Toronto Condo Critique
Bellair Gardens makes the best of its site.
Sitting at 18 Valley Woods Rd., overlooking the Don Valley Parkway, this 11-storey complex stands out above its neighbours, not so much for its height but for the quality of its architecture. Rather than the usual precast concrete, this one's all glass. And instead of the typical rectangular grid, it's all curves. Occupying a sloping site, the building has been set on a poured concrete base that grows deeper as it nears the valley to the west. This means the façade south to Brookbanks Drive is less than exciting, but who will notice?
Perhaps the best view of Bellair Gardens is from the DVP, which it engages dramatically. If an urban highway is your idea of a view, this place could be ideal. If it isn't, stay away. For commuters, however, it makes a nice change from the anonymous slabs that make one long to leave the city far behind. The image of Bellair Gardens, if not the reality, is of a building that makes the best of a location some would consider unfortunate. In that sense, it deserves full marks.
January 6, 2008 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Toronto's Tony Neighbourhoods
Do You Live In One Of The Most Desirable Real Estate Areas In The Greater Toronto Area?
There's a certain irony in the fact that the one thing the GTA never seems to run out of is the one thing that's always in short supply. That first 'one thing' is a seemingly insatiable demand to own a home in the city. That 'other thing' is increasing prices that's making the search for a place to live harder to afford. The Toronto Real Estate Board has named the locations where would-be homeowners could have the hardest time ponying up the bucks for new digs and the leader is typically Toronto - it's anywhere near the Yonge St. corridor.
According to the experts, increases near the longest street in the world have escalated to the double digit range in the first six months of 2007 - and there's no sign things will change anytime soon. The average cost for a single detached home in neighbourhoods like Forest Hill, Chaplin Estates, Deer Park and Cedarvale is now a whopping $1,046,500 - a 16.8 percent hike from last year.
Hit the Annex or Yorkville and you'll be paying 14.3 percent more now than you would have in 2006. The asking price for a home in either of those locations currently sits at $883,869. And it's the same almost everywhere - even small houses in Willowdale are going for $618,179, a 12.2 percent increase.
And you'll only get a small break if you look outside T.O. The City Above Toronto is laying claim to its own price wars. Seek out a spot in Thornhill and you'll be shelling out about $565,000 to snatch the ownership deed - up 15 percent. Head to Port Credit and you'll need to sport credit if you don't have the $581,000 sellers are asking up there. That's 11.3 percent more.
How expensive has it become for buyers in this market? The Board claims 56 of the 62 districts it examined have experienced big hikes and vendors in close to half of them are demanding about $500,000 or more. And because demand remains high, a majority of them are incredibly getting 100 percent of their asking price.
What can you do if property is on your menu but the financial fallout leaves you feeling queasy? Consider a condo or townhouse. "With affordability a growing concern in the Greater Toronto Area, more and more purchasers are turning to condominium apartments and townhomes," agrees Michael Polzler of RE/MAX Ontario-Atlantic Canada in a statement. "Close to 80 percent of districts reported an average condominium price under the $300,000 price point, making the product a more attainable first step for an entry-level buyer, particularly in sought-after locations."
But that doesn't completely solve the problem. Condo costs are spiking, too, with many up between 10 and 32 percent over the same time last year depending on where you're looking. And real estate experts not only think it will continue, but that this could be a record setting year for both sales - and asking prices.
Top Housing Price Increase Areas Over Last Year
(Based on single detached home)
Forest Hill, Chaplin Estates, Deer Park, and Cedarvale: $ 1,046,500
Increase: 16.81%
Thornhill: $565,428
Increase: 15.08%
South Hill, Annex, Yorkville: $883,869
Increase: 14.3%
Lansing, Willowdale, Newtonbrook: $618,179
Increase: 12.2%
Port Credit, Mineola: $581,167
Increase: 11.3%
Source: TREB
August 5, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Toronto the ________
Toronto's hapless pursuit of a good marketing slogan
Despite all the time and money invested in Toronto marketing over the years, the city hasn't hit paydirt. For many Torontonians, the recent, widely criticized "Live With Culture" ad campaign, which attempted to sell an edgy image of Toronto to U.S. alternative-weekly newspaper readers, was the last straw. Not to forget what was "the last straw" before that: the 2005 launch of the disappointingly vague "Toronto Unlimited" city brand.
