Results tagged “gentrification”

There was an article in April 18th's Globe and Mail that began by labelling Kensington Market "the site of the next big battle for gentrification" in Toronto. The central figure in that article was realtor Phil Pick, of Esbin Realty, whose "for lease" signs hang or have until recently hung in the windows of five Kensington storefronts this spring, by our last informal count. One Phil Pick property on Augusta Avenue has already been leased for some time to the owners of Good Egg, a gourmet kitchen implements store. Two more storefronts have Esbin Realty signs without Phil Pick's nameplate attached. Of the seven total Esbin properties not yet fully occupied, three are now leased and undergoing renovation. One of them, though still unfinished, is already selling, of all things, scooters.

Who is moving into the main space in the development at Queen Street West and Portland, abandoned two months by Home Depot? Torontoist got a tip yesterday afternoon that a new primary retail tenant has been locked down, but according to RioCan, the property's keepers, that's just not the case.

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.

Just off West Queen West, around the corner from 48 Abell and the Drake Hotel, on the wall of a long blue warehouse complex that is supposed to come down shortly to make room for a condo, stands Mr. Loogie.

Have a closer look at the posters on 234 Augusta Avenue after the jump.

The Post is reporting that talks are currently underway with Starbucks to rent the former home of J & J Fruit Market—on the corner of Augusta and Nassau and thus smack-dab in the heart of Kensington Market. Some Market residents who the Post interviewed were unsurprisingly ready for a fight, and, as the property is partially on city land, Adam Vaughan has said that it will require neighbourhood approval anyway and will become a "very public and pitched debate." That, and he wants Kensington composed of "small, family-run businesses.” So: probably not gonna happen. The winning serve comes from i deal coffee owner James Fortier, who tells the Post that he has no issues with Starbucks coming; he just thinks that the big chain won't make any money if they do. There's the rub: if, by some miracle, Starbucks gets its wings and opens up shop in Kensington, against the violent protests and certain vandalism from the locals, it could still only survive as long as customers' demand for it did.

Anyone remotely interested in urban or social studies should be fairly captivated by AZURE Magazine's latest hulking tome, a special issue entitled "How To Build A Great City." In it, AZURE explores the staple themes: bike lanes across the world, the value of subway lines versus a city's (or in their case, town's) total monetary intake, and a piece that, as always, showcases how painfully far we are behind the Danes. Make no mistake, these articles aren't a rehash of pop journalism tripe capitalizing on fashionable themes; AZURE's triadic focus has always been "Design, Architecture, Art" and the content of the publication is always refreshing and informative. To wit, columns examining architecture as it relates to its surroundings give hope where we're accustomed to being saddled with the cheapest, most convenient, and worst examples of building conceivable.

When trying to solve the problem of the lack of affordable housing, the thinkers and planners and innovators and design enthusiasts come up with some pretty creative ideas. Like the IKEA House, for example, or the notion of shipping container architecture. A group of Toronto activists are proposing a "use it or lose it" bylaw "that would see vacant and underutilized buildings and spaces expropriated by the City and redeveloped as badly needed affordable housing and social centres."

Former Torontoist contributor Ted Healey came across a great find at the Wellesley & Ontario condo and townhouse development known as "The Star of Downtown." Previously the subject of an Ugly Stick here on Torontoist, the condo's advertisements have seen plenty of scorn since they were put up. The latest addition to the front facade is thanks to someone named Defy, who has decided to give a voice to the gay urban professionals artificially posed around their sweet new townhouses.

The elite of the documentary film world gathered this morning at Revival for a press conference announcing the lineup of this year's Hot Docs festival. It's a powerhouse program, which TVO's Rudy Buttingnol attributes to the filmmakers and the growing importance of the medium. "Documentaries are helping change the way people think," says Buttingnol, who will also receive the inaugural Outstanding Industry Achievement Award. "Just look at how governments around the world are now trying to address the problem of the environment...I can't help but think documentaries had something to do with it."

A conference about culture-led regeneration in Toronto headed up by independent non-profit real-estate developer Artscape took place yesterday at the Joseph Workman theatre at the Queen Street CAMH. In recent days, the unpopular OMB ruling to demolish the historic Abell Street building and its 80 live-work studios has crystallized the dire need to improve methods of city planning for many citizens. This has left many people asking, how do we go forward and make things good?

