W. K. Lis
Superstar
Putting in a driveway also takes away street parking. Even if the driveway is empty, that also means no one can park in front of it.
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St Clair West
- Thread starter unimaginative2
- Start date
Putting in a driveway also takes away street parking. Even if the driveway is empty, that also means no one can park in front of it.
jeff316
Active Member
Anyone know if Hungarian House ever sold? The boxing club has moved out to the 401/Dufferin and the DTZ for sale sign is down.
Ice_Burn
Active Member
I'm really interested to see what that becomes. Also the old Blockbuster/Polling Station near the No Frills.
jeff316
Active Member
Yeah the loss of that Blockbuster has really cemented that corner's sketchiness...two money marts, an LCBO, a dollar store, a really shabby TV antenna place and a storefront 'church'. St Clair West really alternates in its sketchiness, nice from Yonge to Loblaws, then from Loblaws to Kenwood it is ugh, then from Kenwood to Winona it is very nice, then from Winona to Dufferin it goes bad again, and then pretty good again to Landsdowne, and then downhill again...
W. K. Lis
Superstar
West of Landowne and east of Caledonia is dead. As in Prospect Cemetery.
Ice_Burn
Active Member
I think in time these dead spots will get bought up and rehabbed. The right-of-way helped bring some business to the area (Stockyards and some more upscale restaurants) but we need a bigger diversity of businesses around here. The fish store over near Glenholme seems to have turned into a pawn shop, which is exactly the kind of business we DON'T need in the area.
TrickyRicky
Senior Member
khrt, I'm not really familiar with St. Clair specifically but let me describe a few things I've observed based on my experience with street retail:
If you want to know the long-term prospects of a retail strip area you should look at the demographic of the surrounding neighbourhood streets. A rise in income in the surrounding neighbourhoods (as is happening on St.Clair) is a sure sign that the retail strip will be better in the future. Paradoxically however a rise in the surrounding home values and income of it's residents in my observation leads to an initial degeneration in the quality of the retail strip in the short-term. Basically, the stretch gets worse before it gets better when the area gets richer. The reasons for this are complicated and I won't get into them here. The real question then is not if St. Clair will improve in the sections that are dodgy, the forces for this to occur are already in place, the question is will this happen in a time frame that matters to you?
If you want to know the long-term prospects of a retail strip area you should look at the demographic of the surrounding neighbourhood streets. A rise in income in the surrounding neighbourhoods (as is happening on St.Clair) is a sure sign that the retail strip will be better in the future. Paradoxically however a rise in the surrounding home values and income of it's residents in my observation leads to an initial degeneration in the quality of the retail strip in the short-term. Basically, the stretch gets worse before it gets better when the area gets richer. The reasons for this are complicated and I won't get into them here. The real question then is not if St. Clair will improve in the sections that are dodgy, the forces for this to occur are already in place, the question is will this happen in a time frame that matters to you?
W. K. Lis
Superstar
The way some people remark about St. Clair, you'd think Blockbuster went out of business because of the construction on St. Clair itself and not the real cause which was nothing about the construction.
Ice_Burn
Active Member
When people histrionically complain about all the businesses that closed on St Clair during the construction they are - willfully or not - ignoring that other factor that affected businesses leading up to 2008; that pesky little economic downturn in which hundreds of businesses in all areas shuttered. I'm not saying that the construction wasn't a factor but to claim it's the only factor is straight-up lies.
CDL.TO
Moderator
It's true. I recall newspaper articles that listed off businesses "killed" by the ROW, while those of us who lived in the neighbourhood knew the real reasons for the closures.
Coffee Time closed! Didn't mention that a Tim Hortons opened three doors down. (And the Coffee Time was replaced by a Japanese restaurant.)
A restaurant closed! Didn't mention that restaurant was terrible and didn't even keep regular hours.
A Second Cup closed! Didn't mention that the Second Cup was across the street from a Starbucks and next door to an independent bakery/cafe both of which were doing fine.
And so on and so forth...
adma
Superstar
And for that matter, when it comes to the Corso Italia zone of St Clair, generic "Italian flight" to Vaughan and wherever else plays a factor. (And it doesn't help that said stretch has been plagued by the skeeziest EIFS reclads.)
jeff316
Active Member
Very true. A lot of the smaller 'ethnic' businesses that left the strip left not because of the ROW but because of the changing demographics of the area and the aging of the shop-keeping population. And even with that going on, there are still three Italian butchers, a bunch of Italian grocers/fabric stores/clothing stores, a Hungarian deli, a Greek coffee shop, a Greek food shop, a couple of Portuguese ones by Landsdowne, and a whack of Latin American businesses. And of course all of the restaurants. The business flight was way overstated, and the cause was purposely misdiagnosed.
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Ice_Burn
Active Member
Don't forget that it's way tougher for a business to survive while closing on Sundays in 2012. The fact that many of these businesses have thrived while being closed for half the weekend continues to amaze me.
Palma
Senior Member
You are crazy. Near what area do you live? West of Weston Rd there is not much there its true. Those homes east of Dufferin to Yonge St are expensive. i wish I could aford to live in that area
Palma
Senior Member
. Why not just extend St. Clair at Scarlett west? When you go east of Yonge a few blocks there are all these beautiful homes on St. Clair that continue all the way to Kingston Rd. or the lake almost. Yet west of Yonge, St. Clair is all commercial and then west of those new homes near Gunns, there is nothing but auto shops, etc. Really ugly.