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Riverdale

That payday loan store at the stately building at the corner of Greenwood and Danforth is so unfortunate. The signage on the building is so tasteless.

There might be a bit of reprieve. I walked by this place the other day and it appears as though an A&W has taken the space over and will be opening in the future (there is some renovation going on and signs for hiring). Not my first choice but better than a cheque cashing place.
 
There might be a bit of reprieve. I walked by this place the other day and it appears as though an A&W has taken the space over and will be opening in the future (there is some renovation going on and signs for hiring). Not my first choice but better than a cheque cashing place.

While it's certainly an improvement, I'm concerned that a burger franchise won't do much to respect the original character of the building either.
 
8 Sushi at Danforth and Carlaw looks to have closed
888 Danforth (formerly Magic Oven Pizza) will soon be a Papa John's Pizza
 
8 Sushi at Danforth and Carlaw looks to have closed
888 Danforth (formerly Magic Oven Pizza) will soon be a Papa John's Pizza

There was a fire last week at 8 Sushi, so it might possibly only be temporarily closed while they address the fire damage. While I don't wish ill against any local business, am nonetheless hopeful something more interesting replaces it instead of it reopening.

By 888 Danforth, do you mean 798 Danforth (at Woodycrest), which has been vacant for some time since Magic Oven vacated quite awhile ago? Because I think 888 Danforth is the newly relocated Starbucks.
 
There was a fire last week at 8 Sushi, so it might possibly only be temporarily closed while they address the fire damage. While I don't wish ill against any local business, am nonetheless hopeful something more interesting replaces it instead of it reopening.

By 888 Danforth, do you mean 798 Danforth (at Woodycrest), which has been vacant for some time since Magic Oven vacated quite awhile ago? Because I think 888 Danforth is the newly relocated Starbucks.

Yes, sorry it's 798 Danforth for the Papa Johns Pizza
 
New restaurant named Wynona is opening at 819 Gerrard Street East, near the southeast corner of Gerrard and Logan. It is sandwiched between Mad Dog Cafe and the I-assume-it-will-open-soon Kid Chocolate, and is across the street from the Beer Store/proposed Grid condos.

Wynona is soft opening this week. According to Suzanne Barr’s Instagram feed, Kid Chocolate next door will open sometime this summer.

Meanwhile, there seems to be some activity in the vacant spot on the SW corner of Logan and Gerrard. This is the spot where the landlord chased away the lovely Hammersmiths, and then chased away the fantastic Saturday Dinette. For a few months, the landlord seemed to post bizarre rants in the windows which basically amounted to “not everything you’ve heard is true” (I didn’t cross the street to read all of them as they were posted from time to time). Then all the fittings seemed to have been stripped out of the space. There has been activity in the space in the last couple of weeks, but it could be nothing. There are suddenly blinds in the window, so he might be leasing it as residential now.
 
Tidbits:

1. Big Paws, purveyor of raw dog food, is coming along on the SE corner of Carlaw and Riverdale. Looks like it will be opening soon. This appears to be their second location - their current store is at Davenport and Symington in the west end.

2. Kid Chocolate on Gerrard, east of Logan, will not be opening. Suzanne Barr posted on Instagram this past weekend that she couldn't resolve outstanding issues with the Buildings department. Too bad. Also, it looks like a lot of money was already spent on renovating the space.

3. I voted this past weekend at the Toronto-Danforth returning office, which is located in the vacant former premises of Canadian Tire Express on Danforth, west of Pape. Noticed old CofA notice signs advising of a hearing on May 23 to consider a gym at that location. According to the City's Application Information Centre, the application was to permit either a restaurant or gym in the space, both of which otherwise would be subject to GFA caps. No decision has been posted online, but I see a number of nearby residents quite predictably wrote letters of opposition upset at the prospect of restaurants or gyms on the Danforth. Imagine the horror.
 
I live near the old CDN Tire Express. And will be happy to see a rest or a gym here. It is very surprising that some people who have moved into the hood to be near places of entertainment THEN complain when something not to their liking is proposed. I know some of these people and they are mostly self important uptight prudes. I can't stand them
 
While I agree that the Danforth should always be lively, I can sympathize with people who live near by patios and places that turn into nightclubs after dark. Loud music, traffic, blocked driveways, drunkeness, cigarette butts all over, peeing in the lanes ... it's like living in the Entertainment District or year-round Taste of the Danforth.

