Death of Clubland (aka: Is Adam Vaughan trying to kill the Club District?)

[old boy]

King West has quickly become a mecca for disenchanted suburbanites who have finally moved out of their parents' Woodbridge mansion and make just enough as a pharmaceutical sales rep or real estate agent to put a down payment on a Thomson studio. They like the luxury of living in a posh hood located close enough to work, yet still can't resist driving four blocks in their GMC Tahoe to their King & John office. If King West is what makes Toronto "cool," as HuffPo proclaims, we are in serious, serious trouble.

And to think, I haven't even been to King West, how very uncool is that !

 

[syn]

Is it safe to say the club industry didn't have much sway in the last election? Vaughn seemed to win pretty easily.

 

[grey]

Yeah. Hopefully his landslide win won't dampen the engines of the hilarious anti-Vaughan conspiracy theories.

 

[lafard]

because despite all the noise about clubland dying, the under 30s that are the heaviest clubgoers are also the least likely to vote; and a very large segment of residents are U of T students and transient through the ward anyways. They generally don't vote.

Then, most 30-something condo owners get just as annoyed at the clubland BS as anybody else does. Once you drop $300,000 dollars, you have a vested interest in protecting your neighbourhood. The irresponsible suburbanite from Woodbridge that has, probably with Daddy's help, purchased a condo down there, also doesn't vote.

 

[adma]

The irresponsible suburbanite from Woodbridge that has, probably with Daddy's help, purchased a condo down there, also doesn't vote.

Or, in an inversion of a certain Ford-supporter theorem, they voted for Adam Vaughan because he's "cool", without caring to grasp his stance viz. Clubland...

 

[js97]

Vaughan won easily with the help of the NDP Machine (and even liberal). Marchese, Bolton, even to some extent, Chow.
Not saying that would have lost, but It didn't help that that was the most ANTI ford ward in Toronto.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Most clubgoers don't live in the ward, and besides, Vaughan is probably one of the more "responsive" councillors out there.

AoD

 

[Glen]

Responsive? Not in my experience.

 

[js97]

argue all you want, but in 5 years, that place will be 'sanitized' and the condo dwellers will know no difference.

Shoppers' Drug Mart, Pizza Pizza, Jack astors Milestones, and maybe even an Earls. Throw in a dry cleaners and a nail salon. Just the way they will like it, clean, neat, and just like the suburbs.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Glen:

The experience of one doesn't make that a truth for the many. And just because one receives a form letter doesn't make it a meaningful definition of responsiveness either.

js97:

That outcome (maybe less generic than the way you described it) won't be surprising to me at all.

AoD

 

[grey]

I think that outcome will at least be limited to the base of condos that are springing up. The majority of brick & beam buildings in the neighbourhood are better suited to uses like those we see along Spadina and King West (401 Richmond, DWR, Sense Appeal, etc).

Honestly, I don't think the Jersey Shore crowd is up to mounting any kind of defense against a shift in the character of the neighbourhood (which is being generous, considering it's only recently rising out of dull ghost-town status most of the day).

 

[SimonP]

Vaughan won easily with the help of the NDP Machine (and even liberal). Marchese, Bolton, even to some extent, Chow.

As someone working pretty directly with that machine, it had nothing much to do with the Vaughan campaign. Vaughan has a good organization of his own, and was never in any jeopardy, so there wasn't even any need for anyone else to get involved.

 

[Glen]

Glen:

The experience of one doesn't make that a truth for the many.

Which is why I said ' in my experience'. I will take it by your response and dismissal of my own experience (being that of one person) that you are relying on data, or something more than your own personal anecdote.

And just because one receives a form letter doesn't make it a meaningful definition of responsiveness either.

What form letter are talking about?

 

[adma]

Which is why I said ' in my experience'. I will take it by your response and dismissal of my own experience (being that of one person) that you are relying on data, or something more than your own personal anecdote.

So? "In your experience". I suppose it's also "in the experience" of those who ran against him or voted for those who ran against him. Well, good; at least there were opposition options. Maybe they were creamed by Vaughan, but at least they existed, eh?

 

[syn]

Most clubgoers don't live in the ward, and besides, Vaughan is probably one of the more "responsive" councillors out there.

AoD

I know, but MetroMan had earlier suggested there were a lot of industry people in the area who'd make their voice known during the campaign, using their weight to ensure he wasn't elected.

I didn't pay much attention to that ward. Was the whole clubbing thing even an issue in the election?