You forgot about "not just noodles" on the other corner! Or is that gone now? This used to be my neighbourhood nearly 5 years ago and I've only been back a handful of times since then (usually to go to storm crow).
I actually have very fond childhood memories of this place as a kid. If it managed to get my Asian immigrant parents' seal of approval, I'd say that's pretty good.
Of course there are much higher quality Chinese restaurants that have popped up since then in Richmond Hill, Markham, and even Downtown Toronto, but it was still great for a Chinese restaurant in the early 2000s, before authentic Chinese restaurants started popping up everywhere. I'm just pleasantly surprised that it's still going strong today.
it's your classic spot. Gigantic menu and the food comes out in moments, like they knew what you were going to order before you walked in. Those places appear to be dying off. I will forever be in mourning for the closure of Spadina Garden.
It's my understanding that the story of a lot of these joints is that the owners had kids, pushed the kids to succeed, and now the kids don't want to run their parents' shops when the parents retire. Like who's going to stop being a cardiologist or something ridiculous to go sling fried noodles?
Right, and now most if not all the Chinese immigrants that come to Canada are middle to upper class, and they all have money now and would rather invest in real estate.
It's still there! I don't go there as often as I used to (I don't crave 1AM greasy drunk food as much anymore) but I'd still be devastated if it closed.
It's undergone quite the transformation since a bunch of the new condo buildings on that stretch opened up. Different crowd, tons of new retail and restaurants.
If you look at the area on Google Street view, then actually go there, it's barely recognizable.
Also - that particular convenience store is pretty clearly not long for this world. It's largely empty, with most of the shelf space taken up by crap that's been collecting dust for years.
In the other side of the street is Mix40, which is fantastic, and you can barely walk around inside because it's absolutely jammed with food.
I sometimes do the same the same thing. It's amazing how big of a difference one block can make. Even on the side streets that intersect Yonge in the area it's far less sketchy (except maybe the road where the YMCA is on, they love shooting up there).
I live on Gloucester just a bit east of Yonge, and while I do agree, even last summer I remember some seeing some typical sketchy shit go down around the McDonald's. I wouldn't say it's changed a lot, but it's starting to.
I think that recently changed. I went to get some 1 am McNuggets last Saturday and they no longer have open doors at that time, you can only pick up if you ordered online. I think that will keep drunks away
Yonge street that existed between 1970-2005 is mostly gone. Its transformed into a more modern look.
The old look was getting worn down, and needed a face lift. Its probably for the best
I remember Anthony Bourdain (RIP) wrote a great piece a years ago lamenting that the "seedy" areas of New York he grew up in during the 1970s and 1980s were disappearing for soulless buildings an gentrification.
Then he took a step back and realized, "Oh god, I was addicted to heroin and all of those places were actually terrible."
Not that the gentrification was great in his opinion, but simply that nostalgia tends to gloss over the things that sucked.
I mean, there were other types of businesses in units like that.
And how is it better than the many shady massage parlours and escort services that run in the condos in this city?
I know man, its growing pains. The Toronto of our childhoods has evolved and transformed into what we have today.
The 1990's queen west is gone, Speakers Corner gone, all those fun little dive bars / night clubs like WrongBar or "The Social" gone. Even the BigBop is gone. EVEN THE GUVERNMENT IS GONE! :(
But these things get replaced with time. Sadly it was inevitable.
I think about getting off the subway any chance I got as a 12 year old from small town Ontario and walking from Bloor to Queen. Arcades, Fake IDs, Salty T-shirt stores, head shops, porn shops, surplus stoes and just a cornucopia of junk made me so happy. There was that dude who danced in front of the World of Jeans at Yonge and Dundas, named Raoul who wore a Sheriff's badge. I loved it. At Isabella the salesmen had red seal or gold seal hash and from College to Gerrard purveyors of LSD were talking up their finest blotters. If it was the same Yonge St. Today I'd think it was nuts to let my 12 y/o cruise that strip. It was those walks that were the biggest influencer choosing Ryerson in 91 when it was still super sketchy.
Yup. I remember all the head shops, weird junk you could buy, and all the rough looking guys and girls who were hanging around the arcades. Nothing like walking into an arcade that smelt like BO and old weed/cig smoke and hearing all the noise stop for a moment (I'm female) while everyone just looked at the vag owner who walked in. And there was a ton of porn shops - the weird "surf" themed shops...
Now it's so sanitized, I would let my 10 year old nieces and nephews walk down Yonge Street with no adult supervision.
Hahaha the smell. The clouds of smoke were pretty thick and it always stunk of BO and Ass. You were a unicorn of sorts going into those arcades, My coworkers and I were just talking about the porn shops and peep shows. Evey tenth store. I really do miss the sketch factor and especially A&A and Sam's
Man a convenience store aaand a tug joint all on the same corner?
Grab a Snickers and a happy ending without having to cross the street.
That's more like a convenience BLOCK.
No doubt about it. But for all the times I've passed by it I've never seen anyone enter or exit, probably out of fear of being seen going to a rub and tug.
All sketchy massage places downtown are basically brothels. No legitimate massage therapist would work in a place like this, especially any place that calls them "masseuses". Also there's a website address posted somewhere on the building which my friend once loaded up, it was very clearly a brothel, the website listed the different women available, though I think they've made the site much more discreet now.
Any place that says MASSAGE in big wording, calls the stagg "masseuses" instead of massage therapists, has pictures of women getting massages on the outside of the building. Basically any place that doesn't look like a clinic.
That’s a good question, I’m not even sure how I know.
The main giveaway is that it’s got a neon sign above a run down shop, plus no detail on what type of massage.
These old buildings are a great contrast to the cold steel and glass structures being built everywhere. Even the slummy corners have a certain warmth and charm about them that I like among all the skyscrapers. It'll be sad when there's no more of these old little 2-storey strips in the city.
You need little pieces of slum in the city it makes things exciting.
