[URBAN NOTE] "Monkey’s Paw flees rent rise, goes west"

[rfmcdonald]

Verity Stevenson's Toronto Star article looks at a bookstore I never visited when it was on Dundas Street West. Now it will be moving much closer to my part of Toronto, I should perhaps come take a look.

One of the earliest adopters of the Dundas West neighbourhood as a hipster haven, the beloved Monkey’s Paw rare book store, is moving to Bloordale.

The move mirrors a shift in the landscape of Toronto’s quirky storefronts. As mom and pop shops exit the areas they defined, niche joints like Monkey’s Paw that had settled there for cheap rents and lack of competition follow.

Stephen Fowler opened the antiquarian bookstore at 1229 Dundas St. W. in 2006, a few years after moving to Toronto from San Francisco. He says the building that Monkey’s Paw is in was sold and its new landlord has threatened a “significant rent increase.”

Plus, the street’s fast gentrification has him a little spooked.

“The way this neighbourhood has changed seemed very sudden to me and so it went from being this kind of sleepy street to . . . now it’s like, ‘Oh, let’s go for a fancy brunch,’” Fowler said, sitting at the desk in his shop window.