Home   >   Koreatown   >   Korea Times project: Toronto Koreatown has feel of Seoul, look of LA

Korea Times project: Toronto Koreatown has feel of Seoul, look of LA

December 30, 2015
(Korea Times file)

(Korea Times file)

By Peter Pak

TORONTO — Toronto, the largest city in Canada, feels a lot like Seoul, made of tall buildings and storefronts on top of storefronts. It has neither the rushed busyness of New York nor the quieter, more spread-out relaxation of Los Angeles.

Its Koreatown, on the other hand, is Los Angeles Koreatown’s Olympic Boulevard if it could have been transplanted between Christie and North York. It started in 1971, with the first sign for the local Korean association installed in Christie; by 1980, 44 Korean-owned businesses had sprouted in the region.

Today, about 120 Korean businesses are clustered around North York; an estimated 1,550 Korean convenience stores dot Ontario; and about 180 Korean dry cleaners have settled in the province, as have 207 restaurants, 24 stores, 50 offices and 82 hair salons.

(Korea Times file)

(Korea Times file)