London-England-Lads

Hey all folks in TO, any low down on this area?

We have met a number of people who live on a possible street and they all seem cool, mainly middle class with family. The area is according to a number of sources going through a period of raising house prices and starting to develop the way the rest of the Danforth has !

Raymate

Is this the same Danforth with "London Barber Shop" run my Nigel from England.

If so go and see him for a great hair cut and he also has a stack of English mags to ready as you wait, FHM, Nuts etc.

If you know him say hi, he cuts my hair when I'm in town he would be up for night out too.

R

bazzz

My guess is you're recommending entirely the wrong kind of wank-mags here. But still, nice effort.

London-England-Lads

May shock you, I use to subscribe to Nuts here in the UK, mainly for the football coverage!

dbd33

We lived just east and south of there for years up until last February, my daughter still lives around there. My OH delights in pointing out that Main and Danforth, the location of the nearest subway stop to our house (one over from Woodbine) has the highest murder rate in Toronto, more even than Jane/Finch. Every time there was a shooting I got to hear "You took me from the safety of the US to a place where gun crime is rife etc. etc.". For the fifteen or so years I lived in and around the Beach Woodbine and Danforth was always about to be gentrified and never was so I wouldn't hold my breath for that (the same is true, btw, of the numbered streets of Etobicoke).

otoh, I like the area well enough, it reminds me of Kilburn. There's a wide range of offbeat food, for example Ethiopian, Cuban and Haitian restaurants and the sorts of businesses that are either catering for a small audience or fronts for mob money; the Catholic paraphenalia store, the guitar repair store, the wool store. I used to walk the dog along there just to boggle at how any of the stores could make even enough to be some sort of tax scam.
Some of the bars are very rough but they tend to be relaxed about the smoking laws and anyway the home brew store there has essential supplies very cheap.

Here's a picture I took nearby, this is the club house of the Vagabonds bike gang. At the time they were in a war with the Hell's Angels (their club house was down on Eastern and has recently been impounded). It made me laugh that, in the middle of a bazooka and shotgun war they took the time to put up the Christmas sign.

Oh, and Toronto Honda, which is between Woodbine and Main is surely the most gay positive business anywhere. I feel quite conflicted getting the Element serviced in the rainbow garage.

Howard1944

The area has its' tough locations, Toronto East General is a great hospital, used to handling knife and gun shot wounds.

I would suggest you go further West, towards Broadview, better neighbourhoods, better schools, south of the Danforth is better than North, try for Riverdale if you have a choice.

dbd33

When we took the dog for obedience training in Riverdale we were the only different-sex dog owning couple at the classes. I don't know if that's a recommendation or a criticism of the area but it does have a large gay population. It also has a consideration Asian population, my daughter's room mate was one of three non-Asian students in his year at Riverdale Collegiate.

I would say that Riverdale is more gay, less ethnically diverse and has equally run down housing stock as Woodbine and Danforth but at higher prices. Around Broadview is nice in an urban chatterati mode, Allen's is our favorite bar to meet people from the Guardian talkboard (Fuller's on tap, NY Irish food, leave before the music starts).

raine66

And why is that then?

London-England-Lads

Strange according to the local police district and I have this from a clients father who works there, the crime rate is average for Toronto. Only time will tell !!!

dbd33

Sure, the crime rate is not spectacularly high, just the murders and they're mostly gang related anyway. The Star has a map (which I can't find right now) on its site showing murders and victim names, if you can find it you'll see the cluster in the east end. Again though, while the area is run down and there are a fair number of killings, I don't think it's a bad place and it's certainly much cheaper than more fashionable neighbourhoods. The dog I walked there is a poodle, not a pit bull.

Which street are you looking at?

London-England-Lads

Yes some of these points are true there are Government subsidized apartment
buildings to the east of Main street and more so closer to Victoria Park.
But you must realize that any neighborhood you visit in Toronto has a less
desirable pocket right around the corner. Such as High Park/ Bloor west
have the areas around Lansdowne and Dufferin, Roncesvalles village has south Parkdale, Don Mills has Don Mills and Eglinton, and the Danforth has its
Victoria Park and Danforth/ Main street. The list goes on.

The area of Ethelwin is west of Main street closer to Woodbine and this area has been changing/ gentrifying quite rapidly as you are seeing new families movinginto this neighborhood and renovating and fixing up the properties as thehomes closer to Broadview are quite a bit more expensive and not attainable.

The area's further west closer to Pape, Broadview and Riverdale are certainly areas which are most desirable and these areas are well established and have made a name for themselves. However the demographic of Toronto is changing and since we have seen such a steep increase in our market place due to high demand and limited availability which results in multiple offers Buyers are beginning to discover new areas such as the pocket of homes east of Woodbine and areas like Leslieville.

I have close friends in this area and they absolutely love the area and are at the stage where they are starting new families.

In reference to the East York hospital, yes it does handle knife and gunshot wounds but it is a hospital and this is what inner city hospitals deal with. For that matter so does Sunnybrooke hospital which is located on Bayview Avenue less than a 0.5 of a kilometer away from the most expensive area of Toronto "The Bridal Path" which includes multi million dollar homes.

Howard1944

Yeah, but in Sunnybrook they are choppered in, at TEG, they walk or stagger in, or are just dropped out of a car in the Emerg.

Riverdale is a good high school, East York has problems.

dbd33

Blimey, this is all a bit optimistic. I lived in the area for years and hardly recognize it (now I can truly say that I mostly go back to buy drugs). Leslieville, home of inbreeding, is not going to be better than a dump in my lifetime (if you doubt the inbreeding claim just look at the staff of the East End Garden Centre). TEGH is ok though, it's a bit run down but I've always been looked after when staggering from taxi to emergency department.

Andthen

I spent all of 15 minutes at Woodbine & Danforth, going to the CIBC and I nearly squealed and ran when someone came over and started talking to me, I assumed to steal my pretty red folder than contained everything that is me in paper form... Nope, was a british guy who lived there, who'd heard me speak to the bus driver. (Wipes brow)

Oh, and I drove down Danforth and went to get my SIN number etc, I kept the doors locked. LOL.

(I had the benefit of a *very* gay friend bitching about the neighbourhood as we drove by too..)