Transit-led Development and Gentrifcation: A Case Study on the Eglinton Crosstown

Aayesha Patel

Tis essay examines a neighbourhood along West, known locally as ‘Little ,’ where a light rail transit (LRT) project called the Eglinton Crosstown is currently being constructed. Drawing on personal observations and secondary sources, the paper examines negative efects of this transit development on the low income im- migrant community, as the process of gentrifcation has quietly begun to ‘improve’ their neighbourhood. Residents and small businesses of the area face displacement pressures as developers, Business Improvement Areas, city government, and other stakehold- ers race to take advantage of urban renewal opportunities which come with new transit infrastructure. Tis paper examines three redevelopment models: Creative City, Eth- nic Packaging, and Green Economy, and how they work together to design a gentrifed future of Eglinton West. In the fnal sections, I critique these visions as racialized class projects, consider the ethnic community’s absence from redevelopment plans, and sug- gest possible planning tools which could promote revitalization without displacement.

Introduction levels of immigrants and visible minorities (City of Toronto, 2011). My daily commute entails an observation of the streetscape, people and shopfronts on Eg- With rapid increases in population, high linton Avenue West from the windows of the 32 demand for housing and a burgeoning real es- bus route. Over the past two years I have seen tate market, Toronto’s center of gravity is steadi- considerable change as countless small business- ly moving northwards into inner suburbs such es have vacated, leaving nothing but yellowing as Eglinton West. Te area is expected to face newspaper and ‘for lease’ signs in their windows. redevelopment pressures as diferent stake- Slow movement of the bus is attributed to Eglin- holders race to take advantage of new transit ton being reduced to two lanes of trafc where infrastructure while attracting urban renewal the Metrolinx Crosstown is being constructed. opportunities. Tis study examines the Cross- Projected to open in 2021, the Eglinton Cross- town’s potential long term efects on Eglinton town is a large-scale transportation project West’s residents and small businesses, including which will bring desperately needed improve- the threat of gentrifcation and displacement. ments in service and efciency1. Te light rail Although multiple stakeholders have advanced transit line will extend along a 19 kilometre cor- diferent models for the redevelopment of Eglin- ridor of Eglinton Avenue between Mount Den- ton, none can be defned as mutually exclusive. nis and Kennedy Station (Metrolinx, 2014). In Te Creative City, Ethnic Packaging, and Green this study, I will be looking at the Crosstown in Economy visions overlap, working together in the western end of Toronto between designing a gentrifed future of Eglinton West. and . Tis strip has a predominantly In the fnal sections, I critique these visions as low-income, working class population with high racialized class projects and explore possible planning tools that could promote revitalization 1 Te $5.3 billion (CAD 2010) investment is projected without displacement. to be 60% faster than existing bus service (Metrolinx, 2015). 6 | Patel | Landmarks fronts. A small business owner who had been forced to relocate from Eglinton West told a local newspaper that “most people living in this com- munity don’t want this condo here… the com- munity should stay how it is” (Aziz & Bachour, 2014). Prices for a unit start at $250,000, a sum far beyond afordability levels of the neighbour- hood’s current residents who work low skill wage jobs. Residents have expressed a consciousness of the Crosstown’s negative potential and a com- mon notion that Afro- businesses and residents “may not survive the neighbourhood make-over” (Armstrong, 2014). Te communi- ty’s well-deserved transit infrastructure remains overshadowed by a fear of displacement and an opposition to commercial gentrifcation2. Tis incites debate on urban socio-spatial inequality and the disadvantage of low-income communi- ties in the distribution of and access to public Figure 1: “Due to unforeseen circumstances.” An example of one of the many small businesses services across the city. along Eglinton Avenue West that have been forced Creative City Vision to shut down or relocate since construction of the Crosstown began in 2013 (Source: Aayesha Patel, Te community’s deep roots on Eglinton 2015). West date to the 1950s when the frst Jamaican Voices of Vulnerability immigrants landed in the area, bringing with them their culture and traditions (Armstrong, Te area of study, known colloquially as Lit- 2014). To honour this, in 2014 a local politician tle Jamaica, has