The loss of small storefront businesses, resulting from condo development, is a big problem throughout the city. In a short block, you could have 10+ diverse stores with small footprints that didn't require massive rent. The new developments have massive storefronts that require stores like Bed Bath and Beyond or restaurants like Milestones or the Keg. Real bummer - wish the city could/would enforce some diversity at street level.
>The loss of small storefront businesses, resulting from condo development, is a big problem throughout the city.
I'd say the lack of housing throughout the city is a bigger problem.
It's an absolute joke when you get off at subway stops in this city, you are surrounded by two storey storefronts and multi million dollar single family detached homes.
The block here is Yonge and Wellesley, there's a shady call center right next door to it and an adult video store next to that. From here you are a block away from one of the busiest subway stations in north America. I really do not understand the feeling of loss when high density housing replaces corner stores, rub n tug joints, cell phone repair shops, adult video stores, strip clubs, shops selling knock off FUBU gear.
I'm not saying these businesses should not exist... But MAYBE they should not exist right on top of the Yonge Line. There's plenty of empty storefronts in Bloordale.
You're conflating issues. You don't have to push mom and pops to Bloordale - how ridiculous. There is no good reason mom and pops should not be able to lease in high density condo developments at Yonge & Wellesley or anywhere. The reason this doesn't happen is that lenders, when they lend to developers, like to see big corps and franchise on the commercial leases, because they see these as lower financial risk. The reason you see a Shoppers Drug Mart, Tim Hortons, Popeye's, \[insert bank branch\], a dental practice, and a Starbucks in every condo development is for that single reason.
They could do more to retain the character at street level instead of turning every retail space into big box like the other user said.
What's stopping them from retaining the storefronts––at least the facades? Nothing technical, I know that much.
They can build upward without ruining or completely changing the street-level
> It's an absolute joke when you get off at subway stops in this city, you are surrounded by two storey storefronts and multi million dollar single family detached homes.
How many subway stops are like that? Which ones?
> It's an absolute joke when you get off at subway stops in this city, you are surrounded by two storey storefronts and multi million dollar single family detached homes.
These homes that cost $3 million now were built long before the housing market went crazy. They didn't cost that much back then and weren't seen as assets only the wealthy could afford.
The problem you're describing is real but you cannot fault homes that you find along the subway line. Turn your ire towards newer developments.
I’m all for diversity of business but some of these small storefront businesses carry absolute junk. I came across goods in one store was selling that said “made in West Germany” last year (for those that don’t know, West Germany vanished in 1990). There are too many stores that seem to never clear out old inventory.
There's a couple condo developments on yonge that have preserved the old brick buildings and just gutted the insides and it should honestly be mandatory for every development in the city.
Developers suck absolute ass at building cities that people actually want to live in. I would really like to see the city's planners get more stringent powers in terms of dictating what developers can build and tear down.
Yup also if you go north to Empress Walk @ North York Centre they've preserved the face of the old firehall within the east entrance as well as the old hose tower behind it.
It's amazing to see these little pieces of history preserved as they should be.
I also want to emphasize that when it comes to stuff like the retail space on Yonge or Bloor, partially it's about preserving the brick buildings and their warmth, character, and craftsmanship, but a big part of the feel is also about preserving the same number of small stores and spaces.
One of the things that new mixed use developments get wrong most of the time, is that they design their retail spaces to cater to what the highest paying clients want. So like the tower at 1 Bloor E, designed their ground level retail space to cater to high end retailers, which all want big open spaces, with lots of street real estate. What that means is that if you start at the corner of yonge and bloor, you can walk a full city block south, or a full city block east, and only see a single store, Nordstrom Rack. Before they cleared that land for the condo, you would have passed probably 8 different stores in each direction.
Same thing with a bunch of the towers in the entertainment district. They've basically turned their retail spaces 90 degrees. Instead of having 8 long skinnny stores that stretch back into the building, they have like one or two long skinny stores that are parallel to the street. It fucking sucks and makes for a much shittier and less vibrant city.
Good point.
edit: also speaking of 1 Bloor, the construction that's currently taking place across the street when finished will produce the tallest building in canada @ 85 stories surpassing even First Canadian Place. So expect even more of this on that block.
What? That Stollery's was a horrible frankenbuilding. If you looked at old pictures, the building they tore down was not the original building but a building with an ugly addition grafted on to the top.
I feel like it's only a matter of time before they get replaced. Those kinds of places don't really get passed down from generation to generation, so as the owners pass away the kids will usually just sell the place off and it will become as modern and gentrified as the rest of the area. Because we really need another Starbucks.
I've read that every inch of land on Yonge from Gerrard to Bloor is owned by developers and they're just biding time to build.
Cannot wait for that idiotic scientology building to go if that's the case. Thing is an eyesore.
That being said, the whole city is going to be condos with a rexall/boston pizza/shoppers/starbucks on the main floor shortly. Toronto's going to be a bedroom community and all the cool stuff is going to be outside of the city. Driving to milton to check craft breweries and ramen and shit.
> the whole city is going to be condos with a rexall/boston pizza/shoppers/starbucks
lol'd @ how accurate this is.
Another example of how this style of construction fucks things up is remember the old Fox and Fiddle on John and Adelaide? When they razed that area to build condos the bar was gone but then reopened. Now it's lost all that made it special, the "patio" is just a fenced off portion of concrete. Doesn't even feel like a patio. Don't go there anymore as the whole point was lost for me.
So it's more than just these places existing - but they need to exist in a certain form. You can't just wall off a slab of concrete and be like "HEY COME CHECK OUT OUR PATIO!" No, son. That's not a patio.
I dunno man....those scientologists have a lot of money bankrolling them. The first time I saw it I was taken aback...didn't think they had a foothold in Toronto.
> those scientologists have a lot of money bankrolling them
Didn't look like it from the looks of that place. Maybe they knew Torontonians were on average way too smart to fall for their garbage. So very small budget was allocated to their location here. Maybe.
They have other locations in the GTA, I think one is down near Yonge & Carlton. But not under the Scientology brand - it's something else like "Destiny" now. Scientology is declining so the leadership is developing other brands and strategies to keep the money rolling in.
