All about the 9-to-5
BIA’s survey offers portrait of a unique daytime neighbourhood: Toronto’s financial district
By day the population of Toronto’s financial district swells to more than 200,000 people. But once the bank tower lights go down, only about 2,239 people actually live there, in about 1,500 households. That’s according to Census data crunched by Environics Analytics for the Toronto Financial District Business Improvement Area (BIA).
The BIA surveyed that daytime population to help it compile a statistical snapshot of the city’s uniquely 9-to-5 neighbourhood. It shows that the folks who commute daily to Canada’s financial services hub are an educated, multilingual commuter population with enough time to dine and a predilection for lunching near their desks.
The bank towers soar overhead, but much of the neighbourhood’s vibrancy is underground in the PATH system, the city’s tentacled mall under the streets.
“It’s a huge economic driver. It’s a significant piece of the vitality here in terms of how the area works,” said BIA executive director Grant Humes.
The BIA’s area stretches roughly from Yonge St. west to Simcoe St., and from Queen St. south to the GO tracks.
Surrounded by condos, the financial district is home to only three residential towers, two hotel-condos and another building under construction, says the BIA. The organization has been honing
By day, 200,000 people are in the city’s financial district. At night, just over 2,200
the district’s distinct identity for about two years, creating a cohesive look with banners and signage and working with the city on public realm improvements.
While landlords in the area have done some tenant surveys, the BIA’s captures a broader, lifestyle-oriented picture of the daytime population.
That information helps area buildings, including the bank towers, think about their retail mix.
“We’ve got a fairly limited space of about 15 square blocks,” said Humes.
While 70 per cent of those surveyed used transit as their primary commuting mode, and about 14 per cent either drove alone or carpooled, active transportation is an important consideration for many in the financial district, he said.
“There is a significant cluster of people that live close by, so you’ve got a concentration of people who work in this area who are walking,” said Humes, who pointed out that the new cycling lanes on Richmond and Adelaide Sts. could also see an uplift in biking.
“If you provide a high-quality cycling environment, a lot of cyclists will gravitate toward that. It may actually pull traffic off some other places,” he said.
Humes said the survey confirmed many of his beliefs about who uses the financial district, although he was a little surprised that a full 35 per cent come from communities outside Toronto. Sixty-four per cent live in Toronto.
The Workday Population Survey included 1,061 responses to online and in-person surveys in March, conducted in conjunction with the Humber College Media Studies and Information Technology program and through FluidSurveys online software. Humber professors assisted in calculating a 3.1 per cent margin of error on the majority of the responses, said BIA communications manager Tim Kocur.