Gerrard Square
I'm coming to Toronto for an extended vacation, and have been offered a place to stay opposite Gerrard Square mall on Gerrard Street East. Google street view is hard to really gauge the quality of the area - the house itself on the outside looks unassuming, but most importantly I'm just wanting a safe neighbourhood to call home for the time we are visiting Toronto. There is a streetcar near the house, but google tells me the fastest way in to CN Tower area is to walk down Pape Avenue and take the Queen St streetcar.
Is the area known to be any less safe than other areas in Toronto? Obviously every area in a large city will require some awareness of your surroundings and people around you, but generally speaking, I just want to research as much as I can before committing, to ensure the area isn't known to be some sort of sketchy crime ridden part of town. A friend of mine lives a few blocks north of Gerrard and Pape ( single woman on her own) and feels quite safe in the area. There is some public housing in the neighbourhood, and there are a few local characters, but generally it is quite a safe area. In the process of gentrification. Gerrard Street is not the most attractive right there appearance -wise, but it's not a ghetto.
It is just adjacent to a very well established, high level neighbourhood known as Riverdale. Lots of great restaurants, pubs, etc within the general area, and there is a just east of Pape on Gerrard. I live in a trendy condo building walking distance from Gerrard Square and I feel fine in the neighbourhood at all hours.
The actual strip of Gerrard right around the mall is a bit dumpy but certainly not dangerous, and surrounded by interesting areas like Gerrard India Bazaar to the east, 'Chinatown East' to the west, Leslieville to the south, and Greektown (Danforth) to the north. In addition to taking the Gerrard/Carlton/College streetcar (506) west to downtown, you can take the 72 bus north on Carlaw to Pape Station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line and take the subway towards downtown, depending on where you're going. Entering Canada / Crossing the Border.
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We all have our favourite Winners stores. For designer handbags (hello, Stella McCartney), you can’t beat the location at Bathurst and Lawrence (3090 Bathurst St.) Ditto College Park (444 Yonge St.), prime destination for high-end runway fashion wear. For footwear, there’s the Winners shop in Leaside at 147 Laird Dr.
Many of my friends swear by the Gerrard Square Winners, where they find incredible bargains overlooked by shoppers who don’t know Calvin Klein from Costco. One Gerrard Square fan even urged me not to write about it as then everyone will go there. That’s not going to happen.
They don’t make it easy to find the entrance to the mall, let alone Winners. For the mall, you make a right turn, just before you hit Food Basics. There is a terrific luggage dept., stocked with goodies like a Sharper Image rollie for $79.99. Everybody has skinny jeans in hot hues like purple and mustard, but not many vendors carry them in waist sizes up to 38 at $39.99. The men’s section is ho-hum except for a flash of red and purple skinny jeans for $19.99. The kiddie section is better.
Love the polka-dot tutus in hot pink and orange for $9.99. Their shoe selection is rather uninspiring; except for a pair of purple suede Hush Puppy moccasins ($79.99) and Clarks tan hiking boots ($59.99).
Hello Kitty robes ($24.99) are soft and squishy but so is my stomach as I can’t find anything to try on. Then I hit the cashmere rack, pouncing on a cool cardigan in three gradations of grey stripes priced at $99.99. I also unearth a shiny black Calvin Klein trench coat (reduced from $79.99 to $62) from the sales rack. Cold Play sing the background but can’t help the dispirited atmosphere. This place needs a serious injection of oomph. En route to checkout, I am lured to a display of cotton-knit tops in delicious colours for $24.99.
I can’t decide between the fuchsia and bright blue so I take both. In the checkout line, I bump into an acquaintance with identical hair colour as the fuchsia sweater.
“Part of the fun is the checkout line,” she says, as we pick over the offerings on our way to the cashiers. I bag a box of white, taper candles and a room spray. She is crafty and can’t live without a belt punch. Winners has a generous return policy. I return the fuchsia top and swap it for a braided cotton and suede hippie-dippie messenger bag. OK, so it’s not a designer bag, but it called out to me.
Winners at Gerrard Square, 1000 Gerrard St. Intimidation factor: Zero — once you get there. You need a Google map to find it. Number of salespeople on floor: One or two. More cluster in the changing rooms. Response time: Undeterminable. Winners, which offers discounts from 60 per cent, is traditionally more DIY.
But when approached, staffers will tenaciously hunt down items like an errant left shoe. Vibe: Value Village meets Zeller’s. Price range: From $1.59 for a Diet Coke to $199.99 for a beige leather tub chair. Rating: Two and a half hippie bags out of four.