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rfmcdonaldSteve Kupferman's Torontoist article revisits the possibility of a Loblaws chain grocery store near Kensington Market that I noted through Torontoist back in December.
Kupferman's coverage is quite good, not only--as here--noting the concerns that a chain grocery store might impinge on the smaller merchants of Kensington Market, but also noting that much of this protest seems ill-judged. For starters, right now there does not seem to be any commitment by Loblaws to the site in question on College west of Spadina, once home to a Buddhist temple. There also seems to be a sort of NIMBYism evidenced, in the opposition to bars or other entertainment venues appearing in a neighbourhood that has been dynamic. The commenters at Torontoist further suggest that there may not be much impact on small businesses like fruit sellers and fishmongers in the neighbourhood, since they cater to substantially different demographics than a hypothetical Loblaws would.
Kupferman's coverage is quite good, not only--as here--noting the concerns that a chain grocery store might impinge on the smaller merchants of Kensington Market, but also noting that much of this protest seems ill-judged. For starters, right now there does not seem to be any commitment by Loblaws to the site in question on College west of Spadina, once home to a Buddhist temple. There also seems to be a sort of NIMBYism evidenced, in the opposition to bars or other entertainment venues appearing in a neighbourhood that has been dynamic. The commenters at Torontoist further suggest that there may not be much impact on small businesses like fruit sellers and fishmongers in the neighbourhood, since they cater to substantially different demographics than a hypothetical Loblaws would.
It’s an awkward situation. In October, city council, with the support of Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), approved a 15-storey condo at 297 College Street, to be developed by a company called Tribute Communities. Now, months after the fact, some residents and businesspeople in Kensington Market, just south of the site, are suddenly up in arms over the building, which they believe will include a neighbourhood-destroying element: a Loblaws supermarket, lodged in a planned 20,000 square foot second-floor retail space.
Sylvia Lassam, a seven-year Kensington resident who owns a home on Bellevue Avenue, is one of the people leading the fight against Loblaws. She believes that a supermarket would steal business away from the many green grocers and dry-goods merchants that line Kensington’s streets. “The raw food sales have been the constant that keeps it a real, honest-to-god market,” she said. “And if you get a Loblaws two blocks away, what’s going to happen?”
Lassam, an archivist by profession, believes that a supermarket would leave Kensington unrecognizable, erasing its century of history as a scrappy, eclectic immigrant district. There’s some reason to believe things could unfold this way. Ever since a Loblaws opened at Queen and Portland streets, about half a kilometre from the Market, neighbourhood merchants have complained of reduced sales. Fueling suspicion in Kensington is the fact that the Portland Street Loblaws is located in a condo building developed by none other than Tribute Communities, in partnership with RioCan.
“I just can’t see how that could be good for [Kensington's small grocers],” Lassam continued. “And I think what would probably happen is that they would eventually close up, and that those storefronts would turn into more of the entertainment kind of things.” In other words, bars.