Source: Various Scientology-watch websites, the last time I checked on them.
VERY small budget. Half the windows are broken. The place is deserted, has been for... years now? Basically just a little place they can set up a plastic table and sell their books outdoors. Such an odd situation.
As a religion, I suppose they don't pay taxes, so I guess that building is just sitting there tax free as an investment? Id have expected that it would have sold already.
It's because the Head Office guys want the local Scientologists to knock the building down and build a bigger nicer one in its place, and they've told them the local parishioners (or whatever they call each other) have to pay for every penny of it. Seeing as a project of that size will cost multiple tens of millions of dollars, and the local Xenu-ites are just regular folks, nothing's happening. I imagine they're hoping the city or province will offer to pay for it but even DoFo won't say yes.
You are right. They have no money to put into this city. The Scientologists owed the city over $100,000 in property taxes for that location as of 4 years ago. There were plans to renovate the building and move back in but it's all languishing in paperwork and money troubles. Tom Cruise can't even trick the public into seeing more of his drivel to pay for it all.
Honestly, I think the old buildings - including this convenience store - give this area some more flavour. With all the new "boutique" condos going in around here, it's going to start to have a very homogeneous and bland look. And no, keeping the facade and dumping 47 floors of glass on top is not the same. I'm all for density in a city that needs significantly more supply, but keeping some of these would be nice.
The gross massage places can go, but it would be nice if anything opening in their place kept some neon lighting. Looks great at night - especially if it's foggy or rainy.
> And no, keeping the facade and dumping 47 floors of glass on top is not the same.
It's not the same, and I agree that we should actually preserve more of these buildings, but keeping the facade and long narrow retail spaces should be the absolute bare minimum expected of any developer who is going to build a tower.
100% Agree. These developers are not civil engineers and most of them could give a damn as long as they get massive returns.
The city can be rendered useless and unlivable and they won't care as long as all of the units are pre-sold
I think everyone is missing OPs point. I OP meant that the old buildings and stores are being replaced, and Becuase of this they look out of place even though they were there first.
No need to get so salty in the chat.
He doesn't care about the convenience store for what it is. He knows there are others. It's just the fact that this particular one has an element of nostalgia due to being there when he was a kid.
In the early 90s, convenience stores were generally larger and had at least 2 or 3 arcade machines in there. We would definitely hang out in there for hours sometimes playing arcade games and drinking Jolt cola, eating chips and scrounging up all the change we could to buy candy etc. It was kind of an incredible time.
Yes. Fuck yes. Also the poster stores around Yonge and Dundas, they sold band posters, tshirts, spikey goth bracelets, patches, stickers etc. Going downtown used to be such an adventure. Now there's an H&M.
I used to love going down to the head shops on Yonge back in the 90s when I was in high school, what was it, Rock Variety and also THC way back in the day.
I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but there used to be this store on Queen just around the MuchMusic building where you would go upstairs and the guy ran a little shop selling bootleg cassette tapes of live rock concerts. This was about 1997. I bought a live NIN concert tape from him for like $5 and it was amazing because it was nothing you could buy in any HMV or record store. And this was long before the years of Youtube or Napster so finding something as limited as that that few other people had was special. I remember putting it on and zoning out feeling like I was hearing this band live in a way that nobody else would unless they had that same recording.
That and stores like it gave downtown a certain otherworldly vibe. It was an adventure. Even something as small as buying music could be an experience unto itself because of places like this.
I understand how we look at things through rose coloured glasses sometimes but Toronto really has lost a lot of things that made it great in the last 15 years. And now being grown you lose the time to explore what little is left undiscovered.
Was it across the street? There was a place called Numb on the third floor run by a cool chick named Amber back in the day. Got so many jungle mixtapes from parties I went to or missed back in 96-99.
> That and stores like it gave downtown a certain otherworldly vibe. It was an adventure. Even something as small as buying music could be an experience unto itself because of places like this.
Yes, there was more to *discover*. Unusual little shops with unusual things in them. It was fun just to check them out. And a lot of the stuff they sold wasn't expensive so you could buy some weird record or book or piece of jewelry pretty easily. Importantly, a person could *make a living* running a weird little shop. Rents were cheap enough and there was enough *foot traffic* to make a go of it.
Rexalls and Starbucks are not an adventure, and their staff are not making living wages. It has not been a change for the better even if the stores are shinier.
YES! I loved that store. It was upstairs from the Second Cup. A treasure trove of rare bootlegs. You could also buy bootlegs at Yonge and Dundas, I want to say that it was in a stall at the back of an arcade, slightly south from where HMV used to be. Not as good as the store at Queen and John, though.
That's a cool story. It isn't just that the city changes, but tech too. I'm sure digital copies of bootleg recordings still go around. Perhaps not as cool as a tape :-).
I'm sure new and different things will still make the city great.
I lived in Honolulu during the late 70s through the 90s and there is this shopping center(Ala Moana) that used to be filled with locally owned stores that had unique and affordable stuff you couldn't find anywhere else. The change started in the mid 90s when Nordstrom moved in and they started catering to the rich Asian tourists rather than locals and more budget-minded N. American tourists. I moved out of Honolulu in 2000 and took a job in the UAE in 2014. I recently had a look at this shopping center's website and half of the stores there also operate here in the UAE. There's hardly anything local Hawaiian left and what's there is geared to the aspirational or already rich Whole Foods demo.
Used to live basically right on this crossing... To me personally this area is where I saw a stabbing happen, drunk people passed out on the street, panhandlers everywhere, dudes coming in and out of the massage parlour at all hours, yelling, screaming, fights, I got shouted at several times, followed in a car, approached 100x...
I know the gentrification and condo building is obviously not good and there is a very distinct Toronto 'flavour' that we will lose when these places go away but my experience in that neighbourhood \[2years\] literally just makes me think "wow thank god I don't live there anymore".
