Quote:
Originally Posted by YoungRepublic
Having said that, it's pretty cool to hear people talk about York because in my experience most Torontonians don't know this place exists or ever existed. Out of all the former cities/borough, York seems to be the forgotten one and no one knows wtf I'm talking about when I say that I'm from here. It's usually, "you mean you're from North York"?
I'm pretty sure most of York is still working class, with I think Humewood-Cedarvale and Old Mill being the exceptions. That's probably why Ford is/was so popular here. Although most people assume Ford Nation to be in either Scarborough or Etobicoke, York had (iirc) the highest percentage of residents voting for that asshole. Nunziata, one of the biggest idiots in council, was our former mayor before amalgamation so I suppose our Ford love-fest shouldn't be all that surprising. And I'm quite certain that it's the York side of ward 17 that keeps (narrowly) voting in Cesar Palacio, who was probably the biggest Ford ass kisser in council before shit really hit the fan.
It's definitely unlike most of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough in terms of urbanity. It's much more urban but the city has (iirc) always been pretty poor and you can pretty much tell immediately when you're crossing the Toronto-York "borders". For instance, York used to save money and cut corner on a whole slew of things like putting (uglier) street lights on only one side of the road. Much of York is still like this today and it's pretty dark at night. When I have time, I might post some pics of the areas I'm most similar with.
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York in fact voted in a referendum in 1930 to join the City of Toronto - but the city turned them down!
It's also quite striking, as you note, the degree to which gentrification mirrors the Old Toronto-York border.