Rexdale is a neighbourhood in Toronto city, in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is located in the old city of Etobicoke, north-west of the city’s central business district. It also denotes the boundaries of a number of official neighborhoods.
Rexdale was originally developed as a post-World War II residential community inside the city of Etobicoke. This designation now encompasses an area stretching from Malton to the City of Mississauga’s Toronto Pearson International Airport to the west, Highway 401 to the south, Steeles Avenue to the north, and The Humber River to the east, as well as other points in between.
Rexdale was named after Rex Heslop, a local real estate entrepreneur who purchased farmland in the region in 1955 and developed it into a residential community. He built water mains, streets, and sewers, as well as residences that were marketed for sale at $9,000 and $10,000, depending on the area. The homes sold quickly, and by the end of the year, 330 people were living in the property.
When Heslop built the Rexdale Plaza, which was previously home to Eaton’s and Towers department stores, but has since been dismantled and replaced by a power center, it was a watershed moment in Canadian history. Approximately 70 industries and 3,600 dwellings were present in Rexdale at the time of the census.
Rexdale’s early occupants were primarily English and Scottish, but the neighborhood gradually transformed into a multicultural one over the following decades, with residents from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent playing a leading role. Its population is increasing at a rate that is comparable to that of the surrounding communities.
According to Christopher Hume, a journalist with the Toronto Star, Rexdale has become a byword for suburban squalor, social breakdown, and gang violence since its establishment in the 1950s. In the year 2005 alone, five young men were shot and killed in the neighborhood, which is characterized by freeways and skyscrapers, retail malls and churches.
Children who resided in Rexdale, according to Hume, had nothing to do and were wandering about the nameless streets of this town. In his book, Hume describes the idea of Rexdale’s planners as a patchwork of various areas for working and living as well as shopping and playing, all connected by expressways.
Single-use zoning, seclusion from the rest of the community, industrial-scale development, and a reliance on automobiles all contributed to Rexdale’s issues. According to Joyce Lau of the South China Morning Post, other immigrants in Rexdale live in poverty and are surrounded by criminality, as she reported in 2015.
Jane and Finch, Toronto
Kitchen Renovation Toronto Co.
