Last night, I ate at an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant with one of my Canadian friends, Dan. If I never eat another piece of sashimi, it will be too soon.
Over dinner, Dan and I discussed my neighborhood. Really, it’s a a gayborhood. I live in an intensely gay area of Toronto. A tremendously high percentage of the people in my building are gay. Dan informed me that the tall apartment buildings in this neighborhood are often referred to as the “f*g stacks”.
I live in a f*g stack.
Slurs aside, I’ve also noticed that the gay men in this area are older. They are mostly in their late 30s, 40s and beyond. The younger gays are more evenly dispersed throughout Toronto. I’ve also noticed this trend in other cities and states. The older gays tend to band together geographically while the younger generation does not. I first noticed it in New York City. I saw it again in Provincetown, MA.
And I have a theory.
In the not-so-distant past, gay people came together forming neighborhoods or communities. Partly because they wanted to be together. But mainly because they needed to. Discrimination was commonplace and legal; there was strength in numbers. It was easier to organize a tightly-knit geographic community. The gayborhoods made things safer.
But over the years, things have improved. Sure, there is still much progress to be made when it comes to equality. But living in one geographic community is no longer a necessity for most of the western world. Most of my gay friends feel safe even among their straight counterparts. And with the advent of technology, for some of us, those communities moved online. In many ways, this blog is a f*g stack.
Most of my 20-something (and younger) gay friends live wherever most other non-LGBTQ 20-somethings live. Their neighborhoods and communities are defined by age rather than by sexual orientation. It seems that our generation is a bit more inclusive and open-minded than the one before us. And hopefully our children will create an even more welcoming world.
In short, I think the days are numbered for these f*g stacks. And, in my eyes, that could be a good sign.
May 26, 2009 at 8:51 pm
And I have a theory.
In the not-so-distant past, gay people came together forming neighborhoods or communities. Partly because they wanted to be together. But mainly because they needed to. Discrimination was commonplace and legal; there was strength in numbers. It was easier to organize a tightly-knit geographic community. The gayborhoods made things safer.
-what a clever f*g! you just figured this out. oh dear god you are ignorant. any marginalized, oppressed group of people will try to band together to get support. how hard is that to understand. dear gawd you are thick in the head. why do i even bother to come on here. i give up. it’s absurd.
May 26, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I suppose anyone who plays the victim in life, considering themselves to be marginalised or oppressed would tend to group together for the comfort of numbers. It’s easier than taking responsibility for doing something productive about the situation.
May 27, 2009 at 6:41 am
Dave:
Lighten up for Gawds sake! There is no necessity to knock Davey like that!
May 27, 2009 at 7:19 am
I’d love to knock on Davey’s pecs
~
May 27, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Yeah, Davey DOES NEED an intellectual bitch-slapping now and then. It’s the only way she’ll learn, and hopefully grow up to be a more useful f*g than she currently is. Those nipples will only take her so far in this world.
October 18, 2009 at 3:23 pm
um…did you just call davey a HER?!?!? HOW COULD YOU?????
May 27, 2009 at 8:17 pm
For the record I was knocking Richard Haines for his victim mentality.
May 27, 2009 at 11:50 am
someone is bitter… you don’t have to come on here Richard Haines!!!
May 27, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Dickie Haines— “Don’t get bitchie dearie” (Rod Stewart to George Segal in the movie “No Way to Treat a Lady” 1968).
May 26, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I think your theory may be right. I don’t feel uncomfortable in most of the areas around me, whether they be more gay friendly. I’m seventeen. I’ve noticed the same trends as you have with older gays. They like to have their own complexes and apartments and assisted living centers. I think this segregation may be detrimental because if everyone did as the older generation, fewer people would be exposed to gays. And I think when something becomes unknown it seems more scary to people. That’s what my experience dictates, anyways.
May 27, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Assisted living centers!!! Dear Nathan, we may be old but not all of us intend on going to the grave from an assisted living center! Wait until I tell my partner of 25 years,who is 15 years younger, that he is going to have to visit me in the assisted living center!!
