Parkdale Village

[ShonTron]

Yea...it was so much better when it was only hookers and drug dealers on the streets at those hours. ha

The powers that be are simply grasping at ways to combat the gentrification, which will inevitably have a negative effect on the neighbourhoods massive marginalized populace.

Parkdale's reputation as a huge repository of the marginalized without nimby backlash is very valuable to the city.

The problem isn't really the businesses that are opening on Queen at all...it's that it is attracting shit tons of twenty-something hipsters that want to live in Parkdale, and this is affecting the housing market in Parkdale. All of a sudden, Parkdale is a hugely desirable neighbourhood for a certain demographic....this has never been the case before.

The marginalized are getting...and will continue to get pushed out due to gentrification. Why rent to a bunch of ODSP/Welfarians, when you can fix the place up a bit and get twice the rent from a hipster with his Børge Mogensen sofa.

Remember Rob Ford's speech back when he was a councillor, when they were suggesting a shelter be put in his ward? That's why the city loves Parkdale....they think it keeps the riffraff out of their neighbourhood.

Trust me....I know. I manage an apartment building in Parkdale.

Interesting. I'm sure you have stories to tell about all the different tenants you've dealt with.

Will hipsters move into the slab apartment buildings on Jameson or Dowling? Or into the decrepit Wynn Family-owned buildings at West Lodge? Or the various TCHC buildings in the nabe? I'm not pro-hipster either, but slapping a blanket ban smacks of reactionary politics that won't stop gentrification. I've lived in Brockton for a year, it had a good mix of old-time residents, young families and yes, hipsters. It seemed to work nicely.

 

[freshcutgrass]

I'm sure you have stories to tell about all the different tenants you've dealt with.

Not really...cause I rent to hipsters...not riffraff.

Will hipsters move into the slab apartment buildings on Jameson or Dowling?

Yes (my building is on Dowling, but its a deco building, not a slab).

The twentysomethings don't have that much money, so will overlook a bit to be in the neighbourhood, but they aren't going to live in the downright dumps. The landlords aren't all stupid, and will soon be catering to the better young professionals willing to pay market rents to live in Parkdale.

This means they can justify fixing up property that was previously rented to riffraff. Why run a rooming house, and deal with dead bodies and bed bugs, when you can renovate the building as basic but nice apartments for only slightly annoying twentysomethings?

This is happening now, and will continue to happen. The City relies on Parkdale to house a huge population of "social needs" people. It has a reputation of having the world's highest concentration of psychiatric patients. Any long term resident of Parkdale would not dispute that theory. These displace people have to go somewhere (deregulation of the mental institutions already accounts for our huge homeless population)...and they will be displaced to other parts of the city....where local residents won't be as tolerant of them as Parkdale has always been.

The city spent tons of money rebuilding that old building at Queen-Dowling. It's fantastic, and will be destroyed quickly by the residents. more community services in the nab as well. Know why....cause nobody complains about this stuff in parkdale....so the city loves to pile as much here as they possibly can. It's the same reason we had a Regent Park, or the seedy east end all together....we like ghettos.

That's why politicians want to try and stop the trend. But you are right...I doubt it can be stopped. But Parkdale will never totally gentrify I doubt, and has enough marginalized folk to keep it "interesting" regardless of gentrification.

I'm not pro-hipster either

Oh...I am pro hipster. At least when it comes to Parkdale. Hipsters is exactly what Parkdale needed. And while they will displace more marginalized tenants, hipsters and the various old-school Parkdalians don't really clash. I mean, what's so bad about hipsters? Ok...the obsessive denim pant rolling and beards aren't all that annoying in the grand scheme of things. Beats the hell out of the toothless crack whores.

