Yorkville

O.G.: original gentrifier

When the hippies were priced out of this cozy cluster of shops and cafes in the late 1960s, Yorkville became ground zero for Toronto’s gentrification explosion. But rather than paving paradise to put up a parking lot, the influx of high-end boutiques, hotels, resto-lounges, movie stars and, more recently, condo towers has turned these vehicle-unfriendly streets north of Bloor between Yonge and Avenue into a centre for all things fancy-pants.