Friday, 13 August 2010 12:10

Beer, horns, flags and shirts reading messages such as, "If it Ain't Dutch, it Ain't Much" swept the area of Liberty Village during the Spain 2010 World Cup final, July 23, 2010 - where all Holland fans gathered at School Bakery and Cafe (Fraser and Liberty St.) and a flood of Orange, Holland's colours, could be seen inside of School and pouring through the street right outside of the restaurant.

Over the course of the World Cup tournament, Liberty Village had become the place of gathering for supporters of the Netherlands soccer team. Closing Fraser Avenue for the fans and implementing a beer garden right outside of restaurant, Brad, owner of School Bakery and Cafe explained that as Holland got further and further into the tournament, with more and more wins, more supporters began to flock into Liberty Village.  

"There isn't really an identity to Liberty Village so we reached out to the orphaned communities that didn't have a neighborhood and the Dutch came in from the get go," Moore said. "We had no idea that it would turn out to be something like this."

"We would actually like to establish Liberty Village as Little Holland," Moore said. "There is very good reason, with the amount of Dutch people you see in Toronto, they need their own neighbourghood as well."

Netherland fan, Koen Hofman, who has lived in both Holland and Toronto, found himself in Liberty Village for the big game. "I never felt a touch of Dutch back in Toronto. The coming together of so many Dutch fans during the last few weeks and especially last Sunday is in my eyes the perfect time to give the Dutch community a place of its own."

Hofman also recognized that it made sense from a multicultural perspective, Toronto already known for its diversity with Chinatown, Greektown, Kensington Market, Little Italy and the Spanish community all making their way. "It's just nice to be recognized," he said. "After all, there are quite a few Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, that live in or migrated to Canada. To me Canada is my second home. I have so many great memories here."

However, according to Mike Major, the Manager of Business Improvement Areas for the City of Toronto's Economic Development and Culture division, creating Liberty Village into "Little Holland" would involve canvassing all the  members of the BIA to see if there is even a merit to a name change for Liberty Village to Little Holland.

"It is highly unusual that just because they enjoyed hosting the Dutch during the World Cup that it would warrant a name change," Major said.

He explained the local BIA would canvas their members to see if there is any merit to changing their name. If the businesses were on board, a request would be made to the city and a report would be made to the Economic Development Committee and then it would go to council for approval.

"If you look at Little Italy there are a lot of Italian businesses and history there and the same with Chinatown," Major said, which is not the case for Liberty Village. There would also  be an expense to the Liberty Village BIA in changing the signs, as most BIAs will promote their name on street signs, which the BIAs purchase from the City.  As for now, Toronto's Liberty Village is just beginning its life as 'Little Holland', but don't be surprised if while passing through, you stumble upon a few wooden shoes on your way.

By Caitlin McAuliffe