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.

Why not cherry-pick? Detractors of one-ways always choose a segment of one street to champion 2-way conversions. I'm asking for someone (not necessarily you) to do it with another block that was converted to 2-way but doesn't have a net benefit in my opinion.

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.

I would disagree. You can compare the strip mall between Forest and Young as similar to the strip mall at the corner of Wilson/York and James North. The apartment building, built into the incline, needs that large stretch of concrete to provide on-site parking and a foundation for the building. The same could be said of Leon Furs, the old Shoppers or any of the parking lots on James North. There's no parking lot on Young, though. I think you're confusing part of the garage or maybe the small gravel lot that Horizon Utilities use for parking (but that is on John, not Young). Perhaps you could come visit this stretch sometime rather than rely on Google Maps.

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. I'm not sure what direction you are moving in here (I assume moving North?) but there's not too many new restaurants: 2 come to mind, Incognito and U Shao. The others have been there for years (perhaps 10+) so I would not include them as being new.

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.

There's street parking on John north of Augusta, it's on the west side. It's usually got cars parked in it. But you did bring up an intersting point - the traffic moves fast along here. Usually faster than the posted limit. Especially later in the evening/early in the morning and weekends. Why is that? I thought a byproduct of 2-ways was slower 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.

I need you to clarify something here. You're saying that one-way traffic is flowing 2 ways? Really? It's 2 lanes both directions going up and down the Jolley Cut. Also, how would there be urban retail along the Cut? There's no buildings aside from apartments!

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.

Please keep the discussion to John South, since that's what I was asking about. However, John North shares a lot of the same features as James North (2 noteable parking lots aside).

So, I ask again,

Can you please provide me with empirical proof that the John South conversion has had a net positive result? At best it's been no change.