Firsthand
The local restaurant in Crescent Town represents a hodge-podge of cultures. It’s a Canadian, greasy-spoon, alcohol-serving bar with fish and chips, curry, and souvlaki all on the same menu. On a given evening, customers could include an elderly Jamaican man drinking beer at the bar, a table-full of elderly ladies from the local senior-citizen housing in the dining room, and a couple of young Bengali men at the till.

The Landscape
The Crescent Town patch has nine buildings.  Official numbers put the population at approximately 8,000 people, but the true number could be close to double that. It is located in the former City of East York near Danforth and Victoria Park avenues adjacent to the Victoria Park subway station.

Crescent Town is flat and made of concrete. Most of the grass–of which there is little-was planted into upraised concrete beds. It is remarkable how few stores there are to serve the huge population in this patch. The “Hasty Market” is the only grocery store right in the community. It looks more like a South Asian bazaar than a typical convenience store with its halal butcher, huge assortment of Bollywood movies, samosas, and coffee.

The Crescent Town Club is a community agency providing recreational facilities and community programs to the neighbourhood. There are also many other agencies providing services to residents. ¹

The People
Crescent Town Patch: ¹

• Identified as a priority neighbourhood by the City of Toronto and the United Way of Greater Toronto; both bodies are seeking to improve the quality of life in this community
• A large population of seniors
• An important launching pad for success for new Canadians; many immigrants get their start here and then move on as they are able to access better opportunities, which makes the population quite transient.
• Top languages spoken in area schools include Bengali (dominant), Urdu, Chinese, and Dari (Afghanistan)
• Recently seen an increase in the number of Afghan immigrants
• Though incomes are low in the patch, reliance on welfare and pensions is moderate at 14% of households receiving government benefits (though this is still more than 1.5-times as high as the city average of 8%)

In the wider Crescent Town neighbourhood, the 2006 census numbers indicate that: ²

• Population density is an incredible 20,321 people per square kilometre.  That is  a whopping 23 times higher than the Toronto average of 866/km ², making it one of the densest areas in Canada
• 16% of families are led by lone parents; an incredible 96% of those families were led by women
• 70% of residents were immigrants; 42% of them came to Canada between 2001 and 2006—this is consistent with Crescent Town being one of Toronto’s top 10 gateway communities
• 62% of residents over age 15 have a post-secondary certificate, diploma or degree; 68% got their degree outside of Canada
• 2006 unemployment rate was 9.4 % as compared with 6.7% in the rest of Toronto
• 83% of residents were visible minorities; South Asians make up 72% of the visible minority population
• Many Bengalis, Jamaicans, Pakistanis, Tamils and Indians live in this neighbourhood ³
• Drug dealing and gang violence have been a problem, including a gang war with youth from Teesdale, a low-income neighbourhood nearby. ³

The History
In 1887, Walter Massey, the son of Hart Massey, Canada’s first major industrialist, purchased a 240-acre property centered around Dawes Road and Victoria Park Avenue. The Massey farm was called Dentonia and it was home to City Dairy Company, which produced Canada’s first pasteurized milk. The farm also sold fresh eggs, poultry, and trout (caught in the streams on the farm). In 1933, Susan Massey donated 40 acres of Dentonia to Crescent School. This property was purchased in 1969 by the developers who built the Crescent Town neighbourhood.

Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland was among the first Crescent Town residents. He spent part of his childhood in this neighbourhood and attended Crescent Town Elementary School. ⁴

The Challenge
Will you be an ambassador for Christ welcoming new Canadians to our country and helping them discover God’s best for them? Would you be willing to move into Crescent Town?

Sources
¹ Crescent Town Study, November 20, 2007 http://www.crescenttownclub.com/CT%20FINAL%20REPORT.pdf
² Statistics in the section taken from Census tract profile for 0190.01 (CT), Toronto (CMA) and Ontario.
http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/prof/92-597/P3.cfm?CTuid=5350190.01&Lang=E
³http://www.rapdict.org/Crescent_Town
⁴Toronto Neighbourhoods http://www.torontoneighbourhoods.net/regions/northyork/106.html