Tag Archives: Changing face of Toronto

It always starts with a Starbucks. It swiftly lands on the neighbourhood doorstep and things start to change. Gentrification. Up-and-coming. Modernization. The landscape changes; not necessarily all Wal-Mart bad, but it changes. Cabbagetown, the hodgepodge hub of mom-and-pop stores and home to both the city’s rich and poor, is quietly undergoing some change. The city’s historical streetscapes lined with Victorian architecture, struggling artists, panhandlers and an array of independent businesses has undergone a slight renewal in recent years with its continued gentrification married with incoming franchise businesses. With the neighbourhood’s first gentrification in the early ’70s, many of Cabbagetown’s independent …