Adam Norman

I took the dog for a walk yesterday. We just moved to a new neighbourhood in Toronto, so it made for an unusually interesting hour or so.

This is our new house. It’s a cute house on a really cute street, in a really odd town.
Weston is a town within Toronto. Many other neighbourhoods would like to say that, of course, but I think it is true of Weston–if only because insularity breeds community.

Weston, though, is amazing. If these houses were almost anywhere else in Toronto, they would cost a fortune. Few people know Weston, though. Fewer know how pretty it is. I’ll get to the explanation in a minute.

Here are some quite typical Weston houses. They’re not particularly remarkable, though they’re quite cute.

Other places, though are simply astonishing.

Most of the houses here are kept up very well. This is surprising–the average household income in Weston is quite low: $47,000 (compared to $66,000 in Ontario as a whole). The proof is in the details, though–look at the wonderful woodwork on this fascia and the brickwork on the walls!

Weston was once quite prosperous, I think. It used to be the home of CCM, Canada Cycle and Motor. CCM has long since left (for China, I’ll bet), but its Anglo roots remain.

This place is in the Queen Elizabeth style, if I’m not mistaken, and it’s one of my favourites. There are several similar houses in the neighbourhood.

It amazes me that Weston is still undiscovered. It amazed my wife, too, who now refers to me as a “real estate genius”. She had thought of Weston as, well, a little less-than-desirable. Most Torontonians do. This, I think, fairly represents their mind’s-eye image of Weston.

Weston the town is bisected by Weston Road. Weston Road is both ugly and notorious.

It is notorious for the intersection of Weston and Lawrence, an area that has faced a number of problems in the recent past. Last summer there were several murders, and there are some gangs. Two of Toronto’s most tragic killings were allegedly committed by neighbourhood gangsters.

I think that most Torontonians ignore Weston, though, because the eponymous Weston Road is simply ugly. It has a higher concentration of dollar stores and cheque-cashing joints than anywhere else I’ve ever been. The road is too fast and too wide to allow for much pedestrian development, and the local low incomes don’t encourage Starbucks and La Presse Internationales.