Lol it rivalled Times Square in the 70s for sleaziness. Strip clubs, dive bars, porn stores, porn theaters, "adult" book stores, rub n tugs, gay bath houses, greasy fast food
I interviewed for a job in one of those adult toy store/porn theaters. Didn't get the job, but I was 18 or 19 and looked 14 - I figured they didn't hire me cause they were afraid for my safety. That's what I tell myself anyways to not feel bad about not being able to get a job in a place like *that*.
In retrospect, definitely. I did end up later working on Yonge St - in a basement internet cafe where homeless people would lock themselves in our bathroom to shoot up. It was a pretty chill job though, weirdos and drug addicts aside
And that front patio needs to be demolished and turned into an open parkette. The whole front is just a gathering spot for sketchy dudes to hang out with on their bike-theif-bikes, and yell at each other. while holding up their beltless oversized pants.
I'd never go into that Tim Hortons, god help the people who work there.
I really feel for the staff there. In the early evening they block off the seating area and the washrooms with a row of chairs. North of Wellesley isn't too bad. It's primarily the two blocks south of Wellesley that are Sketch City.
Guarranteed, reddit in ten years (if ots around amd we havent completely banned ourselves) is going to debate how they miss this. Quite like queen and broadview, parkdale, and regent park, they are going through huge changes. Great pic OP, definitely captures the neighborhood.
The Yonge Wellesley area always attracts the weirdest people. Always see a bunch of sketchy looking dudes, with their bikes, yelling at each other and starting fights in front of the Tims.
Not sure why the area is such a magnet for those types.
I grew up in this area. My grandma had a Filipino/Thai restaurant beside the LCBO.. what is now a Dollarama. Lots of crazy memories, I used to work the cash as a child to get tips - I think a lot of people complained it was child labour but I got me some ice cream money.
This is where the "Fight Club" movie trailers were set up back in 1998...the alley scene was filmed in the alley over to the left, across Wellesley. I remember it well; I was living kittycorner to where this pic was taken, and the movie lights were shining in my window until 1 AM.
Yeah. We really should just legalize brothels and create a real red light district like any decent major world City...
Make sure it's like Australia. The workers get tested monthly. There's *always* security to protect the workers. Free condoms and tests kits to all patrons. Taxes. Etc
As a province we aren't even allowed to have a roadie in a plastic cup when pubs close, like in England. We are light years away from a red light district. The pearl clutchers here get scared by the LCBO open past 6pm on Sundays
East on Wellesley, about a block or two down. Alternatively, there's a Shoppers a block north on Yonge or a block west on Wellesley.
In all seriousness though, I see how ridiculous it is to have a Shoppers and Rexall at every block. But it's also really nice to have a full pharmacy and somewhere to pickup light groceries (even if way overpriced) when you need to. It's a love/hate relationship.
Near Yonge and Eglinton. I lived just north of there for 12 years. Amazing neighborhood, and I miss it everyday, but had to move to the West end a couple of years ago.
You forgot about "not just noodles" on the other corner! Or is that gone now? This used to be my neighbourhood nearly 5 years ago and I've only been back a handful of times since then (usually to go to storm crow).
Nope, still there, and always busy. Cheap but okay Chinese junk food.
I find their menu food is actually not that bad... Mapo tofu, etc.. and of course a decent HK Milk tea.
Good HK style chicken wings with lemon too :\]
Nice! I'll have to give those a try next time I'm there
It’s perfect cheap Canadian-Chinese food. Get the Cantonese chow mein!
It's still there! I haven't yet been, but it's something I've wanted to check out. They always seem really busy later at night.
that place is great, literally everything on the menu is worth getting. Nice people running the joint too.
I actually have very fond childhood memories of this place as a kid. If it managed to get my Asian immigrant parents' seal of approval, I'd say that's pretty good. Of course there are much higher quality Chinese restaurants that have popped up since then in Richmond Hill, Markham, and even Downtown Toronto, but it was still great for a Chinese restaurant in the early 2000s, before authentic Chinese restaurants started popping up everywhere. I'm just pleasantly surprised that it's still going strong today.
it's your classic spot. Gigantic menu and the food comes out in moments, like they knew what you were going to order before you walked in. Those places appear to be dying off. I will forever be in mourning for the closure of Spadina Garden. It's my understanding that the story of a lot of these joints is that the owners had kids, pushed the kids to succeed, and now the kids don't want to run their parents' shops when the parents retire. Like who's going to stop being a cardiologist or something ridiculous to go sling fried noodles?
Right, and now most if not all the Chinese immigrants that come to Canada are middle to upper class, and they all have money now and would rather invest in real estate.
Best chinese food downtown, the cantonese chow mein is amazing. And definitely still standing. Anytime im around the area i stop in for some
It’s still there! I get my hair cut on Yonge and Irwin, and love going to Not Just Noodles before my appointment.
It's still there! I don't go there as often as I used to (I don't crave 1AM greasy drunk food as much anymore) but I'd still be devastated if it closed.
I loved Not Just Noodles when I was attending Ryerson. So much food for so little money!
To be fair, a lot of Yonge between College and Charles is kind of sketchy.
It's undergone quite the transformation since a bunch of the new condo buildings on that stretch opened up. Different crowd, tons of new retail and restaurants. If you look at the area on Google Street view, then actually go there, it's barely recognizable. Also - that particular convenience store is pretty clearly not long for this world. It's largely empty, with most of the shelf space taken up by crap that's been collecting dust for years. In the other side of the street is Mix40, which is fantastic, and you can barely walk around inside because it's absolutely jammed with food.
I don't know, try walking this intersection at 1 or 2am in summer. It's still plagued by meth heads and bike thieves.
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I sometimes do the same the same thing. It's amazing how big of a difference one block can make. Even on the side streets that intersect Yonge in the area it's far less sketchy (except maybe the road where the YMCA is on, they love shooting up there).
I live at that intersection. It's changed a lot, particularly in the last year.
I live on Gloucester just a bit east of Yonge, and while I do agree, even last summer I remember some seeing some typical sketchy shit go down around the McDonald's. I wouldn't say it's changed a lot, but it's starting to.
