Queen West Adventures

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Fear and hope for Queen West - Spacing Toronto

The approval last week by the City’s committee of adjustment of a mixed-use retail and condo development, including a big-box home improvement retailer (probably Home Depot), on the parking lot at Queen and Portland has prompted renewed angst about the ongoing corporatization-homogenization-gentrification of the Queen West strip, notably the creeping spread of this corporatization west …

This 2008 article talks about the dangers and well as the positives of development along Queen West, West of Spadina. It mentions the importance of heritage distinctions and how it will affect businesses and the growth of the neighbourhood.

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This is a website and community of businesses for the business improvement area in the interest of keeping Queen West a trendy, cultural and specialty/high end shop destination. 

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The Queen West Art and Design District of Toronto occupies the sweet spot between scared off and priced out.

This article explores some of the implications of Queen West’s trendiness, as well as some of the landmarks which make Queen West as desirable, commercial and ‘urban’ as it is!

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Global Street Style Report: Mapping Out the 15 Coolest Neighborhoods in the World

In honor of Vogue September 2014’s street style news, Vogue.com presents the globe’s fifteen coolest neighborhoods for fashion and beyond.

Queen West came in 2nd as the Vogue’s world’s coolest neighbourhood to live in!

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We finished at dusk, on Dowling Avenue.

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The Beginning (top) and The End (bottom), two works found on opposite ends of our walk. The top was found at Queen and University, while the bottom was found at Queen and Dufferin. The works created such a great sense of continuity for our adventure, and it helped us find a natural ending point to our journey. 

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Some things I passed by which caught my eye as we made our way West. In particular, I find myself drawn to the older buildings which I also tend to identify with ‘the city’ and aspects of urban-ness, especially when they are converted and used for mixed purposes. The clash between old and new gives a sense of what was there, and the potential for what is to come, always evolving and changing.

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Parkdale was the last leg of our trip, after having walked 4.4km. We came across more public services and community oriented businesses than we had the whole trip. The feeling was much less commercial and ‘boutique-y’

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Some of the public institutions and services found along Queen West in the Ossington area.

The Drake is one of the businesses which is said to have been a driving force of gentrification along this area.

The Bike Share Toronto station had me thinking about who can access this method of transportation. It requires a credit card to operate, barring many people from the service. 

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The gas station (that rare thing downtown!), Trinity Bellwoods park and its community center, a lovely wild flower growing between the cracks of the pavement near the community center (something you really wouldn’t have seen further East towards where we started) and the Candy Factory Lofts, a space I have read which prompted the gentrification of the West end. 

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The first community organization that we passed by since University Avenue was West Neighbourhood House, just passed Bathurst street. I found this in line with my recognition of just how commercialized and transitional a space Queen West can be. 

This transitional feeling did subside as we moved further and further west, coming across tree lined side streets, a school, as well as political graffiti. It felt like we could spend more time here, less rushing and bustling was happening. We passed by many more families as well. 

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The entrance of the Graffiti Alley just past Queen and Spadina.

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I wanted to capture the camera’s viewfinder and the way I might choose to frame a photo and how it can mediate, influence and give clues as to what catches my interest as well as what I might consider urban as I moved through the space.

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These are the spots between University and Spadina which I am familiar with. The spots are mostly consumer in nature, which is my primary understanding of Queen West. This began to make me recognize the aspects of who might have access to these spaces as a consumer, and who may feel barred from these spaces on a financial level.

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This space was interesting to me as a green space which felt on one hand was public which was demonstrated to me by the sun bather on the grass pictured above, but then it felt as though it had regulations, or a past of enforcement echoed historically (as it was used as a law building, and then as a garrison, and now as a heritage site), as well as contemporarily through these restrictions which prevent protest, as well as people living on the grounds. 

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The walk started at Queen and University, where I was waiting for my friend who was joining me on the exploration. As I sat on the East side of the street, I realized that the house I was looking at was likely Campbell House, which I had heard of before, and apparently walked by many times, without realizing that this was its location! This awoke in me the feeling that I had probably not noticed a lot more on this stretch of Toronto, as my main focus along Queen West has been shopping. This theme of consumer focus repeated itself many times as the day progressed.

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Adventures

This walk down Queen St West was done as a way to explore, examine and understand the ways in which I think about space, the concept of urban, and my previous experiences with Queen West and Toronto. I attempted to be mindful (key word being attempted) as I moved through the space. Mindfulness is defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally.”

This (sporadic) mindfulness allowed me to recognize my thoughts and be present, rather than experience the space on auto-pilot. Furthermore, I allowed myself to auto-pilot as well as intentionally photograph places and things which caught my eye. This helped me to see what I was drawn to, without overthinking it as I went along.

Overall,  it was interesting being able to reflect on how a camera, and more importantly a photographer, mediates and creates an image rather than objectively documenting surroundings.This led me to wonder what’s missing from my viewfinder.

This blog will be an accumulation of the photos I took, as well as some commentary in order to point out my experience, questions, thoughts and beliefs which came up as I explored the space.