Vine ave demolition happening Tuesday Morning

61 63 67 Vine ave coming down Tuesday, these images about 9:15

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17 Comments

This building was recently housing a small community of homeless men. Was walking my dog around and had quite the surprise when I peeked in a crack, there was an eye peeking out!!!

Benson; That was an on-going issue with the local residents on Vine. I know of one or two specific residents who kept up the battle with the city… every time a board was pried off to gain entry, they spotted it, called it in, and had the city come inspect and seal the house up again (at the expense of the property owner).

Its too bad they had to put up with the drug users for so long, but at least the houses have now been razed to make room for something better.

But the house itself wasn't flawed; it was merely kept in a state of neglect that apparently became a major headache for people living on the street. The house was an iconic Toronto Bay-and-Gable Victorian, the style of house unique to this city. The Junction is lucky to have such houses because they're more of a fixture of downtown. They go for upwards of a million dollars in Cabbagetown or Yorkville.

So I understand that people want this neglected property gone, but such Victorian houses shouldn't be written off so casually because they're assets. Property developers who don't see that are often the type looking to make easy money with crude and (in the long run) undesirable development.

If you loved it so much you should have bought it and restored it. But you didn't, and now its gone. And as a society, we move on.

And for the record. The Victorian was fine 5 years ago. A kitchen fire in the back of the house spread up to the roof and the fire department deemed it inhabitable. It wasn't neglect. The two leaning houses beside it were also structural issues.

Glad it's gone. Tired of the garbage dumping, the drug use and the stolen merchandise being temporarily hidden around there.

Couldn't the facade have been saved with a new building built behind it? It's done all the time in Toronto. Neglect was the five years after the fire, when nothing was done to rebuild and it became a dump hated by the people living around it. Who would do that to a neighbourhood?

That's not how it works. I couldn't buy for financial reasons and if I was in a position to do so, the developer probably wouldn't sell as he was putting together the properties. Responsibility for preservation is always with whoever owns the property. The point of discussion is that we move on as a society in a good direction. The loss of this house wasn't a spectacular heritage loss, but my original point was that it shouldn't be taken lightly, and that it should be avoided as we move on.

The junction is becoming the next trendoid spot and those town homes will be sold in no time by most likely young professionals who will double as wanna be artists. It's too bad the house could not be restored but that is what's happening to Toronto West and at the end of the day nobody gives enough shit and the developers make their buck and fuck off. It would at least be good if these town homes could sell at more affordable prices, but my bet is that they will have a hefty ticket price. If they were selling at more affordable prices, I'm not gonna lie, I would buy one myself. The older homes are lovely, but super expensive and you also need a reserve in case anything goes down with whatever comes with buying an old structure. At least when it's new, you eliminate that issue.
Anyway, that's my spiel for the night.
Sweet dreams everyone.
GW

It's a fair deal. You get a potentially beautiful, functional house to live in, in a neighbourhood rich in history, architecture, and culture, but you have to put some work into it. As you maintain it, you find the issues that come with age and can gradually address them. Not exactly tough punishment.

Besides, new houses are often built so cheaply that you have to put some work into them too. The plaster cracks and the finishes may be cheap and generic, with the cheapest paints used on every surface. All sorts of imperfections reveal themselves in the first few years. Too often houses are built just to pass basic legal standards, and then the rest is up to the owner. At the subdivision in the upper Junction by Gunn's Loop, the wooden railings installed by the builder, Tribute, seemed to uniformly rot in 5 years. Buying a new home isn't exactly a work-free, maintenance-free experience. The comforts of house ownership are attained with lots of maintenance, be it heritage, new build, or anything in between.

A.R.,
I agree with all that you have said, but unfortunately maintaining an old home only caters to a certain demographic – and it's not difficult to know what sector of the demographic that is. In a perfect world I would have bought the heritage home myself and made sure it was preserved. Middle class folk just want to buy into the dream of home ownership and unfortunately these new, not so quality made homes are affordable.

There are a lot of old heritage houses that have housed people representing a variety of demographics, from working class to upper class in their hundred year histories. Anyone is capable of maintaining these houses, and people need to realize that new homes are also going to require work.

A.R.

ANYONE…
What are you drinking??? – pour me a glass. On second thought, naaa forget it because I prefer to be living in realty. Are we talking about the same city here?

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