There goes the neighbourhood

In a rare departure from my narcissism, I must mention the fire on Queen W. (photos courtesy of the CBC). Very beautiful in a sad way.

It's not often that a section of Toronto's downtown catches on fire but when it does it's pretty spectacular. The buildings are all about a century old and they seem to go up like a tinderbox - no big surprise when I think about the construction of my house, I suppose. In this case, the buildings were three story row "houses" - stores on the bottom level and apartments on the top two. Not only does this result in the displacement of the people that live about the stores - mostly renters I would imagine, who often don't have the foresight/brains/money to have insurance and thus end up not only homeless but with absolutely no possessions at all. While I personally would be delighted if my house burned down, I cannot imagine many other people feel the same way.

Plus, it is such a cool section of Queen that was affected. Not yet all glammed up, but certainly on the way. One can only imagine the delight of those who want to see icky chain stores and the like go in there. No one in their right mind would rebuild the buildings the way they were, and thus there goes the kind of storefront space that makes Queen W. the funky neighbourhood that it is. No more indy head shops, ribbon stores, used record stores or whatever else was there. While they might be able to support themselves when the store and thus the rent is pretty small, in the new and improved bigger-is-better world they will be totally cut out. Let's all hope that Duke's does continue (though my feeling is they may just take to opportunity to get out) since it would be exactly what the neighbourhood (still) needs. Otherwise I fear the suburbanization of the area, egged on by the big box stores going in nearby, the materialistic condo culture and the proliferation of chains like the Gap and H&M that will do zippo to protect the nature of the area unless forced to by ironclad heritage rules.

Don't these people get it? They're moving in because the area is "hip" and "funky". Don't you want to keep it that way? Pull out the Saab and go do your crap shopping at Ikea, Pottery Barn and H&M in the burbs. Oakville beckons you back to the mothership with open arms....

I know, I know it's all been said before. I just had to get that off my chest.