A Walk To Remember

Neighbourhoods

6 minute read

December 7, 2009

No, I don’t mean that cheesy teen move with Mandy Moore.  I liked her better in Entourage anyhow.

I mean my three-block trek from my condo last night to the local Dollorama which saw me walk from a neighbourhood with prime real estate into a drug-infested ghetto…

walkremember.jpg

It wasn’t my intention to play off the mildly-successful Mandy Moore flick with the title of this blog post.

But I can honestly say that when I found myself walking “the gauntlet” on Sherbourne Street just north of Queen, I said to myself, “This should be a walk to remember…”

On Sunday night, I found myself decorating the lonely-single-man’s Christmas tree in my condo, and something was definitely lacking!

I bought a four-footer this year, and clearly didn’t have enough decorations to accommodate the new size!  Last year, I went down to the St. Lawrence Market’s Sunday flea-market and found a bounty of treasures for my then-two-foot Fraser Fir.  For ten bucks, I got a half-dozen baggies full of old Christmas ornaments that I assumed had a ton of history.

I found it incredibly entertaining to think that I would be hanging “used” ornaments on my tree; perhaps ornaments that once hung on several different families’ trees, a tree in a church, a school, or a store.

But this year, I knew I would need more ornaments, and when my also-used string of Christmas lights broke, it was time to make the trek over to the local Dollorama.

I absolutely love Dollorama, and I will shop there until the day I die.  I could be a billionaire, and I would still feel good about myself when I buy items that might cost $8.99 some place else.

My condo is located on the northeast corner of King & Sherbourne, and the Dollorama is located on Sherbourne Street in between Queen and Shuter.

For those of you that don’t know, that is a very bad area.  Moss Park, anyone?

Take a look at this map and you’ll see that I’m only talking about three city blocks, but those three blocks make all the difference:

dolloramamap.JPG

Starting at King/Sherbourne, you’re situated in prime St. Lawrence Market and at one of the nicest condos in the downtown core.

Move north along Sherbourne to Adelaide Street, and you’re still in prime real estate.  With Mozo on the corner and 330 Adelaide Street across the road, you’ve also got the Imperial Lofts on the east side of Sherbourne as you head up to Richmond Street.

The move from Adelaide to Richmond Street may seem like it’s only one city block, but it makes all the difference from a real estate perspective.

Richmond Street is “the end of the line” as far as the St. Lawrence Market “neighbourhood” is concerned, and any further north is getting dangerously close to an area that you don’t want to be in.

313-323 Richmond Street is a very large 500-unit condominium on the southeast corner of Richmond and Sherbourne.  This building is home to some very nice units and some very nice people, but it’s about as far north as you want to be.  Directly across the street is a giant hole in the ground where The Modern condominium will be built, apparently by August of 2011.  Once this building is completed, it will make 313-323 Richmond Street seem just a little bit further away from what lies north of there.

It’s not uncommon to see a single “unfortunate soul” outside of the Tim Horton’s at 323 Richmond Street asking for change, and most of us are used to it by now.  This location represents the “do not cross” line for the homeless, vagrants, and druggies, as I have often commented that there is an invisible fence on Richmond Street.  They come south from Queen, but they don’t go any further than the Tim Horton’s.

Last night, I left my condo at about 7:30PM and embarked upon the wild and frightful journey to Sherbourne & Shuter.

I was stopped briefly at Richmond Street and asked for change.

By the time I got halfway between Richmond and Queen, I can honestly say that I felt a little concerned for my safety.  Call this an “experiment” if you will, but I wanted to know what this felt like in person.

I’ve driven through here many times, and I’ve parked in front of the Dollorama before, but I have never walked this strip at night, in the cold and in the dark.

Outside Popeye’s Chicken I was approached by a very aggressive pan-handler (sans pan) who gave me the hard press: “Excuse me, can I please talk to you privately for a moment?  I’m not a f*cking drug addict or anything I just lost my wallet and…”

I must have had “MONEY” written on my forehead because I was swarmed by pan-handlers.  By swarmed, I mean I was approached three times on the one corner.

Popeye’s Chicken was serving anything but chicken.  I wouldn’t go in that place on a dare.  This time of night, nobody was the least bit concerned with poultry unless “chicken” was code for “crack.”

