Comments on: Welcome to the neighbourhood? Residents attempt community building at CityPlace

By: James

James — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 10:31:53 +0000

If people are to mix and mingle we need reasons to come out of our vertical cells. Entertainment and Dining. Shopping and Cafés.

This is very difficult to achieve when Concord’s policy towards new commercial businesses requires them to be a ‘franchise’ of another business. The local entrepreneurial spirit is hand-cuffed. As long as Concord keeps building retail in this way, with few amenities and floorplans only suited to banks and realtors, our choices will remain scarce. Until then our dining choices will be limited to take-out and cookie-cutter bar and grills. Small and independent business is what gives neighbourhoods their flavour, not this sanitized CondoDisney.

Seriously, when was the last time someone invited you to meet them at the Firkin in the Beach, the Starbucks on Queen West, or grab a slice at the Pizzaiolo at Young & Eg. I applaud any effort to organize the community and will support it if I can, but as long a one person owns Main Street we won’t get the diversity we need here.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 21:55:46 +0000

I think what you two are forgetting is the fact that CityPlace is still a construction site. A community isn’t built over night, and CityPlace is no exception. Canoe Landing is starting to find its place in the community as the centre of the neighbourhood. Once construction is complete, we can focus on bringing events into the neighbourhood, more shops can open up in the ground floor units, and we can find other creative ways to attract people to the neighbourhood. (An art gallery has already opened up in a ground floor unit on Capreol Court)

All of this will not happen over night. The world’s best communities didn’t come out of thin air. They all took time to build. CityPlace will come together, lets just give it time and work to shape it into what we want it to become.

By: DC

DC — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:36:33 +0000

@Cheeb Agreed. I live at 10 Navy Wharf Crt. This is not a neighbourhood. People leave this area to go to true areas of Toronto where you can experience the city. You want to be able to walk out of your front door and see a diverse community with a variety of things to see and do. Not a Fox & the Fiddle, St Louis, Sobeys. There is no need to come to this area if you don’t live here or know anyone who does.

By: Cheeb

Cheeb — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 17:16:43 +0000

When this neighborhood was in the design stages, I feared this would be a neighborhood where if you did not live there or knew someone who did, you would never set foot there, as there is no other reason to go there. My fears have been realized. Lower Spadina avenue is a off/onramp to the Gardiner. There is no reason for anyone to stop and shop/eat as there are no such places, and there’s no where to park if they did. I am a frequent visitor only because my gf lives there. I hope things change. I also hope we have learned from these mistakes when it comes to building the brand new neighborhoods on the waterfront. You need to draw people to a neighborhood. People who do not live there, like happens in other great T.O neighborhoods. They are not going to visit because of condos, families and Toronto Housing. These are the makings of a bedroom-community, right smackdab in an area with so much potential. Nobody opts to travel to spend a day/night in a bedroom-community for fun. As a person who grew up in the inner suburbs, I would travel to the Beach, Yonge n Eg, the Danforth, Bloor West, etc. because it was fun and interesting. There is no such draw for CityPlace.