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Dundas West / Brockton / Portugal Village

Hipster Duck

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Brockton

This area has a lot of potential because it is a tangle of alleyways and sidestreets in a former working class neighbourhood. I could see a lot of laneway intensification in the future, and the retail strip on nearby Dundas has good bones. Lula lounge is definitely one of this city's overlooked gems. Also, Brock avenue has a lot of character.
 
How long until we see laneway intensification? Is that already happening in downtown neighbourhoods? There's definitely a lot of potential, especially with that creative centre and movie studio coming to Sterling Road.
 
Never heard of Brockton before. A google search indicates that it is along the diagonal part of Dundas. I learned something new today!
 
Technically, Brockton Village goes north to Bloor, east to Dufferin, and west/south to the rail line. In the 1980s, a bunch of students at Bloor Collegiate Institute led a drive to get "Village of Brockton" signs put up in the neighbourhood -- most people I knew thought we lived in Parkdale until those signs went up.

There was a laneway project on Brockton Place (east side of Brock Ave., across from Shirley St.) that turned an old warehouse into residential units, maybe 20 years ago. The first time I saw it (that laneway was part of a regular shortcut) I thought it was the most ridiculous thing, I mean, who wants to live in a laneway? But I gotta say, it really grew on me -- and suddenly an ugly, messy, dirt road back alley got paved and street lighting. Haven't been by in ages so don't know what kind of state it's in now.

Brock Ave. needs to be seen at Christmas, especially south of Dundas. Almost every single house lit up, trying to outdo the neighbours in the "Roseanne and Dan's Most Outrageous Christmas Lighting" competition. Lots of schools (too many, as far as I know St. Veronica's Elementary is still empty after more than 10 years).

There's some great old architecture in some of the side streets, and I love that Scotiabank at the corner of Brock and Dundas.
 
Fascinating, St. Even. Do you know the history of why Brockton is so full of little alleyways?

Haven't got a clue.
But I can tell you they make for AWESOME games of Hide and Seek!

I also remember the laneways as being, by and large, dirty places. Some were still dirt, as in not paved, until the 1980s. People were always getting stuck in the mud. There was an annual ritual on my block -- every spring the Portuguese men (they were all Portuguese) would try to straighten out the unevenness left by the winter: flattening bumps here, filling ditches (can't really call it a pothole) there. Each one of them had a cigarette in one hand, a beer (or wine, or agua ardente) in the other, and a shovel in the other. I know it defies logic, and seems like there might be an extra hand in there? Well, that was how the work got done.

I can't say for certain, but I don't think the City used to even clear the snow in the laneways on my block; I remember many times my dad not being able to get the car into or out of the garage because of the snow.

And man were the alleys narrow. And once people started building full-blown garages where car-sized tool sheds used to abut the back end of the property, they became even more challenging to drive through. My dad owned four station wagons during the time I lived there and I scratched three of them trying to making the same tight turn and avoid a hydro pole. The only reason I didn't scratch the other wagon was because he got rid of it before I got my license.

I was down in the neighbourhood a couple of weeks ago (my mom sold the house on Sheridan Avenue after 40 years) and got a look at those townhomes on Florence and Brock. They're quite nice. They're also right across the street from where that massive (no hyperbole here) lumber yard fire was in the late 70s/early 80s. But that's a story for another time.

Thanks for the trip down memory laneway.

EDIT: Oh, and one of the best views of the financial district cluster (imo) is from the north side of the parking lot of that Beer Store on Brock Avenue just south of the tracks. Technically, it's Parkdale, but meh.
 
Very interesting St Even: tell more!

I love this area of town and spent many evenings last summer walking the streets and alleys of the 'hood--my hobby is solitary long walks exploring urban (and sometimes suburban) neighbourhoods. Sort of like Shawn Micallef and his group but not as pretentious nor as social. Just me and the stars, staring at houses I find interesting, houses I hate, sullen working class folks staring at me because I look out of place--aka "English" and out randomly walking--ie I'm not an "owner" (side note: for all the innercity vs. suburban debates I've read on UT, it's amazing how outside of a few main streets downtown hardly anyone really walks in older residential neighbourhoods.) Ha. Shanty-town-style alleyways with 1970's clunkers parked here and there. I love it but I must admit I feel slightly out of place--a feeling I get in most areas of Toronto btw.

Anyhow, UT folks share your memories of your old Toronto 'hoods. Fascinating stuff.
 
Hey,

I figured I would start off this thread with rentals in the neighbourhood.

