The PATH, the sprawling underground shopping network in downtown Toronto, is a dead zone. The office towers above the PATH's corridors are largely empty, the food courts are deserted, and most of the shops are closed or out of business.
The Globe and Mail reports on the current state of the PATH, and it's not good.
During lunchtime this week, many of the restaurants in the food courts throughout the PATH were closed. Staff, security guards and cleaners outnumbered patrons. At one food court, every restaurant was shut except for a fast-food Shanghai 360 and a coffee shop. There were decals on the floor directing traffic and showing people where to wait in line for the food. But no one was waiting.
At a Tim Hortons, four masked staff stood behind the counter, while one served the sole customer. Some of the seating was blocked off in an attempt to observe physical-distancing requirements. But only a handful of people were using tables, including two workers on a break.
The pandemic has hit fashion retailers, restaurants and their commercial landlords particularly hard, and perhaps nowhere more so than the PATH, which is highly reliant on the office economy and public transportation users. Tunnels are a hard sell for people worried about being inside. And while many of Toronto’s above-ground restaurants have been able to create makeshift patios, food courts buried under the financial district don’t have that option.
I have not been downtown since before Christmas. This article both saddened and disturbed me. It will be a long time before the PATH returns to anything near to what it was pre-covid
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