For example, the block between Fenwick and Logan is often problematic on the south side. (And by the way, some places around there -- I am reliably informed -- expanded into the laneway illegally.)

Many people bought their homes their when the locale was a fruit market > Shoppers > Mark's Work Wearhouse > Canadian Tire. I can appreciate their objections.

A gym meanwhile, what's the problem?
 
While I agree that the Danforth should always be lively, I can sympathize with people who live near by patios and places that turn into nightclubs after dark. Loud music, traffic, blocked driveways, drunkeness, cigarette butts all over, peeing in the lanes ... it's like living in the Entertainment District or year-round Taste of the Danforth.

For example, the block between Fenwick and Logan is often problematic on the south side. (And by the way, some places around there -- I am reliably informed -- expanded into the laneway illegally.)

Many people bought their homes their when the locale was a fruit market > Shoppers > Mark's Work Wearhouse > Canadian Tire. I can appreciate their objections.

A gym meanwhile, what's the problem?

Yeah, I have no sympathy. Zero sympathy, and a good deal of contempt. Might have been a fruit market, but it's a commercial thoroughfare and it doesn't take a genius to understand that it is/could be zoned for different uses. These residents are, at best, willfully blind.

The letters of objection do make some references to late-night disruptions, but mostly focus on noise, traffic, deliveries, parking, smells, lack of consultation, kitchen exhausts, and lack of consultation. More than half of their issues would relate to any business, including any daytime operations, and I have no doubt that they'd similarly react if the proposed use was a 24/7 fruit store like back in the day.

Those people are awful. They want a lively, interesting Danforth, and love the patios - just not on their corner! People buy house two or three doors from the Danforth, and then react in horror when they realize they live close to the Danforth. It's a horrible, NIMBY sense of self-entitlement that exists in low-rise residential neighbourhoods next to commercial thoroughfares on a subway. They want their cake, they want their cake exactly how they want it, they have unrealistic expectations about their cake, they happily expect their cake to come to them at the expense of good planning and the greater good, and they want to eat their cake too.

Many of them are also worked up because the landowner on the other corner has applied to extend his building (the old Sun Valley building) a bit to the south, incorporating the existing house. That one hasn't been heard yet, and has been delayed.

Obviously, variances such as these can be approved with conditions to prevent the premises from turning into quasi-nightclubs. And patio licenses, which are something else entirely and are approved as part of a separate process, can also have conditions attached to them. Fragedakis has actually been fairly hostile to side patios, mostly because City enforcement can be inept.
 
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Oh I get that. I've seen how much the nabe has gentrified.

We bought our first house in Riverdale in 1985 when the area was mostly Greek immigrant, Asian or white working class.

As for the Danforth, all the Greek joints were open kitchen or strictly souvlaki, and not very big. The only non-Greek restos I can recall were Ricki & Ricardo's (now the Auld Spot) and Panama Joe's (now the The Globe Bistro.) Sun Valley (RIP) was not upscale and "Foodland" was pathetic. There was another IGA one block east. The location of Toronto's first Starbucks -- at the corner of Gough -- used to be great tobacco, international news and magazine stand run by two war vets. The Big Carrot was located in the Second Cup. That mystery sports bar at Carlaw was a Becker's or Max Milk, can't remember which.

I'd say 90% of the houses were not renovated. In 1987-88, when the first crazy round of speculation happened and there was a lot of flipping, it seemed like there was a dumpster on every other front lawn.

And, of course, it was strictly NDP.

Now ... ?

Sometimes I worry that the "newbies" who can afford these houses think they're buying in Forest Hill or Rosedale. Beamers, Audis, yummy mummies in Lululemons pushing $1000+ strollers to get their lattes ... and complaints about Taste of the Danforth.

I'm not excusing them. I'm just sympathizing with the concern about a restaurant/nightclub, especially given what I know about, how shall I put this, the owners of some of the real estate on that particular strip of the Danforth. And, as you say, enforcement is lackadaisical. I have to wonder why.

P.S. Isn't this Fletcher's side of the street?

P.P.S. Since you know about variances, check out the one behind The 521 (Lucky Spot)
 

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