Cross-posted on Dirt

Last month I wrote a post on why I was bullish on Toronto’s downtown eastside. I outlined 3 reasons: amount of change; connectivity; and the fact that I believe the Distillery District has better long term potential than Liberty Village.

Since then, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the area. I recently did a biking tour of the under construction River City condos, Underpass Park, Corktown Common Park (which is only open until September since construction isn’t finished yet), and the Canary District condos.

Every time I visit this area of the city I become more excited about its prospects. There’s still a long way to go, but we seem to be on the right track towards building the West Don Lands into a successful downtown neighbourhood. Pretty soon, the Distillery District won’t feel like such an island.

However, the real challenge is going to be the Front Street Promenade, which is intended to be the main drag of the neighbourhood. Getting the right retail mix and creating real urbanity isn’t always easy. But if do get it right, it could be a tremendous anchor for the eastside, which we all know can be a bit sleepy compared to King and Queen West.

I would encourage you to check out the area when you have a moment. Corktown Common offers great views of the city and the emerging area.

The fascinating thing about optimizing for growth is that it can actually discover startup ideas. You can use the need for growth as a form of evolutionary pressure. If you start out with some initial plan and modify it as necessary to keep hitting, say, 10% weekly growth, you may end up with a quite different company than you meant to start. But anything that grows consistently at 10% a week is almost certainly a better idea than you started with.

-Paul Graham

jacks:

us·er
/ˈyo͞ozər/

Noun
1. A person who uses or operates something, esp. a computer or other machine.
2. A person who takes illegal drugs; a drug user.

Synonyms
consumer

During a Square Board meeting, our newest Director Howard Schultz, pulled me aside and asked a simple question.

“Why…

Jack's: Let's reconsider our "users"

Cross-posted on Dirt

Last month I wrote a post on why I was bullish on Toronto’s downtown eastside. I outlined 3 reasons: amount of change; connectivity; and the fact that I believe the Distillery District has better long term potential than Liberty Village.

Since then, I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the area. I recently did a biking tour of the under construction River City condos, Underpass Park, Corktown Common Park (which is only open until September since construction isn’t finished yet), and the Canary District condos.

Every time I visit this area of the city I become more excited about its prospects. There’s still a long way to go, but we seem to be on the right track towards building the West Don Lands into a successful downtown neighbourhood. Pretty soon, the Distillery District won’t feel like such an island.

However, the real challenge is going to be the Front Street Promenade, which is intended to be the main drag of the neighbourhood. Getting the right retail mix and creating real urbanity isn’t always easy. But if do get it right, it could be a tremendous anchor for the eastside, which we all know can be a bit sleepy compared to King and Queen West.

I would encourage you to check out the area when you have a moment. Corktown Common offers great views of the city and the emerging area.

The fascinating thing about optimizing for growth is that it can actually discover startup ideas. You can use the need for growth as a form of evolutionary pressure. If you start out with some initial plan and modify it as necessary to keep hitting, say, 10% weekly growth, you may end up with a quite different company than you meant to start. But anything that grows consistently at 10% a week is almost certainly a better idea than you started with.

-Paul Graham

jacks:

us·er
/ˈyo͞ozər/

Noun
1. A person who uses or operates something, esp. a computer or other machine.
2. A person who takes illegal drugs; a drug user.

Synonyms
consumer

During a Square Board meeting, our newest Director Howard Schultz, pulled me aside and asked a simple question.

“Why…

Jack's: Let's reconsider our "users"