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Did you know that the 43 acre parcel of land that comprises Liberty Village is a “master planned” community? Its handy combination of residential, commercial and retail uses is absolutely 100% intentional.

The name itself was coined by the property owners, area developers and the City of Toronto, but it wasn’t really a huge stretch of the imagination. Liberty Street, the neighbourhood’s central corridor, was named in honour of an historic prison reform that in 1915 forced the closure of the Toronto Central Prison, located around what is now Liberty Street and Lynn Williams Street. And before it closed, the Andrew Mercer Reformatory for Women used to be on the sight where Lamport Stadium currently stands. The street where the released prisoners walked out to became known as Liberty Street.

The arrival of the railway to the area in the 1850s attracted industry, which led to the building of warehouses and factories. Many of these have now been repurposed as converted lofts, live/work spaces and studio offices while others have become restaurants, gyms, furniture stores and galleries.

For example:

Stanley Park is the physical center of the King West/Niagara neighbourhood, and for many of its denizens, especially those with dogs, it’s also the social center. I promised my pal Naomi that I would write about Stanley Park so here it is…

The park was named for Frederick Arthur, Baron Stanley of Preston, 16th Earl of Derby who served as Governor General from 1888 to 1893. He is also the “Stanley” in the Fort York Garrison’s Stanley Barracks, Vancouver’s Stanley Park and, perhaps more famously, hockey’s Stanley Cup!

The park is more than just a doggie owner’s haven, it’s a multi-recreational facility with an outdoor pool, softball field, tennis court, wading pool and playground.

The north side of the park runs from Adelaide to King West while the south side of the park is from King West to Wellington and both sides are between Walnut Street and Stanley Terrace.

But guess what?!? This is so exciting…construction of the Fort York Pedestrian and Cycle Bridge is apparently going ahead and the anticipated finish date is 2012.

This bridge will provide a much needed link between Stanley Park and the western area of the Fort York grounds to the south, which means that the lands north of this stretch of Wellington West will be connected to the Fort York Grounds – now separated by the impassable rail lands to the south of Wellington.

As well, this means an overall improvement to this part of the city’s connection with the waterfront.

For me – this is better than Christmas, Thanksgiving and my birthday all rolled into one! Does this make me a nerd? If so, I guess I can live with that.

People always ask: where should I buy real estate? what’s the next up and coming neighbourhood? There are really a variety of answers to these questions – or what really amounts to one question: where will I get the best return on my real estate investment?

Well, we don’t have a crystal ball, but if you sell a fair amount of real estate and you do your homework and you know the city well – this all isn’t as easy as it sounds, ok? – then you can probably answer this question with some degree of confidence.

For a while now, Corktown is one of the neighbourhoods that usually comes out of my mouth first when people quiz me. Why? Well, for one thing, much of it is still pretty raw and there’s actually room for expansion. Most importantly, to my mind, is how very close it is to downtown.

Corktown’s borders are Berkeley Street to the west and River Street to the east, Queen East to the north and Eastern Avenue to the south. There’s a weird dead zone between King East and Eastern from St. Lawrence Street to the Don River. Does it belong to Corktown or to the West Donlands?

One thing is for sure – Corktown is considered one of the most historical areas in Toronto:

Upper Canada’s first Parliament buildings were at Front and Parliament until being torched during the War of 1812.

Corktown was apparently one of the entry points for some slaves escaping the United States through the Underground Railroad.

Corktown also had Toronto’s first Roman Catholic church, the architecturally beautiful St. Paul’s Basilica.

The Enoch Turner Schoolhouse on Trinity Street was built in 1848 and was Toronto’s first ‘free school’. Its benefactor Enoch Turner was a prominent Corktown brewer and one of Toronto’s great philanthropists. Today the schoolhouse is now run as a museum designed to replicate a mid-19th century classroom.

Corktown’s name derives either from its origins as a settlement area for Irish emigrants, many of them from County Cork, or from the presence of distilleries, breweries and cork-stopper manufacturers in the area.

Some of the original workers’ cottages can still be seen in the area. I had the pleasure of checking some of these out recently after having dinner with friends at the Dominion Pub (pictured above and one of the great “lost hotels” of Toronto). After dinner, I took a stroll nearby and to my delight I found St. Paul Street. Actually it was hallowe’en and half the homeowners on this charming street were out on the sidewalk or in front of their houses just socializing and having cocktails. They immediately pegged me as not “from the street”, but they were so welcoming it really warmed me.

No wonder I love Corktown.

Ahhh….Leslieville. I first became familiar with this ever-changing neighbourhood years ago when Colby and I sold a really gorgeous new townhome to a couple who rank among our favourite clients.

I decided to write about it today because I just sold a really cute house there on Rhodes Avenue. Okay, it’s sold conditionally but I’ll know for sure sometime tomorrow – fingers crossed!

Leslieville begins just east of Broadview Avenue and its boundaries are the Canadian National railway line and Gerrard Street to the north, Empire Avenue to the west, Eastern Avenue to south, and Coxwell Avenue to the east.

Historically speaking, Leslieville actually began as a small village in the 1850s and grew up around the Toronto Nurseries owned by its namesake George Leslie. Most of Leslieville’s residents at that time were gardeners or employed at one of the brick-making factories in the area.

The song “The Maple Leaf Forever” was composed by the first principal of the Leslieville Public School, which was one of the first buildings in the village. Apparently Alexander Muir was inspired when a brilliant maple leaf fell on his jacket from a Leslieville tree. What’s really cool is that this tree is still standing today and has become a famous landmark in the community.

