A proposal from First Capital Realty to build a 65,000-square-foot mixed-used development on the site of the Humbertown strip mall in Etobicoke has local residents, including mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug, concerned for the neighbourhood’s suburban character. The proposal comprises five buildings containing 576 apartment units, 28 townhouses, 21,000 square metres of commercial space and underground parking. Councillor Gloria Lindsay-Luby and neighbours say it will bring traffic congestion and an unwelcome spike in population density, and the mayor himself showed up at a Etobicoke Community Council meeting last night to put magnets on the cars in the parking lot slam the scheme and remind developers that “this isn’t downtown, this Etobicoke.” Meanwhile, the residents’ association has hired an architect to draw up a proposal for the kind of development they might support, which has 202 residential units, a town square and a maximum building height of six stories rather than 12. First Capital, however, says it’s not planning to adjust its plans before city council considers them at a June 11 meeting. [Globe and Mail]
All stories relating to Etobicoke
Sold: a five-bedroom home on a landscaped lot in Islington for $1.65 million
With all the talk of condo bubbles, over-the-top bidding wars and failed flips, wading into Toronto’s housing market requires equal parts bravery and real estate savvy. To help with the latter, we decided to dish when the properties we profile in our House of the Week, Condo of the Week and Cottage of the Week features are sold. Here, all the details from the latest sale.
• The place: A five-bedroom Etobicoke house with a geometric exterior, a modern, airy interior and a peaceful backyard.
• The agent: Richard K.C. Ling, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage
• Listed price: $1,688,000
House of the Week: $1.9 million for an Islington home with lush landscaped gardens
ADDRESS: 65 Avonhurst Road
NEIGHBOURHOOD: Islington-City Centre West
AGENT: Richard K.C. Ling, Harvey Kalles Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage
PRICE: $1,880,000
THE PLACE: A five-bedroom Etobicoke house with a geometric exterior and a modern, airy interior.
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The Chase: a first-time buyer finds her dream downtown condo in under a week
The buyer: Natalie Pastuszak, a 28-year-old marketing associate.
The story: Pastuszak was sharing a home with her mother in Etobicoke and suffering an hour-long commute to and from the Financial District. “I was just going from one underground parking lot to another,” she says. “I wasn’t even going outside.” Two years ago, she finally decided to move downtown. She’d watched rents skyrocket and figured owning wouldn’t be much more expensive, so she started poring over MLS listings and researching condos online. By last summer, her finances were in order and she was ready to begin looking in earnest. Her dream place was a sunny one-bedroom suite with a terrace and an on-site gym for no more than $300,000—and it had to be within walking distance of work. (She was especially drawn to the eating and drinking scene on King West.) Thanks to her homework, it took only five days of condo hunting before she got exactly what she wanted.
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Rob Ford and the Toronto Sun are breaking up—here, a pair of personal ads to help them move on
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Mayor Rob Ford and the Toronto Sun’s beautiful friendship—a years-long affair based on shared political beliefs, mutual staff members and a common disdain for the Toronto Star—is cracking. In court this week, Ford’s lawyer blamed the paper for the mayor’s current legal woes, arguing that an August 2010 article at the centre of the libel suit misquoted Ford and was more than a “distortion.” The Sun fired back with a column by Michele Mandel that defends the story, accuses the mayor of “bad form” and asks, “Is this how you treat your friends—by throwing them under the bus when the going gets tough?” Given a breakup sounds imminent, we’ve drawn up dating profiles for Ford and the Sun to help them find a new best buddy.
Condos versus factories: five battlegrounds in Toronto’s re-zoning war
The clashing factions in Toronto’s condo fights used to be easy to identify: angry residents and ambitious developers. Now, the debate includes factory owners and workers as well. The city is currently undergoing a five-year-plan review, which allows landowners a rare chance to request a change to their property’s zoning designation, and with the supply of residential land dwindling, developers are hungrily eyeing parcels currently set aside for industry and offices. Here are five places where the battle is playing out.
Rob Ford re-ignites his election campaign at the biggest Ford Fest ever
(Image: Christopher Drost)
Forget TIFF: The biggest party this weekend was Rob Ford’s annual barbecue. No, seriously—Ford Fest attracted more than 6,000 people to his mom Diane Ford’s backyard in Etobicoke, where they lined up for charred meat, listened to councillor Gary Crawford’s cover band and duly gave their names, addresses and phone numbers for “security purposes.” We’ve rounded up the highlights of this year’s event:
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Ford Fest 2012 will have police, pony rides and a Pride parade
(Image: Sh4rp_i)
Despite the fact that Ford Fest is open to anyone who cares to schlep over to Rob Ford’s mom’s house in Etobicoke, every year there seems to be some issue with the guest list at the community barbecue. Last year it was speculation over whether Tim Hudak would attend (he did); this year, a contingent from the LGBT community is planning an unofficial Pride parade for this evening’s event. The idea is to help the mayor see what he’s been missing (and, we imagine, to enjoy some hot dogs, beer and pony rides). The group’s Facebook event page explains:
Well, since Rob was too busy to come to any Pride events this year, we are going to bring the Pride Parade to his backyard. After all, everyone is invited.
The newest housing market hot spots are in Scarborough and Etobicoke
(Image: Anthony Easton)
Regardless of whether the Toronto real estate market is or isn’t crash-bound, there’s one fact everyone can agree on: overall, home prices are up. Way up, according to a new report put out by MPAC, the corporation that conducts Ontario’s property assessments, which says prices have jumped 23 per cent since 2008. Interestingly, it’s not much-buzzed about areas like Roncesvalles or Leaside that posted the biggest gains. Instead, values have risen the most in modest neighbourhoods in northwest and southwest Scarborough, Etobicoke’s Mimico and areas north of Bloor Street near the subway. The report also explains that lowly bungalows have become the subject of fierce competition—prices have shot up 50 per cent—because land-hungry buyers want to plow them down and build their dream homes on the lots. That confirms what we suspected, but it still doesn’t make $1 million-plus bungalows easier to stomach. [Moneyville]
QUOTED: Doug Holyday would never, ever raise kids downtown—not that there’s anything wrong with that
I can just see it now: ‘Where’s little Jenny? Well, she’s downstairs playing in the traffic on her way to the park.’
—Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, on the type of tragic scenario that results when families dare to raise children in the city’s hazardous, traffic-laden core. At city hall yesterday, the former mayor of Etobicoke said he feels “there are healthier places to raise children,” though he grudgingly conceded that some people might actually want to bring up their kids downtown. Adam Vaughan, who was raised downtown and is doing the same with his offspring, leapt to defend downtown parents, and it only got more heated from there (Holyday: “Sometimes I wonder if your head’s on backwards.” Vaughan: “At least I have a head on my shoulders!”). At the root of the spat is a requirement that a proposed 47-storey condo on King Street include family-friendly three-bedroom units, a provision that Holyday called “social engineering.” City council ended up voting to keep the three-bedroom requirement—tough luck for Holyday (and for poor Jenny). [Globe and Mail]
QUOTED: Rob Ford wants to know where to find street food vendors
(Image: torontofoodtrucks.ca)
So are [the hot dog vendors] all downtown? Because in Etobicoke where we live, I don’t see a hot dog vendor and maybe I’m missing something. And I don’t miss too many hotdogs, let me tell ya.
—Rob Ford, asking Marianne Moroney, executive director of Toronto’s Street Food Vendors Association, why Etobicoke and Scarborough residents are being denied the chance to munch on delectably salty street meat. Moroney explained that a by-law currently prevents food carts from operating in the two areas, and suggested harmonizing by-laws across boroughs to open up more vending opportunities. Ford called the restrictions “ridiculous,” and added, “We’ll have to look into that and see what we can do.” It’s heartening to see that the mayor is continuing to make noises about easing Toronto’s strict regulations on food carts and trucks. Maybe that Ford meme-inspired food truck isn’t so implausible after all? [Newstalk 1010]
TRCA kills Rob Ford’s dream of buying up parkland by his house to build a big fence
(Image: Christopher Drost)
As expected, the executive committee of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has decided to follow its staff’s recommendation and has rejected Rob Ford’s bid to buy the bit of parkland next to his Etobicoke bungalow (a.k.a. the catalyst for his showdown with the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale). Both precedent and policy suggested it would have been pretty unusual for the TRCA to approve the sale of parkland, but the mayor’s representative at the meeting, family friend and real estate agent Ross Vaughan, apparently still thinks it was “unfair.”
Etobicoke has fallen out of love with Rob Ford since his reporter-chasing hijinks
(Image: The City of Toronto)
Funnily enough (or sadly enough, from the perspective of civic engagement), the ridiculous Daniel Dale incident seems to have affected Rob Ford’s approval rating more than any of his decisive political defeats from earlier this spring. Poll results released today show that 40 per cent of Toronto residents approve of the job Ford is doing, down seven percentage points since last month and 20 percentage points since his early days as mayor. And in his home turf of Etobicoke, Ford’s approval rating plummeted 15 percentage points to 33 per cent. Lorne Bozinoff, the president of Forum Research, who conducted the survey, suggested Torontonians are not impressed with Ford’s attempt to buy the parkland abutting his house and the brouhaha that followed. Bozinoff also said west-enders might be feeling snubbed since Ford has ignored his former ward, focusing his attention across town to bring subways subways subways to Scarborough. Still, we thought Etobicoke residents wouldn’t turn away from Ford until hell froze over, pigs flew and the sky started to fall—oh, right. [National Post]
The weirdest mayoralty ever—the inside story of Rob Ford’s city hall
Loyal councillors have defied him. His approval ratings have plummeted. And his powerful Conservative backers are nervous. How did it all go so wrong? The strange story of Rob Ford’s city hall
On Newstalk 1010, the sly strains of the Hollies hit “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” offered the first clue. Then morning host Jerry Agar burst on the air with a surprise announcement: Rob Ford and his councillor sibling Doug were taking over the station’s Sunday afternoon talk-fest, The City. For the once-staid CFRB, landing the boisterous brother act that Margaret Atwood had puckishly dubbed the “twin Ford mayors” was clearly a coup, but that didn’t answer the more obvious question: why on earth would the Fords want to spend two more hours a week in front of an open microphone when they were hardly suffering from a lack of media exposure?
Rob Ford, after all, ranks as one of the most compelling and exhaustively chronicled figures in Canadian politics, adored and despised with equal gusto. His every pronouncement seems to turn into front-page fodder, his every grimace and belly scratch catalogued by rapt photographers. And who could forget the YouTube footage of comedian Mary Walsh arriving in his driveway, decked out with a velvet breastplate and a plastic sword?
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A lot of casino questions (and few answers) at Rob Ford’s executive meeting
(Image: Phil Marion from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
MGM and Caesars Entertainment may already be scoping out Toronto as a potential site for a massive resort casino (and have some, er, very nice brochures to help make their case), but yesterday’s executive committee meeting at city council suggests there won’t be any concrete decisions for a while. After listening to deputations from recovering gambling addicts, big-time investors, the Canadian Gaming Association and more, the committee voted to have city staff study the idea and city manager Joe Pennachetti report back in October. That comprehensive report should examine whether or not to have a referendum on the question, the possible effects on job and crime rates, the economic costs and benefits to the city, and—everyone’s favourite topic of speculation—where to put the thing if Toronto agrees to it.
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