NAMED for a jumble of railroad tracks, the Junction section of Toronto was once a booming manufacturing hub, with lively pubs, hotels and shops. But industry declined and, in recent decades, the neighborhood withered as prostitutes and drug dealers staked their turf along Dundas Street West, the area’s main thoroughfare...

Excerpt from Skid Row to Hip in Toronto in the New York Times

NAMED for a jumble of railroad tracks, the Junction section of Toronto was once a booming manufacturing hub, with lively pubs, hotels and shops. But industry declined and, in recent decades, the neighborhood withered as prostitutes and drug dealers staked their turf along Dundas Street West, the area’s main thoroughfare.

The pendulum, however, seems to be swinging back. Spurred by the hipification of other once-derelict districts like West Queen West, the young and artsy are taking advantage of still-cheap real estate to tiptoe into the Junction’s empty storefronts and low-slung houses.

Block by block, they are transforming this stretch of Dundas Street West from a grimy skid row into a bright enclave filled with quirky bookstores, vegan restaurants and organic cafes.

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