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Little Portugal

Though one thing the article neglects to mention which I think is important is more recent Brazilian immigration which helps keep Little Portugal alive as a Lusophone enclave. In contrast, Italian and Greek immigration dried up years ago.
 
Though one thing the article neglects to mention which I think is important is more recent Brazilian immigration which helps keep Little Portugal alive as a Lusophone enclave. In contrast, Italian and Greek immigration dried up years ago.

Definitely. There's also a pretty small (but perhaps growing?) Angolan community as well.
 
The Portuguese haven't really formed enclaves in the suburbs. There are little patches here and there but there's no "Portuguese Woodbridge" for example.
 
The Dufferin/St. Clair area has the biggest concentration of Portuguese in Toronto, yet Little Portugal still remains a real enclave, unlike Little Italy which has very few Italians at this point.
 
The Portuguese haven't really formed enclaves in the suburbs. There are little patches here and there but there's no "Portuguese Woodbridge" for example.

There are plenty of Portugese-Canadians in Brampton and Mississauga (and there's Portugese bakeries, restaurants and churches) but no major neighbourhood concentrations.
 
I think part of the explanation for Little Portugal holding out are as follows:

The Portuguese came later than the Italians (College St. Little Italy was already established a century ago) and are less affluent.

While Little Portugal has seen gentrification, it's lower on the pecking order for gentrifiers than Little Italy or prime Danforth. It's further out than Little Italy, while Danforth has the subway and is more "green" and park-like, and both have more appealing housing stock. The paved front yards thing doesn't really appeal to the gentrifiers.

Plus, as mentioned earlier, immigration from Brazil and to a lesser extent Angola means you still have a younger generation of Portuguese speaking immigrants.

Ward 17 is 22% Portuguese speaking and Ward 18 is 20% Portuguese speaking. Italian speakers only make up 3% of Ward 19. Interestingly, the Greeks haven't really "left" Danforth - or at least haven't gone that far - as Ward 29 is by far the most heavily Greek ward (9% Greek speaking), though they're most heavily concentrated a bit north of prime Danforth in old East York. They've suburbanized quite a bit, but not in a particularly concentrated manner.

Interestingly, I'm curious why the Poles seem to have "ceded" Roncesvalles so easily - it seems only slightly more Polish than College St. is Italian at this point. There was immigration into the 80s and 90s. I'm guessing it has to do with Roncesvalles being higher on the pecking order, so to speak.
 
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As a resident of Little Portugal for over 2 years now, I can say that thankfully it has solidly hipsterfied.
 
As a resident of Little Portugal for over 2 years now, I can say that thankfully it has solidly hipsterfied.

As a resident of slightly over that duration I'd say it's even dehipsterifying. Too expensive for 28 year olds working for independent record companies. At least 3-4 houses on my street currently under reno to be turned into SFH.
 
As a resident of slightly over that duration I'd say it's even dehipsterifying. Too expensive for 28 year olds working for independent record companies. At least 3-4 houses on my street currently under reno to be turned into SFH.

The retail activity along Dundas and College speaks otherwise...
 

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