It's no wonder, then, given disappointment with the official city marketing line, that the winning entry last week in the Astral Media Outdoor "My Toronto" design competition was "Toronto: Picture it your way." This city-promoting slogan and image, dreamed up by two twentysomething Ontario College of Art and Design students and voted on by more than 5,000 residents, reflects the desire of Torontonians to define their own city, rather than have it defined for them.
Why is the city was trying so hard to come up with unsuccessful new campaigns when "Toronto: You Belong Here," a slogan slapped on most taxi bumpers around town, was pretty great.
Toronto slogans buried in the city's marketing past include the late 1990's "World Within a City" and the post-SARS Tourism Toronto campaign, "It's time for a little TO," and the 1970s-era, post-sexual revolutionized "Toronto: Affectionately yours..." At one point the city's economic development department offered a clipped memorandum to the world's CEOs, "Toronto: Canada's Business Address." Still current is "Toronto: City Within A Park," Toronto Parks and Recreation department's moniker.
Then there's Tourism Toronto's 1980s through to early 1990s admonition to "Discover the Feeling!" delivered "with feeling". Or the Toronto Industrial Board's humorously understated late-60s brochure "Toronto: The Exciting City" as well as their later, peer-pressure-oriented button campaign "I prefer Toronto." One of Tourism Toronto's first campaigns, launched soon after its formation in 1926, with the straightforward, but perhaps disputable, "Toronto: Canada's most beautiful city."
Toronto, it seems, is continually in a state of comparison, either saying "Hey! We're like New York, Paris, and London!" or "Hey! We're nothing like New York, Paris, and London!" or, God forbid, sometimes both at the same time (the latter being part of what hobbled the Live With Culture attempt). Simultaneously, there's an underlying murmur of "Um, but at least we're way better than Calgary and Vancouver."
May 20, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack
Toronto Regional Politics
There has been a growing tension between Toronto and the surrounding GTA area since the mid 1990s, with Toronto complaining that it has been economically exploited by its neighbours. The election of the Harris government was attributed to his support base in the suburban "905" region. During his time in office, many provincial services were downloaded to the municipal level, which caused great financial strain on an already indebted city. Although the succeeding McGuinty government has attempted to address this imbalance, Torontonians feel that his attempts are half-hearted because McGuinty also had significant "905" support during his 2003 election victory.
Most of the "905" municipalities have few cultural institutions, despite their significant populations. For instance, Mississauga is one of the largest cities in Canada by population but has no daily newspaper, television stations, or commercial radio stations. Despite having attracted significant investment over the last few decades, the surrounding cities are still considered bedroom suburbs of Toronto rather than independent municipalities, and as a result many are virtually unknown outside of Ontario. Prior to the municipal amalgamations that took place with the introduction of regional government, Oshawa was the only nearby city with a significant population and recognition.
May 15, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Neighbourhood snapshot
North York: On top of Toronto
North York is where the condo is king — where developers have created entire neighbourhoods of stunning condominium towers. Several signature developments have been built along the major traffic arteries, especially on Yonge Street and along Sheppard Avenue.
There’s an abundance of theatre and entertainment centres, plus plenty of excellent restaurants and bars. Many, in fact, are handily located in the lower podium floors of major condo complexes.
Hundreds of condo residents in North York are able to do all their shopping, go to a movie or restaurant, or even catch the Subway, all without stepping outdoors. It’s a centre of grand style, the home of major furniture retailers with huge shops that attract shoppers from across the GTA.
