Northern Light
Superstar
Molybdenum is correct:
The large white block on the north side of Cosburn, and the west side of Pape is the new entrance pavilion
|
|
|
East York-Old East York
- Thread starter Ex-Montreal Girl
- Start date
Molybdenum is correct:
The large white block on the north side of Cosburn, and the west side of Pape is the new entrance pavilion
dforthandbview
Senior Member
Bummer, I was looking forward to a nice Shoppers there. Thanks for the info!
stanko
Active Member
And now for the future...
Bernoulli
New Member
This is what the corner looks like right now. The brick went up very recently and the photo is from this past weekend.
6-unit rental building according to toronto.com:
New rental housing complex nears completion in Toronto's east end
Rental housing supply in East York will soon see a small uptick as a new six-unit apartment complex nears completion at Pape and Cosburn avenues.
Last edited:
rdaner
Senior Member
At the southeast corner of Westwood and Pape. Photo taken 29 March.
Toronto Rocks
Active Member
There will be a new Shoppers built at the southwest corner of Pape and Gamble.
Molybdenum
Active Member
Wasn't this site acquired by Metrolinx for Ontario Line Cosburn Station construction?
DanielMar_Toronto
New Member
Grew up in this area (O’Connor/St Clair and currently near Dawes/Crescent Town). Always thought of East York as a suburban/urban hybrid (which I wouldn’t call the best of both worlds as it’s mostly suburban with a few urban qualities).
I’m gonna start off some negatives, it could‘ve done a heck of a lot better job when it comes to mixed use zoning. Old East York (and really, EY as a whole) is mostly residential and it can be a long walk to commercial areas depending on where you are. I know where I am now, a walk down to the Danforth is at least 10 minutes . Mind you, the quality of the walk on a nice day is actually not bad with the path and quiet residential streets with homes close together. Now, biking is a different story, and is generally pretty good especially with the Danforth bike lanes available! The other thing too, why does streetscape on the strips in Old EY kinda suck? The strips on Coxwell, Donlands, Pape Village, Dawes, Cosburn, and O’Connor/St. Clair all lack tree canopy and really look meh compared to walkable strips in Old Toronto. Even Upper Avenue in North York looks more aesthetically pleasing than these strips simply because of the stronger tree canopy there. The area sandwiched between Woodbine, Donlands, O’Connor, and Cosburn has pretty poor tree canopy in both residential and commercial areas.
Now onto the good. The strips mentioned above, despite their poor tree canopy, are nice to have. They make EY more walkable than a traditional North American suburb. Even growing up in the Topham Park neighbourhood (2007-2013), which is clearly a car centric area, I remember walking to stores on O’Connor between St Clair and Bermondsey and it was convenient due to most of them being street front retail. There’s also little convenience stores scattered throughout the area in neighbourhoods which is nice (I especially love Olds Cool @ Westlake/Lumsden). Compared to the outer 416 and 905, roads are narrower, *most* of Old EY uses the grid street system, housing is mostly single detached, but semis and small walk up apartments fit nicely into a few neighbourhoods, and setbacks aren’t too extreme (some are really low, though close to the Old Toronto border) making active transportation fairly convenient (albeit, there could be much better bike infrastructure on a lot of roads here). I actually enjoy driving on roads like Cosburn, Mortimer, Woodbine, and Danforth FAR more than the outer suburban arterials (Sheppard, Lawerence, etc.).
Aside from those urbanist critiques above, there’s other aspects like the food/retail options, greenery, and central location (immediately north of Danforth and close/accessible to downtown) that are positives of Old East York.
Overall, I do enjoy the area.
I’m gonna start off some negatives, it could‘ve done a heck of a lot better job when it comes to mixed use zoning. Old East York (and really, EY as a whole) is mostly residential and it can be a long walk to commercial areas depending on where you are. I know where I am now, a walk down to the Danforth is at least 10 minutes . Mind you, the quality of the walk on a nice day is actually not bad with the path and quiet residential streets with homes close together. Now, biking is a different story, and is generally pretty good especially with the Danforth bike lanes available! The other thing too, why does streetscape on the strips in Old EY kinda suck? The strips on Coxwell, Donlands, Pape Village, Dawes, Cosburn, and O’Connor/St. Clair all lack tree canopy and really look meh compared to walkable strips in Old Toronto. Even Upper Avenue in North York looks more aesthetically pleasing than these strips simply because of the stronger tree canopy there. The area sandwiched between Woodbine, Donlands, O’Connor, and Cosburn has pretty poor tree canopy in both residential and commercial areas.
