City
The Changing Face of The Annex
The former home of Mel's, the quirky Montreal style diner that closed earlier this year is finally getting a new tenant -- and it's a familiar name. The owners of Hey Lucy, the restaurant and cocktail bar near John St. on King West, will be opening their second location.
Of course the addition of a nine-yard long zebra-print couch (spotted through the window) to the neighbourhood brings up the question that many Annex residents have been asking recently: where did the bohemian vibe of the neighbourhood go? What is The Annex becoming?
It's a story of an old Hungarian neighbourhood losing its roots, one business at a time. The Pump took over from a Hungarian deli. The Annex Live used to be the Poor Alex Theatre. Future Bakery used to be a real bakery when I was a kid.
It seems our local community touchstones can't afford the rent anymore. They're being crowded out by entrepreneurs trying to sell bourbon and burritos to rowdy 19-year-olds. College-aged kids from across the GTA are coming to Bloor Street in record numbers to eat, drink, fight and spend their parents' money.
It's kind of sad to wake up and find your lovely neighbourhood turning into something ugly and unrecognizable. When I was growing up in The Annex there wasn't a bullet hole in a tree on the corner of Brunswick and Bloor (from a shoot-out in the summer of 2008).
Of course, the entire neighbourhood hasn't been thrown to the wolves yet; if we can control the crowds and make sure that longtime, local business people are supported and not pushed out, we can hang on to the laid back, unique atmosphere that attracted all these people to The Annex in the first place.
The way it's going, though... I'm just glad that Jane Jacobs isn't here to see this.
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I wish this piece, and the recent one in the Globe and Mail, were a little less woe-is-us and finger-pointy in covering this, while also articulating what is still great about this place so we can keep hanging onto it.
Btw, bonus points for not mentioning The Brunny, which is kind of the epicentre for all this.
Okay, now time for the comments to devolve into all sorts of nastiness. :-)
The thing you have to acknowledge, though, is that whatever's succeeded on the strip has done so because the customers - the affluent locals living in the big-ticket renos on streets like Howland, and the students who have digs in the (decreasing number of) shared/rooming houses or who drift over from U of T every day and night make them succeed - they're the reason why there's four coffee shops clustered around the Bloor Cinema, not counting the Timmy's, and why burger shops thrive. It costs a lot to live in those houses/go to university, so it's no surprise that the tastes and inclinations of that market have moved on from veggie wraps and Guatemalan crafts.
I think long time residents are disappointed at what's on offer in their neighborhood, and I think it's a fair sentiment.
http://www.walkscore.com/get-score.php?street=bloor+st+w+and+brunswick+ave%2C+toronto%2C+on&;go=Go
You just have to dodge a few bullets here and there.
We use the metric system and we go to university. You really do pine for the old days!
It seems to me that the problem boils down to rent. Unilaterally rent is too high for everyone. From shop owners to residents. It's a sad thing when I'm earning thrice as much as in my old city and still have the same standard of living.
Go Annex Go!
That being said, not all the recent additions have been negative influences. Sobeys installed a low-key express location which added some competition for the local Metro which believed that constantly having sales on granola bars, poptarts and soda would keep them in competition with the college kids in the area, so that was a welcome change. Certain things were a bit overkill, as we now have a Tim Hortons, Starbucks, Second Cup, Aroma Espresso Bar and Green Beanery within a 30 second walk of each other, not to mention the vast array of CHEAP sushi places (even the formerly good reputation of Sushi on Bloor has suffered since their recent red-card scandal) and wing joints.
In terms of good oldies, as Matts already specified, the Bloor Cinema and Lee's Palace are still the cultural landmarks of the neighbourhood, as well as Honest Ed's, so the major architecture is still the same, but I think there needs to be some control and real thought put into place as to what gets to move in around them.
As for independents...
Weiner's Home Hardware
Midoco
Bloor Cinema
Lee's Palace
Serra
and more.
There are also some small(er) Canadian chains that I'm happy to see in my neighbourhood, like
Fresh
Book City
The Second Cup
etc.
I'm not a fan of the Brunny, all the lousy sushi joints, the Tim's, or the wing/burger places. But they cater to the UofT undergrads and that's a sizeable market. Would I be sad if the Greenroom shut down? Yes, but only out of nostalgia. The place is a dive with a mouse infestation. Change isn't always bad.
Bohemian vibe? Huh? Because there's a used book store? Gimme a break. The street has been and will always be a mish mash.
Neighbourhoods change. Suck it up.
I want more, not less of these bean filled delights.
Jane Jacobs lived on Albany and it's the Annex that started the "Stop the Spadina Expressway" campaign back in the late 60's
The upside is that the expressway wasn't built but the downside is that the old hippies who still live there are dining out on it 40 some odd years after the fact.
The Metro was a Dominion, there was no Book City but Weiner's Hardware store was alive and well. The one enduring institution is The Brunswick House although at the time it was a neighbourhood pub frequented by students and old men and wssn't being overrun by 905 drunken 20 somethings.
And, big shocker, often this isn't an issue of a neighbourhood changing, but of a neighbourhood staying the same while the person simply grows up. I lived in the Annex several years ago and have fond memories of the businesses there. When I return it always feels as if they have all experienced a sudden drop in quality. I seem to remember the Dominion/Metro being stocked better, Honest Eds being less run down and the food at various places tasting better.
But the truth is, for me, like many people the Annex was the first place in Toronto I called home. It was the first place I had sushi, the first place I had a chicken schawarma, the first place I saw a film in a theatre that wasn't owned by Cineplex and the first pizza slice from a small pizzeria that wasn't a national chain.
The problem is that I lived in a bubble. That pizza was the best I had ever had at the time, but that didn't mean it was -good-. I thought the sushi was fantastic, but that was just because that was all I could afford at the time. And the Shawarma (and the pizza for that matter) were probably consumed when drunk at 2am most of the time. (The theatre was a bad example. Bloor still rocks)
Now, when I come back, midday (when the grime is now visible), sober and after having actual good pizza, it isn't surprising when I can't stomach the stuff.
The 'glory days' that everyone speaks of never existed. They were merely YOUR glory days. The neighbourhood had nothing to do with it.
Too much of anything in one area is a recipe for trouble. We need diversity in the new businesses coming to the Annex so we can accommodate families and revelers all at once. I think the balance is tilting too much to one side now.
I am a bit concerned that the former convenience store on the corner of Major and Harbord looks like it's being transformed into an asian restaurant and this may be cheap sushi creeping south.
Bohemian vibe? Huh? Because there's a used book store? Gimme a break. The street has been and will always be a mish mash.
Neighbourhoods change. Suck it up.</i>
This, this so hard.
Also, beating on the grave of Jane Jacobs? So weak.
if you are willing to walk the 5 or so long blocks up Bathurst street
Bohemia is alive and well at Java Mama between 1 and 7 every day but Tuesday
my solo urban experiment I suppose
and it is not going anywhere-mainly because most of the annex yuppies really don't get what is happening there and I am glad
they cannot BRAND me-and I don't need to make a ton of money
it is consignment collectibles,comfortable chairs,great music ,coffee table magazines and books and affordable world class coffees and treats...duh....
and organic baking supplies and fairly traded edibles and cosmetics etc
try to look past the NEW shops moving in with their snoot and attitude on your way up and come home to mama
non impacting
affordable
and nice staff
we couldn't afford to buy a house in the Annex, so we moved further east. c'mon down to Woodbine and Danforth - there's plenty of cheaper rents and people eager for a few more decent restaurants and bars.
Oh yeah, and this stretch of Bloor is past it's prime. The old guys have mostly left and all that's left are franchises.