historically been an Afro-Carib- initiated a project to name a laneway behind bean ethnic enclave. According to Jacobs (1985), Eglinton ‘ Lane’ in light of the changing commercial streets which appear to have high neighbourhood. Te name and an additional visible minority populations, multiple vacancies, mural was to commemorate the history and leg- and low levels of maintenance are increasingly acy of in the 1970s and ‘80s, as a vulnerable to gentrifcation, especially if adja- vibrant epicenter of reggae music. Record shops, cent to new public developments (p. 104). Since recording studios, and concert venues once construction of the LRT began, small businesses lined Eglinton West where the immigrant com- along the strip, largely owned by black immi- munity settled down. Te initiative, led in part grants, have faced pressures of slow turnover by BIAs, is evocative of tokenism as a practice and concerns of increased rent, some having lost of gentrifcation in which cultural and historical 20-30% of customers (Aziz & Bachour, 2014). landmarks are ‘preserved’ to give an area com- Gentrifcation itself is most succinctly de- mercial appeal (Relph, 1987, p. 219). As young scribed as “the production of space for progres- professionals search for creative ambience in the sively more afuent users” (Hackworth& Rekers, places they live, Jamaican culture is deliberately 2005, p. 3). An independent cofee shop, special- constructed in an efort to “recreate a townscape ty bike store, and the sales ofce for a new high- not as it once was but as the gentrifers wished it rise condominium development punctuate the 2 As one resident succinctly put it, “Tis whole neigh- pattern of Little Jamaica’s old, weathered shop- bourhood ain’t gonna be Little Jamaica anymore” (Aziz & Bachour, 2014). Landmarks |Transit-led Development | 7 might have been” (Relph, 1987, p. 223). shops and restaurants catering to the communi- ty’s diverse heritage” (Fairbank BIA, 2015). An Local residents of Little Jamaica felt the ini- annual street festival on Eglinton West show- tiative was a token gesture which would not do cases the neighbourhood’s multicultural food much to help with pressing issues in the com- and arts, working to develop “a larger tourism munity such as economic development. Tey pull” (York BIA, 2015). Packaged ethnicity of- questioned whether the city would help to “keep ten facilitates gentrifcation as eforts to beauti- the mom and pop shops open, given the LRT fy and market the neighbourhood as a niche to construction and gentrifcation creeping in” wealthy prospective resident has been shown to (Armstrong, 2014). Te population was well cause a decline of the original ethnic population aware that the initiative was “someone’s polit- (Hackworth & Rekers, 2005, p. iii). Te York and ical move,” given to the black community as a Fairbank BIAs have collaborated with local pol- justifcation for the unmentioned gentrifcation. iticians to deliberately construct a multicultural Residents felt the larger issue was how Carib- urbanity using art and culture in order to ad- bean presence and subsequent displacement in vance the Ethnic-Creative City vision of gentri- the neighbourhood was being neglected (Arm- fcation. Such processes are not novel to Toron- strong, 2014). Te Creative City vision of Eglin- to’s ethnic enclaves. Hackworth & Rekers (2005) ton West as a gentrifed artistic hub is advanced have documented similar forms of BIA-led gen- by local politicians to sell Little Jamaica in a pro- trifcation occurring in , Greektown cess of ethnic branding. Te neighbourhood’s on the Danforth, and Little India. rich cultural identity is being packaged and sold to attract afuent professionals, intersecting the Green Economy Vision two visions as they employ similar practices. Te marketing of Eglinton West as an ethnic Ethnic Packaging Vision enclave parallels aspects of the Green Economy vision, whose main proponent is the municipal Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) of- government. Te comprehensive planning study ten work to actively manufacture a marketable called ‘Eglinton Connects’ ofers an extensively form of ethnicity that targets tourists and pro- detailed vision and planning recommendations spective residents. Te two BIAs included in the in anticipation of Eglinton’s rapid growth follow- study area promote Eglinton West as a business ing the Crosstown’s arrival (Eglinton Connects, and shopping destination, “ofering shoppers 2014). Te plan proposes construction of mid- and visitors a vibrant international market with rise buildings along the corridor and a complete

Figure 2a, 2b: “It may be in the decades to come that one of the few remaining reminders of the Carib- bean presence in that neighbourhood is the street name: ” – Local Resident (Armstrong, 2014). (Source: Hector Vasquez, 2015).

