City
Morning Brew: Bomb Scare Charges Dropped, Miller Replaces Bryant, Car-less Condo, Bay-Adelaide Tower Opens, Street Naming Controversy
Photo: untitled by k-beer, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Charges have been dropped in the case that saw a large area of Scarborough evacuated on Monday after it was confirmed that the supposed 'bomb' was in fact an alternative fuel engine running on hydrogen. Although dangerous, a Crown Attorney found that 27-year-old Shaun Morris's experiment was not illegal. He was, however, taken to a nearby hospital for a mental assessment following his release.
With much talk about David Miller's decreased popularity and potential running mates in the next municipal election, the mayor is seeking to demonstrate his leadership abilities by taking over as CEO of Invest Toronto, a position held by Michael Bryant prior to his being charged in connection with Darcy Allan Sheppard's death. Miller used the announcement of his interim position as an opportunity to show off his competitive spirit and to express confidence in his election prospects, though it's a long way off.
A 42-storey downtown condominium that features almost no permanent parking spots took a step forward when the Toronto-East York Community Council overruled objections to the project from city staff worried about this missing feature. Set to be built on the former site of the Royal Canadian Military Institute building, the impetus for the no parking experiment is the challenges that the narrow lot poses for the construction of an underground garage. Plans indicate it will have nine car-share spots and accommodation for over three hundred bicycles.
Marking the first opening of a major office tower in the downtown core in roughly two decades, the Bay-Adelaide Centre is set for its ribbon-cutting ceremony today. The 51-storey tower will soon be followed by two more significant openings on October 1st. in the form of the RBC centre (43-storeys) and the Telus Tower (30-storeys). All three buildings adhere to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, with the RBC Centre and Telus Tower notably using water from Lake Ontario for their cooling systems instead of traditional air conditioning.
Emery Village, a neighbourhood in Etobicoke, is experiencing a controversy over its BIA's desire proposal to name streets after living people. Toronto's policy for such matters dictates that except under rare circumstances street names should only be accorded to those no longer among the living. Although some community members objects, the Etobicoke-York Community Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of the proposal, which also includes a street named after a founder of the Emery Village BIA. The proposal does, however, require approval from city council because of its departure from policy.
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....and of course, it is possible to both fix potholes AND have a policy about street names at the same time. Crazy, I know, but true.
Shouldn't he be focusing on...you know, being mayor?
Perhaps he doesn't realize that his dropping popularity might have more to do with his actions (and inactions) as mayor and not his extra curricular activities
They were just holding him for questioning
And yes, crazy that two things could be done at once, less crazy when one of those things is ridiculous and should stop.
A great job is the old Tip Top Taylor building on Lakshore Blvd., and the condo at Yonge & King, at the south-west corner. The built the condo on top of the old bank!
This idea of a car-less condo means two things,
- will the moving trucks block a city street lane?
- a high turnover of tenants who eventually will go on with their lives or may have been given or have received a vehicle through a will, etc.
Ummmm...has no one but me ever had nothing but bad luck locking up bicycles? (as in they are not there the next time I go to get it)
I live in a small downtown condo (12 story) the second level of our parking garage is 75% empty and there are a lot of notices trying to rent out spots on the community board.
Some people just don't want cars.
don't understand your moving trucks reference. Any building with in a few blocks of ryerson will have high turn overs during the school start and end seasons. I been without a car here in Toronto for 10 years. I needed a car when I lived in peterborough.
http://tinyurl.com/n4ka7f
Judy Sgro! Sergio Marchi!!!
Question of the day, would you rather live on Judy Sgro Drive, or OMB Folly?
And god forbid HE try and negotiate a deal on our behalf... chances are the taxpayers would be writing the check for a purchaser to take city property off our hands.
I've worked on several downtown condo projects and parking is ALWAYS an issue. Resale, future use, etc. When projects restrict one bedroom units to 'no parking,' they have just guaranteed those units will be rented out or flipped endlessly.
Perhaps a University Ave. location might save the project from ending up like a tenement building, but then I doubt people will find any cheap parking spaces to rent nearby, either.
And I would like to know of any newer condo project (as opposed to some of the older projects where 1 and even 2 parking spaces per unit were the norm!) where parking is not at a premium. I can say with a great deal of authority not at any of the projects I have worked at!
But I think that building codes should not mandate parking requirements, and let the developer try his hand at this. As another poster pointed out, 315 units in a city of this size is no risk to the city planners, and only a risk to the developer and buyers. I say go for it.