May 26, 2009 at 9:06 pm
it also may be that yoger 20 something gay dont own they rent…are the stacks rentals or owned individually? maybe when people attempt to own the still try to purchase in the “hood”
May 26, 2009 at 9:27 pm
“It seems that our generation is a bit more inclusive and open-minded than the one before us. And hopefully our children will create an even more welcoming world.”
Or just maybe your generation is benefiting – even standing on the backs of – those who came before you. Enjoying the fruits of someone else’s labour for increased acceptance, and claiming it’s because you’re more inclusive and open-minded. I guess that’s what happens when you Wii and Twitter more than listen and learn.
Absurd is right. Wake up, give some respect, and grow up enough to realize life – even pretty gay boy life – isn’t about young versus old.
May 27, 2009 at 3:46 am
What’s all this anger and frustration I can hear around here. In about every country, society or whatever the next generation builds it’s future on the basis of what their ancestors, the generation before them started and left behind for them… we somehow inherite what you will leave behind for us… and we will pass something it on to the next generation in maybe a slightly transformed way… that’s how it has been for generations and hopefully will be for generations still to come… rather to be angry I would be happy if someone told me how great the path is I started wich I pass one to continiue for those after me. So, what’s the problem? That we inherite the fruits of your labor as well as the burden of your not so pleasnt leagacy (like environnmental polution)?
You got the same thing from the Generatoion of our Grandparents!
May 26, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I accidentally moved into a small gaybourhood. I moved in a year ago and about 6 months later ran into an old coworker, who was visiting his friend. He told me about all the other gay ppl on my street. But this was an accident. I think your right.
May 26, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Hate to say us, but us younger homos aren’t more of less inclusive and open-minded than those that came before us.
We’re just as bitchy and snobby at times,and equally capable of being friendly and accepting at other times.
We’re the same.
As for “f*g stacks”… it’s the gayborhood. Some call it trashy and live here because the rent is cheaper. Some like the promixity to ‘gay’ gyms and Fly and the gayborhood. Heck, I hang out there for all of the above reasons.
Your theory may hold some water. But I suspect that younger gays gravitate to other locations in Toronto as well (such as Queen st. West) because that area is known as more artsy and ‘hip’. Or younger well-to-do gays buy condos around there because they sprung up like daffodils in that area over the last few years and attracted many first time buyers.
So… I’d say that it’s a bunch of combined socio-economic factors rather than an inclusivity factor that spread out the younger homos.
P.S. Plenty of 20 and 30 somethings in the gayborhood. Just gotta look harder.
May 27, 2009 at 12:43 pm
This Clarke is almost 50, and there is no question that what David is saying true. Banding together, however, was a double edge sword. It made for a tight community, but one that was isolating and not inviting to those who were either Bi or not quite as “Bitchy” as young Clarke claims. To those who didn’t fit into the gay ghetto community as it was in the 1970′s and 1980′s, there was really no where to go. Many of the older men who now live in the gayborhoods have probably moved there in the last ten years. The gay ghetto has changed dramatically from what it was twenty years ago. It has become very mainstream. Andrew Sullivan wrote an article on his blog last year lamenting and celebrating the loss of the gay identity.
It is good to see someone else named Clarke (with an “e”). There aren’t many of us out there.
May 26, 2009 at 9:42 pm
*this, not us. Sorry about the typo.
May 26, 2009 at 10:10 pm
It’s a great sign, one day to see the even dispersement of all GLBT people among communities throughout the US/World, instead of being cooped up in a “f*g-stack”.
And, let’s not wait on the next generation to make this a more welcoming world, let’s do it now…be the change…
Ciao!
May 26, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Is that the building you live in? I live in one across the street! Welcome to the ‘gayborhood’!
