Toronto Real Estate and Neighbourhoods Blog | Move Smartly

TIFF Bell Lightbox Opens + TIFF Films to See + The Entertainment District Grows Up

Urmi Desai in Toronto Neighbourhoods, Urban Issues

Editor's Note: It's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) launch day today! If you are scrambling to figure out what to see, click on "continue reading" link below for a list of exciting films.

The Entertainment District (see Realosophy's Entertainment District neighbourhood profile) will see the opening of new landmark on September 12, the new Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Bell Lightbox, a one-size-fits-all hub for film in Toronto (there will be a public street festival to celebrate).

It's an exciting but anxious time for many of the city's dedicated film goers, particularly those of us who've been members of Cinematheque Ontario, a rep theatre dedicated to alternative and art cinema since 1990 (see Toronto Star's recent article on founding programmer James Quandt). As of September, Cinematheque will leave its often pilloried, but well loved home at the AGO's Jackmall Hall and move into the Lightbox, along with TIFF's year round programming and other community programming.

At the Lightbox, film grows up, graduating to food and drinks supplied by Oliver & Bonacini's casual O&B Canteen and upscale restaurant Luma. (For the chronically late, this may be an upgrade from running for a slice of pizza or some pub food and a hastily gulping down coffee before lining up at Jackmall Hall.) Growing up also means price hikes for tickets and memberships, and it will be interesting to see if the TIFF's CEO and supporters are making the right gamble in assuming that Toronto film lovers will (can) reach deep into their pockets to go bigger and flashier, all year round.

The Lightbox and its sophisticated hotel friends (Thompson, Ritz Carleton, Bisha) may also break up the interminable squabbling between the Entertainment District's clubland entrepreneurs and patrons and its residents. Like that predictable 2 am fight started by your cute, Neanderthal boyfriend from the other high school, the neighbourhood's insular battles have long bored the rest of the city, making a new storyline for the neighbourhood most welcome.

The opening of this year's TIFF this Thursday, September 9th gives you the perfect chance to check out some of the new architecture in the Entertainment District. If you are worried about crowds and overhyped films, opt to see a film from the festival's Discovery Programme, featuring new and emerging directors and their compelling films from around the world (screenings are at various festival theatres). For a budget friendly option, there is also the TIFF for Free Programme, which features free screenings of classic films at the Lightbox - expect more of a crowd. 

TIFF Discovery Programme and TIFF for Free films listed below. Please check with the TIFF box office for show times, locations and ticket prices.

Jane’s Heir?

Urmi Desai in Urban Issues

CBC’s The Passionate Eye recently profiled “The Passionate Prince” – a work I settled down to watch once I was able to verify that it was not about any member of Brunei’s Royal Family.  The subject was Prince Charles on his 60th birthday, and while many a joke can be made about how the Prince has chosen to display some of his passions in the past, his dedication to a number of very personal charities was compelling to watch. 

While the Prince has lent support to some of the more obvious causes – tree planting with the Dalai Lama – his local passions are of greater interest.  And it’s at The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment that he really comes to life as a rather noisy neighbourhood campaigner.

Touring and working in communities across England, the Prince of Wales has taken a strong stance against ‘modernist’ architecture that ignores what is natural and traditional, creating environments that alienate inhabitants and lead to higher crime rates and social breakdown.  The particular object of his ire?  An ambitious development – Chelsea Barracks – going up near Sir Christopher Wren’s 17th Century Royal Hospital in London (see drawing above; source: The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea).

Agents Gone Wild: Glengarry Glen Ross

Urmi Desai in Urban Issues

Last week, we scooped up rush tickets to see Glengarry Glen Ross, staged by the Soulpepper Theatre Company at the Yonge Centre.  It’s especially edifying to head down to the Distillery to catch a play – the promise of a good coffee and chocolate from neighbouring SOMA serves as consolation prize if the accents don’t quite impress.

With Glen Ross, you can skip the extra dose of chocolate.  Featuring perfectly calibrated performances by Albert Schultz and Eric Peterson, the play became a surprise hit after Toronto critics lauded the gritty performance of its central characters - real estate agents kneeling at the altar of the “sales lead” (think of why national “do not call” lists have been created) at a real estate brokerage specializing in dubious Florida properties.  Written by David Mamet, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his efforts, the dialogue is swear words and slurs dotted with other parts of speech, a 3-D model of the pathos - and humanness - of greed. 

For the antagonists-as-protagonists, the line between greed and mere survival is blurred.  And it’s messy for the jury too – a crooked agent appears ruthless in his quest to serve a daughter who expects him to pay for a lavish wedding - or maybe he's just an elderly man trying to pay for his next meal?

