Over the last decade or so, West Queen West has transformed from actually grungy to artfully grungy, but even as designer pooches replaced discarded needles at Trinity Bellwoods Park and used appliance stores turned into boutique coffee bars, one question persisted: what to do about CAMH? Located almost exactly in the middle of the strip, the country’s largest addiction and teaching hospital loomed like a cordoned-off Castle Grayskull—an eyesore and a reminder of archaic attitudes about mental health. An ambitious redevelopment project the province launched in 2006 promised to change all of that, and now we’re finally seeing signs of significant progress: the extension of surrounding streets like Lower Ossington and Fennings onto the CAMH grounds has broken down barriers both figurative and literal; a trinity of new hospital facilities are bright and airy and designed to fit in with other buildings in the neighbourhood; and the Out of This World Café, at the corner of Lower Ossington and Stokes, will open this month and be run by CAMH patients. The goal is to eventually incorporate several independently owned buildings into the landscape. A new apartment complex (set to open this summer) will rent street-level units to restaurants, shops and galleries, just like you see along the rest of the strip, which is exactly the point.
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Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”