St. James Town
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. James Town (sometimes spelled St. Jamestown) is a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
It lies in the northeast corner of the downtown area. It is dominated by massive residential towers built in the 1960s. Approximately 18,000 people live in the neighbourhood's 18 apartment towers, making it Canada's most densely populated community.[1]
St. James Town is one of the largest high-rise housing projects in Canada. It consists of 18 or more high-rise buildings (14 to 32 stories) with a population of 35,000 packed in a four block radius (most densely populated area in Canada). This concrete jungle is located in downtown Toronto/Old Toronto, and has a reputation for drugs, prostitution, street gangs and violence. [2] It is one of Toronto's poorest neighbourhoods. [3]
The neighbourhood covers the area bounded by Sherbourne Street to the west; Bloor Street East to the north; Parliament Street to the east; and Wellesley Street East to the south.
[edit] History
St. James Town began to grow in the 19th century when it became a semi-suburban area home to the city's middle class. The area was rezoned in the 1950s as the nineteenth century homes were levelled, and apartment towers — inspired by Le Corbusier's Towers in the Park concept — were erected. Each tower accommodating thousands of residents surrounded by green space, but with few amenities. Each of the buildings is named after a major Canadian city.
In the late 1960s, the developers attempted to acquire land south of Wellesley, as far as Carlton Street, to expand the St. James Town development. Many residents of the area resisted, with the support of civic activist and future Mayor of Toronto John Sewell. The St. James Town expansion was cancelled, and the homes that had been demolished were replaced with several housing cooperatives.
St. James Town was originally designed to house young swinging single middle class residents, but the apartments lacked appeal and the area quickly became much poorer. Several buildings were bought by the city and turned into public housing. Today, the towers are mostly home to newly-arrived immigrant families.
In 2000, the City of Toronto launched a major initiative to improve the area, including the construction of a new Toronto Public Library branch and community centre, which opened in 2004 at the corner of Sherbourne and Wellesley.
[edit] Demographics
Due to its cultural and minority demographics, St. James Town is often thought as "the world within a block". It is mostly a so-called minority community, largely filled with immigrants — especially those who arrived in the 1990s. St. James Town is 73% non-white. The largest cultural groups in this community are Sri Lankans (making up 7.8% of the population [1]), Filipinos (21.9% [2]), Chinese (8%[3]), Italian (1% [4]) and Black (11.2%[5]). Other cultural groups include East Africans and Chinese. Overall, St. James Town's population is made up of approximately 65% recent immigrants [6].
[edit] See also
- Sherbourne (TTC)
- List of neighbourhoods in Toronto
- http://tocrime.blogspot.com/2006/03/murder-in-jamestown.html
- http://www.stoptheviolence.ca/Toronto/
- http://www.blackplanet.com/gw/HousingProjects/
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