Delusions of Grandview

I lived in Victorian Village for five years and never felt unsafe there, as a single woman. I know some people have had problems with car break-ins, but I never had my car broken into, despite occasionally leaving my cell phone or wallet on the seat by accident. I've only been a visitor in Italian Village and German Village and never felt especially unsafe in either. Nor in Clintonville. I have friends in all of those neighborhoods and they all seem to feel safe. There is the occasional car break-in, but no one I know has had anything worse happen in terms of crime. I've lived in Grandview for about six months now. It's a pretty comfortable place to live, albeit fairly white-bread compared to Victorian Village. It feels safe, although I don't feel like it's a huge difference from Vic Village. Honestly, if money had been no object, I probably would have stayed in Victorian Village or Harrison West. I just couldn't afford anything that fit my needs well in those neighborhoods, and the best house I could find in my price range happened to be in Grandview Heights.

I remember when Toronto was bidding for the Olympics and then-mayor Mel Lastman (who later pretty much single-handedly sank their bid by making some idiotic joke about Africans) said that Toronto should win because it was the "most beautiful" city bidding. Which was just laughable, because Toronto really isn't a very beautiful city at all, either in terms of natural setting or built environment. That said, it is one of my favorite cities anywhere. Lots going on, lots of great little neighborhoods, and despite the rap they get from the rest of Canada, the people are generally really friendly (I lived in Kingston, Ontario for five years, and it was always so refreshing to come into Toronto and meet people who were actually friendly). I was just back there a few weeks ago and remembered again how much I enjoy being in Toronto.

Easton, among others, killed City Center, not downtown (downtown was already dead before Easton). And Grandview Ave certainly is not City Center. I'd consider it more like a tiny Short North, which last I checked, still seems to be humming along despite Easton, Polaris, and Tuttle. I'd tend to agree with CMH_Downtown on this one. With the exception of the Panera, everything on the Grandview Heights part of Grandview Ave. is a local business, and not apt to be duplicated at Grandview Yard. I'd expect those businesses will be able to co-exist with the ones at GY, which I assume will wind up being mostly national chains. And really, most of the places on Grandview Ave. are specialty shops or destination places and not like a drug store or grocery store where you'd want to get in and out quickly and thus convenience of parking would be a big factor in deciding to go there or not. So I would guess people will continue to go to Grandview Ave. and that strip won't be overly damaged by GY. I'd tend to think the Shoppes on Lane Ave. and maybe Lennox (although they have a fairly captive audience of OSU students there) will be more threatened by Grandview Yard, since they're more likely to have some overlap in terms of who sets up shop there. I could see people who have been driving to those places from Grandview or even VV/HW deciding to go to GY instead because it's closer. And others going just because it's the new place.