Essay/Presentation Assignment for Dr. Smith Harvey

Toronto Neighbourhood Group Project

This project is about the impact of development in individual neighbourhoods. The urbantoronto website has links to the developments in each area. The best way to get the good journalism that will help you tell the story is to use the current issues section of the GBC databases – Particularly Canadian Newsstand. You can find quality articles that might otherwise be behind a pay wall. You should avoid real estate websites – often inaccurate, just selling.

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/ interactive map for most developments in Toronto

Humber Bay Shores / Mimico

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

Main intersection Parklawn and Lake Shore. The street is Lake Shore in Toronto and Lakeshore – one word - in Mississauga. It affects your Google search results

There is journalism describing the lack of planning in Humber Bay Shores – the former “Motel Strip”

Wall of condos blocking the view of the lake in what used to be called the motel strip, Not really a conventional gentrification story in this part of the area – no tenants were displaced in this area – just seedy motels

Humber bay shores is getting better because there is enough density for new stores to open. Metro supermarket

Mark Grimes – the Councillor - says that we do not want to repeat the mistakes in Mimico 2020 plan but the problems in Humber Bay shores happened on his watch. Was a buddy of Rob Ford – very developer friendly. https://www.facebook.com/themark.grimes/

Building vertical suburbs instead of vertical communities

Mimico 2020 masterplan. Any history of Mimico before the year 2000 is not relevant.

News sources (not real estate agents flogging condos) Lots of controversy about the plan – gentrification story in Mimico. Use “Canadian Newsstand in the databases.

Lots of new wealth yet the nearest main street (Lake Shore) is in bad shape

Closure of Mr. Christie – Toronto’s employment strategy. This is a big story. The city wanted to save this land as employment but lost at the Ontario Municipal Board (what is the OMB) The city lost – money talks. Old history of Mimico not relevant. You could start from the 1990s talking about the motel strip.

Mimico BIA

On the bright side this neighbourhood is on the lake and there is great parkland including the extension of the Martin Goodman trail

Kensington

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

History of Kensington in the 20th Century is relevant – the Jewish market and subsequent waves of immigration are all still part of the mix. History before that is irrelevant. Lots of recent journalism on gentrification in Kensington

Not necessarily as much to talk about in the area as in others. If all group members are active, one group member should look at the nearby development of the Honest Ed’s site. The main story is the how the project was forced to scale back from the fairly outrageous density that was originally proposed.

RioCan development – former Kromer radio

New proposal that does not include a Walmart

Bathurst street study – one of the main reasons to do this study was that since it involved a shutdown of planning approvals on the whole strip of Bathurst until completion of the study – it was a way to force RioCan to bargain on putting a Walmart on Bathurst. It worked. What is an avenue study?

Condo / Loblaw’s at Spadina and College – get over yourselves Kensington Market lovers – the Loblaw’s will have very little impact on Kensington!

Kensington BIA – car free Sundays –

Kensington market heritage district – what is a heritage district?

Mythical Kensington – home of all that is cool and indie in Toronto

Gentrification from within – hipster gentrification

Adam Vaughan the former Councillor was very involved in the formation of the BIA

Info about current Councillor on his Facebook site

https://www.facebook.com/Pedestrian-Sundays-in-Kensington-Market-128141573930920/

http://www.kensingtonmarketbia.com/home.htm

https://www.facebook.com/CressyJoe

https://redpepperspectacle.wordpress.com/

http://redpepperspectacle.weebly.com/

http://friendsofkensingtonmarket.ca/

https://hcdtoronto.wordpress.com/

Heritage Preservation

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=998752cc66061410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

Entertainment district A

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/ - very important for this group – shows all the recent and current developments.

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2017/01/growth-watch-2017-entertainment-district

History before the 1990s when it was the club zone is not relevant. Not a typical gentrification story. Very few people lived here in early 2000s. Fancy condos with no parking – what is up with that?

This topic is about the scale of private development – mostly condos. Should include comparison maps and images from urbantoronto above about the remarkable number of projects on the go.

Last Councillor, Adam Vaughan worked very hard to convince developers to include larger units in the condos so that if folks had kids, they could stay in the area. Lots of journalism.

Mirvish Gehry development – tell the story of the different versions of the project. Jennifer Keesmat’s (Toronto’s Head of Planning) critique. City forces developer to make it smaller and save historic buildings. Project has gone through multiple iterations on the road to approved version? http://urbantoronto.ca/database/projects/mirvishgehry-toronto

Not about Rogers centre Air Canada centre and not about the aquarium even though it is relatively new.