 

[waltthizzney]

there is a difference between hipsters and yuppies.... hipsters are poor but will invest in the neighbourhood... yuppies are the problem

 

[Towered]

I just moved to the very western end of Parkdale a few months ago, and I love the area. Lots of cool little shops, cafes, and bars along the part of Queen between Roncesvalles and Sorauren. It really seems to be in that perfect sweet spot right now, half way between the lousy, low end retail of the past and sterile corporate chains. I'm incensed by the actions of Gord Perks however - the area has been hurting for decades, and now that decent independent businesses catering to a somewhat more affluent demographic have opened he wants to destroy the positive transformation? Like I said in this thread last year, Gord Perks is an idiot. I can't stand this guy - it's at the point now where a friend of mine (who also lives in Parkdale) and I are toying with the idea of starting a campaign to unseat him.

 

[Dan416]

I have no attachment to the area and don't think I've ever done much more than drive through it, but I think this one-year moratorium is as silly as Toronto's mayor.

 

[bigdaddyhame]

I like what Gord Perks is doing - essentially he's giving other kinds of businesses a chance to get a foothold in the neighbourhood. While restaurants and bars can be good - the area already has a bunch of them (as well as several new ones that are yummy and interesting...)... and this will give those businesses a chance to thrive as well, build a following. The thing with bars and restaurants is that they come and go. Most of the new businesses that have come on to the strip are bars and restaurants.. let's see what else we can get in there. It's not all about food and drink! More galleries would be nice!

I'm curious what the reaction was in the Parkdale area when CAMH originally proposed moving most of their patient population out into the community. That happened back in the early 1980's, yes? Parkdale is no stranger to "gentrification". While Parkdale has, for a fair amount of its history, been an immigrant-heavy community, it was once a very prosperous neighbourhood, close to Sunnyside which was THE place to be in the summertime. It's on its way back up now, and it does have a good chance at preserving some of the diversity that flavours it now. It would be a good civic works project a la Regent Park - tear down the slabs and put up something amazing, and geared toward low-income.

 

[Pfloyd]

I live in Roncesvalles (which really is a completely different demographic group of your 'typical' Parkdale-south of Queen St. crowd. We live in a democratic open market economy (as opposed to a regulated-communist economy). The forces of gentrification respond to those organic forces. There is room to regulate and direct development and growth - that is what zoning bylaws and urban design guidelines are for. But to issue moratoriums and to try to oppose development, really shows what Gord Perks colours really are: a committed communist willing to raise hell when his ideology is opposed no matter how illogical it may be.

 

[azureray]

Parkdale is such a beautiful historical area thats been neglected. Many historical architecture are still preserved, once restored, I'd say it can be one of the best neighbourhoods in Toronto.

 

[Mystic Point]

Hey Freshcut! I don't live in P-dale. But I've been traveling there since 1979. I think your observations are correct. " That's why the city loves Parkdale....they think it keeps the riffraff out of their neighborhood. " YES!

 

[azureray]

South Parkdale is the southern section of the Vil-
lage of Parkdale, annexed by Toronto in 1889, ten years
after its official incorporatio
n. The area grew rapidly in
the late 19th century as one of Toronto’s first commuter
suburbs, spurred by the development of the railway and,
later, the streetcar. Streets
were laid out to allow access
south to Lake Ontario and north to Queen Street, the
main thoroughfare of commerce and trade.
The character of the neighbourhood in the early
20th century has been captured by a local historian:
In the early days, large homes in spacious grounds
overlooking the bay with their owners’ boats
moored at the jetties characterized the scene.... Com-
fortable dwellings on large lots then began to fill up
the spaces up to Queen Street and within a few
years, the lofty arches of healthy trees added beauty
and shade to the avenue. Commuters from the new
suburb were able to board trains ... for
daily travel to the city. It is not surpris-
ing that in the early 20th century Park-
dale was considered one of Toronto’s
most desirable residential locations, a
distinction shared only with the district of Rosedale,
which was also taking shape at the same time.
(Howard Walker, quoted in City of Toronto Plan-
ning Board report, “South Parkdale: Trends and
Planning Goals,” 1976)
With the 1922 opening of the Sunnyside Amuse-
ment Park and Bathing Pavilion, Toronto’s version of
Coney Island, South Parkdale
became known informally
as the Village by the Lake, with a mixed housing stock
consisting of fine Victorian and Edwardian terraces,
some substantial mansions, and large (20-or-more-unit)
apartment houses, in a neighbourhood that contained
one-third of all Toronto’s apartment houses by 1915.

