SunriseChampion
Senior Member
That was a decent read, cheers for posting!
As a gentrifier myself, I don't agree with the anti-gentrifying whingers most of the time. I work really hard (am working-class in truth, though my pay packet may say otherwise) and deserve to live somewhere nice where I don't have to deal with problems not of my own making.
This is not an unreasonable request. It's deserved. What I achieve should reflect how hard I work.
That being said, a lot of the hipster-yuppy nonsense is a bit much. Vegandale? GTFO with that nonsense.
Parkdale's character in the last 20...30....40+? years has been defined by crackheads, let's simplify. This isn't something to be proud of and is a symptom of our society's absolute moral and intellectual failing in how we have dealt with mental illness and the continued perpetration of the inhumane, illogical, unreasonable, and evil war on drugs.
That being said, there is nothing to hold on to here. That McDonald's was a blight. In fact, that whole corner was a blight.
Now, of course, massive landlords who push tenants out are the same negative force as those that caused the war on drugs-induced blight in the first place, but there's no reason to block their designs outright. These building's need improvements and upgrades and those improvements and upgrades aren't free. It is not unreasonable to ask tenants to help pay for these upgrades.
Now, I don't have experience with any of the landlords mentioned in the article, but I do know that my own landlord has done extensive work on my building and consequently asked existing tenants to pay an extra 4.8% this past year. New tenants like me, who have somewhat fully renovated units and are paying prices to match were not asked to pay extra....our rent went up by the mandated 1.8% So far, so fair.
Oh, but no.....some of my neighbours were up in arms about how that was ridiculous and unfair. They took it to the Landlord and Tenant Board for reconsideration and were afforded a clawback of the rate increase to 2.5% this year and another 2.3% next year, instead of all at once. Fair enough, but they'll still be paying for it, as they should be. I don't see why newer tenants should subsidise existing tenants rents when some of them are paying peanuts.
This isn't a bulding that has people in dire straits in it. It's quite firmly middle-class and was so even when I first lived here back in 2006-2007. They don't need anyone's help of pity....they're just being cheap.
Anyway, given my experience here, I;m very sceptical of others' claims of mistreatment at the hands of their landlords. I know the West Lodge buildings were absolutely left to rot by their previous landlord, but Timbercreek are decent from what I have been able to suss out and are dealing with the problems there as best they can. Shit doesn't get transformed to acceptable overnight....or even in a year or two necessarily.
Sometimes, I think those who contribute the least have the highest expectations of what they are owed by the rest of us.
I've seen this my entire life. From when I was a wee lad, growing up in south-central Scarborough, in a building that was 50% subsidised units. Who moaned the most? Take a guess.
Anyway, Parkdale is timeless, and to be honest, it's very surprising how little it has gentrified in the last 15 years, in spite of articles such as this where I think the point is way overstated.
Anyway, I'll let you know how it really is the next time I'm chatting with a crackhead at my local shop run by a lovely Korean immigrant couple.
