Wave of condo kids growing up in Liberty Village
Young families sacrifice space for Sunday brunches and strolls to work
When Emily Runions moved to Liberty five years ago, she felt like the only mom in the village.
“We would go to the park and you would see the dogs going down the slide more than you would see the kids going down the slide,” said the 30-year-old.
Dogs still vastly outnumber the likes of Runions’ 8-year-old daughter but there are signs young families are setting up in the condo enclave.
A thriving maternity and children’s store, Love Me Do, opened three years ago. Mud outlines the sidewalks where impatient walkers manoeuvre around strollers. And the biggest sign?
“You actually do see kids in Liberty Village,” said Todd Hofley, president of the Liberty Village Residents Association. “If you go to brunch at the Brazen Head . . . you’ll see lots of families in there.”
Hofley, also the condo board president for Liberty Tower, has watched the number of children in his development go from zero to more than 40 in the past five years. Now, more than 10 per cent of the units are home to children, ranging from babies to teenagers, he said.
For him, it’s a welcome change in demographics.
“Neighbourhoods have to have a mix of all generations . . . you can’t have a singularly focused neighbourhood. It’ll die,” he said.
Since its inception just over a decade ago, the preplanned neighbourhood has been known as a haven for design firms, tech companies, and young singles seeking loft living and nearby nightlife.
Beyond condo board statistics and brunch baby sightings, it’s difficult to get accurate numbers on the neighbourhood’s makeup.
Hofley points to rapidly changing demographics outpacing census takers.
“The 2011 census is absolutely useless for Liberty Village at this point. And it was useless in 2012,” he said. “We had seven condo towers finished within14 months of each other. So all of a sudden, Liberty Village . . . doubled.”
Although Hofley agrees three-bedroom units would be more accommodating to families, a lack doesn’t keep them away.
“Even if they don’t build them, they’ll be jerry-rigged, like most of the world. This idea that families on- ly live in homes is a very North American, space-based weirdness,” he said.
Councillor Mike Layton sees the growing number of families as a natural evolution.
“The young people that were buying their first home, and maybe had a dog for the first couple of years, found love and had kids and now that’s changing the nature and the needs of the neighbourhood,” he said.
Acknowledging the area lacks parks, Layton said the city is “trying to address some of this” and “it’s time to revisit” how the community uses its lone park.
Family-friendly infrastructure, including schools, ultimately sways parents’ choices, said Jeanhy Shim, the president of Housing Lab Toronto.
“It’s not like in your 20s or 30s when you just want to know, ‘Can I walk to a bar?’ ” said the independent real-estate development consultant.
Liberty Village has plenty of bars, but there is no school, library, or community centre, something Hofley says needs to be on the agenda at city hall and the school boards sooner rather than later.
“These aren’t things that need to be planned for in 15 or 20 years. These
“This idea that families only live in homes is a very North American, space-based weirdness.” TODD HOFLEY LIBERTY TOWER BOARD PRESIDENT
are things that are going to be needed in five,” he said.
In the meantime, some young families can’t wait.
Michael Camber is a realtor with The Sutton Group working in Liberty Village. He acknowledges families are staying longer, but they still leave.
“I’m not so much moving families in. What I tend to be doing is moving them out,” he said.
Camber himself left the village six months after his second child was born, citing a lack of parks and “not the right amenities.”
“They’re staying a little bit longer than they used to five or10 years ago,” he said, but ultimately Camber sees families go far afield to get what they need in their price range.
According to Shim, that move to the suburbs will become increasingly difficult as people acclimatize to urban life.
“I think people are trying to make it work,” she said. “They’ll stay downtown in the cramped two-bedroom and den because it allows them to walk to work.
“It’s a lifestyle. It’s the ‘I can spend more time with my children because I’m not sitting on the Gardiner or DVP for hours and hours a day.’ ”