Rexdale

Rexdale takes its name from developer Rex Heslop, who began building the community in northern Etobicoke in the 1950s, combining planned residential subdivisions with dedicated industrial land near what became Highway 401 and Highway 27, taking advantage of the area's proximity to the growing Toronto Pearson (then Malton) airport. Heslop's development model, mixing housing with nearby factory and warehouse jobs, was fairly typical of postwar suburban planning around Toronto's highway network.

A diverse, industrial-adjacent suburb

Rexdale grew through subsequent decades into a diverse, working-class community, drawing immigrants from across the world who found housing and jobs in the area's mix of residential streets and nearby industrial employers. Like other large postwar Toronto-area suburbs built quickly around highway infrastructure, Rexdale has periodically been the focus of municipal debates about transit access and service investment relative to more centrally located neighbourhoods, even as it remains home to a large and long-established immigrant community.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Etobicoke
• Wikipedia — Rexdale

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