May 26, 2009 at 10:36 pm
In the 70s we as young men had many of the same ideas you had. You must realize that when half of the community becomes sick and begins to die, starting in a matter of months and your world is cenetered on your health and that of your friends and dealing with the daiy death or new friend diagnosed with “death” as we saw it early on, there as a necessity to be together. Even after the crisis, in 2001 the attack on New York made bonding as a community more desirable.
As time goes by, the community will be diluted and gay men and lesbian women will share all the same experiences as their heterosexual counter parts. It is not so much age, as the experiences had in those years. Young gay men need to realize that if they segregate from older men, they will lose traditions, histories and valuable information about themselves and where they have come from.
May 26, 2009 at 10:41 pm
In San Francisco, before the Castro was “The Castro,” it was a working-class Irish neighborhood. We didn’t move in because of all the sociological reasons now discussed by historians and pundits; we moved in because the rent was cheap.
Over the years some of us bought the houses we once rented, some of us moved out into the country or the suburbs, many of us died.
Young people are no longer drawn to the Castro because of cheap rent. They are finding new homes, new identies, new friends, lovers, families.
Change is the magic word. None of can predict it and none of us can understand it. Some of us, if we are lucky, can experience it.
May 27, 2009 at 12:28 am
=-D Well I’m turning 25 this year and I have a lot of younger friends because my boyfriend is 20 so we’ve definitely talked about this “ageism” in the gay culture. Well it actually came up as we were discussing “chicken hawks”, which I gather from our conversations is an older gentleman who preys on younger guys? I guess like a cougar? =-D Either way I feel like unfortunately we do move in either an up or down age range because we kinda sort of have to. Its not like we can get out of it. We don’t usually have a whole lot go go on right like either older or younger. I personally live in a “gayborhood” where we have a majority of the college kids that live on our block young and older gay guys. This can be a double edged sword… gay guys can be cattie as hell LOL !!! In my experience when the neighbors ask random gay questions and are just looking for information. My boyfriend and I both identify as gay men where we live and I feel that it helps to get the information to them than just hide out together in our “safe” “gay identified” places. I see change coming it’s just really really really slow.
May 27, 2009 at 2:38 am
I think gay men of the older generation buy into the ‘fagstacks’ as you call it, for one reason: they can afford great taste. The 20 year old gays can only look and think ‘one day… one day I’ll live there.’
Personally I wouldn’t want to live near any other gays, they bring the neighbourhood down with their topless jogging and their fancy ways. I’d never want to live in an area where I can see a man hugging another man in a tender way, keep that in the restricted areas. I don’t want to live in a gaybourhood. The gays should live in a gayghetto… ghaytto. It’s safer for them. You can’t pick them off individually if they’re in a big pink group like that. And yeah, probably surrounded by a protective wall of lesbia.
May 27, 2009 at 2:37 pm
This has to be a worse crock of s**t than the annoyingly self-centered trash Davey has been writing lately. Wait a minute! After reading it over, I suspect this is a great parody on what Mr. Wavey wrote! My congratulations if that be the case!
May 27, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Where a person lives (gay or straight, young or old) doesn’t tell me anything. So this must be an article about nothing.
May 27, 2009 at 6:21 am
Older gays tend to have their stuff together when the hit their 30′s and above. They tend to appreciate improving home values when they buy. Younger gays don’t have the appreciation of stability because they are still on party mode; hence their reasons for not caring where they live.
May 27, 2009 at 6:42 am
In my 20s and early 30s I lived in the gay village area of downtown Toronto. I could walk to everything and be in the center of all the action. Then my partner and I decided to buy a house with a large yard in a very nice area outside the city (we rationalized we were doing it for our dogs). All of our neighbors are straight and we’ve had no issues. My friends think I’ve abandoned the “gay lifestyle” by moving to suburbia. But my view is that gay people should stake their claim everywhere. I don’t want to be limited to one neighborhood or community.
