Mississauga: Cooksville Village
 

All photos taken on February 4, 2020.

This is basically "Part 2" of my previous thread, The North American Moscow. While that thread focused on the apartment buildings along the side streets of Cooksville, this thread focuses on the retail along the main streets of Cooksville. But high-rises being high-rises, maybe you will recognize some of the buildings from the other thread in this thread as well.

As I said in the other thread, this is the neighbourhood where I grew up. And now you guys get to see the apartment building that I lived in, and also my dad's former restaurant. I hope these two sets of photos together not only give you a glimpse of my childhood, but also a comprehensive and honest portrait of 60s and 70s suburbia in the Greater Toronto Area.

very interesting. Reminds me a lot of Cote des Neiges district in Montreal, where I once lived.

Nice pictures. Where is Cooksville, exactly? Obviously it's somewhere along Dundas Street.

Wow, Cote des Neiges, I think I know what you mean.

I have to say, when I went to Montreal-Nord to visit my aunt years ago, it reminded me of Toronto area and made me feel kinda homesick as well.

Thank you. Cooksville is centered around the intersection of Hurontario Street and Dundas Street. All of these photos were taken along the two streets. Hurontario is the main street but like Yonge it is perpendicular to the lake and this neighhourhood is not close to the lakeshore.

I only rediscovered these photos a couple weeks ago and I was surprised by them. I don't remember the exact purpose of these photos or why I did not photograph the actual Hurontario and Dundas intersection. It is an extremely busy intersection, as the transfer point between the two busiest routes, so any photos might mislead people into thinking that Cooksville is full of pedestrian activity or something.

I have photographed the intersection before, but I only focused on the people. Here are some photos from 2006, I just hastily re-edited and re-uploaded. If you guys like these maybe I will re-edit and re-upload the rest from that day. I know this website is about skyscrapers so I understand if you guys are not interested in people pictures. I don't do these type of pictures anymore anyways, so no hard feelings either way. Maybe they help provide a more complete portrait of the neighbourhood but I think maybe my more recent photos actually illustrate the demographics better, which I think was what MolsonExport was referring to.




Btw, after rediscovering these Cooksville Village photos and finishing editing them a few days ago, I found a whole bunch more photos that I took along Dundas Street later that same month but in Toronto. Seriously I don't know I could forget about all these photos. Maybe pandemic distracting me too much or something. So yeah, maybe look out for Toronto: Dundas Street West thread in a week or two.

Imagine if all the new high-rise condo districts in downtown Toronto had the same diversity and raw entrepreneurial energy as Cooksville (or most suburban areas) instead of endless chain stores and gentrified businesses. That would be an incredible city.

I think I associate these type of neighbourhoods more with pre-war inner cities than post-war suburbs. It is hard to remember, but maybe that was my thought while taking these pictures, that this is more a "downtown" quality, something I wish I could experience more as a suburban dweller. I think MolsonExport touched upon it too, comparing it to Cote des Neiges. Maybe my upcoming Dundas Street West pictures will change your mind.

It's not like there no high-rise condo districts in Mississauga as well. And there is the Hurontario LRT under construction now and it will go right through the heart of Cooksville with 3 stations, so change could be coming. Look at the demolition site pictured in #21 and #23, maybe change has already started. And of course there is the coronavirus as well.

I am editing the Dundas Street West pictures right now and it makes me kinda sad looking at them and these Cooksville pictures because they were all taken right before the pandemic. Hopefully these places do not lose so much of that diversity and entrepreneurial energy that you mention.

Didn't Her Imperial Highness, the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (sister to the ill-fated czar) once reside in a bungalow near Cooksville?

Are these merchant residences on second floors? They look like balconies of apartments.

Yes they are apartments

You can see apartments in 1/2 and 18 as well. Rest look like offices or retail. You can see these 60s/70s strip malls that mimic traditional main street retail throughout the GTA, especially Mississauga, Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough. I'm not sure how common these kind of strip malls are in other urban areas so I thought maybe you guys would find them interesting.

Thistletown is another great example of these kids of "mixed use strip malls".
https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.73777...7i16384!8i8192

There's a few in smaller Ontario cities but I think only Mississauga, Toronto and Montreal have these in large quantities.

Not just the American Moscow, on top the line of shops looks like some place in an African town I might say.

I like how those strip malls have character as opposed to bland and empty ones that are all over the place.

Good lord, the place looks bleakly awful. But at the same time, there is a struggling and often joyful humanity behind the scenes. An energy exists that is not present in soulless "nice" retail areas.

Reminds me of many parts of Miami, actually. My Cuban immigrant father-in-law owned and operated multiple cafeterias over the years in these types of raw zones of international entrepreneurship. Thanks for the interesting and offbeat tour.

I agree but I find that most of the run of the mill built environment in Ontario to be ugly (in my very limited travels).

Looks a bit like Miami and older suburban LA

Missed this thread the first time around. Those bustling strip plazas are classic inner-suburban Toronto (even though it's Mississauga - basically the same as the parts of North York, Scarborough, and Etobicoke of the same vintage).

Yeah, I get so much nostalgia seeing these pics. Makes me feel like I'm 10 again lol.