Stockyard traffic jams which used to block many streets in the Junction are not all gone yet.

This image taken this week on Glen Scarlet Rd, is a good old Junction traffic jam. At one time these trucks turning blocked Vine Ave, Ryding Ave, St Clair Ave. West, and West Toronto St. all day.

 

Toronto’s core losing jobs to condos, catches up with the Junction terms of commercial loss?

 

This is a rather interesting article, although it focuses  on the issue as related to office space and not the loss  light engineering, food processing and manufacturing that has devastated the the Junction for 3 decades. The loss of the manuservise corein teh Junction decimated the retail strip of Dundas St. west from which it has not recovered as of yet. Yes its interesting and local now the strip but its not the crowded bustling strip it was from the turn of the century to the late 70's.

Interesting though the loss of the manuservise core really did little to affect the residential societal styles and modes of home ownership, still cannot figure that out.

 (Toronto Star article)

Toronto’s core losing jobs to condos

 

When Iain Dobson sees another condo or condo-hotel springing up on prime downtown land just steps from the subway, he becomes more convinced than ever that Toronto is risking its own future by trading off jobs for people.

Toronto is reaching a tipping point — a shortage of development-ready land for new office towers at the same time thousands of new financial services jobs are projected for downtown and more companies are looking to return to the city core from the suburbs, says Dobson.

The former commercial brokerage executive and co-author of a report for the Canadian Urban Institute warns that Toronto has allowed construction of so many condo towers on what were meant to be office building sites, there is only enough development-ready land for about 4 million square feet of new office space left in the downtown.

Even the old converted “brick-and-beam” buildings to the west and east of the core, now home to some 18 million square feet of commercial development, are close to being full, says Dobson.

“The area within 500 metres of the subway is prime get yourself to work and back again space and when it gets eaten up by a lot of residential development, you have to wonder where will the new offices go?,” says Dobson.

He points to buildings like the 70-storey Trump Tower and 65-storey Shangri-La Hotel, both hotel and condo developments on land once slated for offices. They are among twelve new highrise condos, with 5,707 new units, under construction in the downtown core right now.

One-third of all jobs in the GTA are office jobs, notes the report, The New Geography of Office Location and the Consequences of Business as Usual in the GTA.

Thirty years ago, 63 per cent of office space was located in the downtown financial district or directly along subway lines. But so many businesses have flocked to the suburbs, as of 2010, 54 per cent of office space was located in the road-dependent 905 regions.

That dramatic shift, thanks to plentiful land and cheap taxes, not only clogged major roads, it turned the core into a one-horse town dominated by the financial services sector.

“The 416 region has become the bedroom community for the 905 regions,” says Dobson.

There is some evidence that’s starting to shift as environmentally conscious companies such as Coke and Telus consolidate suburban operations in the core to ease long commutes and be close to where employees live.

But governments need to do more to ease commercial taxes, integrate transit to growth areas and review land use policies for any developable land within a five-minute walk of subways with a focus on office rather than more condo development.

Commercial realtors say they are managing to find sufficient office space for companies that are looking. Colliers International says, in fact, a number of financial district tenants are moving into new offices on the Railways Lands, which is freeing up hundreds of thousands of feet of prime space in the financial district.

Realtor Cushman & Wakefield notes that almost 4 million square feet of office space has come on stream downtown since 2009 and 5.2 million more is planned. It estimates that’s enough, given current demand, for about nine more years of growth.

 

source

Eduarda's Poultry and Foodstuffs takeout

 

It's 9:20 am and the staff at this takeout are cleaning and readying to cook for today's trade.

Great character view though the window each morning.

At Dupont Ave and Perth Ave.

Nice to see the drums lined up....

 

 

 

 

Universal Drum Reconditioning Company. 110 Glen Scarlett Rd. Toronto, ON M6N 1P4

 

Wonder laneway

 



 


This lane way which begins were Symes Rd was split and blocked just under two years ago, is a striking walk. On the left, walking east you can view  the unique form of the curved steel uprights and perpendicular wood slating.  Constructed when the new development to the left was built to block noise from a train track siding and probably the factory noise, the wall has weathered  wonderfully in colour and texture.

