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Moss Park / Queen & Sherbourne

cmdrogers said:
There are more people doing what we're doing and more people on sidewalks is a very good thing, as far as feeling comfortable outside.
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This is how I feel, as well. The mentally unstable, the addicted, sex workers and the listless aren't less in absolute numbers, but are proportionately smaller these days.
 
While I'm not in the area to often, I used to bike down the new Sherborne bike lanes all the time, I echo the comments above, I've seen a lot of weird shit, but never felt threatened personally. There are homeless that ask for money of course, but actually even this is rare I find a lot of them just stick to their selves.

The worst areas are the sidewalks by the shelters because they end up being used as gathering places.


Example of weird shit:
- Once while biking, someone started yelling to what I believe he thought was a cop (wasn't), "oh there's someone being rapped in that alley you should go down" ... actually I could clearly see into the alley and nothing was going on at all, and he kept changing what he was yelling like "oh now there's a kid being ..." anyway he kept going on and on and yelling loudly. The other folks in the area just walked by ignoring it all, it seemed as if they were used to this stuff.

With all that said, I do know a lot of folks who live in this stretch (and it probably is the worst greater downtown area, not poorest mind you, just worst for this sort of stuff), and there was actually one scary indecent, it involved a female walking across Queen near Parliament, a bunch of folks (not homeless) started walking behind her and kept offering her drugs, and then they started to offer "err, other things", and they started to get more aggressive (didn't touch her though) this went on for a while and eventually she started to yell (telling them to leave basically) and they did (as there were other folks), though she got on the first cab she could find.

To be fair this was fairly late at night and the only time an incident like this has happened to the folks I know in the area.

Now you will see things between others (typically drug users - i.e. these aren't random acts, these folks know each other) there are fights at times, though I personally haven't seen this, more so just a lot of yelling and threatening - if it gets aggressive you should call the police (but not get involved).


I've always wished this area cleans up though ... honestly Queen on this stretch has some really nice old buildings, a bit further west a lot of offices in converted spaces. The area has a very nice feel (King east'ish actually, more so then Queen west).
 
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taal said:
I echo the comments above, I've seen a lot of weird shit, but never felt threatened personally. There are homeless that ask for money of course, but actually even this is rare I find a lot of them just stick to their selves.
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Similar to my experience. I walk along Sherbourne south of Gerrard regularly (and through Allen Gardens) and nothing worse than being approached by a panhandler has happened to me along there. I will also occasionally walk along the smaller streets but I don't think I have been on George north of Moss Park. Some of the old houses on Pembroke look really beautiful though.

I was once punched in the face in front of the Young People's Theatre (Front & Frederick) but I was more shocked than hurt. (I assume the guy was under the influence of something and/or mentally ill; he didn't try to rob me or assault me in any other way and I have no idea what provoked it.)
 
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taal said:
I've seen a lot of weird shit, but never felt threatened personally.
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I lived here for a few great years - south of Moss Park on Queen, then on Shuter. This comment is completely accurate. My GF/wife lived there for about 4 years and to be honest nothing bad happened. Once you see the same weirdos day after day, you realize they're just weird and not threatening.

Weirdest thing: guy in a mobility scooter was trying to sell a basketfull of meat, obviously stolen, to random people on the street.

Worst thing: I had my car broken into.

Important to note: A bunch of my friends moved into this general area over 2005-2010 on Shuter, Pembroke, Seaton, and Berkeley. No one was mugged, no one was assaulted, not one of us was harmed in any way. The area seems better now than in 2010.

To the OP: George Street is fine south of Moss Park, is OK between Shuter and Dundas, but it still a bit dodgy between Dundas and
Gerrard owing to the Seaton House men's shelter.
 
I agree the more folks who move into the area the better it should get, but alas, I do wish something could be done overall; I'm afraid it'll always have that perception of being a sketchy area.
 
coming soon to queen and sherbourne

Mexican Restaurant "Tacorrito" and
Catering "the edible story"
both are located in The Modern...
 
The more the better for this area, more people / more retail ... I think the key will be to keep prices quite a bit lower than other areas, otherwise its hard to see what would attract new buyers to this area, but I think for the most part things are cheaper here ? Though not as much as I'd think would be necessary.
 
Crumbling facade at Queen & Parliament on Saturday:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/bricks-tumble-onto-queen-east-sidewalk-and-street-1.3130559

A pile of bricks tumbled onto both the sidewalk and Queen Street East on Saturday afternoon, tying up some traffic and prompting a structural engineer to be called in.

The westbound lanes of Queen Street East remained closed on Saturday evening after crumbling red bricks fell during an afternoon rainstorm from one side of a second storey window at 332 Queen St. E.

No injuries were reported, police told CBC News.

TTC streetcars in the area were being diverted.

The building is located near Queen and Parliament Street, just east of the downtown core.

A structural engineer will be looking at the building to determine what should be done next including the condition of bricks at other buildings in the area.
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Walking through Moss Park today I am hoping there is a redesign of this space in the future with some alternate use for the Moss Park Armoury. Imagine a Moss Park Performing Arts Centre fronting onto a redesigned, more urban Moss Park that is also home to George Brown's Drama Programmes.
 
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rdaner said:
Walking through Moss Park today I am hoping there is a redesign of this space in the future with some alternate use for the Moss Park Armoury. Imagine a Moss Park Performing Arts Centre fronting onto a redesigned, more urban Moss Park that is also home to George Brown's Drama Programmes.
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Who owns the Armoury? If it is Federal then it's unlikely to change anytime soon. You might get some movement on the Moss Park arena instead since it is going to be the site of the the new 519 facility. I am curious as to when Moss Park will be redeveloped along the Regent Park lines.

AoD
 
Skeezix said:
Regent Park has tremendous opportunities for additional height and density to pay for the redevelopment. Those opportunities do not exist to the same degree, if at all, in Moss Park. It will be a much greater challenge.
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Yeah, I was thinking about that issue - though a cursory look at the site suggests that it can be done with a little increase in the density, though you'd also have to reduce the green space a bit as well to do that.

AoD
 
Agreed, but reducing the green space would be the challenge. One among many. You'd have to replace those tall slab towers (not sure there is an appetite for significantly more height), and also build new market housing on the site to pay for everything. You'd regain some space by moving a lot of the surface parking underground, but I am not sure it would be enough. They might get away with reducing the green space a bit. The optics of replacing publicly-owned green space with condos would be terrible. There is also a growing concern about the need to increase public amenities, parks in particular, hand-in-hand with intensification -- here the local community would undoubtedly accuse the City and TCHC of doing the opposite.

It would be interesting to know if TCHC has ever played with the numbers (I'm more interested in GFA, site area, etc. than the $ amounts) to see if it can be made to work.

It's also entirely possible that TCHC has no intention of initiating anything for Moss Park while there are still phases of Regent Park under development along Shuter.
 
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