OMB Decides - No Big Box in Leslieville

John Pasalis in Leslieville, Urban Issues

The Ontario Municipal Board has decided that big box stores anchored by a Wal-mart have no place in Leslieville.  The board said that Smart Centre’s proposals "do not constitute good planning" and "will very likely destabilize" the area.  From the Toronto Star:

The SmartCentres proposal called for multi-level retail, service, commercial, office and entertainment uses, covering nearly 700,000 square feet.

It included a variety of sizes of retail stores including the possibility of two large-scale units, with the largest being up to 180,000 square feet. Parking was set aside for more than 1,700 vehicles, but it would have been tucked in behind the buildings, not visible from the street or nearby residences.

No specific tenants were ever announced, but Wal-Mart was being courted to be an anchor tenant.

Residents in the neighbourhood were divided on the project, though a vocal opposition group emerged in the East Toronto Community Coalition, which appeared before the board hearing.

The city had argued the low-wage retail jobs were not what Toronto wanted, but rather higher-paying "creative industry" jobs in film or media.

The City of Toronto issued the following press release earlier today:

The 'How' of HomeBuying

Urmi Desai in Urban Issues

Given the disastrous effects of the subprime mortgage on the world economy, it is easy to forget that many once saw the instrument as an agent of good.  Under many US administrations, most notably those of Clinton and Bush Jr., social reformers and anti-poverty advocates held out the ladder of credit and encouraged the disadvantaged and disenfranchised to climb up.

Studies have long associated home ownership with positive outcomes.  Children living in homes owned by their guardians tended to do better at school and have higher self-esteem.  Immigrants living their own homes tended to vote in higher numbers, and in doing so, express a heightened sense of belonging in their new community.  Get more people into the game, the thinking went, and extend the benefits to all.

There is no doubt that self-interest is also part of the subprime story.  While Wall Street was busy creating derivatives the incredible transform-o-gadget which turned financial scraps into prime time investments and spurred on wayward mortgage peddlers, the non-profit housing counseling service sprouted, largely supported by public funds. 

If reckless greed and feckless altruism corrupted many, what confused researchers?

Toronto's Target 70: Why November 1st was Important

Jesse Fleming in Urban Issues.  

Beginning November 1, 2008 Toronto’s new water/solid waste Utility Bill will be coming to a residential mailbox near you.  As the final stage of 2008’s garbage collection re-vamping, this annual solid waste fee ranges according to the garbage bin size selected by each household - small bins fetch a $10 rebate while the extra-large bins cost $190.  This is slated to cover the costs of garbage, compost, recycling collection, landfill management and other pro-environment endeavors.  Previously, solid waste fees were rolled into property taxes and still will be as, according to the City of Toronto, they cannot be easily separated from one another – so enter the annual rebate.

The annual rebate (cited on the city’s website as $209 per house and $157 for multi-unit buildings) will be found on the new utility bill in the form of a credit, divided among each bill received over the course of the year.  However, if you chose the smallest garbage bin you will be receiving an additional $10 rebate for a total of $219 which, spread out over the year, will be credited towards your water bill.  The seemingly arbitrary numbers chosen by the city for the rebate are based on the average amount collected for solid waste collection from property tax bills. Sound confusing? 

It seems in their lofty ambitions of 70% waste reduction by 2010, the garbage and recycling higher-ups are not going out of their way to ease the transition for Torontonians.  In the case of multi-unit buildings the $157 per unit rebate will be reflected on utility bills charged to property management and condominium corporations.

Further adding to the sanitary headache is the introduction of pink tags.  If you had ordered but as of November 1 have not received a bin (or simply have yet to order bins) you should have been sent these city issued garbage tags in the mail.  These tags are good until January 31, 2009 and force you to put out your bin-allotted amount of garbage as you will receive as many tags as bags of garbage your bin will hold.  Everyone should have their bins by the end of January as well as five free yellow overflow bag tags; additional yellow bag tags cost $15.50 for five.

This is the first winter that Torontoians have had to use their collection of collection bins.  If last winter proved anything, I am curious as to how well the bins manoeuvre over snow and ice.  As the holidays creep up on us, many households may find that their bins are the wrong size for their needs. Up-sizing garbage bins will run you $20 while down-sizing is free; changing recycling and green bins is $10 until January '09.

Jesse Fleming is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Email Jesse

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Photo Credit: http://valdodge.com

What's in a Name? The Leslieville Lofts Saga

Urmi in Leslieville, Urban Issues

Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my views on names, which is that they matter.  The big names behind the Leslieville Lofts project, Lamb Development Corp and Hyde Park Homes, recently learned the lesson in a rather expensive way.

After losing a zoning battle with the city, the National Post reports that Brad Lamb intends to replace the scrapped lofts project (which was 50% pre-sold) with a townhouse project to fit 'neighbourhood' zoning requirements which permit low-rise buildings only.  The new project will not bear the name 'Leslieville,' in response to the spirited protest made by residents of Riverdale, the actual neighbourhood in which the Leslieville Lofts project was to be located.  (Locals in South Riverdale are engaged in their own re-branding of the area as 'Riverside'.)

