Bloorcourt Village
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bloorcourt Village is an area of Toronto in the city's west end, situated along Bloor Street West. It takes its name from the intersection at the approximate centre of the district, Bloor Street and Dovercourt Road. The exact limits of the village, like most districts of Toronto, are a subjective issue. The local business association posts its streetlamp banners on Bloor between Crawford and Brock Streets. Lateral boundaries may extend as far north as Davenport Road and as far south as Harbord Street.
Bloorcourt Village contains a mixture of land-uses. The main thoroughfare of Bloor Street consists almost exclusively of mixed-use residential and commercial buildings, beginning at Crawford. These structures are typically two or three stories tall, with retail commercial on the main floor, and offices or rental housing on the remainder. These converted residential structures are the oldest in the district and are often in poor repair. Pigeon infestation remains an issue for tenants. At Dovercourt, a large, high-rise apartment complex houses lower-middle-income tenants on the southwest corner. The Bloor-Gladstone Library, dating from 1913, is situated at Gladstone Avenue. Dufferin Street gives way to the Dufferin Mall, a fifty-store indoor shopping complex on the former site of a race track. Further south on Dufferin is Dufferin Grove Park, an exercise in urban rehabilitation.
Medium-density residential areas flank the north and south of Bloor Street. Upper-middle income residents occupy and own single-family dwellings in this part of the neighbourhood. Many of these structures have been converted, housing up to eight separate units, though illegally. Side-streets increase in zoned density as they approach Bloor. Low and medium-rise apartments occupy the majority of these zones. Ossington and Dufferin stations on the Bloor-Danforth Line serve the largely pedestrian population of this neighbourhood.
The northern part of Bloorcourt Village, between Dupont and Davenport, is mainly post-industrial development. Limited manufacturing remains, although some warehouse and light automotive industries still exist. While the Canadian National Railway operates a main line between the two thoroughfares, a large amount of former industrial space has been converted to loft condominiums. Some single-family rowhouses and low-income rental space has also been created.
Bloorcourt Village is an ethnically diverse area. A majority of residents are fluent in Portuguese, Italian and English. A large Ethiopian population is also present in the area. There are many shops along Bloor Street serving the Portuguese and Ethiopian communities.
Almost half of all residents over the age of 24 in the area are without a high school diploma. Census data reports a population with one of the lowest rates of university education in the city, at 18 percent.[citation needed]
