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The development, scheduled for completion in summer 2015, includes high-end townhomes starting at roughly $800,000, according to developer Michael DiPasquale of Dunpar Homes. He said he knew little of Allende’s political history.

Neither did most residents living in the block’s nearby townhomes, who said they were also unaware of any Chileans living nearby.

But the naming of the street has been in the works for 10 years, says Patricio Bascunan, president of Casa Salvador Allende-Toronto, the local Chilean society.

“This community was founded after the coup in Chile in 1973 and most of us were supporters of Salvador Allende in Chile. We had to leave the country for political reasons,” said Mr. Bascunan, who himself fled in 1977.

He said Toronto’s Chilean community of approximately 4,000 people was looking for a way to honour their former president. They proposed this area, after much lobbying of the city and local Ward 21 councillor Joe Mihevc, because it’s within four blocks of where many of them live.

The future townhouse complex is located in a neighbourhood some local residents described as “lower to middle class.”

“It’s just a very working-class neighbourhood,” said Jimmy Truong, 25, who has lived in the area his whole life.

Residents say the area is filled with immigrants, primarily Italian, Portuguese and Chinese, and typically leans left on the political spectrum.

Signs in front of the development advertising its future homes have been tagged with graffiti, including an image of a red hammer and sickle, a common symbol of the communist movement. Another message reads, “crush the patriarchy.”