November 14, 2007
Condo Conflict, People Luckier Than You, TTC Considering New Services Not To Provide
Police had to quell trouble at the One Bloor condo site yesterday, as queue-jumpers moved in on agents and spotholders who had been standing in line for as long as a week. Although the interlopers were ultimately forced to the back of the line, many of those waiting were still too late to buy a unit in the development. One dissatisfied linestander said, "When do I get my iPhone?"
A Caledon couple won $18.5 million in the Lotto 6/49 on Saturday, only hours after scoring a $13,000 jackpot at Casino Rama. The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, delighted with the publicity, is preparing a new marketing campaign with the theme "Working Is For Suckers."
Stephen Harper declared yesterday that there will be a public inquiry into decade-old allegations of corruption against former PM Brian Mulroney, only hours before the RCMP announced that they will also be conducting a review. A disgruntled Mulroney said that while the enquiries are a good start, he would not be satisfied until every agency, commission, institution, organization, man, woman and child in the country were formally investigating his activities.
The TTC is considering the possibility of someday maybe possibly introducing cellphone coverage into parts of the subway system. The move, which if approved could happen within our grandchildren's lifetime, is part of an overall study designed to see how the system could be brought into the early '90s.
In hockey, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 4–3 last night, which isn't very interesting except that it gave the Sun the chance to use the gay porn headline "McCabe's latest overtime gaffe proves costly as Canadiens ride hot goalie."
Photo by William Self from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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"The move, which if approved could happen within our grandchildren's lifetime, is part of an overall study designed to see how the system could be brought into the early '90s."
Hah!
As for hockey, I was more fascinated with the story of Jiri Tlusty -- a most unfortunate surname -- posting nude photos of his teenage self online, including one where he's tonguing another man's tongue! Oh no! Scandal! Apologies! Regret!
Really?
I know you're joking, but a "Work is For Suckers" ad campaign would be brilliant.
The lottery is such a scam though, I don't know if I'd really want the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission to be any more persuasive their regular, "Give us your money and maybe we'll give you some back, but probably not."
Does anyone else think the shenanigans at 1 Bloor East were insanity? I don't see how they're going to be able to sell 80 floors of extremely high-end real estate.
Didn't there used to be analog cell coverage in some of the subway system back in the brickphone days?
So, the cash-strapped TTC is considering spending $6,000,000+ on adding cell phone coverage to the subway system? How about you just make the things arrive on time and not be so crowded.. perhaps you could hold off on a couple fare-hikes while you're at it. Not to mention the fact that I don't particularly relish the thought of having to listen to some dink with an overly inflated sense of self-importance blather on next to me on the subway. It's bad enough I have to listen to it on surface routes, in every restaurant/bar, and during movies. Cripes, talk about having your priorities crossed.
This whole condo broker thing is just as evil as the pre-sale blocks of concert tickets sold to brokers. I remember walking into a condo sales office the day they opened, and every single one of the prime units had already been sold to "friends" of the developer. Developers also often buy prime units from themselves, like the penthouses, to flip them at a premium when the sales open to the public. That should be illegal.
Listing prices at pre-sale numbers, only to hike them the second the sales office opens should also be illegal, as should deals with real estate agents that give them exclusivity over an entire complex or development.
When I bought the place I'm in now, I went to see it on Friday, told them I would be back with a final decision the following Monday, and when I arrived on Monday to sign the deal with the developer, it had mysteriously gone up by $6000, which I could do nothing about if I still wanted to take it.
Speaking of annoying condo practices, two years ago, I went into the sales offices of both Casa Condominiums (Cresford Developments) and the Uptown Condominiums (Pemberton Group) looking to buy, and they would not let me enter the model suites (in the sales office), view the floor plans, or speak to their agent if I didn't register all my personal information. Don't want to register? Get out.
Gloria: Having seen the Jiří Tlustý photos, which we mentioned a couple of days ago, he ain't got nuthin' to be embarrassed about. :-O
"The move, which if approved could happen within our grandchildren's lifetime, is part of an overall study designed to see how the system could be brought into the early '90s."
Loving the snark! It's so oddly true now as well, with most of the other old-guard antiquated systems (like Boston) now becoming all high-tech fare-card-ish, LED lighting, flatscreen monitors, etc. There may be a silver lining in this if the TTC becomes so out of date that it becomes charming, like the way the old streetcars suddenly became cool again in the 1990s, or the way those ancient GM New Flyer buses are almost kind of retro now. Tickets and tokens and fare booths, how cute!
I remember riding the HSR buses (Hamilton Transit) in the very early nineties and they had automated fare boxes (annoyingly called "Fare Fred") that tallied your change on a LED display as you dropped it in. That was more than fifteen years ago, and I just assumed when I moved to Toronto that the TTC would have them too. Nope.
Mind you, the Fare Fred system was recently found to not be reporting daily tallies accurately, but the HSR isn't fixing them in anticipation of this fabled GTA-wide smart card system.