Richard Silver

Toronto Real Estate: Rosedale…Mystique vs. Reality!

There is a mystique about Rosedale. Just responding “Rosedale” when people ask where you live is tantamount to admitting that you are enormously wealthy, have never worked a day in your life or care for anyone but yourself… You must be anti-anything that smacks of social consciousness.. Rosedale is the media darling in Canada when it comes to discussing the “privileged”.

But, for those who live there it is a Downtown neighborhood with a lot more diversity than the Media gives it credit for. I’ve lived there for 3 years but would still be considered on the outskirts of Rosedale (our street is south of Bloor) but when asked, I do hesitate to say where I live because of all the baggage that entails.. Of course, I have not been back to any High School reunions where I would proudly wear a flashing ROSEDALE sign on my back. See, I flunked my High School gym class and lived through 3 years of intimidation..

However, the great thing about Rosedale is its’ proximity to everything in the City; half way to the Danforth or Yorkville, half way to the Financial District or Yonge and Eglinton and like all of the Downtown is starting to be filled with new voices, young families and caring neighbours..

On our street we watch out for each other, there are lots of children and dogs and we get together each year at a neighbors for Halloween. We have our own mayor and he is in charge of keeping an eye out and updating all of us on each others health concerns….and of course, garbage pick up. He monitors a couple of shut-ins on the street and anytime there are leftovers they have a way of working their way down the street. In other words, we are a community.

So the next time you hear the Media or your friends making assumptions about Rosedale, remember, it is a community of people whose real “privilege” is to live in the centre of Toronto.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Downtown Toronto, Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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