North York is car-friendly, with wide streets and quick access to major highways. North York is on the move. North York is for people who are going places.
March 8, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Restaurants in the Beach
One of the most tourist friendly locations in Toronto, the Beach district is also a welcoming spot for anyone interested in purchasing real estate. Part of the allure of this stretch along Queen Street East is convenient access to many entertainment amenities, which includes over 60 different restaurants.
Whatever your particular taste, there is guaranteed to be a restaurant in the Beach district to suit your mood. In the mood for a casual dinner of pizza or subs? There are several restaurants waiting to fill that empty spot in your stomach, including established chains like Pizza Hut and Mr. Sub as well as independent and well reviewed establishments like Pizza Nova.
Those in the mood for different fare can try out some of the casual dining rooms specializing in western fare that dot the area. Pubs like Murphy’s Law and Kitty O’Sheas are guaranteed to quench the burger and fries craving that naturally occurs in everyone from time to time, with the option of washing it down with a pint or two in a traditional Irish style pub besides. Those looking for a slightly more formal or family friendly environment can try out the Sunset Grill, Stoney’s Bar and Grill, or Whitlock Restaurant.
Being at the beach often puts one in a seafood frame of mind, and the restaurants in the Beach district are guaranteed to please in this area too. Again, diners can choose from the casual, home feel of restaurants like Lakeview Fish & Chips or a more formal setting such as White Bros. Fish Co.
Exotic fish tastes are also evident in the area, with several Japanese restaurants present including Yumei Sushi, Otabe, and Akane-Ya offering both hugely popular traditional sushi such as nigiri and maki as well as cooked Japanese fare like donburi and tempura. There are restaurants, in fact, made to suit almost any ethnic food taste you may encounter, including Middle Eastern (Aida’s Falafel), Thai (Bow Thai, Urban Thai Bistro), Chinese (Ho Lee Chow) and Greek.
And for those who want dessert after their meals, there are ice cream parlors and bakeries all over the Beaches.
The Beach has something to offer anyone in the area in terms of food fare; there are bakeries for a quick bite before heading to work, bistros and faster food for quick lunches, and both elegant and casual restaurants for long, relaxed dinners at the end of the day. The only thing that will hold you back is the difficulty you may experience when it comes to deciding where to go.
by Marc Trumpour
February 28, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Bubble on Bloor
Welcome to the latest addition to the area around Bloor and Avenue Road, the focal point of Toronto's recent cultural building spree. There's the revamped Gardiner Museum, the crystalline renovation of the ROM, the dramatically expanded Royal Conservatory -- and next to that, an inflatable dome that houses a driving range.
Is something out of place here? "A bubble dome on Bloor Street is a strange thing," says local architect Kim Storey, whose firm designed Dundas Square. "You usually associate those things with industrial sites or suburban sites."
"Aesthetically speaking, it's a mild disappointment," adds Joshua Cramer, a U of T law student who was walking past the dome after class this week. "I can't escape the image of us putting up this massive igloo on the campus."
Built in Guelph, the dome is the second-largest in Canada, according to its manufacturers, which has just installed a similar dome at Harvard. Measuring 107 metres long by 64 metres wide, it's held aloft by air compressors.
And to Bruce Kidd, the dean of U of T's faculty of physical education and health, it's a beautiful thing. "I'm proud of the fact that in a cultural precinct, alongside ceramics and history and music, sport continues to have its place as one of the most important parts of culture in the 21st century," he says.
January 27, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Getting to know Toronto
The economic and cultural focus of English-speaking Canada, Toronto is the country's largest metropolis. It sprawls along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, its vibrant, appealing centre encased by a jangle of satellite townships and industrial zones that cover - as "Greater Toronto" - no less than 100 square kilometres. For decades, Toronto was saddled with unflattering sobriquets - "Toronto the Good", "Hogtown" - that reflected a perhaps deserved reputation for complacent mediocrity and greed. Spurred into years of image-building, the city's postwar administrations have lavished millions of dollars on glitzy architecture, slick museums, an excellent public-transport system, and the reclamation and development of the lakefront. As a result, Toronto has become one of North America's most likeable cities, an eminently liveable place whose citizens keep a wary eye on both their politicians and the developers.