Was the fuss warranted?  Shakespeare famously suggested that a rose's essential characteristics transcend its nomenclature.  Surely the envied lights of Riverdale can't be dimmed by association with her less established cousin? 

But regardless of where we live, we are often irritated by sloppy, lazy or dishonest labeling.  As George Orwell powerfully illustrated, the manipulation of the English language results in more than never-ending threads in the  grammarian's chat room.  Mislabeling, double speak and euphemisms obscure history, acquired knowledge and other facts we rely on to make sound decisions.  In the real estate industry, it adds to consumer discomfort and distrust.

Blurring boundaries has resulted in a costly lesson for these Toronto developers.  Insiders estimate that Lamb and his associates have lost up to one million in the Leslieville Lofts misadventure.

Urmi Desai is a policy analyst and a freelance writer specializing in urban issues.  She is editor of the Move Smartly blog. Email Urmi

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The Scent of a Neighbourhood

Urmi in Urban Issues

I have become a great fan of Andy Barrie.  It happened the morning he reported on the incredible story of brakes being cut on the cars of Toronto-area Liberal party supporters. While interviewing a young man who narrowly avoided widowing his wife when his brakes failed, Barrie instructed listeners on how to locate and apply their own hand brakes, later peppering the show with more Bob the Policeman tidbits.  I was charmed by the earnest water-cooler pragmatism – shamefully addicted to US cable coverage of the presidential election, I couldn’t imagine CNN cutting to a public service announcement during a segment burgeoning with the promise of tragedy, outrage and general loss of faith in mankind.

And now Andy’s done it again. In talking to Posted Toronto last week, he offered up this instructional observation about Toronto neighbourhoods:

I’ve lived in Forest Hill Village, Riverdale, Summerhill, the Annex and Cabbagetown. Finding the right neighbourhood fit in Toronto is only slightly less tricky than finding the right partner to share it with.

Though the search for love (first, real or imagined) involves one-eyed dragoons and other dangers, we tend to miss those fumbling, singularly-focused days once they have grown strange to us by way of repetition, multi-tasking or graduation.  Taking Andy’s cue, dating neighbourhoods makes for a wonderful substitute as one can do it single, semi-single, coupled, semi-coupled, familied, semi-familied or anything in between.

The City Wants Your Old, Used and Broken.

Jesse Fleming in Urban Issues.

Furthering Toronto’s green initiative does not end at the array of garbage collection bins that have been distributed to residents throughout the city.   Toronto's Water Efficiency Plan addresses one of the resources that many of us (myself included) take for granted.  I am becoming more aware that clean water is a commodity not to be taken so lightly because there is a possibility that one day it might not be as accessible.  This is one fact that I cannot seem to wrap my head around an ashamedly I still leave the water running while brushing my teeth - the clean-freak in me detests the toothpaste foam that gathers around the drain. 

Promises and Postures: Homes, Cities and the 2008 Federal Elections

Team Realosophy in Urban Issues

Given their nation's relative disinterest, Stephen Harper and Stéphane Dion would be better off attacking Barack Obama and Sarah Palin than each other.  But attack and unveil they must.

This week, some highlights of platform commitments to homes and cities.  Visit us often for an ongoing tally.

From the CBC:

A re-elected Conservative government would offer first-time homebuyers a new tax credit of up to $5,000 to help cover closing costs, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper said on Monday.

The move would result in a maximum tax return rebate of $750 per family, Harper said during a campaign appearance in Kitchener, Ont.

Read more

From the National Post:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion proposed the establishment Thursday of tax-free “Green Bonds” and a $70-billion 10-year plan to create jobs and refurbish Canada’s aging bridges, roads, and sewage facilities and supply more urban transit

Some of the money would be distributed through an “infrastructure bank” providing a source of low-cost financing for any level of government for high-speed rail, regional energy grids and other big projects.

Read more

From the Toronto Star:

The killing of an innocent fruit vendor during a gunfight on a bustling Toronto street "steeled" the resolve of NDP Leader Jack Layton to outlaw handguns.

Layton said yesterday if he's elected Prime Minister on Oct. 14 he would empower provinces, cities, and towns to impose handgun bans.

Read more

From the Canadian Press:

Stretching about 640 metres along the tracks, the 22-car passenger train carrying Green party Leader Elizabeth May on her retro-style whistle-stop tour of Canada is larger than the jets preferred by her political opponents - but it sure feels smaller.

May is staging the first cross-Canada whistle-stop tour since former prime minister John Diefenbaker's iconic trips in the 1960s, and life on the rails has seen May forgo the carefully staged photo-ops and scripted announcements of her counterparts.

...

The Green leader is also using the tour to highlight her call for upgrades to Canada's rail system. Her party's platform calls for $1 billion for rail improvements.

Read more

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