New Kingwest magazine beautifully illustrates why people don’t like King West
A recently launched quarterly about the fabulousness of life in the King West area is, as expected, a thinly veiled condo catalogue. Created by Freed Developments, the glossy is filled with ads for and profiles of the company’s condo projects, such as Six 50 King West and Five Hundred Wellington West. There’s a two-page article about the Fashion House condo—an ad for it appears three pages later—as well as a two-page pictorial profile of the Thompson Residences, a six-page article about the Thompson Residences and an ad for the Thompson Residences. Also, to really drive the point home that King West has condos, there’s an article called “City’s Condo Craze.”
Condo content aside, the mag’s other editorial content pretty much sums up why some people avoid the neighbourhood:
• Oversexed nonsense. The fashion spread featuring pouting models in skimpy black outfits might as well be called “The servers of King West.” It’s so dark we can barely make out the clothes.
• Ridiculously over-aspirational swagger. This thing has reviews of the Audi R8 V10 (starting at $141,000) and the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet (approximately $200,000). The Porsche can go from 0 to 100 in 3.4 seconds, though presumably not on King Street.
• An overall lack of self-awareness. The cover has not one, but two crowns to drive home that the street has the word “King” in it and is, therefore, classy. The cover’s tagline also reads: “Design, art, real estate, everything regal.” Calls to Buckingham Palace to see if the Queen approves of the topless model on the contents page were not returned.
Joking aside, we should note that the magazine isn’t all pretentious, self-promoting froth. Writer Rick McGinnis, whose interesting pieces for BlogTO and Metro have garnered him a steady following, has an article in here about King West’s history dating back to the War of 1812. There are also interviews with Broken Social Scene and Susur Lee, a wine guide in which prices go from a cheap $11 to a reasonable $30, as well as a look at the neighbourhood’s Italian restaurant boom.
