in the past several years: London Tap House, Incognito, Affinity, Jia Hot Pot House, U Shao, and several new pubs on Augusta to either side of John.

Another problem with John is that it's still generally two traffic lanes in each direction. Curbside parking on both sides, especially north of Augusta, would further tame traffic and make the sidewalk more pleasant and comfortable for pedestrians than the current narrow slivers of sidewalk right next to fast automobile traffic.

James and John South both suffer from incompatible design goals: converting to two-way without sacrificing the essentially one-way traffic flows up and down the Jolley Cut. As a result, they have been less successful than, say James North at kick-starting urban retail and neighbourhood revival.

John North, in turn, is saddled with a devastated street wall north of King William - whole blocks of surface parking where buildings once stood. In the bootstrapping process of urban revitalization, you need to start with cheap existing building stock, which James North has in abundance and John North mostly lacks.

Nevertheless, in the short intact block between King and King William, we have seen the opening of a number of new businesses since conversion in 2002, including My-Thai, Pane Del Sol, and Downtown Bike Hounds. On the east side, Jeff Feswick is in the process of restoring Treble Hall.