News   Nov 06, 2024
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News   Nov 06, 2024
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News   Nov 06, 2024
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Parkdale Village

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.

We just moved from Callender two years ago and our backyard was on the alley -- there were definitely a lot of 'locals' who took advantage of that seclusion. We didn't notice too much spillover bar noise on the street itself but I'm not super-sensitive to noise.

We bought a place on Roncesvalles and it's great but I kind of miss Callender a bit.
 
We just moved from Callender two years ago and our backyard was on the alley -- there were definitely a lot of 'locals' who took advantage of that seclusion. We didn't notice too much spillover bar noise on the street itself but I'm not super-sensitive to noise.

We bought a place on Roncesvalles and it's great but I kind of miss Callender a bit.

i miss callender too.

i went for roti the other day with my gf at ali's, a long-promised date because i maintain it's the best roti in parkdale. as we walked from the lcbo, it is pretty clear that the block between o'hara and west lodge is resistant to all the change going on in parkdale, at least on the north side; and then the block from west lodge to lansdowne confirms it. as we walked, i explained to my gf my theory that older landlords still own that stretch - perhaps like the aforementioned ram - and they are not comfortable renting their commercial properties to young white affluent hipsters who want to open a sexy stylish cafe or a cool men's clothing store or a neat place for accessories.

i read the article in the grid the other day about kingi and rents on queen west - one of these days we're going to see that effect seriously cause some havoc here in parkdale.
 
i read the article in the grid the other day about kingi and rents on queen west - one of these days we're going to see that effect seriously cause some havoc here in parkdale.

PARKDALE!! Last stop on the Queen West gentrification train....everybody off!!

Queen West gentrification is finally going to hit a brick wall...and that is Parkdale's date with destiny. There's not much Perks, or anybody can do about it. I'm enjoying the change.
 
PARKDALE!! Last stop on the Queen West gentrification train....everybody off!!

Queen West gentrification is finally going to hit a brick wall...and that is Parkdale's date with destiny. There's not much Perks, or anybody can do about it. I'm enjoying the change.

What are you implying, gentrification will stop ? Isn't that exactly what Perks and most local folks want ?
 
What are you implying, gentrification will stop ? Isn't that exactly what Perks and most local folks want ?

Took a little while for me to reply to this eh?

No...I meant that Queen West doesn't go any farther, so gentrification won't stop...it will intensify as it can't just keep moving west anymore as it has in the past.
 
sure, but the don valley is a significant barrier, if only in people's minds. when i lived in riverdale/leslieville (eastern and booth), few of my friends would come out to visit or hang out.

funny, re-reading my comments above today and seeing perks/ostroff battling it out again over twitter yesterday. plus ca change...
 
Looking at a place in Parkdale at the moment, and am weighing in on moving out so far west. How's the neighbourhood?
 
Looking at a place in Parkdale at the moment, and am weighing in on moving out so far west. How's the neighbourhood?

Im moving out May 1st. Hated feeling so disconnected from the rest of the city. I was essentially right between WQW, Liberty Village and Parkdale. It was great the first month or so but I miss being closer to downtown.
 
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Im moving out May 1st. Hated feeling so disconnected from the rest of the city. I was essentially right between WQW, Liberty Village and Parkdale. It was great the first month or so but I miss being closer to downtown.

That was my gut feeling. I love Parkdale and many of the shops there, but I feel most of my friends (and school at Ryerson) are all so centrally located, it'd be such a disconnect. Maybe I'll invest in a better bike and head out there more often instead of living there.
 
Downtown can get depressing though. Even people in customer service aren't that friendly. People are more relaxed in rental apts outside of downtown and actually say hi in the elevators. I think so many people downtown are scared and defensive and are used to saying no to panhandlers and others wanting a piece of you. The west end tends to have nicer people.
 
Downtown can get depressing though. Even people in customer service aren't that friendly. People are more relaxed in rental apts outside of downtown and actually say hi in the elevators. I think so many people downtown are scared and defensive and are used to saying no to panhandlers and others wanting a piece of you. The west end tends to have nicer people.

That hasn't been my experience downtown at all. Not saying people out here are bad, they're just as good.
 
I lived in North York for the first 30 years of my life (Willowdale, Don Mills & Bathurst/Steeles) and I totally disagree about the suburbs being friendlier. I find the people in the downtown core much friendlier in the apartment buildings I've lived in.
 
All good points! It may be just downtown's east side that has the most unfriendly and miserable people that you can imagine. The rest of downtown is fine, actually.
 

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