8 | Patel | Landmarks Figures 3a, 3b and 3c: Eglinton Connects’ Green Economy vision sets the stage for long term intensifca- tion as more than 100,000 new people and jobs are projected to enter the Avenue, and justifes midrise development for yielding a private sector proft. (Source: Eglinton Connects, City of Toronto, 2014). revitalisation of Eglinton’s streetscape to include ed by transit allow local residents to participate bicycle lanes, wider sidewalks, patios, benches in inclusive employment and apprenticeship and other street furniture. Emphasis is placed programs, resulting in blue-collar living wages on the beautifcation and ‘greening’ of Eglinton for the community (Metrolinx, 2014, p. 15). with a continuous canopy of large trees, green roofs, community gardens, connections to the Te Green Economy plan suggests neigh- city’s trails and ravines including the Humber bourhood revitalization will foster local identity and Don River Valleys, and green transit infra- and support economic development, claiming structure (Eglinton Connects, 2014: 9). Eglinton’s “unique heritage and character of a vibrant culture” will be strengthened with a new Trough transit investment providing an streetscape design (Eglinton Connects, 2014, p. opportunity to rebuild Eglinton’s streetscape, the 7). Te rhetoric assumes current residents and vision aims to “attract new populations looking businesses will not be displaced, avoiding debate for a high quality of life” (Eglinton Connects, on gentrifcation by stylising it as ‘revitalization.’ 2014, p. 7). Tis New Urbanist Creative City Te vision employs elements of Ethnic Packag- model, led by City of Toronto Planning, has col- ing, demonstrating how the models intersect in laborated with Metrolinx to create ‘green jobs’ in their collective goal of gentrifcation3. a Community Benefts Agreement. Jobs generat- 3 York-Eglinton BIA held its frst farmers market in the summer of 2015 with expensive organic produce, Landmarks |Transit-led Development | 9 Racialized Class Projects (Rankin & McLean, 2015, p. 221). Survey com- ments described the commercial street as dead Te process of gentrifcation is known to space that needed to be “enlivened” by new be “predicated on and reproduced by existing businesses and people (Metrolinx, 2012, p. 19). racial inequalities” (Rankin & McLean, 2015, When asked whether new station design should p. 221). Te visions explored can be defned as integrate into the local community, one atten- ‘racialized class projects,’ planning visions and dant wrote: “Do not make it ft with existing practices that naturalize ideologies of race and shoddy neighbourhood, should be modern and class as unequal distributions of opportunity. contemporary to raise the quality of the neigh- Tis can be seen through the “erasure of racial- bourhood” (Metrolinx, 2012:18). Tis statement ized people from redevelopment plans” and “the and many others convey how attitudinal racism mobilization of white privilege” in non-inclusive is present within redevelopment visions as com- consultations (Rankin & McLean, 2015, p. 221). mercial space oriented towards the needs of the Te visions are advanced by privileged white black community is stigmatized as lacklustre homeowners with the time and fnancial re- and uneventful. sources to support redevelopment projects and the remaking of their neighbourhoods to suit Despite these eforts of erasure, a deeply Anglo-Canadian lifestyles (Rankin & McLean, connected ethnic community lives and works 2015, p. 237). on Eglinton West, strengthening ties in support of small businesses and entrepreneurs. Com- Attendants of Metrolinx Public Consulta- munity members frequent Eglinton’s Caribbean tion meetings provided overwhelming support restaurants and churches to socialize while local to the Crosstown for its positive commercial barbershops ofer informal apprenticeships to and social impact on the neighbourhood and young entrepreneurs as well as space for black fa- its direct connection to increased property val- therhood workshops (Armstrong, 2014). Before ues (Metrolinx, 2012, p. 16). Attendants called relocating due to loss of business, an Afro-Ca- for the promotion of Eglinton West as a “desti- ribbean bookstore hosted workshops, poetry nation,” and shared a desire to revitalize Eglin- readings, and oral history events connecting res- ton West as a trendy, gentrifed neighbourhood. idents and youth to their heritage (Casas, 2014). One person however, criticised the demographic Tis strong black identity within the commu- and motives of attendants, writing “there was no nity currently stands in a vulnerable position, a discussion on gentrifcation and displacement. possibility entirely overlooked by proponents of Tere was one black woman at the consultation, gentrifcation. why? Better outreach is needed” (Metrolinx, 2013, p. 25). Furthermore, diversity in the Cre- Racialized class projects promote only a ative City