Reece Martin is perhaps best known for his YouTube channel focused on transit. He has over 330,000 subscribers, and I have mentioned him a few times over the years on this blog. But he has since retired from YouTube and he now has a new blog called "Next Toronto," which you should all subscribe to. I just did that today.
In his latest post, he makes "the case for a 24-hour Toronto" and compares our city to various other global cities around the world including New York and Tokyo. This post really resonates with me and I agree with his view that there's something quintessentially urban about things being open all the time, or at the very least open late.
According to ChatGPT, Toronto is a "semi 24-hour city." Its deficiencies:
Here's how I generally think about it.
Step 1 is reasonable daytime hours. As a North American, I still find it frustrating how some/many restaurants in Europe close between lunch and dinner. Call me spoiled, but what if I got held up at work and couldn't eat during the generally accepted time? Or if I went to the gym in the morning and now I suddenly have a dire caloric deficit?
Step 2 is staying open kind of late, including on Sundays. A few weeks ago I was driving around the suburbs of Toronto — on a Sunday — and I decided to take advantage of this rare occurrence to stop in at what's called an enclosed shopping mall. So I got all the way there, pulled confidently on one of the front doors, and then realized it had closed 2 hours ago.
Step 3 is the rarified big leagues; you're a "24-hour city." Reece gives the example of Apple's Fifth Avenue store, which, in case you forgot, never closes. I don't typically shop for consumer electronics at 3AM, but I might. And there's something oddly comforting about knowing I could. This isn't possible in all cities, but it is in New York. That says something.