Little Jamaica

Little Jamaica developed along Eglinton Avenue West, roughly between Keele Street and Marlee Avenue, as Jamaican and other Caribbean immigrants settled in the surrounding neighbourhoods starting in the 1960s and 1970s, opening record shops, roti shops, hair salons and other businesses that built the strip into one of the most important Caribbean commercial and cultural corridors in Canada. The area became closely tied to Toronto's reggae and dancehall music scene, with several long-running record stores serving as informal community hubs as much as retail businesses.

Squeezed by construction

The corridor faced a serious threat starting in the 2010s, when construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT ran directly along Eglinton West for over a decade, tearing up the street and choking off customer access to businesses along the construction zone. Many long-time Little Jamaica businesses closed permanently during the prolonged construction period, prompting community advocacy campaigns and calls for the city to formally recognize and protect the corridor's cultural heritage even as the neighbourhood works to rebuild once the transit line is fully operational.

Sources

• CBC News — Little Jamaica and Eglinton Crosstown construction
• Wikipedia — Little Jamaica, Toronto

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