model “commodifes diference and sanitised consumption of ethnicity that is ac- normalizes processes of racialization through ceptable to middle class tastes (Rankin, 2015, practices such as Ethnic Packaging” (Rankin & p. 229). Although attendants supported ‘diverse’ McLean, 2015, p. 221). neighbourhood branding, they also criticised black businesses as unattractive and in need of Proponents of racialized class projects “mo- replacement. Te Creative City process of se- bilize an elite sense of entitlement to speak for lective historical preservation in Reggae Lane the neighbourhood” and “generate existing is wrapped up in ideologies and biases as gen- commercials pace as empty and defcient” de- trifers’ preferred image of history is preserved spite the existence of thriving community bonds (Relph, 1987, p. 224). Tis appropriation of Ja- artisan and handcrafed goods, clearly meant to attract maican culture is an exploitation of multicul- a diferent clientele from the existing population. Only 3 of more than 15 vendors at the farmer’s market were turalism in which creative, artistic elements are businesses from Eglinton West (York BIA, 2015). desired while small businesses with little aes- 10 | Patel | Landmarks thetic appeal are rejected. Racist implications are Te City of Toronto Economic Develop- clearly shown to be embedded in the visions and ment Ofce could provide marketing support practices of gentrifcation, advanced by plan- to businesses in adapting to the changing de- ners, BIAs and homeowners. mographics of their customers. Ofen, ethni- cally oriented businesses can market well to the Revitalisation without Displacement immigrant community, but fall behind when competing with new middle class businesses. Although redevelopment of Toronto’s in- Small adjustments in stock, décor, and service ner suburbs will soon become inevitable, it is style could make a signifcant diference in ap- possible for incomers to be integrated into ex- pealing to newcomers as well as the existing isting communities. To prevent the act of gen- community. Retaining ethnically oriented and trifcation itself, the provincial and municipal immigrant-owned businesses also promotes an governments should implement various policies inclusive diversity which may have attracted promoting revitalisation without displacement. new residents to the area initially (Rankin, 2008, Inclusionary zoning can be employed in new p. 42). mixed tenure residential developments mean- ing 15-20% of units would be afordable rental Implementation of local knowledge in rede- housing. Dwellings of diferent sizes and costs in velopment plans remains a highly essential tool a single mid-rise building can relieve the mid- in promoting revitalisation without displace- dle class’ demand for housing while allowing the ment (Rankin, 2008, p. 46). Community based existing low income community to aford to re- research initiatives not only beneft the collab- main in their neighbourhood. Furthermore, the orative planning process with their lived expe- provincial government can enforce rent control, riences of the neighbourhood, but also work to under which landlords would no longer have empower local residents. Furthermore, the City the right to increase rent prices at will. Consis- should educate residents and small businesses tency of rent would prevent the displacement of on the social costs of gentrifcation. Tis could low-income residents in a gentrifying area, pro- mean better access to information sessions, pro- moting a broader socio-economic mix of house- viding child care, and hosting fexible evening holds (Hulchanski, 2010, p. 21). sessions to accommodate the working popula- tion (Rankin, 2008, pg. IV). Te fundamental Residential and commercial gentrifcation act of spreading awareness can allow a neigh- work in tandem as preventing one inhibits the bourhood to unite against displacement and so- other. As small businesses lining commercial cio-spatial inequality. Tus, it is imperative for strips of low-income neighbourhoods provide local residents to have a greater infuence on city afordable goods to the ethnic community, dis- planning in order to build more equitable com- placed residents and a subsequent lack of con- munities of the future. sumer base would eventually lead to their clo- sure or relocation. Terefore, small businesses must be provided with various supports against gentrifcation through policy change. Business owners should be encouraged to own their properties in order to prevent being priced out by their landlords. Tis can be achieved by in- come or property tax incentives and low-interest loans ofered to owner occupied businesses. Al- ternately, retail space could be owned by the city or community and leased to small businesses at a stable rent or no proft (Rankin, 2008, p. 41). Landmarks |Transit-led Development | 11 References Hulchanski, D. (2010). 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