From the Gay Village to Other Neighbourhoods

From the Greater Toronto section, Toronto Star, Tuesday, January 29, 2008, page A10, an article about gays and lesbians moving out from the the city's historically only gay village into other neighbours areas of the city as well:

"There's a lot of power in a centralized location, you feel that power, you feel in the majority. But in moving away you get the sense of being comfortable with anyone.'

U of T researcher Kevin Stolarick

SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE RAINBOW

As Church-Wellesley gets gentrified, gay, lesbian enclaves pop up all over turn

San Grewal
Staff Reporter

"I remember, as recently as the late '90s," recalls Bryen Dunn, "When being openly gay in the Gladstone probably wouldn't have gone over too well."

The Gladstone Hotel, once a honkey-tonk favourite of west-end down-and-outs lining up for cheap beer, tonight plays host to an entirely different demographic for "The Future of Queer Neighbourhoods in Toronto" panel.

Dunn, one of the organizers, laughs about how things have changed.

But not necessarily for the better, say other gay advocates who fear erosion of Toronto's gay village centred at Church and Wellesley Sts. comes at too high a price.

"The concern is the same over what's happening in San Francisco's Castro district, where gentrification is pushing out gay and lesbian people," says Kevin Stolarick, an expert on the geography and demographics of gay communities, who will participate in tonight's discussion.

Dunn, a local freelance journalist, helped organize the event as part of an ongoing series of public forums. Tonight's panel will include Stolarick, a University of Toronto academic who recently moved to Toronto from the United States, Michael Pare, the founder of the Gay West Community Network, Tanya White, owner of West Side Stories Video, in the Queer West Village and others who will open up a public discussion about the Toronto gay community's transition away from the traditional gay village.

With every new condo and the growth of Ryerson university in its back yard, the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood - within easy walking distance of downtown - has seen commercial and residential rents skyrocket in recent years.

That's part of the reason, says Stolarick, that traditional gay businesses and residents are now being squeezed out to make room for chain stores, developers and tenants willing to shell out the case.

At the same time, he recognizes the upside to a community that feels mature and confident enough to venture beyond its limited comfort zone.

Along with the west-end area around Parkdale, where the Gladstone and other gay-friendly businesses have repositioned themselves, gay and lesbian enclaves have emerged through Toronto. Once homogenous hetero neighbourhoods such as Riverdale, Leslieville and the Beach are now home to a growing number of same-sex couples.

"It's a good thing," says Dunn. "You can live your entire life in Little Italy and never learn to speak English. If that's what you want, fine, but you should have the option to move beyond that.

Moving beyond that is a sign of not only the gay and lesbian community's maturity, Stolarick says. It also signals a deeper tolerance among the heterosexual community, which is growing more comfortable with the idea of gay neighbours.

"The creation of a gay ghetto is a defence mechanism," he says. "There's a lot of power in a centralized location, you feel that power, you feel in the majority. But in moving away you get the sense of being comfortable with anyone."

He also says there's an economic advantage in the long run to interacting with a broader community of innovators, consumers and potential business partners.

Meanwhile, with more gay-friendly businesses and social venues catering to the community, cheaper-rent neighbourhoods across the city are attracting a more adventurous younger generation coming out in an entirely different social atmosphere than their predecessors.

"It's good that people don't have to move to (Church and Wellesley) defensively any more," Stolarick says.

But hs still likes the idea of independent gay and lesbian businesses, and resources being central in one specific neighbourhood.

"When my friends come up from Pittsburgh, (the gay village) is the first place we go."

But Dunn suggests that as the number of same-sex couples with children grows, more and more people will leave the gay village.

"It's a party area. More couples want to live in an area where they can take their kids to a morning hockey game with everybody else."