House Crush – Queen/Dufferin

This week’s House Crush is located in the Rosedale of yesteryear – South Parkdale.

Once upon a time, South Parkdale was Toronto’s most luxe neighborhood, with stunning architecture and moneybags residents to match.  However, when post WWII housing conversions encouraged an influx of working-class people to the neighborhood, and lake access was cut off by construction of the Gardiner Expressway in 1955, property values started to wane and many of Parkdale’s upper-crust denizens left for greener pastures.

Puttin' on the ritz! Built the 1890's, this Parkdale manse features a turret topped with a conical roof, a dollhouse-style gable, and Romanesque arches.

Stylin' green gables a la Lucy Maud Montgomery. The timber on the gables reflects the English cottage style that was hip back in the day.

The construction of various high-rise apartment buildings and social housing in the ’60’s damaged property values even further and the remaining mansions of South Parkdale fell largely into disrepair and many became divided into illegal boarding houses.

High-rise apartment buildings line the streets of Jameson Avenue. Often poorly maintained, residents are forced to live with mice, cockroaches, bedbugs and non-functioning appliances. The Parkdale Residents Association awards the Golden Cockroach trophy to the worst landlord in Parkdale and the Bedbug Registry's map of Toronto is lit up like a Christmas tree with infected buildings in South Parkdale.

The population of Parkdale went through another change with the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric care in Canada in the ’70’s and ’80’s.  Due to its close proximity to the Queen Street Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, the largest facility of its kind in Canada at the time, thousands of psychiatric patients were discharged at once and most took up residency in South Parkdale.  With a severe lack of community care facilities or supervised group homes for these patients, many gravitated towards illegal boarding houses.  South Parkdale became known as a ‘service-dependent ghetto’, where former mental patients were seen as insane, dangerous transients rather than people in need.

Why did this neglected corner of Toronto start to make steps towards gentrification in the ’90’s?  In The New Middle Class and the Remaking of the Central City, David Ley says that “low-income areas will be entered [by the middle class] if they hold some specific asset such as affordability, a distinctive housing stock, a particular lifestyle ambience, or proximity to downtown and its varied services…. In the Canadian inner cities, a distinctive period architecture is a common feature of the gentrifying inner neighbourhood.”

Check, check, check.

Although Parkdale lacks the large-scale renewal projects taking place in other inner-city nabes like Regent Park, property values are rising and the trendy haunts of Queen West West are spreading further and further west.  The plethora of drool-worthy Victorians makes for delicious renovation projects for the artistically inclined or devout House and Home subscriber.  Prices are now in line with other gentrifying pockets of the city like the Junction or Leslieville.

However, a whopping 90% of Parkdale residents are tenants, complicating community building efforts and indicating that gentrification still has a long way to go.  That said, the people who do choose to call Parkdale home really believe in the neighborhood and are committed to nurturing the community.

Beautifully restored casas on leafy Gwynne Avenue

My House Crush is a tasty little slice of historic Parkdale.  Small but perfectly formed, this 3 bedroom row house is situated on a quiet tree-lined street nestled among other examples of stunning turn-of-the-century architecture.

At $449,000, this renovated Victorian charmer is well-priced for the area but the trade-off is being a few houses in from Queen Street and the train tracks.  The hop, skip and a jump proximity to the Parkdale Community Health Centre can be seen as either a blessing or a curse depending on the buyer’s point of view.  Some residents appreciate the health services and community programming on offer, others may not like being a few doors down from a needle exchange program.  However, one would assume that if you’re shopping in Parkdale, you are well aware of the neighborhood’s “unique flavour”.

Based on the selling price of $565,000, or 126% of list, it’s safe to say that most buyers didn’t find the location problematic.

Since you’ve endured the history lesson so patiently,  I’ll move on to the house porn:

The kitchen in this house seems like a warm and fuzzy place to enjoy a home-cooked meal or cup of Earl Grey.  The exposed brick and great views to the garden are icing on the cake.  Original wood floors give the house a vintage vibe that most buyers would appreciate.

