The Globe and Mail newspaper has a story today about some families who have chosen to move to west Toronto from a suburban home.
The O'Haras, who gave up their big house, big commute, pool and yard in suburban Caledon, Ont., for a more compact house and lifestyle in Bloor West Village, admit to being astonished by the congeniality of city neighbours compared with those they left behind.
"I thought people in the city would be more into their own thing," says Mr. O'Hara. "It's the very opposite to what I thought it would be."
For real estate agent Nutan Brown of Royal LePage Real Estate Services Ltd., the circumstance the O'Haras describe is becoming surprisingly familiar. She helped find properties for two other families this summer who gave up monster homes in the suburbs for houses one-third to one-half the size in Toronto. Ms. Brown was struck by how similar their stories were: In each case the parents had grown weary of commuting, consuming, cleaning the pool and driving their kids to friends' houses.
"One family after another," says Ms. Brown, indicating her busy summer. "They all wanted to be in before the school year started."
Tom Poldre and Jane Lawton moved with their two sons from Oakville, Ont., to the Baby Point neighbourhood in west-end Toronto. Both parents work in central Toronto and found the commute draining.
Complete article at the Globe and Mail Newspaper [opens in new window]
Friday, October 3, 2008
Options for Homes - Village by High Park railroad retaining visable
The shored and retaining wall holding back the railroad track bedding can be clearly seen in these images now. In other developments today they have started pushing soil fill from the back of the lot into an area that was the basement of the old CanTire store.
So what happens next will be most interesting. Will they the remove and replace the retaining wall, refit it, rework
it or leave it?
Posted by Robert
wow! what is about to happen here
Many people in the community believe these 3 buildings are now owned by the same person probably by the person who has long owned the variety store that has until recently housed in the most westward building, and is now in the corner building.
With the removal of the the variety store and the video store long gone, the tarp covered roof suggests something must be about to happen. This building is important to many in the community, especially the corner building which has always formed the characteristic part of this intersection.
Update from comment
...there was a minor fire in the upper level of this building some months ago, and firefighters accessed it through the roof (ie cut into it). The tarp has been there ever since. wow!
Posted by Robert
With the removal of the the variety store and the video store long gone, the tarp covered roof suggests something must be about to happen. This building is important to many in the community, especially the corner building which has always formed the characteristic part of this intersection.
Update from comment
...there was a minor fire in the upper level of this building some months ago, and firefighters accessed it through the roof (ie cut into it). The tarp has been there ever since. wow!
Posted by Robert
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Highlights and fisticuffs at the JUNCTION BIA meeting Thur, night
[caption id="attachment_773" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Information provided by Junction BIA and a community member who attended."]
[/caption]
Last night at the Junction BIA General Meeting there was some some rallying and some floor-standing on both sides of the podium. A good outing of the issues is great, and the BIA has to be commended for allowing the public in so freely. BIA's are funded by a levy in addition to business property taxes calculated from the individual property tax and the whole property tax base. They are great local take control of your issues organizations- in this case of the retail strip along Dundas St. West in the Junction.
They also decided to partly fund the Junction Arts Festival this year with a little drop less, although as a non-profit, the group (JFAC) that runs the arts festival can double any BIA contribution to the Fest. Undoubtedly the fest brings more people to the Junction than anything else, so funding the "visitor cow" would seem like an easy choice.
BUT not all of the Dundas Strip retail and building owners turned up at the meeting, well common sense says if you are part of an organization - contribute.
There are now two good organizations in the Junction to help better the area, The BIA, which can be considered the community's friend and the Junction Residents association which can be considered the community's tool.
Posted by Robert
Wondering how to get your local BIA's info, ask them or get a community member to attend if it's public. ...pointing out that it appear fully on the cities web site, that's what we did.
Update January 19th 2009: Original information provided by Junction Gardens BIA with amounts checked by examination of the Junction Gardens BIA budget filing with the City of Toronto.
BIA's who supplied their complete budgets and supporting documentation to the city by by October 10, 2008 are available in this city document.
2009 Business Improvement Area Operating Budgets:
Report No. 1 Full report [opens in new window] This report contains the Junction Gardens Report.
You can quickly find the budgets for any BIA in Toronto using Google
here is a search that finds the Emery Village BIA [Google search link opens in new window]
or enter a string such as this into the Google search box {do not enter the brackets} [Parkdale Village BIA budget site:Toronto.ca] this one delivers the Parkdale Village BIA budget.
Looking find other information about your local BIA simply substitute the word budget with a word or two that reflect your subject of interest, more than two or three words produces weak results ...have fun
[/caption]
Last night at the Junction BIA General Meeting there was some some rallying and some floor-standing on both sides of the podium. A good outing of the issues is great, and the BIA has to be commended for allowing the public in so freely. BIA's are funded by a levy in addition to business property taxes calculated from the individual property tax and the whole property tax base. They are great local take control of your issues organizations- in this case of the retail strip along Dundas St. West in the Junction.
They also decided to partly fund the Junction Arts Festival this year with a little drop less, although as a non-profit, the group (JFAC) that runs the arts festival can double any BIA contribution to the Fest. Undoubtedly the fest brings more people to the Junction than anything else, so funding the "visitor cow" would seem like an easy choice.
