![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI've absolutely no problem with the City of Toronto's official recognition of a "Little Ethiopia", a neighbourhood where the Ethiopian Canadian community of Toronto is particularly concentrated and supports a thriving local economy keyed to ethnic interests: restaurants, grocery stores, community religious and political sites. But they're doing it in the wrong part of Toronto!
Me, I've always associated the Ethiopian presence in Toronto not with the east of downtown Toronto but with the west, but with my neighbourhood--my extended neighbourhood, at least. Lalibela is on a part of Bloor Street West that's just fifteen or twenty minutes' walk away from me, for instance. The Ethiopian presence in this part of Toronto is hardly uncomplicated, but it does form an identifiable block between the Portuguese Canadians to the west and the Korean Canadians to the east.
I'll make a prediction. When this Ltitle Ethiopia on the Danforth gets recognized, in the coming decade you'll see a certain shift of an identifiably Ethiopian presence away from the west of the downtown towards the east. The two neighbourhoods may be roughly Ethiopian now, but future expansion--through migration and through investment--in specifically Ethiopian areas will probably be directed towards areas of Toronto that are officially Ethiopian to one extent or another.
Up to 70,000 people of Ethiopian origin live in the GTA and surrounding region, according to the executive director of the GTA’s Ethiopian Association. But Toronto doesn’t have an officially branded neighbourhood for any African country. Italians, Greeks, Koreans, South Asians, Chinese and Portuguese all have pockets of town to call their own. Even tiny Malta has a few blocks named after it in the Junction.
Until this month, Mr. Getachew had failed time and again to gain support from the board or the city for Little Ethiopia, which he proposes would stretch four blocks down Danforth Avenue from Greenwood Avenue to Monarch Park. The problem isn’t the idea, city officials agree, but the multicultural area he envisions it in.
“That area has businesses owned by Greeks, Italians – a whole range of cultural groups,” city Councillor Janet Davis said. “The name ‘mosaic’ was intended to highlight the diversity.” Indeed, the area is lined not just with Ethiopian businesses, but also with Moroccan, Italian, Greek, Asian and Spanish restaurants and cafés. Mike Major, the manager of the BIA office at the City of Toronto, said that if the new board wants the city to look at branding the area, the city will do so.
“But it sends mixed messages when you have banners that say ‘Mosaic’ and street signs that say ‘Little Ethiopia.’ ”
For the Ethiopian community that eats, works and mingles in the area, however, a Little Ethiopia would be a welcome piece of home – and hopefully push more Ethiopians to set up shop on the Danforth. Naser Kaid, 43, lived in Ethiopia until he was 20. He said he comes down to the area almost daily to meet friends and eat hearty, Ethiopian meals. He says if Little Ethiopia becomes a reality, he expects many people to invest in the area.
Me, I've always associated the Ethiopian presence in Toronto not with the east of downtown Toronto but with the west, but with my neighbourhood--my extended neighbourhood, at least. Lalibela is on a part of Bloor Street West that's just fifteen or twenty minutes' walk away from me, for instance. The Ethiopian presence in this part of Toronto is hardly uncomplicated, but it does form an identifiable block between the Portuguese Canadians to the west and the Korean Canadians to the east.
I'll make a prediction. When this Ltitle Ethiopia on the Danforth gets recognized, in the coming decade you'll see a certain shift of an identifiably Ethiopian presence away from the west of the downtown towards the east. The two neighbourhoods may be roughly Ethiopian now, but future expansion--through migration and through investment--in specifically Ethiopian areas will probably be directed towards areas of Toronto that are officially Ethiopian to one extent or another.
