Even though it is a Saturday, the offerings in today’s newspapers were too interesting to be ignored. Far from the repetitive strike doom and gloom – union-bashing, criticizing Miller (justifiably or not), temporary garbage dumps, rats and the much-covered garbaneurs – Saturday’s papers had a refreshing selection of provocative articles I thought Spacing readers might be itching to discuss. I have only chosen a few, so feel free to suggest others I may have missed.
• Here’s to getting high on the green stuff [ Globe & Mail ] – The Globe revisits Les Klein’s proposed idea of putting a “green ribbon” over the Gardiner.
• Yonge-Bloor development on the brink [ Toronto Star ] – Kazakh Developers defaulting on their loans for an 80-storey condo at One Bloor.
• Toronto’s new murder capital [ Globe & Mail ] – A look into the York-Weston neighbourhood in Toronto where 10 deaths have occurred since January, twice as many as the more infamous Jane-Finch area.
• Toronto Life Square in receivership [ Globe & Mail ] – The year-old Toronto Life Square building at the corner of Dundas and Yonge was meant to mark the completed transformation of the area into Toronto’s newest commercial centre. Instead, mounting debts have led to foreclosure.
• The Dufferin Mall? Really? [ Globe & Mail ] – The role of gentrification in the $11-million transformation of the “ghetto mall” at Dufferin south of Bloor.
• Curb your enthusiasm [ Globe & Mail ] – Toronto’s ‘a la cart’ street food gets a resounding thumbs down in comparison to other outdoor food vendors around the world.
7 comments
The Dufferin Mall (or “The Duff” as it is affectionately known) has never really been ghetto. In the last 15 years or so it has rebranded itself every few years and has stripped out and then wedged back in its community aspects. When I first started going there long ago, groups of Portuguese men playing cards or just talking at the mall’s central spots were daily sites. Now it’s far more youth and young family oriented.
It’s maybe slightly more “down market” (barf) than some other malls with its No Frills, Mal-wart, and Winners but someone should seriously take a trip up Dufferin to The Galleria before they start talking about “ghetto” malls.
Only in Toronto would the term “ghetto mall” be used affectionately…
I loathe the cladding and overall architecture of Toronto Life Square, but the bankruptcy of the development should not be taken as indicative of the future of the complex. After all, the Empire State Building was broke for two decades after it opened – all depends on how the deal was structured and debt was handled.
Even if you don’t like TLS, it’s unfortunately not going away.
How can the TLS be going broke? It’s full of major big-name tenants such as Future Shop, Bell and AMC theatres. I smell some creative accounting.
The important thing about TLS is to prevent a repetition at Bloor and Yonge as a “compromise” design for the developer’s benefit.
People complain about garbage in the streets, but garbage like Yonge-Dundas stays around forever.
While Toronto Life Square is cloying in its wannabe Time Square look, the square itself does see alot of use and is an important part of reenergizing this intersection. The Barnes dance all pedestrian crossing at Dundas & Yonge is a welcome sign of this.
I’ll be happy to see the name Toronto Life Square come to an end as it was simply a means to try and confuse what the intersection was called and I guess — in their hairbrained thinking — to slowly have people refer to the whole area as Toronto Life Square.
The original name — “Metropolis” — works fine for me and “Dundas Square” (not the official “Yonge-Dundas Square”) is what the area should be referred to as.