The deets:

Queen/Dufferin,  Attached, 2-Storey, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

List:  $449,900

Sold:  $565,000 (126% of list, April 2010)

Taxes: $2,724

Lot: 16 x 97 Feet

Parking: 1 space

Remarks For Clients: Charming Victorian Row House On One Of Parkdale’s Prettiest Streets. 3 Bdrms, 2 Full Bathrms. Bright Reno’d Kitchen W/ Ceramic Flrs, Exposed Brick And Walk Out To Huge Deck.  Backyard Features Lrg Storage Shed & Retractable Gate For Additional Prkg. Renovated Basement With Separate Entrance. Potential For Bsmt Apt. Close To Shops, Cafes, Galleries And Liberty Village.

To learn more about the history of Parkdale, please check out:

Toronto’s South Parkdale Neighbourhood, A Brief History of Development, Disinvestment, and Gentrification by Tom Slater

 

Are you a Jean or a Khaki? East vs West!

Seems like everywhere I turn these days, someone is debating the pros and cons of East Side vs. West Side.  If you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you may have missed Now Magazine’s cover story on which side of Yonge is the cat’s pee-jays.  The on-line poll seems to be stuck at 51% in favour of East but as an East Sider, I know we’re more desperate to prove ourselves and probably voted more than once.  Let’s face it, most of us ended up on the East Side because we were priced out of the West Side, but now that we’re here we actually really like it and want to spread the word.  This doesn’t mean the West Side SUCKS by any means.

Too kool for skool in Trinity Bellwoods. Photo by Votreceinture.

Which brings me to Jeans vs Khakis, my favourite GAP commercial from back in day (followed closely by Khakis Swing – remember the swing music revolution?!)  Some days you’re a jean (West) and some days you’re a khaki (East).

I work at Queen/Spadina so when I finally make it home to the Beach, I feel a wave of relaxation and contentment wash over me.  I love the feeling of leaving the crush of the city behind me.  But at the same time, I envy the wiry little hipsters walking 15 minutes home to their pad in Trinity Bellwoods, passing great store after store on their way home.  So many people in creative industries tend to live in the west end (although most of them are renters as prices are so high) so I’m always forced to cross Yonge to see pals or hit parties for film festivals or whatevs.

In my opinion, you can compare restaurants and ice cream parlours all you want but it won’t help you define the difference between East and West.  Both sides have good amenities but you’re deluded if you argue that the West side isn’t more plentiful.  IT JUST IS.  However, that does not make it a better place to live.

East Siders hang loose at Balmy Beach Club. Bad denim choices welcome!

The East Side is quieter, more relaxing and does not feel as urban as the West.  Consider that you need to cross a highway to reach the lakefront in the West but in the East, it is part of the streetscape.  Streets are wider in the East and it’s more conducive to driving, although most of the East Side eco-warriers take TTC or bike.  Compare our low-rise social assisted housing complexes in Leslieville with the towering monstrosities in Parkdale.  Or think about the subway stations with the highest crime – Lansdowne on the West side and Warden in the East.  Lansdowne requires special attention from the Toronto police due to the prevalence of drug dealers (in one month, 94 people were charged with dealing crack) and prostitutes.  Warden station is equally grim but it’s practically in the suburbs whereas Lansdowne is a key stop connecting Dufferin Grove with Bloor West Village.

Crime and grit seems to be more prevalent in the West but many West-Siders would say they like it that way.  People tend to buy in the West Side because they want to be part of the pulse of the city while East Siders tend to want to feel like they’re living in a small village within the city. So really it’s Country Mouse vs. City Mouse.  And don’t we all enjoy a little bit of country and a little bit of rock n’ roll in our lives?

In this spirit, I’ve updated my neighborhood profile of Roncesvalles Village, thanks to the efforts of a West End housefly.  For more on life in the Village known as Roncy, check out the Marion House Book, a great blog about the renovation of a stunning Victorian on Marion Street.

An updated profile of Bloor West Village will be available tomorrow!