world19 - community involvement in Bloor West Village - www.world19.com

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updated: April 21, 2001

 "Save the Village" campaign
 

"The big stores have sucked up downtown dollars, mall dollars, uptown dollars, and are heading to your community!"

Over the past few years, people have been expressing concern about the changes in Bloor West Village. Many feel their community is losing its heart, its vitality, its identity -- as well as losing the types of shops providing those basics that a Main Street should provide. As a result, in the summer of 1999, world19 began the "Save the Village" campaign, and immediately met a huge positve reaction.

As a result of this campaign, and the petitions, a process began which involved City Councilors, City staff from both the Planning and Economic Development offices, BIA members and other business owners, world19 and residents to discuss the future of the Village. One outcome from this is our proposal for a community "umbrella group" to link the various organizations and voices in the community. We described this in an opinion piece we wrote for the February 2001, Village Gleaner.

 

 A Village Note: New: Feb. 10, 2001
The February Village Gleaner which carried our opinion piece also printed an editorial wondering what difference there is in an independent coffee shop serving latte, vs. a Starbucks, and pondered the advantages and problems with the chains taking over neighbourhoods. Here is a small story from a walk in the Village one Saturday.

 

The next 3 pages were prepared in May as part of the "Village Working Group":

  • Background: how & why the campaign started.

  • Vision: a proposal by world19.

  • Action: some suggestions about the Village.

Some older information

  • December 1st, 1999: a community Meeting was held on December 1st to discuss the issues surrounding the Village & its future. Between 150 and 200 people attended, representing a broad range of community members.  This led to the formation of the Village "Working Group", and we hope, the new "umbrella" organization.
    Read our report on the meeting.
    Here is our "backgrounder" to the December 1st meeting, distributed in the area with the meeting flyer.

  • February 12: as a follow-up, an informal community drop-in and discussion was held Saturday morning at Mad Apples restaurant. A report.

  • world19's presentation to the BIA's Annual General Meeting (October, 1999)
     

  • Sep. 14: Toronto Community Council passes a motion to assist Village.
    City staff to work with Villagers to work on a viable future. Support to include "mainstreets" in the revised Official City Plan. This motion was presented by Councillor David Miller, and endorsed by Councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski. It was requested by world19, and was accompanied by the petitions collected in July with over 4000 signatures.
     

  • BWV: a victim of its own success? our article (the unedited version) from the Nov. 98 Villager.
     

  • Runnymede Theatre / Chapters (See the community pages)
    The historic Runnymede Theatre finally closed on Feb. 28, 1999 and was replaced by our own Chapters "big-box" store. Bloor West Village, in many ways the heart of our community is changing: small independents appear to be disappearing in favour of large national & international chains. Includes much information on historic movie theatres.