“Soon the historic buildings behind the chain-link — some dating to the 1880s — will be razed. The excavators will move in. Then the erection of a 55,000-square foot complex with a six-storey height,” writes Garth Turner.
“NOTL may attract three million visitors a year, but at its heart are caring, decent people always finding time for a pet, a smile and a stroke of my incredibly handsome fur,” writes Cody the Chow, taking over for Garth Turner this week.
“Sure, overpriced homes will continue to sit, but there are lots of properties now priced at 2022 levels, getting no action. Sellers are anxious. Many are willing to deal,” writes Garth Turner.
“People respond with anger, aggression and the need to lash out when they’re insecure and under threat. Not by an old dude with a dodgy leg, but by circumstances,” writes Garth Turner.
“People flock here (three million of them annually) because it’s authentic. It’s ancient. Historic. Quaint in a way Mississauga and Buffalo never will be. Not cute. Not fake,” writes Garth Turner.
“They’re here. They invaded November 11th. They stood among us. Being a tolerant, inclusive people, we let them. It’s what makes us Canadian,” writes Garth Turner.
“NOTL is one of the few burgs in the nation allowing (and encouraging) the conversion of residential housing into ‘unhosted’ short-term rentals,” writes Garth Turner.
“Some people believe our little lovenest of a town is lurching toward surveillance, confinement and control. Look at the official, shiny new draft official plan, they say,” writes Garth Turner.
“As I write this there are six (seriously, just six) rentals listed with realtors in the Old Town. The average rent being asked is $3,000 a month,” writes Garth Turner.
“The NOTL rebels’ plan is to have candidates identified and in place well before the race. There may be a slate. There will certainly be public engagements — forums, Q&As, debates. There will be money, as well as passion,” writes Garth Turner.
“Urbanites may not get this, but in much of Canada, the post office is Canada. The sole, identifiable, enduring and working link to the federal government. Once that is shuttered, the bond dies,” writes Garth Turner.
“The buyer of a $1.9-million house needs $400,000 in cash and an income of about $220,000 to handle the $8,400 monthly mortgage payment, plus property tax and utilities. Ouch,” writes Garth Turner.
“Now people who flock to see old, quaint, authentic and irreplaceable architecture are greeted by a fine example of the Mississauga Industrial school of design,” writes Garth Turner.
“This is the Old Town’s new signature gateway project. And some people wonder what the heck went wrong with our planning process. How did we turn into Mississauga?” writes Garth Turner.
“What’s motivating the Second Sons and the Tamaras needs to be learned. Dissing them as lowlifes and bigots doesn’t work,” writes Garth Turner.
“Some say a lot more lurks beneath what used to be a school,” writes Garth Turner about the history of the former Parliament Oak school site.
“A hole 23 feet deep is no backyard swimming pool. It will consume a good chunk of the Parliament Oak site, rising toward King Street as it transitions from parking garage to hotel foundation and car ramp,” writes Garth Turner.
“We will be questioned, if not laughed at. Who would put a cell tower on the very shore where the War of 1812 was fought?”
“NOTL ain’t TN. This is paradise. Everybody wants to be here, right?” writes Garth Turner. “But wait. We also have a weird market. And some people are being clobbered by it.”
“Unhosted short-term rentals are a bad idea. Period. Most municipalities in Canada have banned them. Having an Airbnb unit in your house is far different from buying a property and operating a ghost hotel with nobody living there full-time,” writes Garth Turner.
In response to editor-in-chief Richard Harley’s July 31 editorial, The Lake Report, writes Garth Turner, “embraces the size, the massing, the demolitions, the height, the truck bays, the big-box architecture, the gobbling-up of a residential street and the three or more years of construction chaos involved.”
The old Royal George may need to tumble and be rebuilt, but Old Towner and Tiktoker Sally Basmajian says, “there are right ways of doing things and just egregiously wrong ways of doing things.”
“This is the Niagara Warehouse of Hope. Mary and her squeeze, Ted, started in their garage almost 40 years ago. She now operates out of the big structure a crew of believers built in a single day and ships containers around the world with the help of at least 150 volunteers,” writes Garth Turner.
“The Royal George eruption has folks again asking that eternal question: is this a place to live or a theme park for the tourists?” writes Garth Turner.
“Over the years we felt that our dream was slipping away as the town and council seemed to become more and more focused on tourists, and less so on the residents that chose to call NOTL home,” says a former resident who wrote to Garth Turner this week.
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