Trump Tower – different kind of condo – you are buying a hotel room. Lots of controversy (google tenants sue Trump tower)

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=198671

https://www.facebook.com/CressyJoe - Councillor

Entertainment district B

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

Need for better transit, more parkland, wider sidewalks

New transit proposals March 2016 – downtown relief line and King Street becomes one way.

Heritage, infrastructure, Masterplan (not about showing us individual heritage buildings)

There were new announcements about long term transit plans from the Toronto Planning department – the new map with priorities should be part of your presentation

Proposals to limit traffic on King Street.

Use Canadian Newsstand in the databases to get articles about congestion, need for transit and other key words

Death of the clubs – mostly done – talk about politics – residents vote for Councillor – club goers do not.

Entertainment District BIA and the master plan

http://torontoed.com/files/TED-MasterPlanUpdate-June21-2013-reduced.pdf

John street corridor – reference is the master plan

Heritage Preservation District Study

https://www.facebook.com/CressyJoe

Peter street homeless shelter – controversial – Not in my backyard (NIMBY) – open now and no problem but there was a fight to stop it.

Economic problems with preservation of heritage properties

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2013/04/zeidler-vaughan-and-mirvish-talk-heritage-entertainment-district

Types of preservation. What is facadism? Put a building on legs?

http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2014/03/touring-allied-reits-queen-richmond-centre-west

Moving a building http://tayloronhistory.com/2011/07/30/relocating-the-building-at-adelaide-and-john-streets-that-was-the-fox-and-fiddle-pub/

Junction Triangle / Bloordale

These two neighbourhoods are deeply connected – There is no retail strip on the part of Bloor that is in the Junction Triangle so residents would use the Bloordale strip (Lansdowne to Dufferin)

Do not confuse with the Junction

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

The big story right now is the construction of a long elevated bridge to eliminate the levels crossing between the Barrie GO and the CPR freight line http://www.metrolinx.com/en/regionalplanning/rer/davenport.aspx

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTQuH3cWGMk

Gentrification – house prices skyrocketing

Industrial history – General Electric

Brownfield redevelopment – Tom Falus

Section 37 money from Falus for library

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/te/bgrd/backgroundfile-41796.pdf (search section 37 in document 1.1 million dollars for library)

Someone in your group should explain Section 37

299 Campbell - TAS Design – new library – also Section 37

158 Sterling (Tower Automotive building) Castlepoint development – big story – lots of journalism

Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art moving into the Tower Automotive building (find pictures of the interior of the building) interesting columns.

Bloordale Streetscape

138 St Helens Avenue

Bloordale BIA; BIG on Bloor festival

http://railpath.wordpress.com/

http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/

In particular

http://www.junctiontriangle.ca/node/1085

http://www.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/0/Leadership/Ward9/P20131114BloorALPHAPresentationReducedSizeForWeb.pdf

Leslieville

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

Box stores and TTC facility

Box store story is stale dated but it was a very big one and I would like you to report on it.

Alternate plan to Walmart

http://www.andrew.thejohnsonclan.ca/attachments/053_FINAL__FINAL%20REPORT%20%20done%20-%20april6%20-%20730pm.pdf

The Leslie Street TTC yard is still a very hot issue.

http://www.ttc.ca/PDF/Transit_expansion_PDFs/04-ashbridges-bay-lrv-msf-epr-chapter-2.pdf

Took a very long time to complete and Leslieville residents were and are still upset

Lots of effort to placate residents https://www.ttc.ca/PDF/Transit_expansion_PDFs/appendix-c-6.pdf

Leslie was obviously the best route but the City did the study anyway

Landscape architects for the TTC maintenance building were Brown and Storey. Good images on their site - http://www.brownandstorey.com/projects/2010-ttclakeshore/Frames.htm

Also in your area

http://www.brownandstorey.com/projects/carlawdundasstudy/T-projectframes.htm

New construction and planning applications – condos on Carlaw

Gradual disappearance of Little India on Gerrard.

This is a gentrification story but not happening as fast as in some other areas.

Weston’s Bakery site on Eastern Ave. 459 & 462 Eastern Avenue (Weston Bakery, 2122498 Ontario Ltd - big piece of land.

39 Connaught Avenue and Queen Street East (this will get the image there is another Connaught in North York.

1003 Queen Street East -- Built 10 residential and 2 retail condominiums at the corner of Queen and Pape

319 CARLAW AVE

345 CARLAW AVE

326 Carlaw Ave

1. 1003 Queen St. E.

2. 1001 Queen St. E.

