I could say that I visit Robert
Street, as well as the streets surrounding it, on a fairly regular basis, due
to the fact that I live on a street that immediately intersects with it (Russell
St.). However, I specifically visited the street using a more analytical lens
on a chilly mid-October day. It was while the leaves were still falling, and so
many of the front lawns of the houses lining the street were covered under a
thin canopy of red and brown leaves.
Robert
Street spans from College Street to Bloor Street, running immediately west of
Spadina Road. It is a truly lovely tree-lined street, much like many of the
others in this neighbourhood. It is lined entirely with houses, some of which appear
as though they are subdivided into apartments for rentals, but most, largely
due to the care that seems to go into their front lawns, appeared to be owned
rather than rented out. Given the number of families that I saw and have seen
entering or leaving houses, as well as the care that is put into some of these
lawns, I think that the assumption that this street is largely residential and
designed for adults/working men and women as opposed to students is not too
far-fetched. These houses are all rather beautiful, most looking as though they
were built years ago from quality materials—the street as a whole is incredibly
aesthetically pleasing when compared to the ‘uglier,’ or rather, more urban and
commercially-focused streets nearby.
As I was walking
down the street, I would periodically see people walking dogs, or parents
walking with their children, or individuals working on preparing their front
lawns and gardens for the coming winter. These people, and the overall
atmosphere of the street, give off a peaceful, residential feeling that is in
stark contrast to some of the surrounding streets—which are usually bustling
and full of traffic, rather than calm like Robert Street. Robert, and the
streets surrounding it, all feel very detached from the city as a whole. This
feeling of detachment is only really broken at College, Harbord, and Bloor,
where there are restaurants and businesses that intersect with Robert.
While
walking Robert, I stopped and briefly talked to a man in his mid-thirties raking
leaves to try to gain an understanding of the demographic of the street. He
told me that as far as he knew, most his neighbours had lived on the street for
many years, and any rentals were mostly basement apartments being rented out by
people who had lived on the street for quite some time, had families, etc. I
know from talking with some friends who live on nearby parallel streets that
larger rental apartments do exist in the neighbourhood, but it seems that
Robert Street in particular is rather devoid of them. This resident did note
that most of the houses are divided into a couple of apartments, such as his,
but they are large and largely owned rather than rented, like some other nearby
neighbourhoods (and indeed, my own apartment only a few short steps away from Robert).
As such, it appears to be a mostly residential street not designed for
students.
Robert
Street falls into the University Neighbourhood (also known as Harbord Village),
according to City of Toronto demographics. From these demographics (according
to the 2011 census), the majority population of this neighbourhood are couples
with or without children, with couples without children being the larger group,
at 51% (82.2% of the population of this neighbourhood is made up of couples).
Age wise, those of working age (defined as 25-64) make up 57% of Harbord
Village’s population. It becomes quite clear then that the area Robert Street
is a part of is made up largely of working families, many of whom have obtained
post-secondary degrees and do not have children, and are therefore able to
afford to live quite comfortably as a result in this beautiful neighbourhood. The
resident I spoke to fell into this category—he and his wife had lived there for
a few years, did not have children, and both worked full time.
The fact that
Robert Street is part of a neighbourhood of working families who live rather
comfortably is apparent in their front lawns. When I visited the street it was
fall and many of the flowers had ceased blooming, I have been to Robert Street
during the summer time and can guarantee that at that time, most front lawns on
the street have beautiful, elaborate gardens. This facet of the street allows
for it to fit rather comfortably into the framework of urban political
ecologies. In particular, the front lawns of Robert Street appear to be a
natural breeding ground for turf-grass subjects, as discussed by Paul Robbins
and Julie Sharp. Robert Street as a site where there are plenty of front lawns
is also quite interesting because of how centrally Robert Street is located—almost
right next to a very busy urban intersection: College and Spadina.
Robbins
and Sharp discuss how, in terms of environmental impact, lawns and lawn owners
are rarely discussed and often overlooked (Robbins and Sharp 2006:112). They
talk about how all of the factors involved in caring for lawns, such as
chemical use, the multi-million dollar economy of planting and maintaining
plants, etc. are all essentially ignored or in hiding because people who take
care of lawns tend to enjoy doing so, and therefore just overlook all of the
factors involved in the effort necessary to maintain them (2006:112). Watching
people on Robert Street caring for their lawns, using products to protect the
roots of their flowers for the winter, etc. make it clear that these people are
deeply involved in taking care of their lawns and use products involved in lawn
care with little concern for the larger processes surrounding them because they
enjoy having good-looking lawns. The only potential concern the people taking
care of Robert Street lawns could have is pesticide use, which has been a
controversial subject for years. Pesticide use was hard to look at on Robert
Street due to the time of year I visited. I have seen a couple of signs on
lawns stating pesticides were used on the grass in the summer, but that’s about
as much as I could observe. The person I talked to when I visited said he did
not use pesticides, but personally did not care whether or not neighbours did. The
lawn creates these turf-grass subject who is “…interpellated by the purified
lawn, and whose identity and life is disciplined by the material demands of the
landscapes they inherit,” (2006:113). In the struggle for a beautiful,
well-maintain lawn, the lawn comes to in a sense control the lawn-owner, and
given how beautiful and well-kept some of the lawns on Robert Street are during
the summer, this seems to be the case.
The
power of the community in creating turf-grass subjects, as discussed by Robbins
and Sharp, also seems to apply quite distinctly to the lawn situation on Robert
Street. They discuss the notion of an obligation to manage one’s private lawn
intensively in order to create a sense of neighbourhood cohesion, as well as to
protect the property values of neighbours by not having a badly-kept lawn
(2006:120). As well, working hard on the lawn and investing a lot of time into
it can help the turf-grass subject feel as though he or she is contributing to
community values and cohesion (2006:120).
The
effort that people on Robert Street put into their lawns to create a beautiful
community seems to coincide quite well with this. The property values of
apartments on the street, given how expensive some of the apartments and homes
can be, is no doubt in part due to the quality and aesthetics of the lawns and
tree cover on the street. Given how beautiful some of the lawns look in the summer,
and how uniform this seems to be along most of the street, it seems as though there
is absolutely a focus on creating a sort of communal lawn and tighter community
through lawn work.
Sources:
Paul Robbins and Julie Sharp, 2006, “Turf Grass Subjects:
The Political Economy of Urban
Monoculture,” in The Nature of
Cities: Urban Political Ecology and the Politics of Urban Metabolism. Nik
Heynen, Maria Kaika and Erik Swyngedouw, eds. Routledge.
Demographic Data on the University
Neighbourhood, 2011.
NHS Languages, Immigration, Income: http://www1.toronto.ca/City%20Of%20Toronto/Social%20Development,%20Finance%20&%20Administration/Neighbourhood%20Profiles/pdf/2011/pdf4/cpa79.pdf
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