City
Morning Brew: The Annex getting Sketchier, Detroit Cop's Gun Found in East York, Province Powerless on 407 Billing, H1N1 Vaccination Waste
Photo: "dancing at sunrise" by louise@toronto, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Just how sketchy has the Annex become? It's certainly seen a shift toward being a destination for cheap eats and booze, and along with that has come dirtiness, drunkenness, and violence. In an interesting roundup of opinions, Adam Vaughan takes a jab at the 905 mentality, local shop owners talk about the rapid fall, and chicken wings take some of the blame.
Police in East York responding to an armed mugging of a fast food chicken delivery guy discovered a loaded gun that is believed to have been stolen from the Detroit Police some time ago.
Toronto-area drivers that suddenly get questionable 407 ETR bills (in the tune of hundreds or even thousands of dollars, mostly accrued interest) shouldn't rely on the provincial government to do much about it. According to Transportation Minister Jim Bradley, the 407 "is responsible for establishing its own business practices," and he's "not aware of anything" Queen's Park can do to change it. So what's to stop them from simply holding onto unpaid invoices, sending out notification after waiting for heaps interest to accrue, and then seeking payment?
The normally rather peaceful neighbourhood of Bloor West Village experienced what appears to be one of those bling-bling bang-bang types of shootings. Several shell casings have been found, but no victim has turned up yet, after an altercation between occupants of a black SUV with tinted windows and slick rims and a white four-door sedan.
The media are making a whole lot of noise over nothing serious. H1N1 vaccinations have a very short shelf-life, and at the end of each day a few may require disposal as a result. Collectively this represents "hundreds" of doses but overall it's less than 1% lost.
And for those of you who were caught up in the Santa Claus parade crowds this weekend, or just out and enjoying a couple of beautiful falls days rather than sitting in front of a glowing computer screen, here's what blogTO was up to:
- Christoper tried to test-drive a $500,000 car.
- June Too dined on yummy Filipino food at Remely's - in a strip mall in Scarborough.
- Charlotte uncovered some local design finds at Bluebird Handmade in the Annex.
- Tim announced the closure of I Deal Coffee on Queen St, and pondered the potential fate of Madras Pantry.
- Matthew reviewed the Bellwoods showcase show at Lee's Palace.
Discussion
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Annex
As someone pointed out in the comments on the Globe link, Toronto continues to prove it's the worst planned city on the planet.
The entire problem is the Brunswick. People aren't coming out of Sushi joints and pissing on things.
Put a couple of cops on the corner and start busting people. At the very least fine the Brunny for noise violations.
I agree Brunswick house is the number one offender. Its full of d-bags and the street gets ridiculous after last call. But what about lee's palace/Dance Cave? and the Annex Wreck Room (I'm not sure if anyone even goes there).
The Wreck Room has positioned itself to draw a trashy crowd (just watch its video loop on the wall inside), but I'd argue that the Dance Cave still draws its own sorta crowd (at least until the frat crowd shows up later on in the evening). It's not as good as it used to be, new management a few years ago changed it a bit, but it's still fairly "come as you are".
A lot of the blame is being put on the bars, but stabbings in sushi restaurants, the murder of a dentist, perverts invading homes, and the general increase in grossness-factor don't have much to do with people getting wasted in bars. Or maybe they do?
What is going on with people when chicken delivery guys are mugged at gunpoint for a basket of chicken? un-be-lievable.
"perverts invading homes"
You mean the perverts who invaded homes in Little Italy that the news inexplicably reported as "Near Kensington Market" or the Annex?
"stabbings"
No s on the end of that.
I live about 200m from the Bloor West Village shooting episode on Saturday night. Shots were loud and in really quick succession.
Discussion in the 'hood centres on whether the 2 guys involved were from outside the area and decided to settle things on Elora, or if one of the parties invovled lives on Elora. Much speculation going on.
I've lived in the area for over 12 years and think this is an aberration for BVW. I don't think the place is going to go to hell in a handbasket
I didn't realize it for the longest time, but little Italy is still the Annex. So the news is correct.