May 27, 2009 at 6:44 am
We fought the fight against Prop 6 in California over twenty five years ago. We came out when you could legally be fired from your job for coming out. We were young then too, our abs were tight, we were as pretty as you. What happened? How did we become “chicken hawks” and “trolls”? We are your big brothers, your uncles, and your fathers. Why we banded together is not a secret, it’s all economics. Why must you divide us out of your group, if not for the superficial differences brought about by age? Please remember these things when you talk disparagingly about an older gay man. We want love too, and it doesn’t help our self esteem when we hear the crap that comes out of the mouths of you twenty somethings. I’m just 50 now, not getting any younger, but I’m just in the last ten years hitting my stride sexually. And yes, I like perfectly built bodies too. Who the hell wouldn’t? Just remember that we are people with feelings, and to overhear someone call me a “troll” when I’m out with my 30 year old “husband” blows my mind. Chris says not to worry about it but I do anyway. A little respect please.
May 27, 2009 at 7:00 am
DW,
In terms of Toronto and the ghetto, you are seeing and stating what is easily visible to a tourist. What you can’t know is that there is a great number of the gay poulation in Toronto who don’t live in a gay neighbourhood. This has nothing to do with generation, it has more to do with money and — lets face it — taste. I have written here several times that you should look farther a field for your next place to live. Actually, as a gay man who lived for 30 years in Toronto, first 10 as a student, I was mystified by your choice to rent there. What you are looking at and talking about is a certain segment of the gay population of Toronto. I never rented there but always looked for a nicer area.
May 27, 2009 at 7:29 am
Cont’d
For many of us, even in the 80′s & 90′s we felt safe in the city, integrated into our community and able to live as anyone else would. I never felt the need to live in that area.
As nice as it seems now, it was a rather bleak area. When I arrived to go to school as a ten year old and lived in that neighbourhood it was inner city, concrete and full of older late Victorian buildings, empty lots, flop houses and boarding houses, houses of ill repute — as my teacher called them — and so on. The first gay people that I was aware of moving into that area were a small group of gay deaf guys. They seemed to often be on Church St. and would have the most extravagant conversations and arguments as they walked along and did their shopping. Pusateri’s was our local grocery store, before they went all up market and moved north. “Biggy’s Burgers” was the greasy on the corner of Church and Maitland. No outdoor drinking/cruising patio then. Just a few picnic tables on asphalt where the local drunks would hang. Most of these guys seemed to be ex servicemen at the time. There was the Amsterdam Bakery beside the butchers. Always a line out the front door at lunch as the CBC people, Jarvis Collegiate kids & the National Ballet School staff & students would try to get in for a covetted table. Even in late January and -25c.
It has become a one industry area. It wasn’t always like that. Anyway…..I am way off topic! Apologies.
J
May 27, 2009 at 4:02 pm
I remember that also, even though I didn’t live there but was a visitor from the US. Your response brought back many nice memories.
May 27, 2009 at 7:47 am
A good trend. Perhaps the 20 somethings are living where they need to out of necessicity (with their parents).
May 27, 2009 at 7:50 am
Lack of wisdom in todays post. Some good comments.
May 27, 2009 at 8:22 am
i hope there’s always a gayborhood.
May 27, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Haha! Awesome!
thats not nice davey! “f*g Stacks” ?!
xD
May 27, 2009 at 8:36 am
People are people, we seek our tribe. The reason most 20-somethings don’t live in ‘the’ gay neighborhood, Chelsea,in Manhattan is the relatively high rents.
I have seen gay men as pioneers of sorts. In the 80′s Chelsea was not a desired location. Rents were low and the neighborhood was sketchy. Gay men moved in and opened businesses other businesses followed and with time the neighborhood changed. Other areas with a high gay population have sprung up. Hell’s Kitchen, Dumbo, Williamsburg, Park Slope. All have a few things in common(or had) low rents (by NYC standards) and a core of creative, open minded and diverse individuals.
Talk to some of those 30 and beyond guys in your building and see what the area was like 10- 20 years ago. I agree with the post above this is a socio-economic issue.
