rebecca ([info]splinterjete) wrote,
@ 2008-03-25 12:53:00
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neighbourhoods and gentrification
i'm tired of living in the west end.

too many babies, too much pretention. i'm starting to wonder if i'm actually not more of an east ender. it just is... more real. and it's closer to where my work is.

and i love the jetfuel, it's my favourite spot in this city. i love how, in this blog sopmeone responds by saying that "the service sucks". must be some pretentious west-ender expecting someone to lick their ass whilst serving them coffee. sheesh!

here's is someone prognosticating that the east end is picking up, which is, like all aspects of gentrification, a uniquely double-edged sword. while it can offer up safety, cosmetic improvements to the neighbourhood, and - in the short-term - benefit everyone living in the community by building up its capacity, it eventually becomes a millionaires ghetto.

gentrification in toronto is just scaring me. while it seems like the real-estate market in the rest of the continent has collapsed, dilapidated alleyway granny flats sell for $300k and forget about buying a detached house anywhere downtown. while it was a novelty 3 years ago, i've recently lost count of the number of new condo projects, largely focussed around Yorkville, that *start* in the MILLIONS. apparently, toronto is the "condo king", with twice as many towers as *new york*. huh?

i can't even comprehend how someone even has or amasses such wealth. i feel rich working part-time making $20/hour. but i couldn't even buy that granny flat.

maybe i should forget the east end, maybe i need to get out of this city altogether.

~becca

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[info]etherealgrace
2008-03-25 05:23 pm UTC (link)

Agreed. Every time I see a new construction project, I'm afraid that it's another condo, with units starting at half a million plus. I am continually forced to wonder who exactly is living in these places. Very few people I know can afford to live in any of the new buildings popping up in the city, and so I am forced to convince myself that the average annual income in Toronto is something like $75,000. I don't think I've ever had that sum of money pass through my hands in my entire life...

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[info]aki_no_kaze
2008-03-25 05:42 pm UTC (link)
well, precious few actually own their million dollar condo... they have mortgages that their grandkids will be paying off.

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[info]mallii
2008-03-25 07:17 pm UTC (link)
You should see what's happening uptown. Up in my beloved little suburban North York, the mall that previously housed a K-Mart, Pharma Plus, and crappy old Loblaws is now the home of a gigantic LCBO (previously the largest in North America), a newer, fancier Loblaws, and all array of rich stores in between with signs in their windows like "SALE!! 70% OFF!" which actually briefly catch my interest, before I look around and discover that 70% off means that the discounted shirts will still cost me half a week's paycheck. Billboards around the mall say things like "The Haughtest Village West of Paris."

While the mall was getting all fancied up, Loblaws was somehow not allowed to have a front entrance opening into the parking lot. The reason, we discover later, is that they are tearing out the trees and almost-green space at the side of the lot and incorporating Bayview subway station into yet another gigantic condo, with the smaller flats starting at $294K. This one being a continuation of the same company's work on the south east side of Sheppard, which used to be a rather low-income neighbourhood. Now it is riddled with somewhere between 4 and 6 condos that tower over everything else in the area and light up at night to look a lot like space ships.

Not too far away, North York Centre Station and Sheppard-Yonge Station have begun to look a lot like the rest of downtown Toronto, riddled with huge shiny office buildings and coffee shops no further than across the street from one another. Toronto has twice the towers as New York? I'll believe that.

I miss K-Mart and my green space... and a time when it was affordable to live here.

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[info]daland
2008-03-25 10:40 pm UTC (link)
chicago! it's your kinda town.

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*NOD*
[info]morganxpage
2008-03-25 07:26 pm UTC (link)
Let's move to Portland. Or, really, anywhere the fuck outside of Toronto. I'm so over this condo bullshit, and the city of a million part-time jobs.

~Morgan

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[info]pdxkate
2008-03-25 07:37 pm UTC (link)
Portland would uh... love to have you. *nudge*

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[info]dale62676
2008-03-25 08:19 pm UTC (link)
I completely agree, awesome post. I am planning on writing about the obession with luxury I see going on in Boston these days. I'm lucky to live in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, which has mostly keep out developers or big-name commercial property. But just down the same block as mine, apartments were coverted to yuppie condos. Yuck.
Have you seen Itty Bitty Titty Committee? I wanna get all grafitti radical on them and paint on their door, "No yuppies in JP!" :)

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[info]teraflops
2008-03-25 08:39 pm UTC (link)
I would try very hard to lure you to NYC, but that might be something like enticing you out of the frying pan and into the fire.

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[info]jessie_c
2008-03-25 08:54 pm UTC (link)
So it's finally come to Toronto? The situation you describe has been standard conditions in Vancouver since the 80s. Prices here start in the stratosphere and get worse from there. 300K will barely get you a closet, never mind the rest of the appartment.

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[info]queerasmoi
2008-03-25 09:41 pm UTC (link)
If it's any comfort, that granny flat would probably be $400k+ in midtown Vancouver.

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[info]cyborg_kitty100
2008-03-26 01:18 am UTC (link)
Yes, move east! all the way to Ottawa.... muahahaha

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[info]ladyaviva
2008-03-27 04:43 am UTC (link)
apparently, toronto is the "condo king", with twice as many towers as *new york*. huh?

I find this especially mind-blowing considering how I can't walk for three minutes in this city without passing a construction site that promises luxury condos as soon as they can build 'em. I can't imagine any other city having more - I can't imagine us having this many.

I thought for about four hours last night that I might be able to buy a co-op in the near future. Then the world said "Silly, you're not ready to be a real grown-up!" and smacked me with thousands of dollars in debt for my presumption.

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