BUT not all of the Dundas Strip retail and building owners turned up at the meeting, well common sense says if you are part of an organization - contribute.
There are now two good organizations in the Junction to help better the area, The BIA, which can be considered the community's friend and the Junction Residents association which can be considered the community's tool.
Posted by Robert
Wondering how to get your local BIA's info, ask them or get a community member to attend if it's public. ...pointing out that it appear fully on the cities web site, that's what we did.
Update January 19th 2009: Original information provided by Junction Gardens BIA with amounts checked by examination of the Junction Gardens BIA budget filing with the City of Toronto.
BIA's who supplied their complete budgets and supporting documentation to the city by by October 10, 2008 are available in this city document.
2009 Business Improvement Area Operating Budgets:
Report No. 1 Full report [opens in new window] This report contains the Junction Gardens Report.
You can quickly find the budgets for any BIA in Toronto using Google
here is a search that finds the Emery Village BIA [Google search link opens in new window]
or enter a string such as this into the Google search box {do not enter the brackets} [Parkdale Village BIA budget site:Toronto.ca] this one delivers the Parkdale Village BIA budget.
Looking find other information about your local BIA simply substitute the word budget with a word or two that reflect your subject of interest, more than two or three words produces weak results ...have fun
Upcoming All-Candidates Debates: Parkdale-High Park
Tuesday, October 7, 7:30-9:30 pm
Swansea Residents Association
Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Avenue
Wednesday, October 8, 7:00 -9:00 pm
Bloor West Village Residents Associations
Runnymede United Church
423 Runnymede Rd ( 4 blocks north of Bloor St West)
Information From Peggy Nash site
Posted by Robert
Total gut renos moves to Junction
The area of Dundas West and Islington Ave, and many other WTO areas have been undergoing major house expansion renos of existing houses or complete tear-down and rebuilds. The entire community is under an intensive build big, built new boom. Now that same course of action has come to the Junction with at least 4 active right now.
This 1st set of images is front one about 3/4 finished.
Dug out area where the veranda used to be, probably going to be a room under the new veranda.
New side brick.
Hopefully as this intensifies in the Junction the gut build crowd will maintain some of the character of their buildings.
This 1st set of images is front one about 3/4 finished.
Dug out area where the veranda used to be, probably going to be a room under the new veranda.
New side brick.
Hopefully as this intensifies in the Junction the gut build crowd will maintain some of the character of their buildings.
Annette Bike Lanes reroute annoys no one.
The constanly changing routes and design issues surrounding the Annette Bike lanes may have just reached a point where the whole issue is just too much trouble to attend to for many community members.
It seems the Bloor West Village Residents Association has been attempting to get people interested in the issue, that's one of their posters pictured above.
Posted by Robert
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
How to live in a WTO house flip - REPAIRS
The above image highlights what can happen when a person flips a house and the new buyer - who really wants to live in WTO for a long time, has to repair the flippers work.
It used to be that a lawyer working for a prospective buyer would obtain a certificate of clearance, from the city - proof the house has no outstanding work orders, permits etc.
Well with the advent of title insurance, that doesn’t happen all time, in fact you probably need to ask your lawyer to do it or they won’t.
The image above details one Junction nightmare as his shower in the seond floor washroom started to leak in a newly purchased flip, on inspection it became known that the flipper had built one shower stall which failed and then without removing the one he had built, that had failed, installed another right over it. So now the new owner has to remove all that work and put a new one in.
Posted by Robert
New life for old fort Toronto Star article
The Toronto Star is reporting that the heritage site Fort York may be getting a long needed reworking, that will hopefully cause more people to visit it.
Picture Credit - Fort York Lone primate Flickr
It is perhaps the most underappreciated [sic] of Canada's major historical sites. Hemmed in by railway tracks and, quite literally, overshadowed by the Gardiner Expressway, Toronto's old Fort York doesn't get the respect it warrants as the birthplace of Canada's largest city.
Efforts are under way to change that with city council's approval last week of a design competition to create a much-needed $15 million visitor orientation centre at the fort. Few sites have a more compelling story, but Fort York and its supporters need help to tell it.
Toronto Star Article [opens in new window]
Picture Credit - Fort York Lone primate Flickr
It is perhaps the most underappreciated [sic] of Canada's major historical sites. Hemmed in by railway tracks and, quite literally, overshadowed by the Gardiner Expressway, Toronto's old Fort York doesn't get the respect it warrants as the birthplace of Canada's largest city.
Efforts are under way to change that with city council's approval last week of a design competition to create a much-needed $15 million visitor orientation centre at the fort. Few sites have a more compelling story, but Fort York and its supporters need help to tell it.
Toronto Star Article [opens in new window]
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[caption id="attachment_6078" align="aligncenter" width="473" caption="Looking out of the/one of the reta...
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Starbucks to come to 3077 Dundas Street West? The old Handyman Shop, Junction Residents Association.A commenter on the blog has recently commented that the new building on the South East corner directly across from Crema may be housing a St...
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The Handyman Shop is sold! This great looking building located on the corner of Dundas and Quebec is a favourite for many people in the Jun...