May 27, 2009 at 8:37 am
Davey Wavey..You are fast becuming one of the “OLDER” gays in those “f*g stacks”…so don’t look in the mirror this week…. Love “your” David
May 27, 2009 at 8:43 am
Chicago’s gayborhood “boystown” is still mostly younger gay peeps and by younger I mean from 18 to 30′s. Since the majority of LGBT businesses, bars, etc are there, that’s where “we” tend to congregate.
Those of us who are getting on in our years have been moving North and buying in places like Edgewater & Rogers Park.
Oddly, a couple of new bars & LGBT shops have been opening up in these areas.
On my street alone (in Uptown) I’ve seen more LGBT people including younger guys moving in since there’s a healthy mix of rental and ownership options.
Its about comfort and accessibility IMHO.
Living near people LIKE me feels more comfortable.
May 27, 2009 at 8:49 am
I think you’re right about the clustering.
However, I’m 38 and don’t consider myself one of the “OLDER” crowd. My last BF was 22 and I had a 21 year ask for my number 2 days ago.
Even though I may be a Generation X and not a Millineial, let’s not put ALL of us in the same discriminatory category.
May 27, 2009 at 9:09 am
How come no one ever speaks of “hetero-stacks” or whatever else they should be called?
Perhaps f*g stacks are a choice for the better – just as one might want to live in a “artists district” or “athletes village.” (yeah, the latter only exists during Olympic games)
May 27, 2009 at 9:32 am
Could be the younger guys don’t want to be living in a known gay area yet. The older guys are secure with their gayness and can live there around other gay people and don’t worry about what others think.
May 27, 2009 at 9:43 am
Davey,
First of all thank you for calling those of us in our 40′s “older”. The implied reference was not very nice. Second, you forget that most of us that are “older” can afford better housing than most in their 20′s. Afterall, why would I live where someone who makes 1/3 of my income can afford. I earn more money so I get better stuff. Thus the reason for the lack of 20 something men in our neighborhoods. Unless of course they someones’ friend, lover, boytoy, etc… The “f*g stack” may well be going away but the age separation in housing is not likely to end anytime in the near future.
May 27, 2009 at 10:55 am
I have lived in Ireland, montreal, new york, Isreal, northern calif,Long beach and everybody that was queer, lived around each other.When I was 17 I was out!. The people of calif have said were do not even have rights ,was marching last night. Seems like you dont even have the time of day 4 older queers…..
May 27, 2009 at 11:06 am
Davey, you really sound like a totally self-absorbed air-headed f*g here:
“It seems that our generation is a bit more inclusive and open-minded than the one before us.”
This statement is so simplistic, so myopically wrong on so many levels as to be simple-minded. For one thing, society in general is more open, and more accepting–but let’s face it NOT for anything the current 20-something generation of GLBT people have done. You were born into it, you didn’t create it. To use the baseball metaphor, it’s like starting on 3rd base and believing you hit a triple.
On the contrary, younger GLBTers have BENEFITTED from the openness, and in turn are ABLE to be enjoy less oppression and abuse from society, and more of a semblance of tolerance.
We really owe a debt of gratitutde and respect to the GLBT movement that came out of the 1960s and 1970s. Those people had real courage, standing up to the abuses of bigoted, homophobic police forces and city governemnts when doing so had head-busting consequences. When I see 14, 15, 16 year old kids on the subway who apparently feel comfortable being openly gay, being openly affectionate with each other, I don’t feel resentment—I feel glad for them. It IS progress that they don’t hate themselves, and that they aren’t having to hide or hide from themselves. But they themselves didn’t bring that “open-minded(ness)” or “inclusive(ness)” with them. It was the gays and lesbians of their grandparents’ generations who began to make it possible. It’s very important not to forget that, Davey. I think you’re more intelligent than what you wrote, and you really should put more thought into this blog. An apology wouldn’t be out of line.
May 27, 2009 at 11:57 am
An apology? For what?
You must be kidding!
