[URBAN NOTE] "Strip club owner spawns rivals as Bloordale tidies up on his watch"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Aaron Harris notes an apparent local furor in Bloordale over local strip joint House of Lancaster. The House of Lancaster has been present in this neighbourhood for 27 years, and its owner Spiro Koumoudouros has played a major role in promoting this now up-and-coming neighbourhood. It's now unwelcome.

At one time, Bloordale was a hot spot for cheap drugs, street prostitution and arrests. Vestiges remain, but major changes have been underway for years on the stretch of Bloor St. W. between Dufferin St. and Lansdowne Ave.

The old Dale’s, a diner of ill repute, is now a trendy brunch spot. There’s no Starbucks yet, but among the psychic dens, cash-for-gold joints, laundromats and the token Coffee Time, you’ll find a gourmet sandwich counter, hip bars and a bakery that ominously proclaimed “the vegans are coming!” in its window before opening.

Property values have gone up 35 per cent, according to realtor Tasi Farquhar, with one detached house fetching $1,070,000 recently. Where it used to be littered with needles, a playground was installed at the Susan Tibaldi Parkette to accommodate families.

The old butts up against the new in Bloordale. And the long-standing House of Lancaster strip club is right in the middle.

Owner Spiro Koumoudouros has been a member of the BIA for 27 years and at the helm for as long as anyone can remember. He takes credit for cleaning up Bloordale and making it more inviting for newcomers. But now some say it’s time for him to go. Koumoudouros says without him, the BIA would collapse.

“(Spiro) was one of the only people who would chair the BIA so we have to give him kudos for that. But it doesn’t mean he has to continue,” said Liza Lukashevsky, who formally joined the BIA this year but has owned the Nuthouse health food store since 2010.

“This seems like a natural time for change to happen to reflect what’s happening already organically in the neighbourhood,” she said.