Chinatown and Spadina LRT (photos and clips)

[wyliepoon]

I decided to head to Chinatown today for a little photo tour, just to check out if the place is really "dead" just like the Star article said.

Personally, I don't buy the Star's argument. However, there are plenty of signs of changes and transitions in Chinatown. Although a number of stores sit empty and some places are getting ready to shut down, I still can't see how Chinatown is dying. The market crowds are still there. Most of the grocery stores along Spadina are bustling.

I think the biggest transition in Chinatown is the re-orienting of the neighbourhood. Dundas, the traditional "main street" of Chinatown, is getting quieter and has lost most of the shoppers to Spadina, which now boasts more stores, two malls, and access to the LRT.

Let's see some photos...

The AGO coming down

Goodbye to the "old" AGO!

Empty building on the east end of Chinatown, with Chinatown moose in front

Closing sale for a houseware store

Call in the street sweepers!

Beginning of the end for the China Town Dollar Mart, which is relatively new on the Chinatown scene. I remember passing by it two years ago, when they had massive loudspeakers at the front door announcing the latest discounts.

Seeing the Dollar Mart go is bitter sweet. Another Chinatown business goes down the drain, but I think it's just too tacky, even for Chinatown.

Hsin Kuang Centre is one of the smaller landmarks of Chinatown. Named after the Hsin Kuang chain of Hong Kong dim sum restaurants that used to have two locations in Toronto. Hsin Kuang no longer exists here or in HK, but the name is still attached to this building.

Views from the Dragon City staircase, which provides great aerial views of one of Toronto's most bustling intersections.

Far East Theatre, once a theatre showing Chinese films and live Chinese operas, but now it is closed, a victim of the rise of Chinese videos, VCDs and DVDs.

Chinatown Centre- the top floors of the mall are now being converted into a hotel.

Asian Farms supermarket- why Ulysses S. Grant, a US Civil War general and later President, is the supermarket's logo still mystifies me.

Thank God the graffiti on the Royal Bank building is now covered up- by a Telus ad.

Dragon City- featuring downtown Toronto's first media tower?

At Spadina station

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Dundas streetcar passing by the AGO

Spadina streetcars crossing Dundas

Streetcars at Spadina and Dundas

At the Spadina LRT stop

At the Spadina LRT stop 2
(Essentially the same as the previous one, except with southbound streetcars bunched up, and an old guy shouting behind me)

View from the back of a streetcar on the Spadina LRT between Dundas and College

 

[MrOttawa]

Change is not bad. Chinatown originated by city hall and moved west. The chinese community is changing and so must its neighbourhood. The hood is becomming diverse with all the condos and lofts nearby. Chinese are living teh suburban dream and hve moved to 905.

With the influx of wealth and the changes in the retail mix, could we see some of the ratty post WWII architecture replacced with something more appropriate?

 

[Jarrek]

Asian Farms supermarket- why Ulysses S. Grant, a US Civil War general and later President, is the supermarket's logo still mystifies me.

In Mississauga there's a large supermarket bearing the same colours and logo on Dixie and Bloor.

It's called Grant's Foodmart.

Maybe the same owners?

 

[Observer Walt]

Mr. Ottawa: I think your comment nails it. Other ethnic groups have started out in the central city and over a period of a couple of generations have migrated outward to other parts of the city or the burbs. Why should the Chinese be any different? Chinatown at Dundas and Spadina may be changing, but it would hardly be the first time that this neighbourhood has changed.

Let's watch and see what it becomes. Who knows, maybe with the proximity of the AGO and OCAD, it may become an echo of West Queen West with some lower-rent gallery spaces, non-Chinese restaurants, etc.

BTW good photos, Wylie. Thank you.

 

[Chuck100]

Ah yes, I used to frequent that area all the time. I recently switched to Kensington Market because the quality is better, it doens't smell like rotting fish, and it's cleaner.

