Meet DuWest

The Dundas West BIA…so many plans in store. When I met Sylvia Fernandez she was so excited to tell me about the BIA and the future goals that will eventually be undertaken that I had to remind her a few times about my feature’s focus.

I was completely impressed by some of the programs that are coming to life and those that have already been put into play. The Dundas West BIA has only existed for about a year and a half and was co-founded by Fernandez. Others that spearheaded the committee were people and business owners in the community. The BIA is across Dundas West from Lansdowne Avenue to Rusholme Road.

“It was pretty much José Ortega (owner of Lula Lounge), Tracy Jenkins (general manager of Lula Lounge) and I and we decided we wanted some flowers on the street,” Fernandez explained. “The street was kind of ugly.”

Fernandez still doesn’t have her flowers but she does have flags all around the neighbourhood (around 30 more to come). Marketing consultants have been hired to do a study of the area in order to do streetscape planning. There will also be some plantings and mural paintings. The murals are important to the area as Fernandez stresses a graffiti problem. Ortega has designed one already (picture below) and for the future there will be a mural contest for artists to compete in.



The marketing study that they have done allowed the BIA to come up with a nickname for the area so now Dundas West is referred to as DuWest. With that is a catchy slogan that says “The music lives on DuWest.” The reason why the focus is around music is because of some great music venues and the culture in the neighbourhood. According to Fernandez there is music within the screaming when Portugal or Brazil does well in soccer. Fernandez says that the community wants to be known as the musical arts area – not to be confused with Queen Street West.

Another appeal to the DuWest community is its small-town feel. Because of the lack of high-rises the area feels separated from the rest of downtown Toronto. Due to this feel more homegrown businesses are opening up in the area that are a little more alternative to the norm. Fernandez hopes that large companies will eventually move in, but it doesn’t seem to be moving in that direction quite yet.

“Some of the older members of the community might not be as excited about their new neighbours because they kind of look at us as the gentrifiers,” said Fernandez.

The main concern is that taxes and rent will go up for those who have been in the area for years. That’s not the case yet. However that hasn’t lessened the excitement that the BIA and the BIA supporters are feeling about the new shops on the block.