The urban sprawl in Toronto is a continual point of debate on Torontoist (see, for instance, our interview with Brad Lamb), but tomorrow you will get a chance to share your opinions on the matter outside of our sullied comment threads. On Monday, 7pm to 9pm at the Parkdale branch of the Toronto Public Library, fourth year students from Ryerson University will present their study of gentrification in Parkdale, followed by a moderated panel discussion and then an audience Q&A.

Brad J. Lamb is not, to put it gently, universally loved.

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Blame international architect Will Alsop for the latest Queen West trend.

Torontoist still has mixed feelings about condos. On one hand, they're harbingers of gentrification, and are often built with little or no regard for the surrounding neighbourhoods. On the other hand, it beats paving over another patch of forest or farmland for a subdivision.

Former TOist contributor J. Kelly Nestruck won't be giving a Trampoline Hall lecture about this, although we think it would work as a topic, Mr. Nestruck is actually presenting Montreal film Roger Toupin, Épicier Variété a film about a neighbourhood grocer and how the forces of gentrification affects a neighbourhood institution.

Part of the networked city, the pigeon condo has been erected down at Yonge and Lakeshore, under the Gardiner.

54east, the half-art, half-BIAish, bus route inspired magazine recently released its Spring 2006 issue. The cover story, points of origin, profiles in a positive, hard working way, successful entrepreneurs whose businesses line the Wexford neighbourhood. The article includes photos of Ian Leventhal's murals of the same business owners.

In due time, you'll be able to fold a map of city in half, with Yonge Street as the crease, and witness the more or less symmetry in Starbucks locations on Queen Street. One Starbucks is on Queen West in Beaconsfield, site of the infamous "Drake you ho this is all your fault" tag of last year. The other is planned for Queen East in Leslieville, home of the infamous commenter Joe Clark. More importantly, West Queen West (or whatever) and Leslieville may mirror each other in more ways than coffee chains - as condos, home renovations and, eventually, higher property values begin to appear.

Gentrification finally, finally wrought a bookstore. With the addition of Type, the stretch of Queen West across from Trinity Bellwoods Park officially moves into the lead as the quaintest little block in the West. No longer just a place to buy cushions and tin trinkets, you can now snag yourself a book to get sticky with croissant fingers as you spend your summer Saturdays reading in the park.

One of the complaints of the Toronto arts scene is that it's far too downtown-centric. Yet interestingly many of its artists, and many many Torontonians actually come from and some still live in the suburbs. Couple this with the gentrification happening all over downtown Toronto and you can come to the conclusion that sooner or later artists will be priced out of their downtown live/work spaces and crappy basement apartments. This is what Brenda Goldstein, curator of the exhibit The Centre Cannot Hold argues. She's asked a number of Toronto artists (some urban, some not) to examine their vision of the suburbs. Pieces include Emily Hogg's Luis Vuitton/Highway Architecture mashup, Anthea Foyer's exploration of Rochdale and Lorraine Oades' tongue in cheek look at aging, modernism and the Garden City school of urbanism.

Someone please fire the marketing team at Landmark Building Group. The marketers at this developer's have come up with this painfully obnoxious video advertising their lofts. We've seen better acting and production from late night spots and these ads simply scream gentrification. The video touts the location of their project (right across from the Drake) and has one of the most asinine slogans we've seen in recent memories ("Are you on the list?"). It's a slogan that reminds us of power-tripping bouncers at overpriced clubs on Richmond Street. Just wait until all those yuppies move into the neighbourhood and start complaining about the noise that bars like the Drake and the Beaconsfield make.

Last night, though, the chunky heel was about as useful as a Diet Coke at Christmas dinner. The fashion accessory on this night had to be the winter-time scarf. Has the Drake Hotel ever seen as many scarves as it did last night? Probably. But the most peculiar sight was at the end of the night, when there was no left-over scarves on the ground. Drake, by the way, is known as the icon of Parkdale gentrification. In other news, the Islands, aka the 'Corn Gang, have sold beats to the Swollen Members.

Sometime Saturday afternoon, Martin Zimmerman opened the door to his grocery store and rung in his first customer. There was no fanfare, no balloons or streamers, no band or ribbon cuttings, Martin Zimmerman simply opened his doors and let the throng of Saturday shoppers stumble upon his store.