The NY Times Shows The Junction Some Love

It's pretty funny seeing my neighborhood in the NYT. A bit of an odd article though. The very first sentence:

"NAMED for a jumble of railroad tracks, the Junction section of Toronto was once a booming manufacturing hub, with lively pubs, hotels and shops."

has a pretty big problem with it. Namely that the Junction was dry from 1904 until pretty recently. You don't typically find lively pubs in a dry area.

I'm also pretty curious about the statement that "Instead of porn shops, Dundas Street West is now lined with wholesome and organic food purveyors". Now, I can't say for sure that the Junction was never home to porn shops (plural) but I'd be pretty surprised (anyone who knows better should feel free to surprise me). Only a pretty small percentage of people are going to be going into a porn shop so either the Junction would have had to be something of a destination for porn, or it would have had to have a level of foot traffic that I just don't think it's had for a long time. The logic here seems to be "economic depression -> skid row -> bad things like porn shops". You'd think the NYT would know better though. After all, in New York until fairly recently, if you wanted porn, you wouldn't head to the Bronx. You'd head to Times Square.

Tourism strategies usually try to cater to young families or older couples, as these are the groups most likely to visit the most attractions and spend a pretty penny doing it. They usually don't focus their efforts on hip, off-the-beaten-path areas, as these draw in much more frugal travellers (and, I would wager, change in popularity so frequently that focusing on a specific neighbourhood would date itself quickly). Also, I believe attractions pay to be featured more frequently in tourism publications, which small local business are less likely to take advantage of.

It would be nice if regional tourism industries would focus on these niche tourist markets, but it's ultimately not profitable for them. Perhaps BlogTO should start up a guide to touring Toronto like a local?

Like I said, I'm willing to be surprised. I just don't understand why people would open porn shops in such an out of the way area. It makes much more sense to put them where there are lots of people. Like, say, Yonge Street.