Thorncliffe Park

Thorncliffe Park is a densely populated, multicultural neighbourhood in central east Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in the former Borough of East York. East York merged with five other municipalities and a regional government in 1998 to form the new "City of Toronto".

It is commonly considered to be bounded on the east by the Don River, on the west by Millwood Road, on the north by Wicksteed Avenue and Research Road, and on the northwest by a railway track between Millwood and Wicksteed. However, the official [http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/cns_profiles/cns55.htm Community Planning Area] named Thorncliffe Park includes the neighbourhood to the north of the railway tracks, east of Laird Avenue, south of Eglinton Avenue, and east of the Don River.

Thorncliffe Park has both an industrial and a residential section. The residential section is in the south, and consists chiefly of 34 high-rise and low-rise apartment buildings grouped in and around a rough oval with Overlea Boulevard dividing Thorncliffe Park Drive. Some condominiums (in a converted office building) and townhouses have recently been added on Overlea.

Overlea Boulevard used to be the dividing line between the industrial and residential sections, but the decline of the industrial sector in Toronto has led to the appearance of retail establishments and service organizations in the former factories on the north side of Overlea.

The residential section of Thorncliffe Park was originally designed as a planned community for 12,500 residents, but now houses 30,000. The neighbourhood is heavily served by 24 hour public transit provided by the Toronto Transit Commission.

Although the neighbourhood is known for its low income and high unemployment, the Toronto-based "Globe and Mail" newspaper reported in 2004 that it had a low crime rate [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040220.wthorncliff0220/BNStory/Front/?query=] .

The local elementary school, Thorncliffe Park Public School is a K-5 school that began seeing signs of overpopulation in the late 90s. It was largely overpopulated when in 1998 it had a student population of 1,500 and as many as 40 portables filled the schoolyard. The following year students had to be sent to the nearby Don Mills school due to a lack of space. Parents objected to this and Thorncliffe Public School began a massive addition. In 2003 the new addition opened and now Thorncliffe Park Public School is the largest elementary school in North America with a staggering 1900 students. In the summer of 2008 the soccer field and baseball diamond were paved over and 20 new portables were erected in their place prompting fears of further over-crowding.

Both middle school and high schools are all within a short walk of pupils' residences, while buses take pupils to (Catholic) separate schools. In 1998, the local middle school, Valley Park Middle School, stood at around 1,000 students. As of 2007, the school has in excess of 1,200 students, and has been expanded with a new wing and over 10 portable classrooms mounted in the school yard.

Thorncliffe Park Raceway

The site of Thorncliffe Park was a farm owned by Robert T. Davies, the wealthy founder of the Dominion Brewing Co. An avid participant in horse racing, under the banner of Thorncliffe Stable, he raced both Thoroughbred and Standardbred horses. After Davies' death in 1916 his estate sold the property to a group of investors from Baltimore, Maryland who built a horse racetrack. Home to Thoroughbred horse racing, the track also revitalized harness racing in Toronto following its opening on July 21, 1917. Among its Thoroughbred races, the track notably hosted the Prince of Wales Stakes, the My Dear Stakes, and the Clarendon Cup. The track operated until 1952 when it was sold to the Ontario Jockey Club who shut down Thoroughbred racing on June 23, 1952 and Harness Racing on August 12, 1953. The property was sold to a newly formed real estate development company.

Today, the old racetrack site is commemorated by two streets named Grandstand Place and Milepost Place and the number of buildings that took on racetrack stable names like Churchill, Maple Glen and Wellow Glen. In the 1950s, developers tore down the racetrack and created one of Toronto's first high-rise neighbourhoods. The neighbourhood embodies some standard urban planning ideas of the era – high concentrations of similar housing types, strict separation of retail and residential development, and the assumption that everyone has a car. Low-rise buildings are clustered inside the enclosure created by Thorncliffe Park and Overlea, while high-rise buildings line the outside of Thorncliffe Park. Retail establishments were concentrated in a single shopping mall, now called the East York Town Centre, between the two arms of Thorncliffe Park Drive at Overlea Boulevard. Smaller retail and service plazas have recently opened along Overlea Boulevard. Many residents on Thorncliffe Park Drive are at considerable walking distance from shops, although this problem is mitigated somewhat, even in winter, by well kept sidewalks and walkways and by frequent bus service.

The residential twin Leaside Towers are by far the tallest buildings in East York.

Demographics

In 2001, immigrants constituted 66% of the population of the Community Planning Area, and recent immigrants constituted 30%. Twenty-eight per cent of the residents spoke a language other than English or French at home, with the most frequent being Urdu and Gujarati [http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf2/cpa55.pdf] . In Toronto as a whole, immigrants constituted only 49% of the population, and recent immigrants onl 11%; only 19% spoke a language other than English or French at home. [http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf2/all_toronto_full.pdf] Median household income in 2001 was $38,404 Cdn.; the median income in the entire city was $45,251. Twelve per cent of the families in the Community Planning Area were officially classified as having low household incomes, while 5% of the families throughout Toronto were so classified. [http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf3/cpa55.pdf] [http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/pdf3/all_toronto.pdf]

The 5 largest visible minority groups in Thorncliffe Park are:
*South Asian - 42.4%
*Filipino - 11.2%
*Black - 4.1%
*Arab/West Asian - 3.4%
*Chinese - 3.4%The top 5 languages spoken at home in Thorncliffe Park (not English or French):
*Urdu - 1,030 (6.28%)
*Gujarati - 735 (4.48%
*Tagalog - 325 (1.98%)
*Punjabi - 265 (1.61%)
*Chinese - 235 (1.43%)