Now onto the good. The strips mentioned above, despite their poor tree canopy, are nice to have. They make EY more walkable than a traditional North American suburb. Even growing up in the Topham Park neighbourhood (2007-2013), which is clearly a car centric area, I remember walking to stores on O’Connor between St Clair and Bermondsey and it was convenient due to most of them being street front retail. There’s also little convenience stores scattered throughout the area in neighbourhoods which is nice (I especially love Olds Cool @ Westlake/Lumsden). Compared to the outer 416 and 905, roads are narrower, *most* of Old EY uses the grid street system, housing is mostly single detached, but semis and small walk up apartments fit nicely into a few neighbourhoods, and setbacks aren’t too extreme (some are really low, though close to the Old Toronto border) making active transportation fairly convenient (albeit, there could be much better bike infrastructure on a lot of roads here). I actually enjoy driving on roads like Cosburn, Mortimer, Woodbine, and Danforth FAR more than the outer suburban arterials (Sheppard, Lawerence, etc.).
Aside from those urbanist critiques above, there’s other aspects like the food/retail options, greenery, and central location (immediately north of Danforth and close/accessible to downtown) that are positives of Old East York.
Overall, I do enjoy the area.
Towered
Superstar
Agreed. The area has decent bones, and a lot of potential. I wish the rest of post-war Toronto had stuck to this hybrid model of suburban/urban built form. The city would have been much better had that happened.
Northern Light
Superstar
Here's the thing though, it was much better in the past, and was allowed to degrade.
I live near Dawes as well, and remember when the townhomes you see at Gower/Dawes (north-west corner) were a Safeway supermarket, (later IGA/Price Chopper), a BMO branch, and an LCBO.
The retail strip also used to feature a Guardian Drugs and few other staple retailers. The supermarket site should not have been allowed to be rezoned without providing for larger-format retail.
****
St. Clair/O'Connor had a supermarket (now Shoppers Drugs).
Woodbine/O'Connor was a Dominion (what would now be Metro), and is currently a Shoppers).
The Coxwell/O'Connor retail strip had a Loblaws (the old LCBO building, now a parking lot)
The Donlands retail strip had 2 supermarkets (what is now Select Bakery and there was a tiny Dominion the size of a butcher shop where the pub is on the north-west corner)
There were Cinemas on Donlands and Woodbine, as well as Danforth/Pape (Palace/Danforth Odeon), the Roxy at Greenwood/Danforth, what is now the Valu-Mart at Woodbine was a cinema, the now Shoppers by Coxwell Station was a supermarket), and there was a cinema between Main and Dawes on Danforth (now Dixon Hall Shelter).
Add to that Crescent Town had its own Dominion Supermarket.
And so did Main Square (the Linc space) .
The City and the private sector both facilitated a move away from neighbourhood retail.
Some of these had trees prior to past road widenings.
O'Connor is getting its trees back right now (from ST. Clair going north), trees should be planted this fall.
I'm hoping to get trees back on Coxwell and Donlands, but those will require replacing the angled-parking with parallel.
Last edited:
DanielMar_Toronto
New Member
Ah I see, yeah that is unfortunate!
That’s good! That angled parking shouldn’t be there anyway. They are building protected bike lanes on Millwood starting at the bridge there. I don’t see any reason why Coxwell or Donlands shouldn’t have protected bike lanes and the nice streetscape you see on Danforth (of course, there will be community push back especially with Coxwell given the hospital, but It’s worth a conversation and proposal imo).
Northern Light
Superstar
Donlands is on the list for Cycle Tracks, towards the end of the decade, the angled parking will likely be removed as part of that project.
Coxwell is not on the list........... there is a well known reason for this........... A city councillor whose ward abuts Coxwell Avenue. I don't mean Brad either.
PL1
Active Member
I do hope they add barriers (like on the Bloor Viaduct) when they fix/change/add bike lanes to the Leaside Bridge in the near future. Today is the second time in the last two weeks that the bridge is closed during rush hour due to a person in distress.
Northern Light
Superstar
christiesplits
Senior Member
There's a strain of small-c conservatism in East York that is quite anti-bike, especially once you get into the bungalow and tear-down-for-new-build land north of Mortimer. After all, this is the borough that elected Case Ootes as a councillor until 2010, where he was the lone Mike Harris-era conservative sitting on the TO-East York Community Council.
I recall the Cosburn bike lane debate in the mid-00s with Janet Davis remarking that her hair turned grey soon after. The more recent Woodbine bike lane debate was also quite intense, although it appeared more contentious south of the Danforth.
The tree canopy in the south end of East York is quite good, roughly south of Mortimer and Lumsden to the old boundary along Aldwych/Milverton/Springdale.
Also, unlike many of the streets in Riverdale or Leslieville, these hoods mostly lack laneways, so the backyards tend to be quite large with trees.