Everywhere you look today, the landscape and skyline of Toronto is changing.
When I first came to settle in the city some 30 years ago, I chose to settle in Scarborough mainly because it was nearest to a special school I needed to send my children. At that time Mississauga was just being developed from the ground and housing was cheaper than in Scarborough. Then, as that city quickly developed, prices went upwards in almost a straight line. Toronto as a city of the time, consisted of Etobicoke, North York, East York, York and Scarborough boroughs or mini cities, Scarborough being the largest. Later they were all amalgamated into a single Toronto municipality, with Scarborough being described as Toronto East. Scarborough had the advantage of being an older development, part of the city of Toronto but it was a much friendlier neighbourhood with mom and pop stores and a wide choice of ethnic groceries and restaurants. A real almost like visual of small town Ontario within a big city. There Some parts of Scarborough in the south were luxurious neighbourhoods with large houses and estates. These were the homes of the original farmer settlers and gentry. But some other parts got a reputation of being rough, the homes slightly decrepit with storefronts in commercial areas needing a major makeover. Mississauga was never like Scarborough because it was new. Tall towers, ritzy buildings and chintzy glass front office buildings. Almost an urban concrete jungle. It became the home of newer immigrants with deeper pockets including that of the majority of the Goan community. However while Scarborough like Calcutta was a city with soul, Mississauga could be compared to Bombay, a commercial faceless city with almost no character. I never moved from Scarborough. My location was excellent, transportation very convenient and not a long drive from downtown Toronto. But now things are rapidly changing. It’s called the ‘gentrification’ of Scarborough in municipal plans. Old shops are coming down and so are small plazas, ethnic haunts, empty lots and relocated small industries. It is becoming the newer Mississauga much to my chagrin and that of the older residents. For not much longer it seems, can I hop in the car and easily access those mom and pop stores where you are welcomed by name with a chance for idle chatter. With the new rents they have to pay, they have no time for anything but generating revenue. It’s exactly the same thing that has happened to Bombay where I was born and bred or Doha where I worked and spent some of the best years of my life. The phenomenon is being replicated in almost every small town in India. Poona, Nasik, Belgaum, Hubli and so many towns where I visited or passed through. The beautiful hill stations of north and south India have become crowded with shanties and ugly constructions. Soon the US will go that way too, with the new infrastructure bill and the massive spending that will flow from it. I and my generation have been luck to see a cleaner, gentler, less populated world with all the beauty that came with it. After this transition completes, our children will have to get used to a newer concept of beauty. Tall towers, totally unnecessary conveniences that will result in lesser social interaction and relationships that were once held in high value. This is not a lament. I don’t know what good things are in the offing or how people will manage admirably with what they have. New forms of interaction, dropping of prejudices, flowering of new forms of happiness. A new La Vie En Rose. Towering condo development to replace a block of Yonge Street businesses https://www.blogto.com/real-estate-toronto/2021/11/towering-condo-development-replace-block-yonge-street-businesses/ Roland. Toronto.
