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A price has been put on west-end authenticity, and apparently it’s $20. As of today, the Save OSsington T-shirt is available for purchase, the badge of a newly launched local campaign to provoke critical discussion on issues of gentrification and neighbourhood transformation.
The organizers intend to “spark dialogue among business owners, residents, and general advocates for positive development of neighbourhoods.” There is no doubt that the stretch of Ossington Avenue between Queen and Dundas is currently behaving like a highly localized case study in urban conversion, but what’s almost more interesting than the dialogue they hope to promote is the irony of the group behind the campaign.
Conceived by a PR company (Best PR Boutique), launched at one of the vanguards of the gentrification, (The Ministry of the Interior), and offering the shirts at some of the darlings of the new guard (such as Reposado and Delux), this is a campaign championed by the very icons of this transformation.
They are completely aware of this paradox and seem to be launching this campaign with a good deal of humour and good will. Jason MacIsaac, the owner of the niche décor store Ministry of the Interior, notes that "it's more art project than anti-development protest."
Their admittedly tongue-in-cheek campaign to save Ossington does raise some interesting points. The Queen West gentrification around the corner continues to spread ever west-ward, but even that transformation can’t compete with the density and the pace of the changes happening on Ossington. Currently, there are no less than thirteen storefronts under construction along this relatively short strip, most likely bringing more galleries, high-end restaurants, and boutique clubs to the neighbourhood.
All arguably good things, but does too much of a good thing eventually become simply too much? What makes neighbourhoods like Ossington work is that they were slightly off the beaten path; hidden gems. People treasure the almost-secret local joints tucked away in a long-established blue collar neighbourhood. When an area becomes overly saturated with the latest "hot spots," the charm is lost.
However, one of the key differentiators of the Ossington transformation from other gentrifications seems to be a lack of focused passion on what is truly being lost. There is no clear martyr for this street like the Abell artist studios were for Queen West. Can you go downhill if you can’t clearly define where you started? Many residents and business owners who have been in the area for a long time are wondering what exactly Ossington is being saved from. If this is the end of Ossington as many knew it, does anyone truly object?
In the end, you can decide if the Save OSsington campaign is about encouraging a proper dialogue about what will make Ossington thrive for the whole community, or if it is more focused on selling ironic T-shirts to everyone who wants to feign nostalgia about how great Ossington used to be.
So buy a shirt; I chose the grey one.
Photos by Michael Chrisman/Torontoist.
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"What makes neighbourhoods like Ossington work is that they were slightly off the beaten path; hidden gems. People treasure the almost secret local joints tucked away in a long established blue collar neighbourhood. When an area becomes overly saturated with the latest "hot spots," the charm is lost."
Jeez, such an overt display of status anxiety is embarrassing.
The point of opposing "gentrification" shouldn't be to preserve some hipster's warm fuzzy feeling that he's got inside knowledge of his "secret" favourite hangouts... nor should it be about fighting change just for the sake of freezing a neighbourhood as a snapshot of some (overly) idealized moment of class-based valour. De-industrialization means that blue collar pockets will either become more mixed, or will decline. Which is preferable?
Fighting gentrification -- not just reflexively opposing any change in or around your backyard, or down the street -- ought to be about ensuring that the future of a place makes ample room for the people who live in it now as well as those on the way in. If it's driving people out, it's a problem, but if it's just shuffling the deck a little bit... what's the harm in that? Fear of change is not proof of gentrification.
Our city, like all dynamic communities, is changing. It will always be changing. People come and go, areas are built up and are allowed to crumble, and then it all starts again. Housing stock will be rejuvenated, as will retail and other commercial property (in this case, it seems, the latter is coming first?). I'm not reflexively in favour of development, but I know that to make room for the future -- a well-planned future, not just blind "progress" for its own sake -- we must accept some degree of change. Fuzzy nostalgia about what's "being lost" isn't particularly helpful, especially when you consider the many past Ossingtons that have been "lost" to the cycles of development that produced it in its current form.
Maybe there's more to this perspective than you've included in this post, Amanda, but to me the paragraph highlighted here just reads as a paean to the tired old "indie" notion that nothing's cool once anyone (other than some tiny group of people "in the know") has heard of it.
"Save Ossington" is thought-provoking precisely because it prompts us to consider both sides... that Ossington might need "saving" from some kinds of change, but this change (however we characterize it) may itself be the force that does the saving.
Well said Greg.
I've lived in the neighborhood for awhile. Yes - I do get occasionally get mildly irritated by some of the places that have opened up. However the alternative would also mean not having close access to:
1. incredible pizza (Libretto),
2. a brazillian pub, replete with a bar lined with 1980's action figures (Todo),
3. a place for cheap scotch, beer and conversation (The Crooked Star),
4. good coffee (Ideal)
the list goes on...
Look at the neighborhood 15 years ago (when the indie hipsters were living in Lawrence Park, going to elementary school). It was pretty much a s#%thole.
Sorry, there's no controversy here..
Looking a bit closer at their Twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/saveossington
"Save Ossington is a 'tongue-in-cheek' t-shirt campaign created to spark dialogue about positive development on Ossington Ave in Toronto."
I guess they've sparked dialogue all right :) ... so far it looks to be overwhelmingly in favour of the changes that have happened on Ossington.
To which I would add Frantic City, a good used book/vinyl record store in the area.
I'm not reflexively in favour of development, but I know that to make room for the future -- a well-planned future, not just blind "progress" for its own sake -- we must accept some degree of change.
You were making a strong argument until this point. What you really meant to say is that you are 'not reflexively in favour of future development' because development has most definitely taken place on Ossington in the past. Besides, most of those 'gems' that certain people admire were never "well-planned". They just happened.
