A fork in the road for The Junction

The Junction looks uber-modern for a neighbourhood that just shook prohibition.

One store awning on Dundas Street West pushes VCRs, HIFI Stereos and Fax Machines like they’re a passing fad.

Unfortunately, technology advances faster than bureaucracy. The items on the other side of the barred windows already DID go out of style, and the retailer is going out of business.

The demise of Clearance Electronics is symptomatic of a larger problem -- or solution -- in a neighbourhood that’s being redefined largely because of four letters: LLBO.

The Junction opted to go dry in 1904 -- before the neighbourhood was annexed by the city of Toronto -- because it’s largely working-class population was developing the distasteful reputation for drunken debauchery near the railroad tracks.

This apparently vexed passengers on the crisscrossing train lines, who were abruptly aroused from their wistful daydreams by the rif-raff brawls.

Because of failed referendums, licensed restaurants and bars were blacklisted from the area until 1997. More than a decade later, ethnic cuisine and trendy bars dot the street.

They’ve made their mark, and we’re on to the next episode of transformation. In the face of this change, some businesses on Dundas Street between Keele Street and Runnemede Avenue and are falling, and others are flourishing. What will be salvaged in the name of the past? And what will perish in the name of progress?

Recent issues and outcomes in surrounding communities may provide some clues. The area is in the provincial (and federal) riding of Parkdale-High Park, and in represented at Queen's Park by NDP MPP Cheri Dinovo.

Besides sharing the party’s values, such as supporting a minimum wage hike, preserving the environment, and providing high-quality care for seniors, DiNovo has also stuck her neck out when historically-significant businesses -- “staples”, if you will -- in her riding have faced extinction.

Take Karl’s Butcher and Grocery, located at 105 Roncesvalles Avenue. The business had been making sausages from scratch since 1961 when the provincial government decided they didn’t like Karl’s style. They said it was classified as a “free-standing meat plant”, and had to behave as such -- to the tune of some $200,000 in renovations.

DiNovo condemned the government for crippling a neighbourhood favorite, apparently famous for it’s organic, fresh meat from local sources, saying part of Roncesvalles’s culture and heritage was destroyed and stressing a need balance between the benefits of a product or service and the health risks involved.

Although Karl’s was lost, DiNovo did help win a hard-fought battle to resurrect one of Canada’s oldest movie theatres. When the Revue Cinema closed in June of 2006, she campaigned to save it. About a year later, a High Park resident answered the call, bought the theatre, and leased it to the Revue Film Society.

If DiNovo’s actions reflect the interests of her constituents, these two examples illustrate that Parkdale-High Park residents care about small, local and historically-significant businesses that serve the community in a unique way.

And I’ll be thinking of those values as I watch The Junction come of age.