City Bans New Bars and Restaurants on Ossington

[unimaginative2]

Too hip, too fast: City puts brakes on Ossington development

Josh Wingrove

Toronto — From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Friday, May. 29, 2009 03:42AM EDT

Michael Homewood remembers the way Ossington Avenue used to be.

Rundown industrial buildings, a string of sketchy bars and karaoke joints, and a reputation for violence were the strip's defining characteristics.

“When I moved in here two years ago, people thought I was crazy because you couldn't walk down the street at night,†he said.

Since then, the strip has undergone a renaissance. More than a dozen restaurants and bars, including Mr. Homewood's Baby Huey lounge, have opened and flourished. The violence has died down.

That's why Mr. Homewood and others were surprised when the city hit the brakes on Ossington's hot streak.

In a last-minute bylaw introduced and passed Tuesday, the city slapped a one-year moratorium on new bars and restaurants opening along the street. Local councillor Joe Pantalone said he fears the strip is growing too quickly.

“There is ‘hot' area and a ‘burning' area. We don't mind hot, but we don't want to be burned,†he said.

Many of the business owners who spearheaded the redevelopment are perplexed, wondering why city bureaucrats are sticking their noses into the affairs of a strip that has picked itself up on its own.

“Bars and restaurants have organically just popped up,†said Saeed Mohamed, owner of Burger Shoppe Quality Meats. “I don't think you can legislate how a street develops, you know?

“I think it's hypocritical. [We] cleaned it up too fast and now it's like ‘whoa, stop it,'†added Mr. Homewood.

The new bylaw took effect immediately. Businesses which already have applied for liquor licences and building permits are not affected.

Mr. Pantalone said some residents and businesses have expressed “angst†that Entertainment District-type clubs could open along the street.

The same fears led to a similar moratorium years ago on College Street, between Bathurst and Ossington, which he said balanced out that neighbourhood's residential and commercial interests.

“That is the balance we are trying to achieve on Ossington,†he said.

The new Ossington bylaw applies only between Queen and Dundas, the heart of the street's rebirth. The strip's eateries are small, and many open only in the evenings. Most business owners know each other by name, have formed an informal Business Improvement Area, and don't want flashy new lounges in their tightly knit community.

“There's a bit of a fear of nightclubs down here,†said Pol Cristo-Williams, 33, owner of Sweaty Betty's bar, one of the pillars of the new Ossington. “We want it to be a cool little neighbourhood, because it already is.â€

There's no shortage of opinion about the moratorium – suggesting a community meeting planned for tonight at a Dundas and Ossington church will be a busy one.

“I applaud Mr. Pantalone for supporting the neighbourhood in that effect,†said Jason MacIsaac, owner of the Ministry of the Interior boutique. “Because this isn't really an Entertainment District.â€

“It can't happen here,†countered Mr. Homewood, in a separate interview. “The places aren't big enough. Where are you going to be able to put a 3,000-person bar on Ossington?â€

Ossington's development has driven property prices up anyway, business owners say, acting as a de facto moratorium to some of the smaller businesses that might have taken advantage of cheap lease rates two years ago. And it's not just businesses. At Queen and Ossington, a residential loft development is selling at between $400 and $500 per square foot.

It's one “of the hottest areas in town,†said Yossi Kaplan, a real estate agent who represented some of those loft buyers. “The gentrification process is far from over. Far, far from over. That's just the tip of the iceberg for that area.â€

Anthony Siniscalco, 28, is preparing to open an art gallery and lounge, dubbed Gallery, within two months along Ossington, having filed his applications before the new bylaw, which he called “sad.â€

“Toronto needs areas like this. Five years ago there were shootings on Ossington,†he said. “And now look at it.â€

With a report from Jennifer Lewington

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I daresay this is one of the stupidest things that the city has ever done.

 

[MisterF]

The article doesn't explain the city's position very well. But the fact that the moratorium is for one year leads me to suspect that it's an interim control by-law - a by-law that prohibits certain kinds of development for a year to give the city a chance to study it and come up with policy to guide it. If that's the case then the ban is only temporary.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Maybe this was part of a plan to up the hipness quotient of Malvern and other Transfer City neighbourhoods...

 

[ShonTron]

Indeed. I can't wait to check out the Socialist's Daughter at Morningside and Sheppard!

I think this is a interm control by-law. Pretty silly to ban restaurants though. Would it allow new restaurants to open if a bar or restaurant folds in the same location?

