Designating a building as heritage doesn't ensure its preservation. It just makes development difficult. A lot of the Victorian buildings here have been significantly modified to the point where there's nothing really worth preserving other than the "village" feeling the area creates.
 
While I am generally pro-conservation, I really liked this project as it was and I agree with everyone that a dense, non-linear retail zone would be a great addition to the area. I feel like Mike Layton's promotion of this is a bit knee-jerk though. Our politicians are always yelling the same things so hard that when it really is applicable - the message is watered down.
 
We have just published a front page story which covers various updates and includes revised images that were shown to Toronto's Design Review Panel this summer. There's also news of a tour that you may want to take tomorrow…

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We have a second story up now, following up on the walking tour that I mentioned in the post above. There was some surprising history of Mirvish Village that was presented on the walk, something that was a bit shocking to me to imagine (had it come about) and which you may not have known either…

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I'm going to be very sad when Honest Ed's closes down. This is the last store in Toronto that I have a strong family/childhood link to. Fist Simpsons closed down, then Eaton's. After that came Sam The Record man and now finally Honest Ed's. I can't think of any other store in the city that was a part of my childhood in the 60's - 70's. Well, I guess the Bay but it's certainly not as strong a tie, as with those other stores.

I've been shopping at Honest Ed's my whole life. I still go at least once a month, just to look around and see what's new. I almost never get out of there without spending 100 bucks. I'm so gonna miss that store. It's my favourite store in Toronto!
 
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There's nothing quite like it. It has a somewhat crazy but charming selection of items in the most idiosyncratic hodgepodge of settings.

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Honest Ed's is certainly iconic, it is a place you show friends visiting, I myself go once MAYBE twice a year for say the last 10 years... but I don't personally know many people that actually shop there, and I don't say that because I am upper class and too good to shop there... I am far from that. I have no shame shopping dollar stores, but the stuff in that place looks like it has been there since the late 80's and its a crazy unnerving maze.

Its a place you take friends to prove how crazy it is, no one buys anything, agrees its crazy and doesn't go back until they want to prove to someone else how ridiculous it is.

I guess maybe if I was of a different generation I'd feel differently perhaps. Part of me will be sad when it goes. I truly hope they find a use for the exterior signs, but the proposed retail looks a lot more exciting. From the renders it has the charm of outdoor bohemian/ asian markets. Something Toronto is really lacking but that I suspect will be very successful.
 
I live around the corner from Honest Ed's and won't be particularly sad to see it go. Qua cultural icon it has nostalgic value, but as a retail outlet its kitsch seems to have outlived its appeal. One of the last times I shopped there I bought some cheap cooking utensils on the fly, took them home, then proceeded to watch them melt their Chinese-manufactured petroleum-based ooze into my expensive frying pan.

Ever since that something has rubbed me the wrong way about that place.

More interestingly though, I was just saying to my partner the other day that the sidewalks in the Annex b/t Spadina and Bathrust seem to really have gotten busier in the last ten years. With this kind of density coming in, it'll be interesting to see how that fares. And perhaps more importantly, how the Metro just w. of Spadina fares, which I hear is the busiest Metro per square foot in all of Canada. I'm not sure that place can take more traffic.
 
Since I have no irrational emotional attachment, common senses tell me there is no loss when it goes. Enough with the "I often went there with Dad in the 1980s" story. 30 years have passed and it's time to move on.

It is not "iconic". Maybe it represent Tonronto's small past but that's long gone. Today it is more of an eyesore.
 
As an aside, I'm actually really happy to see two of the commercial buildings on Bathurst appear to not be part of this development. I love that row of buildings, simply for the aesthetic and having at least a couple survive (in a position that makes redevelopment almost impossible) makes me feel better. Not that I'm an advocate for destroying Victorian homes but I think we could stand to try and protect the fewer 3-4 storey Victorian commercial buildings that we still have as well. I feel that it's much easier to convince Council to allow the demolition of these buildings than it is an old Victorian mansion sometimes.
 
grey said:
Much like your posts.
Click to expand...

Personal attack and 5 petty "like"s aside, You guys simply can't accept the fact that this store is no different from a Walmart. Nothing about it is interesting to say the least.
 
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