Leslieville once mainly housed those who worked in the factories, and their departure has greatly changed the area.

The reduction in air pollution and fumes have made it much more appealing to members of the middle and creative class. Leslieville is a neighbourhood which gentrified rapidly between 2000 and 2010 when it was commonly referred to as an up-and-coming neighbourhood, with new restaurants, shops and cafés catering to its new populace popping up.

In 2005, an article in the New York Times proclaimed Leslieville to be Toronto’s hippest place to dine, drink, shop and live. Several industrial buildings in the immediate area, including north along Carlaw, have been revamped into condominiums. Despite the average house costing just under a million dollars, it still has a largely working-class and middle-class sensibility. Most of Leslieville is middle class. In some of the former industrial areas large film studios have opened, including Cinevillage and Showline Studios. Just to the south, in the Port Lands area, the massive new Pinewood Toronto Studios have been built.

A fortified site along Eastern Avenue was the main Toronto base of the Hells Angels until it was raided by police and confiscated in 2007. A number of large public housing complexes built in the neighbourhood in the 1960s and 1970s suffer from ills due to bad design. Just to the southeast of the neighbourhood is the massive Ash bridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, Canada’s largest. Concerted efforts have been made to eliminate odours for the benefit of local residents, but they still do sometimes waft over the area and the neighbouring Beach neighbourhood.