A few years ago (2001) Debby and I were in Toronto, Canada. One of the things we did there was walk through Cabbagetown, a historic neighborhood. A few days later, when a local heard that we had been in Toronto and had visited Cabbagetown his response was “You came to Toronto and visited our slum!”
My response to him was that if Cabbagetown constituted a Canadian slum, then Canada was in very good shape indeed. Yes, the neighborhood did not seem particularly high end, but a slum it was not.
This evening on HGTV’s Property Virgin program was a young man looking for his first house in Toronto. Two of the houses he looked at were in Cabbagetown. They were both priced over $550,000.
Geez, $550,000. In the “slum”. I guess I could never afford shelter in Toronto (or maybe Cabbagetown isn’t a slum…)
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Not a slum. The area used to be desperately poor but has been flourishing more and more since the 1970s. A huge public housing area just south of us is being flattened and rebuilt and that should add even more vitality to the neighbourhood.
Now it’s a designated heritage district so that our Victorian legacy can be properly cared for.
Come back soon – see for yourself.
Sorry. Cabbagetown is not a slum. The person probably just doesn’t like it due to its history or prior unfavourable occurrences in the area. Having lived in several parts of the country, I will give you a run-down of our run-down areas now.
Our version of a slum (in Toronto) would be the Jane-Finch area (now labeled “University Heights”). External to the city that never cares we have Vancouver City with its shanty-town area. If we go to the East, Halifax had some pretty run-down slummy areas and a few shanty areas. But, the worst I’ve withnessed is probably in back of Kentville, NS. There are old car bodies, rusting and rotting away behind the quaint town of Kentville. People live in them.
Here are some links to websites with more info:
http://www.oldcabbagetown.com/
http://www.jane-finch.com/
http://www.kentville.ca/
There is a short documentary about gang crime on the Jane-Finch site. I used to live in that neighbourhood.