“Moss Park Luxury Condominiums!”

Does that sound right to you?  Or is this a complete oxymoron?

Believe it or not, there are a couple of new developments in this area, and I’d like to examine just how difficult it will be to make Moss Park the next hot locale…

Oh, if only the transients in the Moss Park area were as harmless (and musically talented!) as this sweet old circa-1960’s banjo player.

But for those of us that know the area, the term “Moss Park” triggers a certain feeling that I can only describe by making the sound: “uuuuggghhhh….”

I’ve written in the past about how many hot neighborhoods in Toronto are only a stone’s throw from trouble, in fact, I think I wrote an entire post on this subject…..here.

But in my neck of the woods, Moss Park is the trouble that awaits only two city blocks north.

I was in the area last night and on the southwest corner of Queen & Sherbourne, I saw the sign for a development called “The Kormann House.”  Stopped at a red light, I had about sixty seconds to sit and stare at the sign for the future condominium while also watching the world go by to my left and right.

Then it dawned on me: this is quite simply the worst place I can think of for a “transitional” condominium development.

Some areas go from poor to rich in the matter of a decade, and there are areas in Toronto currently undergoing that transition as we speak.  Every time a laundromat is replaced with a yuppie furniture store or a seedy variety-store is replaced with a chic supper club, the evolution towards the high-class neighborhood moves that much further down the line.

But I just can’t see Moss Park ever changing like King East did or like Leslieville currently is.

Sherbourne Street just north of Queen Street is home to the Maxwell Meighen Centre, which is a branch of the Salvation Army.  This houses the unfortunate members of our society by night, but is empty by day.  Therefore all day long, the homeless and transients line the streets waiting for the doors to re-open that evening.

Just south of there is the Followers Mission, which is an independent shelter for those mentioned above to congregate during the day.  I’ll be perfectly honest: it looked like a total cult to me.  I’m not a religious man by any stretch, but I got a very eerie feeling last night as I parked my car near the curb and starred inside.  The man in the window was giving me a dirty look, but God did not smite me, nor was I the victim of any of Zeus’ thunderbolts…

I have always wondered if the northeast corner of Queen/Sherbourne is the drug capital of Moss Park, so I decided to test my theory.  I pulled my car over, rolled down my window, and a man in a thick winter coat approached.  I asked him, “Excuse me, do you know where I can find some practice golf balls at an obscenely low price?”  He looked at me as if it were me that was actually on crack, and said, “Man you want some sh!t or what?”

Definitely a drug dealer!

You might ask why I was starring in the window of the Follower’s Mission and why I was asking obvious drug dealers questions with un-obvious answers, but my answer comes in the form of a question to which I sought answers of my own: does this area have any potential down the road for real estate investment?

But everything I did, and everywhere I went pointed me towards the same answer: no!

I like to frequent the Dollorama directly across from Moss Park Arena about once a month.  For those not in the know, you can find products at Dollorama that you might pay $3.99, $4.99, or maybe eight bucks for at Home Depot, Loblaws, or other places that flog similar wares.  But that is a topic for another day…

Last night, while picking up a few dollar-tastic Christmas decorations, I wandered into the pharmaceutical aisle of of Dollorama and found the most incredible sight: a dirty transient who was taking the lid off each individual bath soap and smelling them one-at-a-time.

Fantastic!

I marvelled at this man and his daring sense of adventure as he inhaled the sweet aroma of strawberry and closed the lid with that unmistakable “click.”  He then moved on to the next fragrance; perhaps vanilla ice cream.

I only wish I had the time to stand in aisle-seven and smell twenty different bath products.  And before somebody beats me to it – no, the irony is not lost on me by the fact that I’m slagging this man for standing there and smelling twenty different types of shampoo as I stood there and watched him smell twenty different types of shampoo…

I also recall buying Halloween decorations in this very same Dollorama just over one month ago while two clearly homeless men tried to make a break for the front door with a few bags of chips.  The manager literally chased them down with a shopping cart.  It was better than most reality-television shows…

So in an area with this much petty crime and with as many transients and vagrants, can we expect to see a turnover in the fragment of society that frequents this neighborhood?

I just don’t see it happening.

Kormann House is supposedly going to be built on the southwest corner of Queen and Sherbourne and will consist of 57 condominium units starting at $189,900.  The project will be built around the existing structure, which is rich with Toronto history.

As per the description on the website at www.kormannhouse.com:

In the late 19th century, Toronto’s lower east side was home to thriving businesses, Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford films for a nickel, and the stunning Moss Park at its heart.  All this set the scene for Frantz Kormann’s stylish hotel, which opened its doors in 1897 anchoring the corner of Queen Street and Sherbourne.

That’s a great story, but it’s exactly that – a story.

Sadly, the “stunning” Moss Park has become synonymous with “drugs” and “crime,” and the so-called stylish hotel is a boarded up building that was formerly a drug-den.

While I admire the developers’ idea to restore one of Toronto’s historic buildings and turn it into something useful, I just don’t see anybody buying condos across from Moss Park and kiddie-corner from the Salvation Army and a cult-like-Mission for lost souls.

Is it possible that some areas of the city are just destined to be ghettos forever?

Well if we use history as our guide, apparently Moss Park used to be “stunning” and was home to thriving businesses, so what’s to say that the area won’t eventually come full circle?

Well I don’t make public policy, nor do I cleanse the city streets and its inhabitants.

As long as the Salvation Army and the Followers Mission are still open for whatever business takes place behind closed doors, the domino effect continues to attract certain people, who indulge in certain activities, and give the area a certain reputation.

Maybe one day the area will be the next Leslieville, but that day is certainly not today, and it doesn’t look good for tomorrow either…