Here Comes Whitey World
The gentrification debate continues re: the influence the Drake Hotel is having on Parkdale (See 'The Drake Is A Ho' post below). Murray Whyte of the Toronto Star wrote about this part of town and the forces of gentrification in Sunday's edition. The Gladstone Hotel was also featured in the article with a great quote by Christina Zeidler (who is overseeing the Gladstone's restoration) "The Gladstone is not gentrification,". "That means something that's not animated by an authentic force. Gentrification is Disneyland, a place where you calcify the culture to the point where it has no salience. That is not what we're doing here."
Below: Room 304 at The Gladstone. An artist designed hotel room by Allyson Mitchell. "It feels like a woodsy retreat where lesbian separatist commune meets Storybook Gardens."
Personally, I'm torn, on one hand, derelect, run down neighborhoods that are meccas for drugs and crime aren't exactly cultural/community contributors, then again, whitewashing affordable, ethnically/economically diverse neighborhoods sucks too. It's a big debate that has been going on in this city for quite some time. I have seen and experienced this phenomenon in my own beloved Junction which is at the tail end of it's own revitalization (gentricfication) processs.
Personally, I'm torn, on one hand, derelect, run down neighborhoods that are meccas for drugs and crime aren't exactly cultural/community contributors, then again, whitewashing affordable, ethnically/economically diverse neighborhoods sucks too. It's a big debate that has been going on in this city for quite some time. I have seen and experienced this phenomenon in my own beloved Junction which is at the tail end of it's own revitalization (gentricfication) processs.