Today there is much to love about Leslieville. It’s still an “up and coming” neighbourhood as we say in real estate … but when the first Starbucks arrived at Queen & Logan in 2006 it was the beginning of the beginning. The arrival of Starbucks in any neighbourhood that previously was without one is what I consider an infallible “gentrification alert”

But there’s much more than just Starbucks there now…

Are you a cheese lover? There’s my favourite, Leslieville Cheese Market. When they opened another location at Queen West & Augusta – in my neighbourhood – it was a happy, happy day. One day, overcome by the aroma of cheese, flavoured olive oils, and more gourmet crackers than you can shake a stick at, I actually blurted out to one of the employees there: “When I die and if I’m lucky enough to go to heaven, I hope heaven is Leslieville Cheese Market”

Or maybe you’re a java junkie looking for something other than ‘Bucks? There’s the Dark Horse and Te Aro.

If you’re a clothes horse like me with a fondness for vintage duds, you would love Thrill of the Find and Gadabout.

And then, of course, there’s food, glorious food! There’s really too many to mention but of note are The Ceili Cottage, Edward Levesque’s Kitchen and The Roy Public House. This last is housed in what was formerly Kubo Radio, where I spent a great new year’s eve there many a year ago. I think it was 2006 but who can remember that far back?

The Distillery District back in the day…

What we now know as the immensely popular Distillery District was once the Gooderham & Worts distillery, with over 40 buildings dedicated to creating whiskey and spirits. From 1837-1990, Gooderham & Worts was in continuous production, mainly of alcohol but with a brief stint of acetone during WW1 and a (supposed) hiatus during Canada’s short-lived Prohibition era.

The Distillery District is now recognized as a national historic site because of its “unique collection of unusually harmonious, high-quality Victorian industrial buildings” , the largest and best preserved of its kind in North America!

During the 1990′s, The Distillery was reborn as the number one film location in Canada and the second largest film location outside of Hollywood. Over the years, more than 1700 films used the site! Possibly my favourite? Tommy Boy with Chris Farley. I love that kind of slapstick humour and Farley was a master. All of the factory scenes from this movie were filmed in Distillery buildings.

Then in late 2001, a development company – Cityscape Holdings Inc. – purchased The Distillery in order to undertake a restoration of the District’s buildings and transform it into a pedestrians-only village dedicated to arts, culture and entertainment.

There are so many things to say about the Distillery District today and its present state – and they’re all good!

First and foremost – because you know I love food – this neighbourhood has some great restaurants, pubs and lounges: Pure Spirits Oyster House, The Boiler House, Tappo Wine Bar, Mill Street Brew Pub, and the Stirling Room. There used to be the fine dining destination Perigee but alas it closed in 2009 *Sniff* Believe me, there were tears in my household when that news came out.

Over and above dining there is also Balzac’s, which is one of the finest coffee houses in the city both from a java and an atmosphere perspective. The architecture, design and decor are all spectacuar. And we can’t forget that the Distillery District is home to Soma Chocolate. If you haven’t tried Soma yet, you don’t know what you’re missing. So get over there and find out asap!

On an arts and culture level, the Distillery has several exciting art galleries thanks to the stimulating influence of Artscape, and it is also the home of Soulpepper, the artist-founded, classical repertory theatre company.

So, of course, when you get this much good stuff in one area who wants to ever leave? Well, you don’t have to – you can live in the Distillery District now, too. You know what we say in real estate: location, location, location! The Distillery District now boasts three condominium developments in varying stages of completion: True Spirit, Clear Spirit, and Gooderham The Collections.

The overall result: An awe-inspiring combination of Victorian Industrial architecture and 21st century design and creative vision that manages to blend these vastly different styles into a cohesive beauty.

The Distillery District today…

George Brown House (corner of Baldwin & Beverley)

According to Wikipedia, Baldwin Village is “one of the best known restaurant districts in Toronto”. Hmmmm. I wouldn’t have described it that way – only because I find that many people don’t even know where Baldwin Village is when I mention it!

So where is it exactly? Baldwin Street runs east-west between Spadina and McCaul and is about equal distance between College and Dundas West. The boundaries of Baldwin Village itself are probably best described as that part of the street between Beverley and McCaul. At least this is certainly the portion where the neighbourhood’s many restaurants and shops lounge side by side enticing the attention of passersby. And what is really unusual, at least in this part of the city, is that there is not a major coffee chain or fast food joint in sight.

But I would probably include the houses between Huron and Beverley in Baldwin Village, too. After all, a neighbourhood should be defined not only by its stock of commerce, but also by the people and dwellings that are mixed into its real estate recipe.

What I love about Baldwin Village – besides the fact that my oldest and dearest friend lives in one of those houses – is its lack of pretension, it’s heritage buildings (including George Brown House pictured above) and its selection of restaurants: from classic French, Chinese, Indian and Thai to Mexican, Italian, Japanese and (my fave) Malaysian. It’s also where Cafe La Gaffe transported itself from its original location in Kensington Market back in the day.

I could go on because with me it’s usually about food, but this brings me back to my original point … I don’t think Baldwin Village is that well known. Maybe it’s because it’s off the beaten track or because it doesn’t have either the slick sophisticated appeal or uber-hip pull of so many downtown areas.

And as much as I like those places, too, I hope Baldwin Village never changes.