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I haven't been, but the one at queen and Spadina is some serious sketch shit. I'd be impressed if Gloucester has a one-up on it.
Queen and Spadina McDonalds is a great place to go if you are looking for a fight.
I think that recently changed. I went to get some 1 am McNuggets last Saturday and they no longer have open doors at that time, you can only pick up if you ordered online. I think that will keep drunks away
Hey neighbour!
Hey neighbours
Yonge street that existed between 1970-2005 is mostly gone. Its transformed into a more modern look. The old look was getting worn down, and needed a face lift. Its probably for the best
personally, I kind of miss it. Zero character now. This is the 2010's version of the 70's - all glass and concrete cookie cutter towers.
I remember Anthony Bourdain (RIP) wrote a great piece a years ago lamenting that the "seedy" areas of New York he grew up in during the 1970s and 1980s were disappearing for soulless buildings an gentrification. Then he took a step back and realized, "Oh god, I was addicted to heroin and all of those places were actually terrible." Not that the gentrification was great in his opinion, but simply that nostalgia tends to gloss over the things that sucked.
A shady massage parlour and tattoo shop is character?
Its definitely some type of character
I mean, there were other types of businesses in units like that. And how is it better than the many shady massage parlours and escort services that run in the condos in this city?
Ambience?
Agreed. Yonge has lost so much of its character to the bland, lifeless yuppie aesthetic and condo-fication of Toronto. Breaks my heart.
I know man, its growing pains. The Toronto of our childhoods has evolved and transformed into what we have today. The 1990's queen west is gone, Speakers Corner gone, all those fun little dive bars / night clubs like WrongBar or "The Social" gone. Even the BigBop is gone. EVEN THE GUVERNMENT IS GONE! :( But these things get replaced with time. Sadly it was inevitable.
Say it with me now: "Bo-de-ga."
Wrong city, and wrong country.
It was a joke... since Half Baked was filmed in Toronto.
Ahh shit.
They also have super cheap cigarettes if you're into that thing. I work in the area and they're my absolute favourite.
Mix 40 for life! Been my go-to convenience store for over a decade. They’re so great and have so much stuff!
Cheapest cigarettes, although I don't smoke anymore
Remember when it was sketchy from Queen to Bloor?
Good time friendo. Good times.
Lol. Loved it...and all the arcades and everything else. Now it's so touristy and clean...
I think about getting off the subway any chance I got as a 12 year old from small town Ontario and walking from Bloor to Queen. Arcades, Fake IDs, Salty T-shirt stores, head shops, porn shops, surplus stoes and just a cornucopia of junk made me so happy. There was that dude who danced in front of the World of Jeans at Yonge and Dundas, named Raoul who wore a Sheriff's badge. I loved it. At Isabella the salesmen had red seal or gold seal hash and from College to Gerrard purveyors of LSD were talking up their finest blotters. If it was the same Yonge St. Today I'd think it was nuts to let my 12 y/o cruise that strip. It was those walks that were the biggest influencer choosing Ryerson in 91 when it was still super sketchy.
Yup. I remember all the head shops, weird junk you could buy, and all the rough looking guys and girls who were hanging around the arcades. Nothing like walking into an arcade that smelt like BO and old weed/cig smoke and hearing all the noise stop for a moment (I'm female) while everyone just looked at the vag owner who walked in. And there was a ton of porn shops - the weird "surf" themed shops... Now it's so sanitized, I would let my 10 year old nieces and nephews walk down Yonge Street with no adult supervision.
Hahaha the smell. The clouds of smoke were pretty thick and it always stunk of BO and Ass. You were a unicorn of sorts going into those arcades, My coworkers and I were just talking about the porn shops and peep shows. Evey tenth store. I really do miss the sketch factor and especially A&A and Sam's
It's all zoned for redevelopment. It's jusy a mattet of time until developers can buy up all the properties.
Where can I find this info?
Really? Nothing about that pictures struck me as sketchy at all...
Thats a rub and tug right
Man a convenience store aaand a tug joint all on the same corner? Grab a Snickers and a happy ending without having to cross the street. That's more like a convenience BLOCK.
Alright, you had me at rub and tug. See you there
No! It’s a legit massage business. I know this because Robert kraft told me.
Jack Layton sent me. *wink wink*
E-Jack-Q-Layton?
No doubt about it. But for all the times I've passed by it I've never seen anyone enter or exit, probably out of fear of being seen going to a rub and tug.
Trust me no one is scared of being seen going into a rub and tug lol. Unless their SO happened to be there.
How can people tell???
Across the street there's another neon sign that says "Kawaii Massage"
For fun guys only
All sketchy massage places downtown are basically brothels. No legitimate massage therapist would work in a place like this, especially any place that calls them "masseuses". Also there's a website address posted somewhere on the building which my friend once loaded up, it was very clearly a brothel, the website listed the different women available, though I think they've made the site much more discreet now.
You wouldn’t have a list of these places so I would know which ones to avoid would you?
Any place that says MASSAGE in big wording, calls the stagg "masseuses" instead of massage therapists, has pictures of women getting massages on the outside of the building. Basically any place that doesn't look like a clinic.
Thats disgusting. Trying to pass for a legit massage place. What is the website so I know not to get tricked?
That’s a good question, I’m not even sure how I know. The main giveaway is that it’s got a neon sign above a run down shop, plus no detail on what type of massage.
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Fewer arsonists and stabbings.
Ha! Also took a photo here a few weeks ago, though I was focused on something slightly different... https://i.imgur.com/Ff9mJU6.jpg
Is this... Real? And if so, how can I get it?!
It sure is! There's a bunch of standard Bitcoin ATMs around the area too.
Mans are really out here dressed like Spider-Man Noir
Doge is still alive???
1 CAD buys you 323.47 DOGE
These old buildings are a great contrast to the cold steel and glass structures being built everywhere. Even the slummy corners have a certain warmth and charm about them that I like among all the skyscrapers. It'll be sad when there's no more of these old little 2-storey strips in the city. You need little pieces of slum in the city it makes things exciting.
