MetroMan
Senior Member
Whoa.. this totally came out of left field for me...
Just when the Toronto Police is talking about how Queen W + Bathurst is the area with most 911 calls, news like this comes along.
My local Starbucks baristas (Queen W + Claremont) were talking about how their business was going to drop once Queen and Bathurst opens and I had to interrupt: "Excuse me?? S'bux Queen + Bathurst??". They confirmed that it would be opening in April or May.
This could be a curious situation of waiting to see if the Starbucks molds the neighborhood or if the neighborhood molds Starbucks.
Often, a Starbucks will attract a different crowd to a hood and generally change the area. I don't know if their gentrification power can overcome the NW corner of the intersection's drunk/drugged/mentally ill crowd.
St. Christopher House is adding a gate around the perimeter to discourage/eliminate loitering on that corner so Starbucks may well be the Mario mushroom that the corner needed to finish the transformation.
I for one (living not far from there) welcome this news and await in anticipation the results or non-results of this development.
Just when the Toronto Police is talking about how Queen W + Bathurst is the area with most 911 calls, news like this comes along.
My local Starbucks baristas (Queen W + Claremont) were talking about how their business was going to drop once Queen and Bathurst opens and I had to interrupt: "Excuse me?? S'bux Queen + Bathurst??". They confirmed that it would be opening in April or May.
This could be a curious situation of waiting to see if the Starbucks molds the neighborhood or if the neighborhood molds Starbucks.
Often, a Starbucks will attract a different crowd to a hood and generally change the area. I don't know if their gentrification power can overcome the NW corner of the intersection's drunk/drugged/mentally ill crowd.
St. Christopher House is adding a gate around the perimeter to discourage/eliminate loitering on that corner so Starbucks may well be the Mario mushroom that the corner needed to finish the transformation.
I for one (living not far from there) welcome this news and await in anticipation the results or non-results of this development.