The problem, as I sit here contemplating MetroMan's last posts, is that Toronto has no shortage of "loudmouth conceited SOB's". In fact, we're swimming in them -- drowning in them. I could spend the next hour, just off the top of my head, rhyming off a list of know-nothing fools in our public...

I'd pay $950,000 for them to knock it down.

Nimbies can never be satisfied. Propose a six-storey building at the intersection of major avenues and they want three. I'm certain that if the developer had proposed three in the first place, they'd be demanding one.

The 1924 map seems to suggest that property owners on the north side of Howard continued to own their (noncontiguous) ravine land on the other side of the newly-built Bloor Street extension. I'm guessing this is sloppy map-making -- the city must have also expropriated everything to Rosedale Valley.

Strange for me to see this coming down because I remember watching it go up in 1990-91 -- not that long ago. In fact, this building's brief life must hold some kind of U of T record: it lasted only 16 years before it was deemed expendable. I know the law school has grown, but it probably would...

Thank you Charioteer. By God, that was a good series. It's clear we came that close to losing it completely in the 1970s. I wonder if the claim in the real estate sign is true--that it's the only remaining building from the original Town of York (1793-1834) site.

Had a good laugh at that one. As if any politician in the history of the world has ever thought or talked like Adma.

So the Wynne government is authorizing use of tasers for all police. With "liberals" like these, who needs conservatives? The police always want more weapons and their civilian overseers are always happy to give them. The result will be more innocent lives lost. And do I need to add that...

Notice in nearby apartment buildings that Gould will be closed off tonight (starting at 10pm) so that a gigantic V-support can be delivered.

It's a mixed bag. Sure, nobody wants to live in the "city with the crackhead mayor", but on the other hand, it does let the world know that we're a big, complicated city. The Ford narrative counters the world's stereotyped view that Canadians are boring and the rest of Canada's perception that...

The pathological cautiousness and passivity of the "establishment" in this city (and province and country) never cease to infuriate me. If this were say NYC, the media and cops and DA would have taken down this cancer on the city long ago. You know -- "Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes!"

Not a word since the styrofoam went up. Embarrassed, I suspect.

Thank you for so thoroughly documenting this astonishing structure.

Metroman, thanks for the update. Your analysis makes sense to me. I, like many others, have speculated about a three-way conspiracy to cover up the video between TPS, the Crown and the Fords. Increasingly, I see that the police and prosecutors are just plain scared -- of having to pursue...

It's been a long time since "unisex" was a trendy marketing term.

The dumpiness of what were soon to be the Five Thieves buildings is a reminder that Rosedale was probably at its lowest ebb in the early Seventies. Also nice to see that Goodwill has stuck with its groovy logo for so long.

Using EIFS on heritage buildings is all theDeepend was talking about. From my perspective, suburbanites can use it on new construction all they want because their neighbourhoods are for the most part lost causes to begin with. Your use of the inflammatory words "obnoxious", "ludicrous" and...

I just did a quick Google search, but it looks like EIFS is a bug business, complete with trade associations, lobbying groups etc. We should start our own lobbying group, at the very least. I can't even look at the scaffolding when I drive by, it makes me so sick.

Don't make excuses for cheap crap. The condition of that building's brick, contrary to that shill who was posting here earlier, looked fine to me. The truth is that EIFS is primarily an insulation system -- a quick and dirty way to make an old building "energy-efficient" from the outside, rather...

The wiretaps won't be disclosed for this prosecution. I will simply note that the accused's lawyer managed, in record time for our justice system, to plea-bargain down from a first degree murder charge to manslaughter.