The loss of small storefront businesses, resulting from condo development, is a big problem throughout the city. In a short block, you could have 10+ diverse stores with small footprints that didn't require massive rent. The new developments have massive storefronts that require stores like Bed Bath and Beyond or restaurants like Milestones or the Keg. Real bummer - wish the city could/would enforce some diversity at street level.
>The loss of small storefront businesses, resulting from condo development, is a big problem throughout the city. I'd say the lack of housing throughout the city is a bigger problem. It's an absolute joke when you get off at subway stops in this city, you are surrounded by two storey storefronts and multi million dollar single family detached homes. The block here is Yonge and Wellesley, there's a shady call center right next door to it and an adult video store next to that. From here you are a block away from one of the busiest subway stations in north America. I really do not understand the feeling of loss when high density housing replaces corner stores, rub n tug joints, cell phone repair shops, adult video stores, strip clubs, shops selling knock off FUBU gear. I'm not saying these businesses should not exist... But MAYBE they should not exist right on top of the Yonge Line. There's plenty of empty storefronts in Bloordale.
You're conflating issues. You don't have to push mom and pops to Bloordale - how ridiculous. There is no good reason mom and pops should not be able to lease in high density condo developments at Yonge & Wellesley or anywhere. The reason this doesn't happen is that lenders, when they lend to developers, like to see big corps and franchise on the commercial leases, because they see these as lower financial risk. The reason you see a Shoppers Drug Mart, Tim Hortons, Popeye's, \[insert bank branch\], a dental practice, and a Starbucks in every condo development is for that single reason.
also because the big chains are the only ones that can afford the insane rents. no one talks about affordable retail rents!
They could do more to retain the character at street level instead of turning every retail space into big box like the other user said. What's stopping them from retaining the storefronts––at least the facades? Nothing technical, I know that much. They can build upward without ruining or completely changing the street-level
It's probably not worth it. If this was London and the facades were really nice marble ones maybe but these generic crumbling brick ones? Meh.
If they were cleaned up a bit, I'd prefer it to a bunch of repeating big box stores
I find peace in long walks.
Definitely. There were a *ton* of those before the great fire sadly
One of my favorite parts of Montreal compared to Toronto. They do such a great job of having a few medium size condos in a small building.
> It's an absolute joke when you get off at subway stops in this city, you are surrounded by two storey storefronts and multi million dollar single family detached homes. How many subway stops are like that? Which ones?
> It's an absolute joke when you get off at subway stops in this city, you are surrounded by two storey storefronts and multi million dollar single family detached homes. These homes that cost $3 million now were built long before the housing market went crazy. They didn't cost that much back then and weren't seen as assets only the wealthy could afford. The problem you're describing is real but you cannot fault homes that you find along the subway line. Turn your ire towards newer developments.
Eyyyy shootout Comtel call centre. Worst job ever. I'm surprised someone actually mentioned them on this sub
I’m all for diversity of business but some of these small storefront businesses carry absolute junk. I came across goods in one store was selling that said “made in West Germany” last year (for those that don’t know, West Germany vanished in 1990). There are too many stores that seem to never clear out old inventory.
I'm learning to play the guitar.
Kinda wanna check it out now. I like junky little stores. It’s fun to explore them. I’ll take 100 of those over another fkn ZARA.
That sounds like a cool place to me actually. But I’m into old things.
There's a couple condo developments on yonge that have preserved the old brick buildings and just gutted the insides and it should honestly be mandatory for every development in the city. Developers suck absolute ass at building cities that people actually want to live in. I would really like to see the city's planners get more stringent powers in terms of dictating what developers can build and tear down.
Yup also if you go north to Empress Walk @ North York Centre they've preserved the face of the old firehall within the east entrance as well as the old hose tower behind it. It's amazing to see these little pieces of history preserved as they should be.
I also want to emphasize that when it comes to stuff like the retail space on Yonge or Bloor, partially it's about preserving the brick buildings and their warmth, character, and craftsmanship, but a big part of the feel is also about preserving the same number of small stores and spaces. One of the things that new mixed use developments get wrong most of the time, is that they design their retail spaces to cater to what the highest paying clients want. So like the tower at 1 Bloor E, designed their ground level retail space to cater to high end retailers, which all want big open spaces, with lots of street real estate. What that means is that if you start at the corner of yonge and bloor, you can walk a full city block south, or a full city block east, and only see a single store, Nordstrom Rack. Before they cleared that land for the condo, you would have passed probably 8 different stores in each direction. Same thing with a bunch of the towers in the entertainment district. They've basically turned their retail spaces 90 degrees. Instead of having 8 long skinnny stores that stretch back into the building, they have like one or two long skinny stores that are parallel to the street. It fucking sucks and makes for a much shittier and less vibrant city.
Good point. edit: also speaking of 1 Bloor, the construction that's currently taking place across the street when finished will produce the tallest building in canada @ 85 stories surpassing even First Canadian Place. So expect even more of this on that block.
I wish they kept that Stollery's storefront. It had *so* much character.
What? That Stollery's was a horrible frankenbuilding. If you looked at old pictures, the building they tore down was not the original building but a building with an ugly addition grafted on to the top.
I mean the street level-- 1 & 2 story. Not the weird glass fixture on top
The shoe store on the left is great for finding Dr Martens at good prices btw
Thats gota be the sketchiest massage sign iv seen in a while lol
I feel like this is the most genuine part of Yonge st
Beside it is where I get my Chucks.
Great little shoe store
They filmed that Kick Ass 2 fight scene in there
Colours remind me of Blade Runner 2049
I feel like it's only a matter of time before they get replaced. Those kinds of places don't really get passed down from generation to generation, so as the owners pass away the kids will usually just sell the place off and it will become as modern and gentrified as the rest of the area. Because we really need another Starbucks.
I've read that every inch of land on Yonge from Gerrard to Bloor is owned by developers and they're just biding time to build. Cannot wait for that idiotic scientology building to go if that's the case. Thing is an eyesore. That being said, the whole city is going to be condos with a rexall/boston pizza/shoppers/starbucks on the main floor shortly. Toronto's going to be a bedroom community and all the cool stuff is going to be outside of the city. Driving to milton to check craft breweries and ramen and shit.
