Obiter Dicta Issue 2 - September 15, 2014 | Page 2

EDITORIAL 2  Obiter Dicta West Queen West and the Gentrification Curse (Second) Hippest Neighbourhood, and probably the name of Kimye’s next spawn I f you were to peruse the Vogue website (don’t play, I know you regularly do) and glance at their “Most Shared” stories, you’d find a seemingly innocuous article about global street style. Nestled in between a slideshow of Kate Middleton’s pregnancy wardrobe and a video of Nicki Minaj teaching the “Anaconda” dance to a group of models (watch if you want to feel sad about life), is yet another one of those numbered list-cum-article literary monstrosities, which have effectively taken over the internet as a result our ashamedly short attention spans. Unlike the others, however, this one is notable, if not for its superior style (still cringing at the use of “normcore”), than for its content. The list names West Queen West the second hippest neighbourhood in the world, outdone only by the Shimokitazawa district of Tokyo. Cue cheering and hipster hyperventilation. A deluge of commentaries have sprung up on the likes of the Toronto Standard and blogTO, many of them marveling that Toronto beat out Bushwick (!) for the penultimate position on the list. Recurring comparisons to the Brooklyn neighbourhood reminded me of another article I had read recently about one blogger’s quest to document what he perceived to be the dissolution of New York. The blogger, a resident of the East Village, lamented that the once vibrant, chaotic neighbourhood that he called home had turned into a cesspool of heteronormativity, Starbucks, and football fans. Our New York correspondent longed for the days of oddballs, poorly regulated food service, and enough crime “to keep us awake.” Those were the days, he says, when the urban experience was unpredictable, unregulated, and vaguely unsafe. The article described a sadly all-too-familiar phenomenon: quintupled rents, small stores being forced out, and luxury boutiques (or worse, big box stores) popping up where dive bars once stood. Once the young and hip (and rich) move in, the reasoning goes, the path towards commercialization and Midtown soullessness is fixed. Even if the hipsters moving into these neighborhoods see themselves as decidedly against such a metamorphosis, its only a matter of time before landlords catch on to an area’s steadily increasing popularity and eventually drive out small and quaint businesses with egregious rent hikes. Consequently, when I saw West Queen West singled out on the Vogue list, I couldn’t help but think this was its swan song. If the multiplicity of vegan bakeries and artisanal coffee shops are any indication, a. Osgoode Hall Law School, 0014g York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, on  m3j 1p3 e. [email protected] w. obiter-dicta.ca t. @obiterdictaoz “Be just. And if you can’t be just, be arbitrary.” william s. burroughs ê Nicotine and refuse: WQW at its finest. WQW is already a lost cause. But surely hipness consists of more than just proto-gentrified dive bars, boarded up store fronts, and diners that fail to meet basic hygiene standards. The markers of coolness are after all just that: superficial signifiers of eccentricity, implying a vague sense of lawlessness and nonconformity. These seem quite separate from what it is that truly gives a city its personality: a vibrant culture of human characters, living creatively and in resistance of suburban pedestrianism. And this requires, of course, a healthy dose of tolerance, which Torontonians seem to have in spades. In opposition to New York’s gentrification complex, then, I’d argue that the onset of hipness needn’t necessarily signal the end of uniqueness and soul. By some standards (the presence of Starbucks and the price of a meal at the Drake), WQW has already bent to commercialism and yuppie culture. By others (excellent galleries, no-pretense watering holes, and one of the best independent bookstores in the city), it preserves an atmosphere of eccentricity and a sense of community. Which of these factors ought to be editorial board editor-in-chief | Karolina Wisniewski managing editor | Sam Michaels layout editor | Heather Pringle editorial staff business managers | Alvin Qian, Adam Cepler news editor | Mike Capitano opinions editor | Carla Marti arts & culture editor | Marie Park sports editor | Evan Ivkovic copy editor | Subban Jama accorded greater weight? Should WQW be regarded as staunchly preserving its eclecticism, or are we watching a neighbourhood unravel before our eyes? Perhaps only time will tell whether the West Queen West will go the way of Williamsburg and Greenwich Village. In the meantime, we can take solace in truly hip and as-yet-undiscovered Dundas West (but don’t tell Vogue I said that).  For the Vogue list, see: http://www.vogue.com/slideshow/1080625/ fifteen-coolest-street-style-neighbourhoods/ For the article about New York, see: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/06/the-end-of-new-york-how-oneblog-tracks-the-disappearance-of-a-vibrant-city. html  ◆ website editor | Asad Akhtar communications manager | Angie Sheep contributors Dean Sossin, Jeffery Hernaez, Toby Samson, Hannah de Jong, Gleb Matushansky, Kate Henley Submissions for the September 29 issue are due at 5pm on September 20, and should be submitted to: [email protected] The Obiter Dicta is published biweekly during the school year, and is printed by Weller Publishing Co. Ltd. Obiter Dicta is the official student newspaper of Osgoode Hall Law School. The opinions expressed in the articles contained herein are not necessarily those of the Obiter staff. The Obiter reserves the right to refuse any submission that is judged to be libelous or defamatory, contains personal attacks, or is discriminatory on the basis of sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation. Submissions may be edited for length and/or content.