First come the renovated condominiums, the latte bars and the expensive baby strollers. Next, apparently, come the bloggers.
One Web site’s survey of the prevalence of blogs in urban neighborhoods found a link between gentrification and the number of people who feel compelled to think out loud about the changes in their backyards. The site, Outside.in, crowned Clinton Hill in Brooklyn as the most blogged-about neighborhood in America.
Also on the top 10 list were Harlem; Shaw in Washington; downtown Los Angeles; Newton, Mass.; and Rogers Park/North Howard in Chicago.
Before the survey, the staff of Outside.in was “not conscious that local blogging would be so closely allied with gentrification,” said Steven Berlin Johnson, a founder of the site. Change, he said, “makes people particularly interested in every little development in their neighborhoods.”
This has me wondering if a similar analysis has been done of GTA nabeblogs.
In reference to the lede, I found myself at Dovercourt and College about a year ago. The Starbucks had recently opened, and a yuppie couple was out pushing a stroller that likely cost more than many peoples' cars (price of child not included; maybe they were just strolling with the stroller -- I don't even remember seeing a kid). And I thought, "'There goes the neighbourhood!'" :)
But note this from an April 20 G&M story:
Potential homeowners are searching harder to find overlooked areas that offer more moderate prices than the most trendy downtown neighbourhoods. Some buyers are extending their search farther east or west, while developers are rapidly building new houses and condominiums on industrial land.
Up-and-coming communities, agents say, include New Toronto, Runnymede, Cedarvale, Corktown and Birchmount Heights.
"All you have to do is track where they're opening the next Starbucks and you have the next hot real estate market," says Richard Silver of Bosley Real Estate Ltd.