Ethnic Grocery Stores

Eglinton Dept: For much of its length, Eglinton is lined with modest two-storey buildings retail at grade, residential above constructed since the 1950s and 60s. Occupied by small businesses everything from ethnic grocery stores and restaurants to bars and clothing shops these gritty structures are unremarkable but brimming with vitality, according to The Star. This is what Toronto looked like before corporate branding turned it into the universal landscape of franchises and global chains. West of Yonge especially, Eglinton is the city of 40 or 50 years ago, not pretty, but accessible, cheap and livable and What Yonge St. was to 20th-century Toronto, Eglinton Ave. could be to the 21st-century city. This enormously diverse thoroughfare extends all the way from Scarborough to Etobicoke and beyond. It is the only street that runs through all six pre-amalgamation boroughs. More on the Eglinton Crosstown (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.