I crossed the Street and found myself on the north side of Sherbourne at Queen, and again I was approached by another begger.  A man down the street was screaming at nobody in particular, and then an 85-pound woman spat a wicked luggie on the sidewalk and rubbed it in with her foot.  Just north of Queen, the two guys next to me in front of the convenient store started shoving eachother, and I kept quietly walking.

At this point, I had my head down and was listening to my imaginary I-Pod.

Behind me I could hear, “I got you f*cker, I got you,” and the sound of shuffling feet.  The sounds were getting closer and closer, and soon I felt a person right behind me.  I wondered if this person was yelling at me, and I tensed up just as a man brushed by me – running for his life….or his crack.  The chase was on, and another two guys were right behind him.  They were soon out of sight and not a single other person found this unordinary enough to look at it.

I then proceeded to walk through “the gauntlet” which was the scariest part of the excursion.  On the east side of Sherbourne Street in front of The Follower’s Mission and the Maxwell Meighen Centre, there are scores of people lining the streets.  To get by, you have to walk through a make-shift gauntlet in the midde of the sidewalk.

These people are either staying at one of the shelters and are outside to smoke cigarettes or crack, or they have come to the shelters to deal crack to those who wait outside.

Even with my head down, I could feel them all watching me.  A few of them shouted at me, one reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder saying, “Hey man hold on a sec,” and one offered to sell me drugs.  I have a black belt in karate, but I can say that I was scared out of my mind.  You can’t bring a knife to a gun-fight, and I began to wonder why the hell I didn’t just drive my car!

Outside Dollorama stood my last obstacle – two guys in NFL jackets who I’m assuming didn’t actually play in the league.  I mistakenly caught eyes with one of them who said, “The f*ck you looking at.”  I wondered whether that was a question or a statement, since he was missing the word “what” at the front of the sentence, but I thought better of asking.

Inside Dollorama, I spent $55.00 on trinkets for my tree, and decorations for our Christmas party avec friends & family.

Then, I quickly made the trek back to King & Sherbourne!

As I crossed through Queen Street, I saw a well-dressed guy about my age in a peacoat jacket, and we nodded.  We nodded the way that one jogger nods to another jogger while out running, even though they have never met or seen eachother. 

Me and Mr. Peacoat had an understanding, and at the risk of sounding like a pretentious yuppie (too late?) we both knew that we were just passing through the area and didn’t exactly fit in with the Queen & Shuter crowd.  I wondered who’s Hugo Boss scarf was more expensive, and I’m pretty sure he was looking at my shoes just around the same time as I noted his well-kept coiffe and assumed that he used the same Greg May hair paste as I did…

Really…

Okay, so I can’t finish a whole blog post without reverting to sarcasm, but the point was there.

I’m amazed at how three blocks can make such a difference in terms of the who, what, and where.

I absolutely love living at King & Sherbourne, and while I spent the morning having brunch at Jason & George and then buying a Christmas tree at the historic St. Lawrence Market, I spent the evening trekking through the swarms of vagrants that live just a five-minute-walk north of my condo.

Below is a photo of my tree, and before you take a look I must say one thing – don’t be jealous.  It’s pretty much the greatest tree in the history of trees, Christmas and otherwise…

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Written By David Fleming

David Fleming is the author of Toronto Realty Blog, founded in 2007. He combined his passion for writing and real estate to create a space for honest information and two-way communication in a complex and dynamic market. David is a licensed Broker and the Broker of Record for Bosley – Toronto Realty Group

Find Out More About David Read More Posts

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5 Comments

  1. Alex

    at 7:56 am

    Are the large and somewhat intimidating security guards there to act as crowd control on the inside or to deter the “locals” from coming inside?

  2. earth mother

    at 8:27 am

    I hope Toronto’s Moss Park area does not morph into Vancouver’s notorious downtown eastside which is the grand-daddy of sketchy areas … you deserve a prize for braving this area alone on foot at night with just a black belt in karate!

  3. Jason

    at 1:04 pm

    i just googled “greg may hair paste” and i don’t know what to think anymore!

  4. SiC

    at 11:18 pm

    Mr Fleming, what in the world are you talking about?….. i had a nice picnic at moss park with my gf during the summer and i would say there were at least 20-30 other people laying on the grass enjoying the sunshine with us in the afternoon, watching the day pass by. It’s a nice quaint park in the heart of the city …… no seriously the place is a sh1t hole …. walked by there last week at around 10-11pm and nothing but weirdos and freaks.

  5. matt

    at 10:50 pm

    This is what good cold winters are for.

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