Top Five Most Creative Neighbourhoods in Toronto

Toronto's Top Five Most Creative Neighbourhoods by Robert Campbell

Have you ever wondered where Toronto's most creative neighbourhoods are? And why they are located where they are?

Introducing the Martin Prosperity Institute

The Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management is the world’s leading think-tank on the role of sub-national factors-location, place and city regions—in global economic prosperity. The group just hosted a fantastic conference on Feb 11th Experience the Creative Economy which brought urbanists and future city planners form all over the world to absorb notions of the ‘creative economy’ in a small and focused setting. Of particular focus is the study of innovation ecosystems that produce creative breakthroughs. One motif at this year's conference was the idea of stimulating the occurrence of artist communities in the buffer zones of municipal land designations and the New Potential of High Flux Areas where commercial meets residential planning attracted lots of attention.

Everyone is obsessed with the question of how to instigate a high tech commercial area? Such new age businesses are highly coveted for having zero emissions, and relatively green workplaces that can exist beside and even raise existing real estate values. The challenge is to create places wherein a creative economy attracts artists who exist to perpetuate other creative industries. The art of making artists’ habitats is to have rich and poor art practitioners working side by side; in a perfect world, professional advertising agency executives and TV company executives sponsor the more financially challenged artists that also exist and contribute to the creative economy of the neighbourhood.

What is a creative economy?

In its broadest definition, the creative economy is the business around creative industries and thus refers to a wide range of economic activities that are “concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information" John Howkins is one of the world’s foremost researchers on creativity and Chairman of the John Howkins Research Centre. In his 2002 book the Creative Economy, he lists the various creative industries as advertising, architecture, fine art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, R&D, software, toys and games, TV and radio, and video games. Some scholars consider that education is also a creative industry, including public schools and private tutoring services.

Liberty Village at King and Dufferin St

Some of Toronto's leading creative thinkers and companies in the high tech, arts, design, entertainment and media businesses are located in Liberty Village. Companies here range in size from large corporations to sole proprietorships. Creativity is abundant and visible in community projects everywhere you look. A variety of artists comprising a wide spectrum of Canada’s creative economy can be found in Liberty Village including digital artists, fashion designers, and home furnishing designers, media composers and directors, and advertising industries of all descriptions, and print shops big and small. There is definitely a synergy here and it can be felt in the common areas of the monstrous Mowat bldg and the courtyard at 53 Fraser and in the coffee shops and cafes that are thriving on most of the area’s street corners.

The Distillery District

The Distillery Historic District is a perfect case study in how to grow a ‘creative economy’ in Toronto. Major props to Artscape and other programs that let artists acquire space and audiences based on the merits of their work and not the money in their pocket. This neighborhood success always attracts the secondary art practitioners like video game developers, advertising agencies, and television production companies. The Distillery District is a National Historic Site, and has been designated for protection under the Ontario Heritage Act since 1976. A content marketing organization, Jib Strategic advertising agency is profiled in a recent article about the merits of Situating A Creative Agency in an Artist Community. The Distillery District is an excellent example of successful brown field regeneration. The restoration copmpanies used state of the techniques and materials to redevelop the underutilized industrial land. During the regeneration, old buildings were refitted with whatever they needed to be more viable to the new landlord's needs. For example, the original Tank House buildings were saved, and were transformed into the Yonge Center of Performing Arts, while the Boiler House became a steak restaurant.

King West Corridor

In recent years there has been a proliferation of chic restaurants, clubs and galleries that have really called attention to the maturation of King St culture. Sophisticated dance clubs such as Cobra, Brant House, Susur, Senses Bar and Restaurant, Thuet Cuisine, Lux, Old Yorke Pub and Grill, the Navarro Gallery have come to this part of Toronto because its got jazz. er. Well its got something cool, and that is what the artists found here in the 1970s and what started in the seedy shops closest to the smelly meat abattoir on Niagara st. Now the section of King St Between Spadina and University has achieved penultimate heights and hosts the Toronto International Film Festival; residents reap as their reward everything satisfying that stems from randomly sighting Hollywood movie stars on the sidewalk. King Street W also has other notable cultural attractions such as the Rogers Centre, Roy Thomson Hall and Canada's Walk of Fame which runs along King Street from John St to Simcoe St and is a tribute to Canadians who have gained fame in the fields of music, literature, journalism, dance, sports, acting, entertainment and broadcasting.

John Street north of Queen, The Grange

John Street is a pretty hip thoroughfare from start to finish, but north of Queen St the pavement narrows to two lanes and pedestrians rule the quad. There's a couple of ultra hip cosmetics stores here and lots of ad agencies - four of them by my count but maybe more. The northernmost section of the street is lined with old bldgs dating from middle of the 20th century. 147 John St has a bicycle co-op run sales and service shop on the ground floor of what was once an umbrella factory. John St reaches its northern terminus at Grange Park, which gives its name to the Grange Park neighbourhood. A path through the park follows the Axis of John Street, leading to The Grange, an historic manor. The manor is now attached to the Art Gallery of Ontario and OCAD University is also adjacent to the park.

The Rising Leslieville Art Scene

Leslieville once sheltered factory workers, back when there were still factories in Toronto, and the departure of both the factories and their workers has greatly changed the area. The reduction in air pollution and fumes have made it much more appealing to members of the middle and creative class. Leslieville is a neighbourhood which gentrified rapidly between 2000 and 2010 when it was commonly referred to as an up-and-coming neighbourhood, with new restaurants, shops and cafés catering to its new populace popping up. Despite the average house costing well over half a million dollars, the area still has a largely working-class sensibility. In some of the former industrial areas large film studios have opened, including Cinevillage and Showline Studios. Just to the south, in the Port Lands area, the massive new Pinewood Toronto Studios have been built and will ensure that Toronto stays relevant as a center for film and television production in North America.Could Downsview Airforce Base be next? There has been lots of speculation over the years that public or private investment might turn the CFB Downsview air force base into the biggest independent art and artists' commune in Canada, and in consequence the entire area north of the Allen expressway terminus might suddenly be transformed into the nation's largest cultural enclave. The already is already a popular destination for movie shoots and outdoor rock concerts. Its close to York University and the empty aircraft hangers and administration buildings here could someday be used to help give expression to the arts production and Canada's most talented young artists.