Jane and Finch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jane and Finch is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, centred around the intersection of two arterial roads, Jane Street and Finch Avenue West. The area is roughly bounded by Highway 400 to the west, Black Creek to the east, Sheppard Avenue West to the south, and Shoreham Drive or Steeles Avenue West to the north. The abundance of high-rise apartment towers in this area make it one of Toronto's most densely populated neighbourhoods.
Black Creek Pioneer Village and the main campus of York University are immediately east of the neighbourhood and are northeast of the intersection.
The Jane and Finch area is widely reputed to be Toronto's most dangerous and economically depressed neighbourhood. Long considered to be a "social morass in which violent drug dealers and gang members terrorize low-income families and new immigrants in rundown highrises" [1], the Jane-Finch corridor is also one of Toronto's most culturally diverse areas, home to people from over 80 different countries. Jane and Finch also has a significant number of Caribbean-Canadians. Indeed, the Jane and Finch area is a popular residential choice for many new immigrants to Canada because rents tend to be fairly low.
Besides these populations concentrated in the area's apartment buildings and rental townhouses, the area also includes sections of single-family homes, often duplexes, and individually-owned condominium townhouses. These sections are decidedly more upper working class or even middle class, and have historically been identified significantly with a northward extension of Toronto's Italian-Canadian clusters, which have since spread still further north into newer and wealthier suburbs north of Steeles in York Region, notably the city of Vaughan.
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[edit] History
Jane and Finch developed as a "model suburb" in the 1960s, in response to the rapid urban growth that the city was experiencing during this period. The Modern "tower in the park" aesthetic, touted by architects such as Le Corbusier, had already taken hold in the United States as a model for social housing, and Toronto city planners decided that such a project should be built in that city. The community was envisioned as one that would accommodate a "higher need" population through the provision of low-income, publicly-subsidized and private housing. However, planners and politicians of the era did not give much thought to the social infrastructure needed to sustain community life.
Toronto planners quickly learned from the mistakes of their neighbours to the south; while the housing projects of the 1960s proliferated in (and eviscerated) many American cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Detroit, Toronto was left relatively unscathed.
Soon after Jane and Finch was constructed, and the city's "poor," who were mostly recent immigrants, began moving in, the area was already being portrayed as a hub for crime, drug dealing, gang activity, and other social ills. Its diverse population, representing over 80 ethno-cultural groups and over 100 different languages, were not provided with the necessary resources to cope with the challenges facing the community, including rampant unemployment, domestic violence, and teenage pregnancy.
[edit] Today
Similar development and population patterns to Jane and Finch continue south along Jane past Wilson Avenue, and south of Highway 401 into the former City of York.
The Jane and Finch community continues to experience a variety of socio-economic difficulties. A number of non-profit organizations have been established over the years to deal with issues like housing, health, legal problems, parental support and, perhaps most importantly, employment. Education also continues to be a problem, with many teenagers from the area being unable to attend university or college, while still others are not able to complete high school. While the community has political representation, it continues to be under-represented on decision-making bodies such as the boards of governors of the local hospital and university.
Despite the progress made over recent years, many people describe real estate in the area as a very risky investment opportunity, due to the ongoing problems with crime, drug dealing, and gang-related activity.
[edit] Lower-income housing in Toronto
Besides the Jane-Finch corridor, Toronto has large-scale, lower-income housing projects, under private or public ownership, in the downtown core, specifically in St. James Town, Parkdale, and Regent Park. New town-style housing developments were also built in Downsview, Rexdale, Thistletown, Malvern.