Attached along it's length  from Symes Rd. to Gunns Rd are a number of basketball hoops which seem to connect the wall to the back of the homes across the way.

Try walking it on a bright sunny weekend afternoon its wonderful.

 

 

New York Pork on St Clair West comes down

A really long time after the fire.

 

 

 

 

 


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iph

Interesting talk for Junction folk

 

 

Text of Image

Join us on Thursday, April 28th as we launch our 2011 Heritage Toronto Walks season with an illustrated lecture on the history of Toronto's railways, hosted by Derek Boles. Our 2011 Spring walk brochures will be available for pick up as well!

How the Railways Shaped Toronto
Illustrated Lecture

 

On May 16, 1853 the first passenger train steamed out of Toronto from a wooden depot that was located just east of present-day Union Station. Over the next century, the railways had a profound impact on the geography of Toronto and helped transform the city into the commercial centre of Canada. See rare images and animations that illustrate how the railways formed and altered Toronto's built and natural landscape over the last century and a half. And discover the role that St. Lawrence Hall played in railway history!

DATE: Thursday, April 28th at 7:00pm

SPEAKER: Derek Boles, Toronto Railway Historical Association,
Author of Toronto's Railway Heritage

LOCATION: St. Lawrence Hall
157 King Street East (at Jarvis), 3rd Floor - Great Hall

 

Heritage Toronto

Heritage Toronto Events Calendar

East silos to come down and the west silos will stay

Well if anything proves that the Junction is achangen to this author who has always had a connection to the Junction thought out my life it is this.

At 43 Junction Rd the east silos are to come down in Nov. or Dec of this year.

The blogs hopes to publish some in-depth images of them next week.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

St Helen's Meat Packers Limited organically grows

The Junction Meatpacking District is growing and entrenching with the new addition to the St Helen's Meat Packers Limited firm.

Using a open space found at the east south corner of their building and a the portion of their building that served as a major entrance to the building they are created new working and travel space for their enterprize.

The new stairway in the  smaller image above is in the area of a until recently main entrance.

So glad to see this company building up the industrial character of the community

Junction Meatpacking District on new year eve

Both meat plants on Ryding Ave had some activity on December 31 2009, during the mid evening.

It was just 12 years ago that people began talking about the transformation of the Junction into a trendy community.   At the same time most of the meatpacking district along St Clair disappeared. The Meat plants, replaced by townhouses on the north side and the  Maple Leaf/ Canada Packers meats research labs on the south side of St Clair Ave were taken down and retail stores built (Parts source &  Phamra Plus). Home depots front facing the  Canadian Tire  store was a swine unloading area with the pens being where the store interior is now.

In one of the surest signs of successful gentrification, debate more recently has surged over what to call the area located north of CPR tracks is too be called, with the traditional appellation of the area being the "Stock Yards District"  being discarded by the new residential residents, but not the retail interests such the The Home depot company which named their Junction store "stockyards store"

One name which may become common place because of the Toronto Parks department renaming on a local parkette  is "Upper Junction park"  the name they propose for the park. as a substitute for "the Stockyards  District" parkette. The Staff person at the city propsoing this name - Brenda Patterson, General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, maybe? has not visited the Junction to gain some understanding of  our culture both north and south of tracks - it's much the same.

Did Toronto Parks miss the thriving current meat packing industry, with Maple Leaf Foods back on the lot just south of their old research facility, the reuse for packing operations of the old Canadian dressed meats plant.

Shallow thoughts on what the Junction is and the allowing degeneration of the history and the benefits of that history to the present will surely destroy what the Junction is and  why the the revitalization is  occurring.

have an opinion on this  the parks contact person is...

CONTACT

Andrew Koropeski, Director, Parks, Tel: 416-392-7911, Fax: 416-397-4007,

Email: akoropes@toronto.ca

Andrew Koropeski, Director, Parks, Tel: 416-392-7911, Fax: 416-397-4007,

Email: akoropes@toronto.ca

and "the Meat Market".