Huge new shopping malls and skyrise office blocks reflect the economic successes of the last two or three decades, a boom that has attracted immigrants from all over the world, transforming an overwhelmingly anglophone city into a cosmopolitan one of some sixty significant minorities. Furthermore, the city's multiculturalism goes far deeper than an extravagant diversity of restaurants and sporadic pockets of multilingual street signs. Toronto's schools, for example, have extensive "Heritage Language Programmes", which encourage the maintenance of the immigrants' first cultures.
Getting the feel of Toronto's diversity is one of the city's great pleasures, but there are attention-grabbing sights here as well. Most are conveniently clustered in the city centre, and the most celebrated of them all is the CN Tower , the world's tallest free-standing structure. Next door lies the modern hump of the SkyDome sports stadium. The city's other prestige attractions are led by the Art Gallery of Ontario , which possesses a first-rate selection of Canadian painting, and the Royal Ontario Museum , where pride of place goes to the Chinese collection. But it's the pick of Toronto's smaller, less-visited galleries and period homes that really add to the city's charm. There are superb Canadian paintings at the Thomson Gallery and a fascinating range of footwear at the Bata Shoe Museum . The Toronto Dominion Bank boasts the eclectic Gallery of Inuit Art , and the mock-Gothic extravagances of Casa Loma , the Victorian gentility of Spadina House and the replica of Fort York , the colonial settlement where Toronto began, all vie for the visitor's attention.
Toronto's sights illustrate different facets of the city, but in no way do they crystallize its identity. The city remains opaque, too big and diverse to allow for a defining personality. This, however, adds an air of excitement and unpredictability to the place. Toronto caters to everything, and the city surges with Canada's most vibrant restaurant, performing-arts and nightlife scenes
Downtown Toronto Orientation
Toronto's downtown core is sandwiched between Front Street to the south, Bloor to the north, Spadina to the west and Jarvis to the east. Yonge Street is the main north-south artery: principal street numbers start and names change from "West" to "East" from here. Note, therefore, that 1000 Queen Street W is a long way from 1000 Queen Street E. To appreciate the transition between the different downtown neighbourhoods, it's best to walk around the centre - Front to Bloor is about 2km, Spadina to Jarvis 1km. In an attempt to protect shoppers from Ontario's climate, there's also an enormous sequence of pedestrianized shopping arcades called the PATH Walkway , which begins beneath Union Station, twisting up to the Eaton Centre shopping mall and beyond.
January 25, 2007 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Habitat dedication "moving"
For most people changing phone numbers when you move into a new home is a nuisance. For single mother, Beatrice Dimvula it's a dream come true. Dimvula has lived in the same Etobicoke social housing apartment with the same phone number since arriving in Canada from Congo in 1995. "People will be so surprised when I call to tell them I have a new phone number," says Dimvula. "No one knows that I'm working with Habitat and they'll be surprised when I tell them I am a new homeowner."
Her new Habitat for Humanity home is a key component of Dimvula's plans. She is determined to make a better life for herself and 9 year old Guliana.
Dimvula currently works two jobs as a home care worker to support herself and her daughter. Five years from now, she plans to have saved enough money to go back to school and become a registered nurse and continue the work of taking care of people she so enjoys doing. It's an expensive education and she wants to be able to pay for it herself rather than having to rely on the Ontario Student Assistance Program for a loan. Her new home is a key part of this plan as she'll now be able to save for her education and still make her monthly mortgage payments.