May 27, 2009 at 11:09 am
I agree that the dispersion of gays among all neighborhoods in a city is a good thing and inevitable. But never forget that gathering together in specific areas gave gays the voting power and political clout to bring about the changes that make the dispersion possible. For example, Harvey Milk could not have been elected without that concentrated political power in the Castro. We are in the final stages of the transition, but it’s not finished.
May 27, 2009 at 11:27 am
“Most of my 20-something (and younger) gay friends live wherever most other non-LGBTQ 20-somethings live. Their neighborhoods and communities are defined by age rather than by sexual orientation.”
Welcome to Avenue Q, Davey!
Probably the largest factor today driving housing decisions for 20-somethings (indeed for EVERYONE)is where they can AFFORD to live. Figure out what you can afford, and then from that, figure out what you like best.
Economics was probably the driving factor 40-50 years ago too, at least in cities. People moving to the city looked for places they could afford, and then searched by affinity. Young gays and lesbians moving to the city often ended up in the same neighborhoods because of availability and affordability of housing stock. Once a core neighborhood was established and took on a gay identity, THEN people started to move there because of the cultural affinity. When property values start to rise, then people gay and straight start ‘competing’ for the same housing stock (cf West Village, Chelsea). That, in a nutshell, is gentrification.
Eventually, young gays and lesbians moving to the city get priced out of the established gay neighborhoods, so they go to other areas in search of affordable housing and new neighborhoods get established (East Village, Clinton, Hell’s Kitchen….Williamsburg). Over the last 5-6 years, I’ve probably talked to 10 young gay guys moving to the city who wanted to move to Chelsea…only a couple of them did, and of course, they had roommates, because it’s too expensive to afford on their own. Some went to Brooklyn or the Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods, or to Astoria. But the decision was always driven by price and availability, not by where they WANTED to live. All of them originally WANTED to live in Chelsea, or the West Village.
May 27, 2009 at 11:56 am
woo f*g stack comments!!
..hahaha jk
May 27, 2009 at 12:19 pm
they did, It is West Hollywood in CA
May 27, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I hear you guys talk about paradise, i’ve been here in Mexico for 21 years and haven’t met 1 gay person yet or 1 person showing affection openly to another of his same sex. I’ve talked to guys I’ve met on line and they are too afraid to meet me they think it could be a trick. I met my boyfriend on a date site online about two months ago. I didn’t see a picture of him til about 3 weeks ago. It was a month before I knew his real name. we have been communicating by phone or email I am finally going to meet him this sat. i haven’t been kissed for 25 years. by a man that is.
May 27, 2009 at 9:29 pm
I dont really know, What part of Mexico you live in, i mean, im mexican, and i did live in Hawaii for about, 19 yeas, as soon as i came back to Mexico it was a surprise for me to find, no. 1, the amount of gay people, bixesuals, and lebians, that you can see in the open, that is not counting, all the closet guys, that from a mile away you can see checking other guys out, its so obvious,im Guadalajara, thats why im here making a comment to you that, now days as David, reffers,our culture is chanching, in a positive way for us in every corner of the world, may be you should move to a bigger more open place to look for a love life. 25 years of no love or kisses or hugs or a man in your life is a life time, dont let it go away!!. By the way good luck on Saturday with your new relationship!!.
May 27, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I live in Tampico/Madero on the Gulf, I live in a suburb if I spent time downtown maybe things would be different. I am taking a poll from guys from the age of 18 to 23. i tell them I’m bi and ask them if they know any gay guys other than me. They ALWAYS SAY “BUT YOU AREN’T GAY YOU ARE BI,” that seems important to them. then i ask again if they know any gays and they say that they don’t. I ask why that is. They say they don’t know or they say they are shy. I ask if they could be afraid. They sy it might be. i ask what they are afraid of and they say exclusion. I suggest they are afraid of violence They don’t agree. I ask them if they are gay and they all deny it. it’s an interesting poll.
