Torontoist: The Other Bloor Street

Bangthedrum

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:44:46 -0500

Kyle Rae's selective interest says a lot. The idea was to get people who LIVE in Pam's ward to do BUSINESS in Kyle's. Yet, he claims "outta my hands, outta my area." That is a very curious position for him to take. Many - if not most - of the developers he so courts do not live in Toronto, never mind his downtown ward. The key is that they want to conduct business there. Where they happen to live is immaterial to him. Why should it suddenly start to matter that would-be small business people are on the 'other' side of Sherbourne? Rae will grasp at straws to escape being held responsible for taking action he doesn't relish. This is one such example, but there are many more. And you bet your ass the BENA people are gentrifiers: those are expensive condos and the things that people in expensive condos care most about are 1) property values 2) noise 3) other condos being built that will block their view 4) unsightly homeless people. Not much else. As Kyle Rae has himself noted, communities and neighbourhoods don't tend to emerge out of this form of housing, which is nothing if not a vertical gated community, normally exited from the parking garage.

Skippy the Magical Racegoat

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:00:41 -0500

I used to live right at Bloor and Jarvis. It is indeed a dead zone. I wish, just once, that an area could spring up that's got a "middle-class" flavour. Not thrift stores, but not Yorkville-style caviar shoppes...just something for the average folks. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they exist in Toronto.

Adam Sobolak

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:13:49 -0500

Hasn't that dead-zoneness *always* been the case w/Bloor East, though? It was Toronto's "Insurance Row", after all: the epitome of Grey Flannel Suitness in this town--Squaresville is in the blood.

tyrannosaurus_rek

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 19:03:55 -0500

Bloor East has nothing going for it because it has nothing Bloor West has. No bars. No restaurants. No shops. No grocery stores or markets. No convenience stores. No theatres. Nothing that gives pedestrians a reason to linger, and nothing to draw people there (except, theoretically, the church). I've done the Yonge to Castle Frank walk a few dozen times in the last two months, and it's utterly forgettable. During the day it's this limbo between where people work or live and where they're trying to go. BENA has some serious work cut out for it.

Andrea T

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:40:28 -0500

Clarification, because I scratched my head for a moment: 333 Bloor Street East is the Rogers head office, not to be confused with The Rogers Centre, aka the former Skydome. The head office campus has four addresses: Bloor, Jarvis, Mount Pleasant and Huntley. Wireless, broadcasting and publishing have offices there, as does Ted Rogers.

paigesix

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:39:43 -0500

I wish that Manulife "statue" was still a fountain... but it seems all the fountains in the Bloor East area have been shut down.. the ones in the parkette by Asquith haven't been in operation for years, because they became less aesthetic items and more functional, as a popular shower spot for homeless.

thestarkcontrast

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:08:32 -0500

If 77 Huntley Street is a "'slum' apartment complex," it's news to me and to a couple of my friends (in law and medical schools respectively) who live there. The place seems to be populated mainly by members of what urban theorist Richard Florida calls "the creative classes" - students and gays. The BENA could consider ways to make Bloor East a vibrant, diverse and affordable place to live. Why not reach out to the low-income people who use the stores in Greenwin Square? St. Paul's Anglican Church could play a leadership role in uniting all members of the community. That kind of forward thinking would be welcome - the BENA's apparent catering to those who like Rogers stores and fugly condos just doesn't cut it.