Oakwood - Vaughan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oakwood - Vaughan is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada bordered by Eglinton Avenue to the north, Dufferin Street to the west, St. Clair Avenue to the south and Arlington Avenue to the east. It overlaps with the Caledonia-Fairbanks neighbourhood to the west. It was in the former city of York before it amalgamated.
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[edit] Cultural pattern
There is a sizable Italian, Caribbean and Portuguese community and accordingly, an accompanying large Roman Catholic population in the area, hence its three Catholic elementary schools run by the Toronto Catholic District School Board in its area. It also has some Rastafarian presence in the northern end of the community. However, this is the neighbourhood where the Boxing Day, 2005 shooters who killed Jane Creba hid.
[edit] Infrastructure
Although situated only slightly west of Humewood-Cedarvale, which is one of Toronto's most affluent neighbourhoods, Oakwood - Vaughan is a modest neighbourhood, with income levels in the bottom quartile of the city average. This neighbourhood has many one-way streets, which diverted most of the traffic into Vaughan Road and Oakwood Ave.
[edit] Schools
The three Roman Catholic Elementary schools are St. Thomas Aquinas, D'Arcy McGee, and St. Alphonsus. The main secondary school in this neighbourhood is Vaughan Road Academy, which is located on Vaughan Road between Alameda Avenue and Winona Drive. However, there is another secondary school at its periphery, Oakwood Collegiate Institute, at the corner of Oakwood Avenue and St. Clair Avenue. Elementary schools in this neighbourhood include Rawlinson and J.R. Wilcox Community Schools at Earnscliffe Road between Oakwood Ave. and Glenholme Avenue, and Ava Road between Winona Drive and Atlas Avenue, respectively. Arlington Middle School is also located in this neighbourhood. These schools are run by the Toronto District School Board.
[edit] Major roads in the community
The community is served by two collector routes, Vaughan Road and Oakwood Avenue, as suggested by the community's name.
[edit] Vaughan Road
Vaughan Road is a contour collector road that is parallel with a buried creek to the north called Castle Frank Brook. This road was popular with street racers in the 1950s due to its many curves. Vaughan Road begins on Bathurst Street south of St. Clair Avenue West, then it becomes a north-south street, hence its address numbering system, then it becomes a northwest-southeast street. Finally, Vaughan Road has a dead-end near the intersection of Eglinton Ave. and Dufferin St., although before the Esso station was built in that intersection, Vaughan Road intersected Dufferin St. Vaughan Road is built as early as 1850. Its original alignment began at Yonge Street, followed Davenport Road to Bathurst Street, then along the current alignment of Vaughan Road into Dufferin Street, which was then extended north into Vaughan Township, which later became the City of Vaughan. Therefore, Vaughan Road is named after the township. Additionally, Vaughan Road is often used as a short cut between Allen Road and Downtown Toronto via Oakwood Avenue. The bus route—90 Vaughan—serves this community. Its termini are the Jesmond (Oakwood) loop, which is named after the side street that the 90A branch end, and the Eglinton loop, which is the loop that the rush hour 90 branch end, which both are in this neighbourhood.
[edit] Oakwood Avenue
Oakwood Avenue is also a collector road but it is north-south rather than northwest-southeast as in Vaughan Road. It also has a bus route—63 Ossington—which serves the community. The 161 Rogers Road bus route also serves the southern end of the neighbourhood. Oakwood Village is on Oakwood Ave. between Earlsdale Avenue and Clovelly Avenue. There are plans to transform this village into an art district, which would lead to the gentrification of the neighbourhood.
Built in 1997, Oakwood Village public library is located on Oakwood Avenue and Holland Park Avenue. However, the recently rebuilt Maria Shchuka public library is also located on the neighbourhood's periphery at Eglinton Avenue and Northcliffe Blvd., which coincidentally, is a northbound one-way street north of Rogers Road. Both of these libraries are run by the Toronto Public Library.
Oakwood - Vaughan touches one subway station: Eglinton West station, which is the terminus of the aforementioned 63 Ossington bus route.
[edit] External links
| Roads in Toronto, Ontario | ||
|---|---|---|
| North-South streets: | Albion • Avenue • Browns • Bathurst • Bay • Bayview • Birchmount • Bridle Path • Brimley • Broadview • De Grassi • Don Mills • Dufferin • Homewood • Islington • Jane • John • Keele • Kennedy • Kipling • Leslie • Markham • McCaul • McCowan • Morningside • Oakwood • Palmerston • Roncesvalles • Spadina • University • Vaughan • Victoria Park • Warden • Weston • Woodbine • Yonge |
 |
| East-West streets: | Bloor • Carlton • College • Danforth • Dundas • Eglinton • Ellesmere • Finch • Front • Gerrard • King • Kingston • Lake Shore • Lawrence • Parkwoods Village • Pemberton • Queen West • Queen's Quay • Queensway • Sheppard • St.Clair • Steeles • Wilson • York Mills | |
| Expressways and highways: | 2A • 27 • 400 • 401 • 404 • 427 • Allen Road • Black Creek Drive • Don Valley Parkway • Gardiner | |
| Defunct expressways: | Crosstown • Richview • Spadina Expressway • Scarborough Expressway | |