I'll repeat what I said earlier. The fact that the demographics of Chinatown are changing is a sign that the neighbourhood has served its purpose and helped the Chinese community integrate into Canadian society. It's time to let another group benefit, so I don't think it's worth preserving the past.

On a very related note, would anyone care to guess what this large yellow building used to be?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

A theatre of some sort, with the flytower at the back?

AoD

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Ha! Indeed it was!

The building at the north-east corner of Spadina and Dundas was once an important Yiddish theatre, The Standard. Today it houses a branch of the Royal Bank and sundry small businesses. The Standard Theatre was designed by architect Benjamin Brown and opened on August 18, 1921. In the 1920's it was the centre of Yiddish theatre in Toronto. From 1921 to 1935 people came to the Standard for fine Yiddish theatre, lectures, meetings, and boxing matches. In 1929 a meeting at the Standard to commemorate the death of Lenin ended in a police raid. Toronto police kept a close watch on Communist activity in the neighbourhood and speakers at this meeting had broken the law using a language other than English.

This theatre knew many incarnations. By 1935 demand for live Yiddish theatre had fallen off so the Standard became a movie theatre, the Strand. At the end of World War II it became burlesque house, the Victory, until 1975. It was a popular, and notorious hang-out for students and artists. Rick Salutin tells us “It used to be the Standard, a Yiddish theatre, and politicalcultural projects like “Eight Men Speak†went on its stage. In the mid 1930's. it became the Strand, a movie house. After the Second World War it was renamed, naturally, the Victory and became a burlesque house. When I was growing up it was a centrepiece of adolescence. Since we lacked any comparison, the strip shows seemed like the real thing. We didn't know how prissy they were in the Toronto way. G-strings and pasties were obligatory; numerous rules restrained the performances.†After renovations, the Golden Harvest Theatre opened as a Chinese language theatre. It then became the Mandarin Theatre and finally in a way, a mall.

www.lostrivers.ca/points/spadinaave.htm

AoD

 

[Chuck100]

Exactly. Change is normal here. While the crowds are certainly not lessening, their make up no doubt is, which is why some of the retailers are suffering. Bring on change! Who knows who will dominate the area next. It's wrong to preserve Chinatown for tourists when it's one of the few parts of the city that can offer all the support a new immigrant group could ever want.

 

[limber88]

Asian Farms supermarket- why Ulysses S. Grant, a US Civil War general and later President, is the supermarket's logo still mystifies me.

Idle speculation follows --
"It's all about the benjamins, baby". Or in this case, the Grants. The portrait is the one from the $50 bill. It's an attempt to associate the establishment with money/good fortune/wealth.

Also (and I suspect rather more tenuously) Grant established the policy of redeeming greenbacks in gold. "it's as good as gold." Again, an evocation of wealth.

It's similar to the 'double 8 restauraunt' or hong fatt. (to reference some other establishments in this photo set)

 

[miketoronto]

Nice pics.

Guys I think the issue with Chinatown leaving downtown is not that the neighbourhood is changing.

But the fact that our entire inner city and downtown is losing its ethnic charm.
I am sorry, but its not the best thing that we are going to have to travel out to Brampton or Markham for ethnic culture.

Toronto is the city of cultures. Yet our inner core is losing it all. Thats what losing chinatown would represent. The total loss of ethnic culture in our core.

Its different to have all the cultures cluttered in different easy to get to central locations, rather then strip malls in 905.

The core inner city is suppose to be our centre of everything. And losing ethnic areas like Chinatown is a major blow to our city.

 

[SD2]

Toronto is the city of cultures. Yet our inner core is losing it all. Thats what losing chinatown would represent. The total loss of ethnic culture in our core.

That's pretty extreme!

I don't think Chinatown will die...a lot of people visit just for the ambience. Look at Gerrard St...there aren't really many Indian people who live in the area but the Bazzar is doing better than ever. Most of the restaurants in Chinatown are usually rammed with people from various backgrounds.

Chinatown certainly has some competition from the suburbs, but as it's been mentioned, it has benefits you'll never find in a mall. Marketing will be important.