When Louise James was growing up in Weston-Mt. Dennis in the 1980s, the aging industrial area was hurting. Factories for Kodak and CCM hockey gear were on their last legs. Most of the good jobs were gone, and shops were going out of business.

But the rail line that turned Weston-Mt. Dennis into a manufacturing mecca at the beginning of the last century is once again bringing prosperity.

By the time the Eglinton Crosstown LRT opens in 2021, the area will feature one of the largest transit hubs in the city, second only to Union Station. The Mt. Dennis Crosstown station, at the corner of Eglinton Ave. and Weston Rd., will include a TTC bus terminal and links to GO Transit’s Kitchener line and the Union Pearson Express.

“This was definitely not a ‘cool’ neighbourhood when I bought my house,” said James, 46, who paid $380,000 for her detached two-storey century home in 2013, several blocks from where she grew up.

“But Weston-Mt. Dennis has always been a great community,” she said. “People talk to each other. They look out for each other.

“The area’s multicultural makeup — people from all over, living side-by-side, working class and professional — is what I have always loved,” added James, a lawyer and avid soccer player.

Fifty-five per cent of area residents are visible minorities. The city average is 51 per cent, according to the 2016 census.

Politically known as Ward 5, York South-Weston, its boundaries run south of Highway 401 to Dundas St. W. and west of Caledonia Rd. to the Humber River valley. Although they were distinct neighbourhoods in the 1900s — Weston to the north and Mt. Dennis to the south — the two communities have been working in concert over the past decade on transit, revitalization and other issues.

According to the city’s parks department, Weston-Mt. Dennis is the greenest neighbourhood in the city, with Black Creek meandering through the centre of the community and the Humber River valley snaking through its western edge, giving way to Eglinton Flats and Topham Pond.

For more than a decade, the community has been trying to capitalize on that green space by rebranding as an eco-neighbourhood, to ensure growth and revitalization happens in a sustainable and energy-efficient way.

“The whole idea around eco-neighbourhoods … is that they are complete communities, both economically and socially,” said Mike Mattos, president of the Mt. Dennis Community Association, a key driver of the concept.

“They are places that welcome people regardless of their income or origins ... are carbon-neutral, with more local work,” he added. “Eco-neighbourhoods are smart neighbourhoods and a smart place to live.”

The area’s industrial roots and relatively affordable housing have always attracted newcomers.

James, whose family immigrated to Canada from the Caribbean island of Dominica, has lived in Mt. Dennis since 1979. She went to school with other kids from the Caribbean along with Italians, Germans, Portuguese and Greeks.

“And I always had a few Indigenous kids in my class,” she noted.

More recent immigrants hail from Africa, Mexico, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

“We have always been a great location: just 10 minutes (by car) to the 401 and 10 minutes to the QEW,” James said.

“But soon people will be able to hop on the Crosstown at Eglinton Ave. and zip across town, or take the UP at either the Weston or Mt. Dennis stations and be at Union Station in no time.”

Real-estate prices are beginning to reflect the potential. A bungalow across the street from James recently sold for more than twice the amount she paid for her two-storey home barely six years ago. Developers are snapping up aging storefronts along Weston Rd. for condo and office development.

Artscape Weston Common, which had its grand opening in June on John St., just north of the Weston GO and UP Express station, features live-work space for 26 artists at below-market rent and a new community hub and public square.

A new 30-storey “resort-style” apartment building next door is attracting commuters from as far away as Brampton, Milton and Hamilton, said Lisa Mata, area manager with Rhapsody Property Management Services. Since the UP Express started operation in 2015, people can get to their jobs downtown or at the airport within 15 minutes.

“In the past, people who didn’t know the neighbourhood would never have considered moving to Weston-Mt. Dennis. But now, people are giving us a second look,” said James, a longtime community volunteer.

Jobs are also returning to the neighbourhood. Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency in charge of building the Crosstown line, has a new maintenance and storage facility on part of the old Kodak lands at the northwest corner of Eglinton Ave. and Black Creek Dr.

And a community benefits agreement with Metrolinx has brought local hiring and procurement.Young people from newcomer families are getting good jobs in the construction trades, and local businesses are getting contracts for everything from catering to communications.

While James and community leaders welcome the economic shot in the arm, they are also concerned about gentrification pushing out longtime residents. Securing an affordable home is already a challenge.

“Homelessness is the worst I have seen since I started here,” said Patricia Crooks, co-ordinator of the Weston-King Neighbourhood Centre for the past three years.

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With downtown shelters at capacity, people are couch surfing or spending their evenings at all-night fast-food outlets, she said.

“You can’t find a room for less than $600 a month. And many landlords no longer rent to people on social assistance — even when the government pays the rent directly to them,” Crooks said. “They think they can wait for better tenants. They may be coming, but we have to make sure there is room for everyone, along with the support they need.”

Mental illness and substance abuse are also major problems, she said.

The neighbourhood centre in the basement of Central United Church at the corner of Weston Rd. and King St. has been serving meals and social support for low-income residents for 25 years. Crooks started a food bank on Tuesdays because people were using their food money to pay rent.

Tenant Madina Bakhtovarshoeva, who immigrated to Weston in 2001 from Tajikistan, said tenants need to band together to stand up for their legal rights.

The divorced mother of three young-adult children, including a 23-year-old son with cerebral palsy, is grateful for her spacious three-bedroom apartment in a Weston Rd. highrise. Her rent is $1,560 a month, including hydro.

But the 28-storey building has mice and sewage problems, which makes living there untenable, she said.

“I would love to move, but where else would I find something this affordable?” she said. “Two-bedroom apartments in this building are now renting for $2,000, plus hydro.”

Most tenants in the building are recent immigrants who aren’t aware of landlord-tenant regulations, Bakhtovarshoeva said. In January, she became co-chair of her building’s first tenants association, and already “a feeling of community” is building among her neighbours.

“We are always stronger together,” she said. “We need to fight to make sure our landlord fixes the problems in our building and follows the rules.”

Lifelong area resident and tenant Chiara Padovani, 31, co-ordinates deliveries for North York Harvest Food Bank, sending supplies to food banks in the north end of the city including four in Weston-Mt. Dennis.

Mindful of the connection between hunger and housing, she has been working with tenants in the area over the past year to create a York South-Weston tenants network.

“Even though there are a lot of challenges in the community, tenants and other community members are getting together and demanding better,” she said in her office, located in a sprawling industrial warehouse on the former Kodak lands that holds numerous other community organizations.

“That’s what I find really exciting about this process. I have seen people step up and come together.”

Padovani, who ran for area councillor last fall, believes inclusionary zoning — a policy that requires developers to include a certain percentage of affordable units in every new building — is especially important around transit hubs. The replacement of older units has to be monitored, she said, with a goal of “zero net loss of affordable rental units.”

“It’s not too much to ask,” she said. “Builders will be making a lot of money.”

James, who has been doing her part to get the word out about her beloved neighbourhood, hopes city planners and politicians can work with the community to realize their dreams.

“This area rarely gets something handed to it,” she said. “Any progress has come because people have seized it.”

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