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The Village of Parkdale was annexed by the City of Toronto in 1889. It was once an elite residential suburb, home to large Victorian mansions and views of Lake Ontario. Good examples of Victorian housing can be found on Cowan Avenue and Dunn Street, south of King Street. Victorian rowhomes with original gaslights can also be seen on Melbourne Place. Today, there are relatively high rates of poverty and crime in the neighbourhood. This area has a growing Black Canadian population.
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Parkdale's desirability stemmed from its proximity to Sunnyside Beach, a favourite day vacation for Torontonians. Cottage industries sprung up in the neighbourhood, creating a vital economic region. Theatres such as the Brighton, the Revue Cinema, and hotels like the Edgewater flourished.
The Palais Royale, at the eastern edge of Sunnyside Beach, was used for social gatherings. Many important big bands played there in the 1930s and the 1940s, and this attracted a large youth patronage. Many war generation Torontonians courted their future partners in this building. The Palais Royale is still standing and is a favourite venue for The Rolling Stones, who have played there to welcoming crowds during rehearsals for their recent (21st century) world tours.
In 1955, the city began work on the Gardiner Expressway, a limited access highway that separated Parkdale from Lake Ontario and Sunnyside Beach. The expressway effectively halved the amount of usable lakeside parkland. A reorganization of the area's residential streets and the demolition of a local amusement park were also necessary. Patronage of the beach declined rapidly.
As property values plummeted, swaths of land were expropriated to erect social housing. Other areas, such as the northeast corner of blocks around Roncesvalles and Queen, saw large numbers of mansions and other large houses become makeshift low-rise apartment buildings. In addition, new low-rise and low-rent buildings were constructed throughout the neighbourhood. Over time, Parkdale's businesses and wealthy residents subsequently vacated the area.
Parkdale Village, the area of Parkdale closest to the beach, became one of the poorest areas in Toronto. It is bounded on the west by the intersection of King Street, Roncesvalles Avenue, and Queen Street West, on the north by Queen Street West, on the east by Dufferin Street, and on the south by the Gardiner Expressway. This section is roughly half a square kilometre in area.
In the mid 1980s, the Ontario provincial government decided to release many long-term care mental illness patients from its Queen Street and Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital facilities as a cost-cutting measure. The old Victorian mansions of Parkdale had long been converted to boarding houses, and were only a short distance away from both hospitals. The inexpensive rental stock of Parkdale soon became home to many of the released patients. While this migration did not create any significant problems, the news drew greater negative attention to the area. By the late 1980s, "Parkdale" became synonymous with poverty, crime, drugs, homelessness, and large numbers of people living with mental illness. Parkdale Village is still home to some soup kitchens and day centres for the homeless. A pilot programme for a needle exchange is new to the area.
Parkdale is one of the most diverse areas of the city, with many new immigrants finding their first homes here, due to the lower rents. The presence of a large immigrant community has done much to create the vibrancy that Parkdale is known for. This may be a fact of the streetscape in Parkdale, but it remains an area rife with substandard rental apartment buildings (a large percentage of Parkdale residents are renters) run by landlords who are considered slumlords by many local residents. Perceived inaction by different levels of government has prevented the situation from improving; in fact, conditions are deteriorating as the buildings get older with each passing year. Unlike Regent Park, which is located on the east side of downtown, there is no urban renewal project in the works for Parkdale.
However, Parkdale is seeing increasing signs of gentrification, as Queen Street West's sphere of influence extends further westward. "Hipster" cafés, lounges, restaurants, condominiums, shops and art galleries are cropping up, and former "dive" hotels -- The Drake and The Gladstone -- have recently been purchased and renovated in a trendy manner. Local taverns have begun receiving new patronage from artists and urbanites seeking refuge from the fashion boutiques further east on Queen Street West. The area is also becoming a new Gay Neighbourhood. The gentrification is in part fuelled by local area gay couples coming into the area to buy and renovate the properties. As a result, the area has the alternate nickname of "Queer West Village".
Real estate prices in Parkdale are booming, and the area is one of the hottest markets in the downtown core, with buyers attracted to its downtown location, parks, and proximity to Lake Ontario and the Gardiner Expressway.
The area that extends northward along Roncesvalles Avenue, on the other hand, saw new life when a wave of Polish immigrants settled in the area in the mid 1960's. Delis and restaurants still make up the majority of storefronts that line the thoroughfare from Queen Street West to Howard Park Avenue. However, young professionals have gentrified this section in recent years as well, and property values have risen accordingly. Many of the Polish shops have closed, and new restaurants, bars and shops have opened up in their place.
Call Anna Tulman at 416.909.2662 today!
Anna speaks English, Hebrew, and Russian. |
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