Gerrard India Bazaar : an atypical ethnic economy in a residential neighbourhood

The purpose of this study is to examine the validity of the thesis that ethnic economies development from a co-ethnic residential context. This paper presents the Gerrard India Bazaar located at Gerrard Street East and Coxwell Ave. in Toronto, Ontario, as a South Asian ethnic economy that has developed into an ethnic commercial district without a corresponding coethnic neighbourhood. This paper explores the process and challenges that have accompanied the development of the Gerrard India Bazaar with the use of newspaper documentation on the area and business information from 1971, 1982, 1991, 1996 and 2009 MIGHTS Business Directory and 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2006 Census Data on the area. Findings from the research demonstrate that ethnic economics can be sustained without a co-ethnic neighborhood as long as there is co-occurring emergence of formal aspects of institutional completeness, accommodation to the residential environment and marketability to the mainstream market.