Volume 47 No. 1
March 6, 2018
PHOTO: ANNA KILLEN
Make Some Noise on the waterfront at Winter Stations Woodbine Beach is alive with Winter Stations, including the Sims-like Make Some Noise! by Alexandra Grieß and Jorel Heid of Hamburg, Germany. The annual design competition officially launched on Family Day, Monday, Feb. 19, with seven installations inspired by this year’s theme, Riot, taking over the area’s lifeguard stations until the end of March.
TCHC plans to sell off homes By Josh Sherman
MORE THAN a hundred Toronto Community Housing Corporationowned homes across Ward 31 and 32 are going to be sold off as part of a broader plan for the city’s public housing agency to liquidate much of its portfolio of scattered homes to non-profits. City council approved the Tenants First project in late January. Through it, 660 houses, including detached and semi-detached homes as well as townhouses, will be transferred to non-profit housing providers such as co-ops. Eleven of these homes are located in Ward 31 and 114 are in Ward 32.
TCHC will continue to operate 22 rooming houses for now. The city said the move will help it better maintain properties, improve tenant services, and strengthen non-profits. “It is also expected that transferring these properties out of Toronto Community Housing will enable TCHC to work more closely with larger, multi-family buildings and communities,” read a statement forwarded by city spokesperson Eric Holmes. The city plans to put out a request for proposals this May and will ensure the homes continue to operate as per their current uses once they have changed hands. If
one of the future owners tries to sell the property to a buyer who isn’t a non-profit provider, the city will take possession of the home. “We are working with City of Toronto Legal and Real Estate Services staff to identify the best way to protect the affordable housing stock including how properties will be reverted to the City,” the city statement said. Staff expect to present a property-transfer plan to council in early 2019. “Once the transfer plan has been approved, there will be time layered in to finalize the agreements and enter into a due diligence period,” the statement continued.
Book and Film Club is back with Steinbeck By Josh Sherman
KATYA NOSKO, who owns The Great Escape Book Store on Kingston Road, finds John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath particularly relevant in 2018. Many issues addressed in the book and subsequent John Ford-directed film should resonate with contemporary readers, she suggests, so it was a good fit for her book store’s second annual Book and Film Club, set to take place next month. In The Grapes of Wrath “there’s a lot about migrancy, and that’s a thing that we see here very much in Canada. What’s it like for migrants, do they get help, does society help them?” she said. The event is broken into two parts. First, there is a “fairly academic talk” scheduled for April 4 at 7 p.m. at the Kingston Road United Church (975 Kingston Rd.). Continued on Page 17
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