May 27, 2009 at 8:55 pm
so u live on Church and Wood steet
May 27, 2009 at 9:16 pm
I know where you are living. Can I come over to have a drink? Kidding …
May 27, 2009 at 9:55 pm
You write about gay identity and the need to be among one’s own kind in older gay folks, and the apparent lack of this need among younger gays. What you do not mention or consider is that there is a very real inclination among young gay men to segregate themselves from older gay men. Since gay values center on the physical attractiveness of the body, one could say that younger gays do not want to live in a community that is dominated by older and relatively unattractive gay men. They would rather associate themselves with their own more physically attractive age group, gay or straight. Sexuality discrimination is a thing of the past for the most part. Age discrimination is very much a thing of the present.
May 27, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Hey I know where you’re coming from but here in nm theres a serious lack from the whole aids epidemic we all suffered in the 80′s. so yeah it’s a little hard to meet older gay guys when they’re dead. I personally have had both relationships (good and bad/non sexual/sexual) with older gay guys. I have no problem being in a community with people who don’t just wanna get into my pants. =-D
May 28, 2009 at 12:06 am
I thought Davy was 30 years old already? He’s still in his 20′s?
May 28, 2009 at 11:13 am
He just looks 30!
May 28, 2009 at 7:23 am
could be just that people want to participate in a sense of community other than internet interchanges?
or, young people are slow to move out of their parental homes or need to finder cheaper accommodations in a city where housing is still expensive and is less expensive the more you move away from the city core?
I live in the “gaybourhood” just a couple of blocks from Davey and it isn’t because I am quaking in fear about living in other parts of Toronto – in fact I have lived also down at the harbourfront, in Cabbagetown and around Queen West. I have never felt unsafe in any of these locations or felt that I was threatened for being gay. Many of my friends who live further out from the downtown core appreciate having a more central spot to congregate at in the “gaybourhood” – which they still frequent, regardless of where they live.
May 28, 2009 at 7:32 am
FYI I don’t think Davey lives in the coop shown in the picture above; that was just an example of the buildings around here. If you check some of his earlier blogs you will be able to recognize some of the neighbourhood buildings you can see from his window.
May 28, 2009 at 8:21 am
I think it’s much simpler: economics. Established gay communities throughout the US and Canada tend to be “it” neighborhoods so the rents (and mortgages) tend to be high. Younger gays just can’t afford to live there.
But I do agree that the idea of the “gayborhood” is becoming more and more anachronistic.
May 28, 2009 at 11:08 am
So,these people, gays, are living in a kind of ghetto? even Toronto ? Not good at all!
May 29, 2009 at 11:21 am
If you wish to invest in Real estate, follow the gay crowd!
Normally they find a decent but depressed market area for Rentals and Purchase. Safety on the streets, schools availabilty, and other goodies are not quit as important to those who don’t have little ones.
They move in and fix up things, make it pretty, and generally bring up the land values. The Hetero’s and other investers soon follow and the prices escalate.
Pretty soon the young gays can’t afford the area and look for other promising sites and the cycle continues. Young home seekers often follow the gay crowd, as they know the area is on the way up and have no problems with being in what some consider a Gay Getto.
So it has been, so it will be………
May 29, 2009 at 1:48 pm
That is so true CJW. We can all think of areas that you described where no
one wanted to live until the “gays’ moved in and fixed up the homes. Great real estate tip.
May 29, 2009 at 11:54 pm
I think I live in a f*g stack. But I never knew about that At church and Alexander we call those buildings Vaseline tower. I dunno why, but they are just called that. hahaha
Almost a year living @ Church and Wellesley and I am kinda glad I did because I had the best of memories and the worst. Hope you have fun in Toronto and I might bump into you.
May 31, 2009 at 7:57 pm
that’s church and wood street where you are living
June 8, 2009 at 11:44 am
At least you are around people that are similar. That’s a good thing.
August 2, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Theres no gayborhood where i live and i wish there was!
January 5, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I would rather live in a gayborhood than among the breeder crowd.