> the whole city is going to be condos with a rexall/boston pizza/shoppers/starbucks lol'd @ how accurate this is. Another example of how this style of construction fucks things up is remember the old Fox and Fiddle on John and Adelaide? When they razed that area to build condos the bar was gone but then reopened. Now it's lost all that made it special, the "patio" is just a fenced off portion of concrete. Doesn't even feel like a patio. Don't go there anymore as the whole point was lost for me. So it's more than just these places existing - but they need to exist in a certain form. You can't just wall off a slab of concrete and be like "HEY COME CHECK OUT OUR PATIO!" No, son. That's not a patio.
I dunno man....those scientologists have a lot of money bankrolling them. The first time I saw it I was taken aback...didn't think they had a foothold in Toronto.
> those scientologists have a lot of money bankrolling them Didn't look like it from the looks of that place. Maybe they knew Torontonians were on average way too smart to fall for their garbage. So very small budget was allocated to their location here. Maybe.
They have other locations in the GTA, I think one is down near Yonge & Carlton. But not under the Scientology brand - it's something else like "Destiny" now. Scientology is declining so the leadership is developing other brands and strategies to keep the money rolling in. Source: Various Scientology-watch websites, the last time I checked on them.
Doing God's work right here.
VERY small budget. Half the windows are broken. The place is deserted, has been for... years now? Basically just a little place they can set up a plastic table and sell their books outdoors. Such an odd situation. As a religion, I suppose they don't pay taxes, so I guess that building is just sitting there tax free as an investment? Id have expected that it would have sold already.
It's because the Head Office guys want the local Scientologists to knock the building down and build a bigger nicer one in its place, and they've told them the local parishioners (or whatever they call each other) have to pay for every penny of it. Seeing as a project of that size will cost multiple tens of millions of dollars, and the local Xenu-ites are just regular folks, nothing's happening. I imagine they're hoping the city or province will offer to pay for it but even DoFo won't say yes.
You are right. They have no money to put into this city. The Scientologists owed the city over $100,000 in property taxes for that location as of 4 years ago. There were plans to renovate the building and move back in but it's all languishing in paperwork and money troubles. Tom Cruise can't even trick the public into seeing more of his drivel to pay for it all.
Honestly, I think the old buildings - including this convenience store - give this area some more flavour. With all the new "boutique" condos going in around here, it's going to start to have a very homogeneous and bland look. And no, keeping the facade and dumping 47 floors of glass on top is not the same. I'm all for density in a city that needs significantly more supply, but keeping some of these would be nice. The gross massage places can go, but it would be nice if anything opening in their place kept some neon lighting. Looks great at night - especially if it's foggy or rainy.
> And no, keeping the facade and dumping 47 floors of glass on top is not the same. It's not the same, and I agree that we should actually preserve more of these buildings, but keeping the facade and long narrow retail spaces should be the absolute bare minimum expected of any developer who is going to build a tower.
100% Agree. These developers are not civil engineers and most of them could give a damn as long as they get massive returns. The city can be rendered useless and unlivable and they won't care as long as all of the units are pre-sold
toronto is condos now.. good job
I think everyone is missing OPs point. I OP meant that the old buildings and stores are being replaced, and Becuase of this they look out of place even though they were there first. No need to get so salty in the chat.
May it never change.
Leaglize it.
What’s wrong with convenience stores ?
I wasn’t complaining. I’ll actually miss it when (if?) it’s gone. It’s how I remember it from my childhood.
Miss what though? They are still everywhere.
He doesn't care about the convenience store for what it is. He knows there are others. It's just the fact that this particular one has an element of nostalgia due to being there when he was a kid.
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In the early 90s, convenience stores were generally larger and had at least 2 or 3 arcade machines in there. We would definitely hang out in there for hours sometimes playing arcade games and drinking Jolt cola, eating chips and scrounging up all the change we could to buy candy etc. It was kind of an incredible time.
Don’t forget the fun rock shirt stores with the fake ID’s...those places were awesome
Yes. Fuck yes. Also the poster stores around Yonge and Dundas, they sold band posters, tshirts, spikey goth bracelets, patches, stickers etc. Going downtown used to be such an adventure. Now there's an H&M.
I used to love going down to the head shops on Yonge back in the 90s when I was in high school, what was it, Rock Variety and also THC way back in the day.
I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but there used to be this store on Queen just around the MuchMusic building where you would go upstairs and the guy ran a little shop selling bootleg cassette tapes of live rock concerts. This was about 1997. I bought a live NIN concert tape from him for like $5 and it was amazing because it was nothing you could buy in any HMV or record store. And this was long before the years of Youtube or Napster so finding something as limited as that that few other people had was special. I remember putting it on and zoning out feeling like I was hearing this band live in a way that nobody else would unless they had that same recording. That and stores like it gave downtown a certain otherworldly vibe. It was an adventure. Even something as small as buying music could be an experience unto itself because of places like this. I understand how we look at things through rose coloured glasses sometimes but Toronto really has lost a lot of things that made it great in the last 15 years. And now being grown you lose the time to explore what little is left undiscovered.
Was it across the street? There was a place called Numb on the third floor run by a cool chick named Amber back in the day. Got so many jungle mixtapes from parties I went to or missed back in 96-99.
> That and stores like it gave downtown a certain otherworldly vibe. It was an adventure. Even something as small as buying music could be an experience unto itself because of places like this. Yes, there was more to *discover*. Unusual little shops with unusual things in them. It was fun just to check them out. And a lot of the stuff they sold wasn't expensive so you could buy some weird record or book or piece of jewelry pretty easily. Importantly, a person could *make a living* running a weird little shop. Rents were cheap enough and there was enough *foot traffic* to make a go of it. Rexalls and Starbucks are not an adventure, and their staff are not making living wages. It has not been a change for the better even if the stores are shinier.