 

[azureray]

http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/pdfs/researchbulletins/CUCS-RB-28-Slater-Parkd.pdf

 

[nrb]

We need more committed communists on city council. We would actually have decent transit.

 

[Pfloyd]

We need more committed communists on city council. We would actually have decent transit.

Such flawed logic. So, what about London, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Berlin subway systems? Is it because communists in their city councils? Communism ran aground in the early 90's, and trying to revive it is a futile, if not foolish and dangerous experiment. I don't know where you got your education, but I would ask for my money back.

 

[nrb]

Such flawed logic. So, what about London, Tokyo, New York, Paris, Berlin subway systems? Is it because communists in their city councils? Communism ran aground in the early 90's, and trying to revive it is a futile, if not foolish and dangerous experiment. I don't know where you got your education, but I would ask for my money back.

Yes, it is.

 

[ahm]

first off, i kind of wonder if freshcutgrass is my building super. i am leaning towards yes.

secondly, ostroff's article in huffpo tears perks a strip up and down, but i agree with perks. i worked at the economic development corporation, and then at the business improvement area; recalling how business owners would stroll into parkdale in 2005 and eye properties with visions of little italy dancing in their head (or maybe the club district, or something - my prime example is the owner of kit kat who bought club ov and did zip with it [probably because sylvia watson forestalled a massive lounge/club/restaurant/bar, as she was fending off lots and lots of complaints about caddy's patio being too noisy with live bands or even just the dinner crowd leaking into after 11pm drinking noise]), gives me an idea of what perks isn't saying in the article. do we want more bars under the guise of a restaurant? i don't see the point in being needlessly restrictive for the sheer bureaucratic fun of it, but i also don't see the benefit of just letting the market run wild. it's not a free market. the markets are disposed to favour those with privilege, as well as wealth, and are very tilted towards those players with a lot of history behind them. people live in the apartments above storefronts, and in the houses on gwynne, elm grove, brock, cowan, triller, dowling, sorauren, and callender. heck, when i lived on callender, most friday and saturday nights between 1:30 and 3am there would a couple of rowdy drunks whooping it up after they left the bar. were they leaving anna's place, or parts and labour? six of one, half dozen of the other. sometimes that gravelly rough older voice trawling up the street told me and my girlfriend that it was a local; other times, the voices were young enough that it was pretty clear these were either very new neighbours or tourists. i live on dowling now and every once in a while a couple of young guys and girls will make their way from pharmacy along king and make sufficient noise to be heard after the bar closes.

thirdly, i think parkdale needs a balance of new businesses. restaurants are notorious for having a low success rate. i want to see some stability in the influx. i'd also like to see a little bit more variety - maybe even some franchises of larger chains that have lower prices - for various retail. for instance, i can buy clothing in parkdale but it is either really cheap and abysmal quality - think fulworth's, or the couple of stores that eke out a bare existence flogging knock-offs (i think the place with cheap panties in the window is gone now, but like them) - or it is vintage, or it is really super expensive. hey, i like philistine's look and feel, but it is out of my price range, and i'm an overpaid lazy public servant.

i'd like a fishmonger. de la mer is so close but even still somewhere on queen would be great to buy fish. cattlemen's, as much as i love the surly/nice service, could use some competition too. and it's been a constant piss-off for me, living in parkdale for about 7 years now, that there is still nowhere to buy a new cd or god forbid record.

* i'll try to focus a bit and talk about residential and commercial landlords, like ram, and their influence on the BIA and the various residents' associations and the politics of parkdale. later. meetings are about to start.