Kind of sketchy; can't say I agree. They're definitely close together and sort of mash at the borders, but if Little Italy was the Annex, wouldn't they just call it ... the Annex?
I can see why parts of Little Italy would be described as "the Annex," but maybe your sentence just isn't clear enough?
@mr hate: "Near Kensington Market" is fair. It's a really short walk away from the stretch of College that qualifies as "Little Italy", depending.
How interesting! Love neighbourhood border debates.
The Post was the one who said "near Kensington" instead of "in Little Italy" in a headline about the perv burglars.
It bugged my ass that it seemed like they were either trying to add edge to the story or avoid crapping on Little Italy or both.
In my books, the Annex ends at Bathurst. Then you get yer Little Italy west of it on College down south and Little Korea west of it up top.
Neighbourhood descriptions can overlap, particularly when it comes to ones named after ethnic communities living there.
Little Italy, Chinatown, Gay Village, their borders can change as the community expands or moves away.
Traditionally the South Annex is bounded by Grace street on the west, Spadina on the East, College to the South and Bloor to the North
In Reykjavik's (Iceland) bar district, chaos was happening due to last call at every bar being the same time. So they decided to remove the requirement for bars to close at a certain time. It worked because most bars chose a different time and catered to different crowds.
The ground-floor pervert break-ins happened at Spadina & Bloor as well, right in the heart of the ANNEX.
Of course they can change. I'm just interested in what people feel -- that's what I think actually constitutes a neighbourhood's present borders. It's the same principle I take in the east end/west end debate.
Grace St. seems far to me. I admit I haven't lived in the neighbourhood long, but I've never heard of "South Annex" used. Granted, this is just my own experience, completely personal. I wouldn't know what you meant if you used it with me though :)
And are we still talking neighbourhoods? The more we spread out a neighbourhood (the area you describe seems pretty big, I have to say, for a "neighbourhood"), the less useful it is. If you need a name for a cluster of streets, either wait for some kind of character/distinctive community to develop, or be content with "south of the Annex."
Frankly, I think it's terribly problematic for a newspaper to use any neighbourhood designations at all in something like a crime report. It doesn't add any useful information, and only antagonizes people.
I hate to break it to Adam Vaughan, but The Annex's problems aren't caused by some imported 905 culture. If anything, it's been imported from John and Richmond. I used to live in The Annex, having moved there from Scarborough and believe it or not, I saw more police drug raids, bomb investigations, and shooting events than I ever saw growing up in the 'burbs.
The Brunny does seem to be the biggest sore spot. While you do have drunks stumbling out of Lee's, Dance Cave, and the Wreck Room, they don't seem to attract the same sort of douchebags that go to the Brunny.
I've wondered if older area residents decided to hang out at the Brunny and have a pint, if they could reclaim the space. By avoiding it, they're only letting the douchebags take control of it. A few weekends of 45 year olds hanging out at the Brunny would probably send the popped collars running toward a different spot.
re:h1n1 vaccine
they should just inject those expired h1n1 vaccine to those reporters bitching about it to shut them up
A lot of neighbourhood definitions have been screwed up by real estate agents, compounded by people stupid enough to believe hucksters. For example, anyone who knows the east end would call the 'lower Beaches' the part south of Queen, and the 'upper Beaches' the part from Queen north to Kingston road. I think 'upper Beaches' listings have stayed below Danforth... for now.
The John and Richmond culture is entirely 905, so you've still indirectly made his point.
Most people I know in this area refer to the area south of Kingston road as 'the Beach(es)'. No upper or lower.
So I don't really find people getting confused when someone refers to the 'upper' beach. People seem fairly aware they are talking about north of Kingston.
Annex intruder sought: composite sketch released today.
"suspect had brown skin" -- is it that hard for them to say he was BLACK?
Joel is absolutely correct. Remove the ridiculous 2 a.m. last call and people will stagger their departure throughout the evening. An added bonus is people will be less likely to order a large amount of booze for last call and might leave the bar less drunk than is the current practice. For the bars that stay open really late and cause noise disturbances, call the police. Repeat offenders should have their license removed. It works.