I've been looking for a place to rent in the areas of
Spadina » Ossington / Lakeshore » Bloor
for a while, and noticed places in Dundas West significantly cheaper than any of their surroundings.

Does anyone have any resources for finding places specifically in the Portuguese Village? Rents are so much cheaper, but listings are hard to come by...
 
Go for a walk in the neighbourhood to grocery stores, bakeries and community centres. Most Portuguese people are a little hesitant to use the internet for posting listings, but will post signs and posters in the locations I mentioned above. My aunt had an amazing basement apartment and only posted a listing for it in a grocery store.
 
Dundas West

The hipster gentrification of all these old shopping strips is really quite remarkable. It's pretty unique in its scale in all of North America outside New York. I wonder what will be next. I guess Parkdale and Leslieville are pretty obvious. I think Roncesvalles is going to become more and more like College Street. After that, I'd expect the Junction and even more on St. Clair West. I'd also expect more of this stuff on north-south streets. It's already happening on Ossington. Dufferin might be next.

I also suspect that this kind of gentrification will hold up better in the recession. While some high-end galleries might not do so well, a lot of people are going to be looking for lower-cost spaces in new fringe neighbourhoods.




Dundas West: Cooler than New York


DEIRDRE KELLY

November 22, 2008
The Globe and Mail

When José Ortega opened Lula Lounge, a nightclub specializing in world music and jazz, on Dundas West in 2002, the street was a low-rent zone of bakeries, car garages, sheet metal and plumbing suppliers and a rash of sports bars. "Seven years ago, the area had this ugly-duckling vibe," he says. "But ... it felt more authentic, more real, a working-class neighbourhood where artists and bakers and construction workers and store owners come and do their work."

Last month, when the Alison Smith Gallery opened at Dundas West and Gladstone, it was the latest sign of the once-homely neighbourhood's transformation.

Deluxe bakery She Takes the Cake, food market Multiple Organics and video store West Side Stories all opened within the year. Soon, Grain, Curd & Bean, a high-end cheese shop, will go into business there.

Ms. Smith's gallery is the third to open on the strip - after Wil Kusey's LE Gallery to the east and Jessica Bradley Art + Projects to the west.

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Ms. Smith chose the neighbourhood because she wanted to get away from "the brand clutter" and higher rents of Queen Street West. Her gallery space, located in a building that operated as a dry-goods store before she purchased it with her husband, author Larry Gaudet, just over a year ago, has a rental value of about $20 a square foot, which is less than half of the current rental rate on Queen Street West.

"It is less expensive and off the beaten track, in a good way. It has a downtown spirit. And it doesn't feel like a shopping mall."

Ms. Bradley, a former curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, was drawn to the Dundas and Dufferin area three years ago for similar reasons. "I could see what was going on, down on Queen Street, where the rents were doubling and tripling, driving the galleries out. ... When I saw this space, I just thought it was in the right zone."

Thanks to the opening in June of DuWest Art Centre, a nearby artist-run collective, she can also check out the work of emerging local artists.

According to Sylvia Fernandez, head of the two-year-old Dundas Street West Business Improvement Area, 13 new and innovative businesses have opened over the past year, driving down the vacancy rate for commercial properties to 13 per cent from last September's 19 per cent. (The Parkdale Village BIA vacancy rate is 9 per cent, while that of the Junction Gardens BIA is about 6 per cent.)

"There aren't any big chains here," said Ms. Fernandez, a bookkeeper whose office has been on Dundas Street West for the past seven years.

To attract more galleries and specialty businesses, the BIA has established a $400,000 capital budget "to dress up the neighbourhood," as Ms. Fernandez puts it. Improvements include decorative paving and street furniture.

Lula Lounge's Mr. Ortega, an internationally acclaimed graphic artist, is also on the BIA board and he, too, is contributing to the beautification. Mr. Ortega has created brightly coloured street banners for Dundas Street West, which feature a pair of open hands cradling a neighbourhood growing beneath a golden sun. "That's what I think of the neighbourhood," Mr. Ortega says from his art studio on Dundas West. "It is vibrant, on the cusp of change, but still friendly and unpretentious. For me, it's cooler than New York."
 
I read this and found it funny as the title of the article is only refered to in the last sentence of the article.

Aside from that, I like dundas as its a bit buffered away from queen. what i'm curious about in many years from now is how dundas w will evolve from the east side of keele st. the west side seems to be on the right track. of course the article is talking about more east of that.
 

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