[LINK] "Marketing the Market"

[rfmcdonald]

Speaking of Torontonian idiosyncracies, the National Post has an article on the almost archetypically Torontonian downtown neighbourhood of Kensington Market, Adam McDowell's "Marketing the Market." In it, McDowell argues that despite locals' fears (described below), gentrification isn't going to change a neighbourhood that is arguably characterized by dynamic change.

A Monopoly board was an appropriate theme for a flyer announcing a meeting of the Kensington Market Action Committee earlier this week. As in a game of Monopoly, how Kensington's future will unfold depends a little on chance and a lot on who ends up renting what.

At the meeting in the Kensington Market Lofts' basement Monday night, local resident Mielle Chandler couldn't sit still through the reading out of financial details. She put up her hand and started talking about gentrification, about how the neighbourhood had tidied up over her 10 years of living there - the Kensington in her mind was being erased.

"It's scuzzy," she said to scattered applause, "and I like it."

Gentrification, nodded outgoing KMAC president Chris De Vita, "is a dirty word around here."

The word has been on Kensingtonians' lips even more than coffee lately. Local business owners report that the area's major landowners, a handful of whom reputedly hold a virtual monopoly, are dramatically increasing their rents and holding out for tenants with a proven track record - meaning, some fear, chain stores over quirky mom-and-pop shops.