Leslieville splinters in class struggle
New posters declare war on gentrification
An anonymous poster campaign is waging a war against young urban professionals in an east-end neighbourhood.
The black posters proclaim: "No yuppies in Leslieville." They have appeared on Green P pay boxes, hydro poles and on the temporary walkway beside the EAST Lofts development on Queen St. E., near the Don Valley Parkway.
The signs claims "Yuppies and their stores pray on neighbourhoods. They push up rents (while) pushing the neighbourhood out. Don't look to others to solve this problem, we have to solve it ourselves."
The poster suggests people can help "save the neighbourhood" by not shopping at high-end stores in the area and organizing tenant unions to fight rent increases.
The last two suggestions on the poster take on an unlawful ring: "Smash their windows" and "write graffiti." The posters have the same graphic layout as others which declare: "No Big Box in Leslieville." Commonly posted in shop windows, they are the creation of the Toronto East Community Coalition.
ONGOING TENSION
"I don't know who is behind (the anonymous posters) but it's somebody who completely doesn't understand the issue," said TECC co-chair Kelly Carmichael yesterday.
Area Councillor Paula Fletcher said that there is an ongoing tension because more specialty and high-end stores are moving in and "some of the (marginalized) residents who have been living there for a long time feel there's not a lot of room for them and that they're being forced out," Fletcher said.
Residents have been tenaciously fighting the development of a Wal-Mart on Eastern Ave. for over a year, arguing that it will only bring minimum wage jobs and more car-gernerated pollution into the area.
Property damage is no way to fight gentrification, a local pub owner said. "We're not in Beirut, this is not the right thing to do," Michael Summerfield, 39, of Prohibition Gastro Pub Oyster Bar said.
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