The Lakeshore West Line

Jacob Park
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

Etobicoke-Lakeshore Profile

Councillor: Mark Grimes (Ward 6 — Etobicoke-Lakeshore)
MP: James Maloney (Etobicoke-Lakeshore)
MPP: Peter Milczyn (Etobicoke-Lakeshore)

Etobicoke Creek in the west end of the city serves as the de facto border between Toronto and Mississauga. But it is most infamous for the time when Air France Airbus A340–300, Flight 358 crashed into the ravine when it overran runway 24L. Thankfully all 309 passengers escaped and survived, in what has been dubbed the “Toronto Miracle.”

Aftermath of the crash

The name “Etobicoke” was derived from the Mississauga word wadoopikaang, meaning “place where the alders grow.” It was used to describe the area between Etobicoke Creek and the Humber River, which encompasses the former villages of Long Branch, New Toronto, and Mimico. The villages would amalgamate in 1967 to form the City of Etobicoke and later merge with five other municipalities to form the new City of Toronto.

Long Branch

When exiting Long Branch GO Station, you’ll immediately notice the streetcar loop that serves as the western terminus of the 501 Queen Streetcar route. Aside from familiar Toronto signage and TTC surface vehicles, it’s easy to forget that one is still within Toronto city limits. Many of the low-rise commercial buildings along this strip of Lake Shore Boulevard have remained intact, giving it a small-town vibe.

Long Branch, a short film directed by Dane Clark and Linsey Stewart

In 1883, entrepreneur Thomas Wilkie subdivided what was still farmland into a 219 lot cottage community which he called Sea Breeze Park (later renamed Long Branch Park). Long Branch today is primarily a residential district; south of Lake Shore Blvd. West, single-family detached homes extend to the Lake Ontario shoreline. The beach however is mostly private and hidden behind the homes on Lake Promenade.

View of Lake Ontario from Long Branch Park

Disaster struck in October 1954 with the arrival of Hurricane Hazel in Toronto. Over 40 homes were lost at the mouth of Etobicoke Creek due to flooding. “If it hadn’t been for the trees, which held the houses back, half of them would have been swept out into the lake,” said Long Branch Reeve (a small village Mayor) Marie Curtis.

To prevent future disasters from flooding, a new parkland was created by removing cottages and houses from the floodplain. The sandbar near the mouth of the river was also cleared off. The park was named after Marie Curtis in 1959 in recognition for her efforts to have the park built and for her longstanding municipal service.

The mouth of Etobicoke Creek in Marie Curtis Park

New Toronto

In the 1880s, the Ontario Government purchased a large plot of land on Kipling Avenue and Lake Shore Blvd. West. With overcrowding plaguing the Queen Street Asylum (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health or CAMH), the land was used to build the Mimico Lunatic Asylum and later renamed to Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital. Today, it is the location of Humber College Lakeshore Campus and part of New Toronto, a post-industrial colony.

The cottages from the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital reflects off of Humber’s L Building, opened in 2011

New Toronto was a working-class town and planned for industry and manufacturing from its onset. In 1890, a group of industrialists filed a subdivision plan to convert farmland into factories. The Toronto Globe newspaper (now the Globe and Mail) promoted New Toronto with an article on 25 October 1890 entitled “Toronto’s Growing Suburb — New Toronto — As it is and what it will be”.

New industries arrived in New Toronto during the height of the First World War. Goodyear Tire and Rubber was the town’s largest employer, while other industries included Continental Can, Anaconda American Brass Limited, Gilbey’s Distillery, Lake Simcoe Ice, Campbell’s Soup, and McDonald’s Stamping.

The Goodyear Plant in 1967

The good times wouldn’t last however, as the 1980s was a period of general industrial decline mired with the introduction of free trade. In May 1987, Goodyear Canada Inc. shut down its plant, contributing to overall job loss in the area. The space has since been replaced with townhouse and condo developments as well as Toronto’s largest government housing project.

The Nakiska Co-op on Lakeshore and Thirteenth St. replaced the former Goodyear plant

Mimico

Plans for gentrification is often slower as you move further away from the downtown core. The development pressure isn’t as intense, so neighbourhoods don’t become trendy at light speed pace.

In recent years, new condo developments have emerged in the area near Park Lawn Road as old plans to rejuvenate Mimico and its waterfront are slowly being realized. In early 2012, Toronto Life magazine ranked Mimico number one on their “Where to Buy Now” list of Toronto neighbourhoods.

New condos overlook the Humber Bay Arch Bridge

Mimico derived its name from the Ojibwe (Algonquian) word omiimiikaa, meaning “abundant with wild pigeons.” During the period of European colonization, the passenger pigeon was the most numerous species in the region before going extinct. Noticing the gradual disappearance of the bird, Mimico resident John Kay donated a stuffed passenger pigeon to the Royal Ontario Museum to preserve the last remnant of the town’s namesake.

Plans to modernize Mimico GO Station was slated to begin in 2013. It included platform expansion to accommodate 12-car trains, a pedestrian overpass and tunnel, and a new station building. As of 2017 however, construction has not started. Mimico GO Station (as well as Long Branch) are the only stations on the Lakeshore West line that are not wheelchair accessible.

Artist rendering of the upgrades

Coinciding with the delays to station upgrades is the ongoing fiasco with the On the Go Mimico condo development. Heralded as the first-of-its-kind, the west-end development by Stanton Renaissance was the first condo to be directly linked with a GO station. However, the project has been beset with lawsuits and financial troubles.

Conception art of On the Go Mimico development

In 2013 soon after excavation, crews walked off the job claiming the developer has not paid them for the work completed. 6 years after pre-sale units were first marketed to buyers, the condo is only 15 percent complete.

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