Despite ominous vows of destruction from anarchist groups and the jarring image of neighbouring businesses boarded up in preparation for the worst, Ash Mansukhani, owner of The TechKnow Space on Front Street is smiling and warmly welcoming weekend shoppers, confident that all will be fine despite his store's close proximity to the G20 Security Zone.
He realizes that mounting security concerns aren't good for business, but he's intent on staying open throughout what could be a tumultuous weekend.
"I am absolutely staying open unless somebody drags me out of here," he insists.
"People have been calling me, 'is it safe to come downtown? Am I going to get hassled? People are anxious when they see all the security."
Despite his insistence that it will be business as usual, Mansukhani isn't blind to the fact that a neighbouring smoothie store is boarded up, and that things could get uglier than he expects.
"I'm going to play it by the ear, I'm going to stay in the store to work over the weekend. The issue is...whether there is some physical danger because we're going to have a riot or people getting rowdy or unruly. I think Toronto is a safe place I can't see Toronto being any risk, but if there is anything I will just close the shutters and lock the door."
"I think everybody has their own risk profile," he adds. "I am not as risk adverse as a lot of people are. I see very minimal risk."
"We had the landlords come in and talk to us, and say you're free to stay open or close etc., but the cops or security people haven't come in. I feel pretty safe."
That doesn't mean he's happy with the G20 taking over much of the downtown core.
"Toronto is a beautiful city, it's a vibrant city, it's multicultural. Everything good about Toronto is going to not be visible to the tourists who come in, or the politicians, or business people because we are going to have a ghost-town downtown."
"If they had it somewhere off the downtown core, those guys would have come downtown to do some shopping, to go to a show, to go to a ball game...and they would have seen the real pulse of Toronto, the heartbeat of Toronto.
"What are they going to see now? Security? A dead city?"
"How does that promote tourism or visibility for our city or country? They are spending so much money, disrupting so many lives, showing the worst...At the end of the day people aren't getting the real flavour of Toronto."
michael.talbot@citynews.rogers.com