Cabbagetown Info Events, reviews and what's happening in Cabbagetown, Toronto
It always starts with a Starbucks. It swiftly lands on the neighbourhood doorstep and things start to change. Gentrification. Up-and-coming. Modernization. The landscape changes; not necessarily all Wal-Mart bad, but it changes.
Cabbagetown, the hodgepodge hub of mom-and-pop stores and home to both the city’s rich and poor, is quietly undergoing some change. The city’s historical streetscapes lined with Victorian architecture, struggling artists, panhandlers and an array of independent businesses has undergone a slight renewal in recent years with its continued gentrification married with incoming franchise businesses.
With the neighbourhood’s first gentrification in the early ’70s, many of Cabbagetown’s independent storeowners are now eyeing retirement. And with prosperity flowing into the area, franchise restaurants are staking their ground. With a massive, architecturally-challenged three-storey TD Canada Trust being erected at the central hub of Parliament and Carlton streets (it’s to be opened in May), the change is ostensible.
The modern, redbrick block of a building clashes with the typical historic row houses and turn-of-the-century architecture that the area is known for. With the TD taking up the first and part of the second floor, the remainder will be commercial office space — another unusual step in the quiet, storefront environ. “I think you’ll see that the neighbourhood becomes slightly more prosperous as time goes on,” says Doug Fisher, coordinator of Old Cabbagetown’s Business Improvement Association. “I think what we might see more of quite quickly are younger retailers.”
Once one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Toronto… READ MORE
Source: SpacingToronto.ca