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit, non-government organization dedicated to the eradication of poverty housing through homeownership. Habitat addresses a segment of the population that is not well served by either the subsidized or private housing markets; the working low-income family.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Greater Toronto Home Builders Association has partnered with Habitat as a house sponsor. The home builders believe that it is vital to give back to communities and their partnership with Habitat is a natural extension of our shelter mandate.
Handing the keys to Dimvula was Mitchell Cohen, president of The Daniels Corporation. Daniels' was the inaugural winner of the Association's home builder of the year award. The Daniels Corporation donated the land for ten homes at the Lakeshore Village site. This is single-largest gift of land by a private company in Canadian Habitat's history.
The dedication ceremony was held at the Lakeshore Village site at 8 Elsinore Path near Lakeshore Blvd. and Islington Road. More information about Habitat for Humanity Toronto and the Lakeshore Village project can be found at www.torontohabitat.on.ca
December 22, 2006 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
About the Beach
The Beach is an upper-middle class neighbourhood and popular tourist destination located in east Toronto. The trendy shops of Queen Street East lie at the heart of The Beach community, with the boardwalk by the lake and several large parks being just a few steps south. The neighbourhood is a mixture of single and semi-detached homes, low-rise apartment buildings, and some mansions. The beach itself is a single uninterrupted stretch of sandy shoreline bounded by the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant (locally known as the water works) to the east and Woodbine park (a small peninsula in Lake Ontario) to the west. Although it is continuous, there are four names which correspond each to approximately one quarter of the length of the beach (from east to west): Balmy Beach, Scarboro Beach, Kew Beach and Woodbine Beach.
Originally, The Beach area was considered to be bounded by Woodbine Avenue to the west, Victoria Park Avenue to the east, Kingston Road to the north, and Lake Ontario to the south. The lakefront is divided into three sections; Woodbine Beach to the west, Kew Beach in the centre, and Balmy Beach to the east. It is these beaches which give the neighbourhood its name and defining principal characteristic. Until Lakeshore Boulevard was extended to Woodbine Avenue in the 1950s, Woodbine Beach was not a bathing beach, but rather a desolate wooded area known as The Cut.
Today, Torontonians generally tend to view the The Beach neighbourhood as extending to Coxwell, with the area north of Queen Street East and west of Woodbine nicknamed the Beaches Triangle. In addition, the area north of Kingston Road up to the CNR tracks has become known as the Upper Beach.
Still, whatever the definition of its borders, before amalgamation in 1998 the Beach neighbourhood was at Toronto's extreme eastern limit and formed part of the city's border with the suburb of Scarborough. Even now, residents refer to The Beach as being in the east end of the city, though since the amalgamation of city services in 1998, it is strictly speaking part of the east-central district of Toronto.
December 8, 2006 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Bathurst Manor Neighbourhood
Location
Stretches between Sheppard and Steeles east of Dufferin to the Don River West Branch.
Vibe
Immediately after its development in the early 1950s, Bathurst Manor became home to many Holocaust survivors fleeing war-ravaged Europe in search of a better life, and the area still bears the hallmarks of that first wave of Jewish residents: Jewish learning centres and synagogues abound throughout.
House types have become more varied since those early days, though. The neighbourhood is a mishmash of styles, urban and non. Along Allen Road, strip malls stand sentinel-like against the indifferent flow of rushing traffic. Once inside, though, the malls give way to a steadily upgrading selection of duplexes, then split-levels, then even some attempts at low-level luxury, many of which are found along Purdon Drive. Here and there, an incongruous opulent rebuild breaks the regularity.
Selling Features
The city’s top up-and-coming neighbourhood, according to a fall 2006 study by RE/MAX, as young buyers have discovered the area’s affordability. For straightforward economics, Bathurst Manor is staunchly middle class. But the sheer size of the district, the hodgepodge of homes—and a similarly eclectic collection of residents of varying economic status—would make almost any newcomer feel at home.
November 28, 2006 in Toronto Neighbourhoods | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