 

[TrickyRicky]

The city can study and stall all it wants but I think specialization is an inherent property of all cities and relates to city size. The city will never as it grows trend towards an organization where each neighbourhood is a scaled version of the city as a whole no matter what laws they produce. On the one hand we want our neigbourhoods to suit our needs, on the other hand we want other areas to provide specialized concentrated activities and services. I agree with both arguments for and against limiting bar activity on Ossington because I sympathize with both the area residents for and propriators and small business owners against.

 

[unimaginative2]

What drives me nuts is that so many of the people running the city these days swear by Jane Jacobs, yet this is exactly the kind of micromanagement of an organically developing neighbourhood that she spent her life fighting.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Maybe this was part of a plan to up the hipness quotient of Malvern and other Transfer City neighbourhoods...

The hippest place that'll appear along a Transfer City Avenue is the mahjong room in a new Tridel condo.

Oh, wait, you were talking about the hip places quotient, not the hip replacement quotient...nevermind

 

[unimaginative2]

For once, I completely agree with Marcus Gee.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't mess with Ossington's success

Only in Toronto. In other cities, they celebrate the change. Here we pass a bylaw.

Marcus Gee

Friday, May. 29, 2009 08:05PM EDT
The Globe and Mail

The Ossington Strip is a stretch of four or five city blocks on a commercial street in the downtown west end – and what is happening there is nothing short of wonderful.

What used to be a benighted zone of auto-body shops, car washes, shady karaoke bars and one particularly sleazy strip club called Baby Dolls has transformed into a quirky quarter of restaurants, bars, art galleries and boutiques. People come from all around to check it out, filling the once dead-after-dark street with the buzz and swarm of urban life. The strip has become an asset for the whole city, a draw for couples, hipsters and tourists. The New York Times featured it this month as a must-see spot in “one of the planet's most diverse cities.â€

But all this dazzling change is a too much for deputy mayor Joe Pantalone. In a last-minute motion at council this week, the city slapped a year-long moratorium on any new restaurant, café, bar or “place of amusement†on the strip. Mr. Pantalone fears that, without some kind of pause in the frenzied growth, it will become a lawless Wild West – and “I'm afraid the Wild West was not a nice place to be.â€

Only in Toronto. In other cities where shabby industrial districts have been invaded by galleries and bars – New York's Meatpacking District, for one – they celebrate the change. Here we pass a bylaw.

Ossington's evolution has vastly improved the local neighbourhood, raising property values and bringing in new business in the midst of a recession. Residents who used to avoid the street, site of murders and mayhem in the bad old days, can now stop for wild spring salmon and watermelon at Foxley, authentic Neapolitan pie at Pizza Libretto, “white-trash nachos†at the Painted Lady or a beer at Baby Huey. And Mr. Pantalone wants to pull the plug?

The deputy mayor, a veteran councillor and a smooth operator, swears he is not against the evolution of the strip. “It's a very hot area, which is wonderful,†he told a public meeting. But there are problems.

People living near the strip complain they can't sleep because of the noise. They say the visitors take all the parking. Pioneers in the area feel that breakneck growth could spoil its unique character.

Mr. Pantalone claims that all he wants is a one-year pause to figure out how to balance the comfort of residents with the benefits of change. Sounds fair enough. But ordering a halt to development is taking a hammer to a butterfly. The bylaw bans not just restaurants and associated patios, but “bake-shops†too. The city actually argues that bars could masquerade as bakeries to get around the ban. Care for a martini with that muffin?

An interim control bylaw like Mr. Pantalone's is one of the most draconian measures in the city's legal armoury. It takes effect immediately, no pesky committee hearings or public consultations required. The owners never even had a chance to make a case against this wet-blanket bylaw.

“The city says there is that there is too much going on at once. Is that really so bad in a recession?†says Anthony Siniscalco of the soon-to-open Gallery supper club. “We're pumping money into the city. We're adding to this community. Five years ago there were gun shots here. Now look at it. People walking down the street. Guys investing.â€

He has a point. The upside of letting the strip develop is obvious and the worries overblown. It is just fear-mongering to suggest, as Mr. Pantalone does, that the strip could become another entertainment district like the one farther east, around Richmond and John, with its thousands of rowdy club goers and crime problem. Most of the buildings on the strip are much too small to house cavernous dance halls and existing zoning already prohibits night clubs in any case.

As for noise, city bylaw officers say they are patrolling regularly to monitor noise levels and prosecuting places that break the rules. Enforce the law, fine, but don't stifle change. The strip is a marvel of spontaneous urban evolution: unplanned, unexpected, organic, changing by the month – the very thing a city needs to stay vibrant and alive. Let's cheer it, not freeze it.

 

[ShonTron]

I was worried when the Globe assigned Gee to the Toronto section, but this column made a lot of sense, I totally agree.