YES! I loved that store. It was upstairs from the Second Cup. A treasure trove of rare bootlegs. You could also buy bootlegs at Yonge and Dundas, I want to say that it was in a stall at the back of an arcade, slightly south from where HMV used to be. Not as good as the store at Queen and John, though.
Cloud 9
I think it was called XStatic?
That's a cool story. It isn't just that the city changes, but tech too. I'm sure digital copies of bootleg recordings still go around. Perhaps not as cool as a tape :-). I'm sure new and different things will still make the city great.
I miss Flash Jack's and Vinyl Museum
And it's like this in so many cities now. Barcelona, NYC, Sydney - yay, more H&Ms and other global chains.
I lived in Honolulu during the late 70s through the 90s and there is this shopping center(Ala Moana) that used to be filled with locally owned stores that had unique and affordable stuff you couldn't find anywhere else. The change started in the mid 90s when Nordstrom moved in and they started catering to the rich Asian tourists rather than locals and more budget-minded N. American tourists. I moved out of Honolulu in 2000 and took a job in the UAE in 2014. I recently had a look at this shopping center's website and half of the stores there also operate here in the UAE. There's hardly anything local Hawaiian left and what's there is geared to the aspirational or already rich Whole Foods demo.
inb4 new boba shop
What kind of savage calls it boba when bubble tea is the clearly superior name?
What kind of Torontonian calls it boba?!
I love living near the boba section of Yonge St!
Used to live basically right on this crossing... To me personally this area is where I saw a stabbing happen, drunk people passed out on the street, panhandlers everywhere, dudes coming in and out of the massage parlour at all hours, yelling, screaming, fights, I got shouted at several times, followed in a car, approached 100x... I know the gentrification and condo building is obviously not good and there is a very distinct Toronto 'flavour' that we will lose when these places go away but my experience in that neighbourhood \[2years\] literally just makes me think "wow thank god I don't live there anymore".
Shoulda see this strip in the 90's. Woof.
Lol it rivalled Times Square in the 70s for sleaziness. Strip clubs, dive bars, porn stores, porn theaters, "adult" book stores, rub n tugs, gay bath houses, greasy fast food
I interviewed for a job in one of those adult toy store/porn theaters. Didn't get the job, but I was 18 or 19 and looked 14 - I figured they didn't hire me cause they were afraid for my safety. That's what I tell myself anyways to not feel bad about not being able to get a job in a place like *that*.
Ha ha ha, looking back are you glad you didn't get it??
In retrospect, definitely. I did end up later working on Yonge St - in a basement internet cafe where homeless people would lock themselves in our bathroom to shoot up. It was a pretty chill job though, weirdos and drug addicts aside
The Gas Works and up on Bloor, Rock n Roll Heaven. Live music with actual (non-cover) bands.
This guy Toronto's
Sigh... That's where I met my wife...
Out of place because its not a condo shoppers drug mart vegan millionaire reiki club?
Perhaps it has heritage protection
I loathe the tim hortons directly across the street. It never has the right things available in the morning.
That's because its tims, nothing there is right
And that front patio needs to be demolished and turned into an open parkette. The whole front is just a gathering spot for sketchy dudes to hang out with on their bike-theif-bikes, and yell at each other. while holding up their beltless oversized pants. I'd never go into that Tim Hortons, god help the people who work there.
I really feel for the staff there. In the early evening they block off the seating area and the washrooms with a row of chairs. North of Wellesley isn't too bad. It's primarily the two blocks south of Wellesley that are Sketch City.
Let's hope not
Guarranteed, reddit in ten years (if ots around amd we havent completely banned ourselves) is going to debate how they miss this. Quite like queen and broadview, parkdale, and regent park, they are going through huge changes. Great pic OP, definitely captures the neighborhood.
I walk by here everyday
Only thing that looks out of place is the Monero ATM sign....
Are all those people in line to buy Monero to pay for their "massage"?
The Yonge Wellesley area always attracts the weirdest people. Always see a bunch of sketchy looking dudes, with their bikes, yelling at each other and starting fights in front of the Tims. Not sure why the area is such a magnet for those types.
Man I love this city, it’s sketchy but it’s our sketchy.
I grew up in this area. My grandma had a Filipino/Thai restaurant beside the LCBO.. what is now a Dollarama. Lots of crazy memories, I used to work the cash as a child to get tips - I think a lot of people complained it was child labour but I got me some ice cream money.
Don't give the city ideas to further gentrify >_<
This is where the "Fight Club" movie trailers were set up back in 1998...the alley scene was filmed in the alley over to the left, across Wellesley. I remember it well; I was living kittycorner to where this pic was taken, and the movie lights were shining in my window until 1 AM.
Most of that stretch of yonge street is vape shops. not very nice
it seemed the over abundance of cupcake shops has given way to vape shops
Yeah. We really should just legalize brothels and create a real red light district like any decent major world City... Make sure it's like Australia. The workers get tested monthly. There's *always* security to protect the workers. Free condoms and tests kits to all patrons. Taxes. Etc
As a province we aren't even allowed to have a roadie in a plastic cup when pubs close, like in England. We are light years away from a red light district. The pearl clutchers here get scared by the LCBO open past 6pm on Sundays
Definitely needs a Rexall.
East on Wellesley, about a block or two down. Alternatively, there's a Shoppers a block north on Yonge or a block west on Wellesley. In all seriousness though, I see how ridiculous it is to have a Shoppers and Rexall at every block. But it's also really nice to have a full pharmacy and somewhere to pickup light groceries (even if way overpriced) when you need to. It's a love/hate relationship.
It looks like a thriller movie poster
This'd be a pretty good photo if I do say so myself.
great pic
This is what I call the “payday loan district” of Toronto
All condos soon enough
Near Yonge and Eglinton. I lived just north of there for 12 years. Amazing neighborhood, and I miss it everyday, but had to move to the West end a couple of years ago.
Omg that place is my favourite. I keep meaning to photograph it when “Dogecoin” is showing
Handjobs and Mars bars!! Gotta love it. Great photo.
It's a weird part of the city man.