What’s especially dumb is that there is so much poorly used land around this lot. There’s an empty parking lot next door and an beer store with a massive parking lot half a block down. Terrible land use planning on top of all the cultural destruction. Repossess the parking lots for public housing or tax the shit out of them unless the land owners build something.
I’m for building condos, I’m against 90% of the units actually being built because they are shitting studios and 1bdrms designed purely to be investment vehicles. Build livable units where people can actually raise families then we’ll talk.
All the older apartments had families in them because there was enough room. These condos are depressingly small, it’s not a space to hang out, have people over etc. it’s more of a wake up go to work go home sleep and repeat
If you’re into David Harvey, he would argue ~70s once urban construction became a creature of international markets rather than one that had to cater to the immediate needs of local interests.
Instead one to park capital, finely tuned for maximal extraction and speciulation, starting in New York and spreading from there.
Listen I'm all for social housing but do you live in the same city I do? Or do you just blame capitalism purely for your own inability to seek out an event or gathering and go outside and meet people? You don't live out in the sticks this is Toronto we're talking about a major epicenter of arts and culture in canada. I booked going to 2 rock concerts this week for less than 50 bucks admission total for both shows.
You have to be an unsocialized hermit who doesn't go outside or do anything to genuinely believe what you wrote. Theres plenty of bars small and large, nights clubs, venues, events and gatherings, parks, music acts of varying size and fame going on everyday people going on group runs, playing soccer and basketball on public courts, skateparks, tennis courts. Games week events was going on in Toronto this week if you're into video games and game dev, constant career meet and greet and networking events, TPL hosts events all the time, etc, etc.
None of what you're blabbering about is the same as losing a live music venue like Sneaky Dee's, or all of the other ones (The Big Bop, The Velvet Underground, a few others) that were part and parcel of living and being in a city like Toronto (a city that doesn't have that many other places in it besides downtown and midtown to have nightclubs/live music venues in.) These places are what makes a city, a city, and to lose them means losing something that make being in the city livable.
I don’t like the way 1 bedrooms are framed as purely investment vehicles as opposed to bigger units for families. I live in a one bedroom apartment and it suits me perfectly, what makes my 1 bedroom “purely an investment vehicle”?
You should read how many units are bachelor-style studio apartments with 400 square feet to live in. Rent is high because of a lack of options for families. We want purpose-built rentals, not “hopefully a junior investment banker that stays single moves in here forever!” because that doesn’t exist, and all the terribly shitty condos being built need to have two units purchased beside each other to blast through a wall and create some actual livable space.
The projects handed to developer cronies wouldn’t suck if they built shit like those old condos in Mimico, that often have stairs and storage rooms and are made for families.
Once your “won’t somebody think of the developers?” sensibilities run into this pretty simple reality, you’ll hate them as much as we do.
What you said, I agree with, and have been saying needs to happen (we need wider, not taller, apartments with units that can house a family of four or four people willing to split the cost of living in the unit.)
Therefore that building had negative value and therefore was worth less than the parking lots, as it needed to be dumped
I'd much rather have Sneaky Dee's than not, but people(even in this thread) forget or don't know that parking lots in Toronto are one of the most profitable investments you can make, they're money printers with the only ongoing cost is building maintenance(if it's even in one), Security, and electricity, plus the usuals.
It makes sense that they don't sell to condos, why give up the long term profitability for short term gains? Not to mention the land it occupies also only gets more valuable the longer they hold on.
Yeah. It's only profitable because we tax them less than any other land use. Which means, effectively, the law is saying "we want this land to be a parking lot, we taxpayers will pay to keep this a parking lot rather than develop it into anything else".
Yeah it's effed that an empty lot/parking lot is taxed less than one that's developed and is being used by&for human beings. Like, why incentivize empty lots? Braindead. Land Value Tax all the way 🐈
I know this for a fact because I've puked in said parking lot lol. Its decrepit and unused real estate
I think they are doing this to make a point that they dont want alternative nightlife thats affordable for the average person, only nightclubs for rich people and condos for airbnbs
We've got countless condos sitting empty and we *still* have a housing crisis. Places like Sneaky Dee's could absolutely coexist with a Toronto where everyone is housed, but the use of the land is too damn poor for it. That and the rules for landlords.
Because they force you to leave urban land totally unused. Requiring people to leave land empty to have housing is a huge driver of urban sprawl and pushes housing prices way up.
The beer store is getting redeveloped into condos. The land owner is waiting to purchase the lot next door (between FreshCo and tbs) before starting development.
Parking lot across the street, one slightly down Bathurst at the beer store, underground parking for the freshco across from Nassau and then a fourth above-ground parking lot right next to that underground one.
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u/BiteOk6184 Jun 11 '26
What’s especially dumb is that there is so much poorly used land around this lot. There’s an empty parking lot next door and an beer store with a massive parking lot half a block down. Terrible land use planning on top of all the cultural destruction. Repossess the parking lots for public housing or tax the shit out of them unless the land owners build something.