THE BATTLE FOR Leslieville

Last summer, when a stray bullet killed a young mother near the South Riverdale supervised consumption site, it sparked a vicious fight between area residents. One year later, tensions are high, neither side will back down and the opioid crisis rages on

- NAVNEET ALANG

WHEN ANDREA NICKEL and her husband moved to Leslieville in 2008, the neighbourhood was gritty but quickly gentrifying. The indie coffee shop Mercury Espresso Bar had opened a couple of years earlier and was soon joined by a Starbucks. Along the main strip on Queen Eastroughly bookended by Carlaw and Greenwood-cafés and bistros were interspersed with laundromats, convenience stores and a dive bar called Tasty Chicken House that, to the best of anyone's knowledge, didn't sell chicken. Nickel liked that the area was diverse and much quieter than the west end. Affordability added to the appeal. The couple bought their place for $570,000, expecting it to be their starter home, but they loved everything about living there-the people, the feeling of community-and they stayed put.

Over the next decade, the area transformed into a sort of east-end Roncesvalles as other progressive-minded young professionals moved there looking for space to raise their families. New daycares clustered around the neighbourhood's busiest intersections. The average price of a detached home rose from around $400,000 in the early 2000s to $1.6 million this year. Tasty Chicken went out of business. In the shadow of former factories, Leslieville residents can now sip $19 glasses of chablis, buy pretty macarons or share a $200 48-ounce steak paella.