Planning is nothing more than one group of people (the Incumbents) using another group of people (the City) to tell another group of people (the Outsiders) what they can and cannot do.
In that portion, I mean to establish that I'm not reflexively pro-development in general (on Ossington or elsewhere), and also that I do believe it is legitimate to place reasonable restrictions on development in order to at least loosely guide the way that a changing neighbourhood is built up (i.e. by good planning). That planning in practice tends to fall short of good doesn't meant I think there should be no plan at all.
Well "reasonable restrictions" and "loosely guide" are miles away from "well-planned future". The clarification helps your argument. However, I'm still having trouble with this statement:
I'm not reflexively pro-development in general
So you are mostly status quo? You don't sound like one of those people that live in a neighbourhood who are opposed to any new development that fail to realize that their neighbourhood was a 'new' development some 50, 75 or 100 years ago. Enlighten me.
Ah, the mystical 'good planning'. I use that phrase in my reports, but to be honest, I'm not sure what it means. Good planning according to whom? Me, the so-called expert? City Council? Incumbent residents? The OMB? A spin on the 'good planning' wheel of fortune?
There are enough real crises in Toronto without looking for fake ones.
I think it's called "creative destruction".
Yeah, let's go back to the glory days of seedy Vietmanese bars and Baby Dolls spilling hookers resplendent track marks galore onto the street every night at 3! Let's chow some Galaxy Donuts until the wee hours!!
The funny part of this "Save Ossington" thing is that by save, they mean bring it back to about 6 years ago or so - when Sweaty Betys and the Communist opened up. Prior to that the strip was a nightmare save a few decent Pho joints.
So, really what they're saying here is "Save the Ossington Ave that briefly existed roughly from 2002 until 2008." What a joke. I'm getting my shirt tonight.
The real irony here is that they've printed up their t-shirts before launching their website.
I'm with Greg. Besides, if you want a blue-collar Oss with no hipster businesses, go to the residential part between College and Dupont. The closest thing you'll get to any kind of activity is the Mormon temple.
In the meantime, gonna get me a shirt.
I have to say it comes as a surprise to find out my street needs saving. I'm still not clear on what it needs saving from, but good luck all the same.
Rek: Every street needs 'saving' from 'something'. It's the Toronto Way.
This reminds me of what an urban planner type once told me: "The groups that campaign against 'gentrification' in their neighbourhoods are usually the driving engine."
Yep. So many people, once they've reached a comfortable perch, try to pull up the ladder behind them. Everyone seems to want an area to gentrify just enough so that the sketchy-to-hip ratio is perfect for *them*, but not so much that they themselves feel the pressure of rising rents, property taxes, more affluent neighbours, etc. The last wave of development (i.e. the one they rode in on) has to be the ultimate one, and the neighbourhood needs to be declared 'stable' so that it grows no further...
The last wave of development (i.e. the one they rode in on) has to be the ultimate one, and the neighbourhood needs to be declared 'stable' so that it grows no further...
That sums up 'opposition' to gentrification to a tee.
I don't blame people for wanting to maintain the status quo - it's only human nature to be wary of change. But just because a bunch of people are vocal does not necessarily mean they are acting on behalf of the so-called public interest.
I loved the idiots from Sweaty Betty's/The Ossington wanking on in Toronto LIfe (very surprised they lowered themselves to be in there since they probably despise Toronto LIfe readers) about "the worst is Saturday—they must have a moron bus that delivers them here" while they have plans to open a 3rd joint on the strip, as if they're the only people cool enough to open a place in the neighbourhood.
http://www.torontolife.com/features/after-ossington
What a bunch of bullshit - the snobbery is amazing. Save Ossington? Pffffft. There has never been anything to save. People need to get over themselves.
what, do you guys want ossinton to be the way it once was.
1. shitty karaoke bars (with knifefights included)
2. storage facilities (where knife fights end up)
3. ossington tire FTW
4. babydolls ?!?!??! still there though
5. random crap stores
at least there is interest in this neighbourhood.
most of the people who wank on about how the 'hood' used to are to young to actually remember how the 'hood' used to be... ...you avoided ossington like the plague!
The last wave of development (i.e. the one they rode in on) has to be the ultimate one, and the neighbourhood needs to be declared 'stable' so that it grows no further...
That sums up 'opposition' to gentrification to a tee.
I don't blame people for wanting to maintain the status quo - it's only human nature to be wary of change. But just because a bunch of people are vocal does not necessarily mean they are acting on behalf of the so-called public interest.
I think it has more to do with figuring out what direction Ossington will go? After the whole hipper-than-thou designation gets rusty, will we be left with a shell of a tourist stop (like Little Italy), a throw-up-anywhere gun-toting crowd (like the Entertainment District), or will it evolve quasi-naturally, like Queen West? If it gets overwhelmed with bars and clubs catering to out-of-towners, weekend partiers, etc. (like King West), then its gonna lose its overall cool quotient.
And people like me, who live here, will get stuck (literally) cleaning up people's shit in their back alleyways and side streets more often than they have to now. Sweaty's are right: the weekends bring the moron bus. (FYI: Red Lantern is opening on Dundas, and unlike The Ossington or LeVack, they always seem to keep it real.)
(Er, I meant Red Light.)
I lived on Dovercourt about 5 years ago for many years...before my landlord realised they could get twice what I was paying and forced me out.
The problem with this kind of gentrification is that a lot of the people who first moved out that way (i.e. west Queen west) is because of the cheap rent. With the sudden upspringing of all these hipster joints and boutique stores, rents double (like mine) thereby forcing out those who can no longer afford the rent.
Also, I guess I felt more at home surrounded by drunk patrons of the strip joint than I did with bampots slumming it at Communists Daughter.
I miss you, Baby Dolls.