3. 629,633, 675 Eastern Avenue (failed Smart Centre Development)

4. 1183 Queen St. East

5. 50 Curzon St.

30 Curzon St

6. 102-106 Curzon St.

233 Carlaw Avenue

970 Eastern

http://www.leslieville.com

West Queen West triangle

`Also called Beaconsfield. Do not be confused – West Queen West is a term used to describe everything west of Bathurst. Your area is Dovercourt to Dufferin. Another group is reporting on the hood just to the east (CAMH and Ossington) Queen West BIA not useful. It goes all the way from Bathurst to Dufferin

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/ - links to developments across the city – zoom in on your neighbourhood.

Fairly conventional gentrification story but with the involvement of a dynamic community organization called Active 18 – Lot of good journalism – use Canadian Newsstand in the college databases.

Epic interaction between Active 18 and the developers – will be in the textbooks

The story was well told an exhibit at 401 Richmond Street - http://www.urbanspacegallery.ca/exhibits/triangles-who-builds-toronto/west-queen-west-triangle-what-happened

Development now also just north of Queen on Gladstone and on Peel. Definitely a topic of a group member.

Elimination of the Dufferin jog

Maintaining employment lands

The impact of the renovation of Drake and Gladstone Hotels (google Drake you ho)

Please be clear on what your area is – Dufferin to Dovercourt

http://www.chascamp.com/blog/

http://www.active18.net/

CAMH and Queen and Ossington. Ossington Strip

Talking about a fairly small neighbourhood centred on Queen and Ossignton. The area of Ossington under rapid development extends only up to Dundas.

The Ossignton BIA is very new. Their website is in progress

Involvement of Mike Layton in the formation

The Ossington part of the story is a conventional gentrification story

The redevelopment of CAMH is anything but conventional

There is a stale dated story about a ban on new bars on the Ossignton strip which could be presented. How was it resolved?

http://smartgrowthforossington.blogspot.ca/

http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/about_camh/CAMH_redevelopment/Pages/CAMH_redevelopment.aspx

http://mikelayton.ca/ossington-planning-study

http://ossingtoncommunity.wordpress.com/

Liberty village

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

Make sure you know what your area is. North of the Canadian National Exhibition. Between Dufferin and Strachan and south of the RR tracks.

Not too many people living in Liberty before the current steroidal condo boom. There were artists living in some of the industrial buildings who were forced out so it is a bit of a gentrification story.

The main issues are about the quality and density of the buildings in the eastern part (Strachan side) – condo feeding frenzy. Two councillors have jurisdiction. The area is divided between Ward 14 and 18 but it is mostly Ward 18 - Mike Layton

Master plan

https://www1.toronto.ca/city_of_toronto/city_planning/...planning/.../KingLiberty.pdf

http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/pdfs/researchbulletins/CUCSRB32-WieditzJan07.pdf

http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/03/big_changes_on_the_way_for_liberty_village_eventually/

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2011/pw/bgrd/backgroundfile-41890.pdf

http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2011.PW9.6

http://lvbia.com/

Transportation issues, inadequate parkland

Harbourfront, the Island and the Island Airport

Queen’s Quay revitalization

For all groups - http://urbantoronto.ca/map/

Central part of your story is the controversy around the expansion of the island airport. It is the auto traffic of an expanded airport that concerns people as well as the jet traffic. Lots of journalism

Adam Vaughan, the former councillor of Ward 20 was very much against and now he is part of Justin Trudeau’s team in Ottawa.

I was looking at some of the pages reporting on condos and apartments being constructed. Some folks seem angry about a lot of very expensive units being built on what they think should be all public land. Rob Ford and some others are upset because some new building are going to be public housing – why should low income people be living on some of the most valuable land in the city.

Not really a gentrification story in the sense that no one is being pushed out

http://www.communityair.org/

https://www.porterplans.com/

http://www.nojetsto.ca/

You could mention the Airport train – why expand the airport for jets when it is going to be much easier and reliable to get to Pearson. Trains don’t have traffic problems

Queens Quay redevelopment

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/explore_projects2/central_waterfront/queens_quay

http://ward20.ca/neighbourhoods_detail.php?neighbourhood=waterfront_district

These are the links from the page above to community organizations

Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association
http://bqna.org/

Waterfront Business improvement Association

http://www.waterfrontbia.com/

York Quay Neighbourhood Association

http://yqna.ca/

Waterfront Toronto – LOTS OF IMAGES

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/

Harbourfront is in Ward 20 but Toronto Island is Ward 28

Three ugly sisters and two ugly brothers. (Google it along with Queen’s Quay)