Toronto’s Culturally Driven Gentrification: The Creative Class of West Queen West

During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the North American economy began to see evidence that after decades of prosperity (during the post-war boom) the industrial economy was heading for a collapse (Harvey, 1989; Hannigan, 2004). When the war torn European nations were largely rebuilt and the massive move to the suburbs slowed down, the U.S. economy experienced what Harvey called the ‘crisis of accumulation.’ The economy was overproducing in the face of decreasing foreign and domestic demand, encountering stiffening international competition and coping with rising wages. These factors left profit margins squeezed and started the escalating process of deindustrialization. In an effort to cut costs many manufactures ‘outsourced’ and subcontracted production to smaller firms and to international locations such as Mexico, where there were relaxed labor regulations and abundant workforces prepared to work for low wages