South Etobicoke Houses & Neighbourhoods
Houses in the South Etobicoke area range from small, two-bedroom bungalows to large mansions along the waterfront. There is something for everyone here. Lot sizes of some homes are quite large and most backyards are deep.
South Etobicoke’s location on the lake gives it a bucolic feel, yet it’s still on the Queen streetcar line. Transportation choices in the area are extensive. The area is served by buses along main north-south arteries connecting with the Bloor-Danforth subway and with streetcars that run along Lake Shore Boulevard. The City of Toronto is also in the process of studying various proposals to increase transit connections in the area to downtown. The Mimico GO Transit station and Long Branch GO station provide regular east-west commuter rail travel to downtown Toronto and to as far west as Hamilton. Along the north of the area is the Gardiner Expressway, a large multi-lane highway.
Mimico
Mimico is the area bounded by Evans Avenue, Algoma Street and Manitoba Street to the north, Lake Ontario to the south, a line midway between Fleeceline Road and Louisa Street to the East, with the western boundary along a line through Dwight Avenue (south of the railway) and St. George Street (north of the railway). Mimico originally stretched north to what is now The Queensway, but was cut off from this area with the building of the Queen Elizabeth Way.
Mimico began developing in the late 19th century, with recreational yet stately homes built by families like the Loblaws. At the corner of Lake Shore and Royal York, a few blocks of two-storey detached homes were built in the 1920s. Polish and Russian are the two major non-English languages here; John English Junior Middle School, in the heart of the ’hood, has a French immersion program.
To the east, a building boom over the past few years has produced a number of townhouse complexes.
Most of the houses are small bungalows on long-lawned lots. On the more Victorian-sounding streets (Stanley, Victoria, Victor), houses are larger, older and pricier. Fixer-uppers are toward the north and west, and near the rail lines. Western Vanevery Street offers bargains.
Between Mimico Creek to the west and the Humber River to the east, there is a large area of condominium high-rise tower development along the lake shore. Lake Shore Blvd is also home to many Eastern European delicatessen, independent stores and bakeries, giving the area a Eastern European atmosphere.
Near the foot of Park Lawn Road is Humber Bay Park, land created by infill of the lake, creating an artificial peninsula and enclosing Mimico Harbour at Mimico Creek.
The City of Toronto, along with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, is building a publicly accessible waterfront. The first phase of the Mimico Waterfront Linear Park opened in July 2008 and connects three small parks using cobblestone beaches, boardwalks and sand dunes, and will eventually connect with Humber Bay Park to the west. Phase 2 of this project will begin this summer and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2012.
New Toronto
New Toronto is bounded by Lake Ontario to the south, with a western boundary of Twenty-Third Street (south of Lake Shore Blvd. West) and the mid-point between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets (north of Lake Shore Blvd. West), the Canadian National Railways mainline to the north, and Dwight Avenue to the east. New Toronto lays between Mimico to the east, and the Village of Long Branch to the west.
Once the poor sister of the lakeside ’hoods, New Toronto has shed its working-class image. The home of Humber College’s Lakeshore campus boasts a collection of late Victorian buildings that is one of the loveliest pieces of academic real estate west of U of T. The site at the foot of Kipling Avenue is the former grounds of the Mimico Lunatic Asylum (later the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital).
Couples and young professionals are moving in fast, drawn by the waterfront, relatively cheap prices and untouched housing stock. The Lake Shore Boulevard strip, known as Lakeshore Village, is still a bit scruffy, but newer storefronts show signs of an inevitable upswing.
Small, detached homes from the 1920s through ’40s have porches and tiny front lawns, including cottages from the area’s bygone era as vacation country. A fixer-upper can be found for $300,000 north of Lake Shore Boulevard, where the lots are smaller, the awnings aluminum and the cottages clapboard, but you’re talking $400,000 south of Lake Shore, $1 million close to the lake and $1.5 million in the small community of Nautical Lane, where the houses have rights to the waterfront.
New Toronto is The Beach without the smugness. It still has an intimate, small-town feel, especially south of Lake Shore Boulevard, where Lake Shore Drive twists through an almost bohemian landscape of small cottages and retro apartment buildings.
The industrial corridor located at the north end of the community is being redeveloped after having been vacant and fallow for many years. In September 2009, the new Toronto Police College training facility opened at 70 Birmingham St., and also houses a 22 Division Police Substation. This is the site of the former Continental Can Company of Canada Ltd. New Toronto Plant.
Other projects in New Toronto include the MasterCard Centre for Hockey Excellence which has four ice sheets and is the official practice facility for the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL hockey team, and their AHL affiliate the Toronto Marlies. The building also houses offices for Hockey Canada and the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Long Branch
Long Branch is bounded by Lake Ontario on the south, with western boundaries of Etobicoke Creek north of Lake Shore Blvd. West and the property line of the Canadian Arsenals Ltd. south of Lake Shore Road, the Canadian National Railway's mainline to the north, and eastern boundaries being Twenty-Third Street south of Lake Shore Blvd. West, and the mid-point between Twenty-Second and Twenty-Fourth Streets north of Lake Shore Blvd. West.
An early incarnation of cottage country, Long Branch was a popular destination many years ago, with Etobicoke Creek and its attractive shoreline keeping city folks cool in summer months. The area is just far enough to provide respite from the downtown bustle, but close enough that it’s only a 40 minute streetcar ride away. Houses south of Lake Shore are more expensive than those to the north, where the landscaping and general maintenance tend to be better. Lake Promenade, which follows the shoreline, is the most upscale street, though a good number of the houses on the south side (their backyards directly on the shore) are quite modest.
If there’s an average Long Branch residence, it’s the 1,000-square-foot detached bungalow. However, housing runs the gamut, ranging from seven-figure waterfront homes to about $800-per-month apartments in seven-storey tower complexes. North of Lake Shore Boulevard there are still plenty of detached houses between $400,000 and $500,000.
Alderwood
Alderwood is the western-most section of Toronto bounded by the Etobicoke Creek to the west, the Gardiner Expressway to the north, the CPR railway to the east and the CNR railway to the south.
Alderwood is characterized by single family homes, many of which were constructed at the end of the second world war. The south west quadrant of the neighbourhood is zoned industrial and is home to manufacturing and warehousing businesses of various sizes. Among these is a Daimler-Chrysler casting plant.
