Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
Don't panic, but food prices are rising. Turns out that oil becoming an inelastic commodity, collapsing fish stocks, climate change affecting crop growth, and increased demand for food in China and India as they grow richer makes food more expensive! Who could have foreseen this happening? Oh, right, lots of people.
Speaking of oil becoming an inelastic commodity, gas prices are going to skyrocket this summer and continue climbing for the foreseeable future. When asked how this could happen, economist Jeff Rubin pointed to a big sign saying OIL IS A FINITE RESOURCE, YOU JACKASSES, then sat down and cried.
Luckily, high gas prices won't affect us, because Toronto lags significantly behind other Canadian cities in terms of bike lanes and spending upon them. No, wait, that's bad.
Memo to self: if my house ever catches fire, just let the motherfucker burn, because the City of Toronto is charging Duke's Cycle sixty-four grand for cleanup after the Queen Street fire. Apparently "taxes" no longer pay for firemen and stuff.
And in non-apocalyptic news, the Raptors beat the crap out of the Magic last night.
Photo by fruitflavor from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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The rising food prices suck, but when people in Egypt and Mexico are rioting over food, how long did we think it was going to be before it reached us? The oil/gas sucks, but we've had a long time to think about alternatives...and people STILL insist on buying trucks and SUV's, so no pity there...anyway, I have my bike. The Duke's fire and subsequent bill for 64 grand is mind-blowing/boggling.
I'm with Mr. Bird, "$64,000? Let the mutha-f**ker burn!"
Which of course, you can't do, so basically, if your house/business burns, through no fault of you own, you're screwed...unless of course, you happen to have $64 grand just lying around that you weren't going to use for something else.
Unless...is someone or something trying to keep them from rebuilding, knowing they won't be able to come up with that kind of money? Has anyone else ever heard of someone getting this kind of bill when their place burned down? Is this something that has just never been reported before? We hear of a fire, then a family gets help fromthe Red Cross, but then we don't hear what happens after. So, what exactly does happen when you're house burns and you lose everything?
Are there people there to help you or just kcik you some more with cleanup bills? What if a fire-fighter dies or get's injured, can you be held liable if it's your house/business?
They received the bill not because the building burned down, but because the City had to demolish the remains of the buildings and clean up the site. And, no, your property taxes do not cover this service.
Shouldn't their insurance cover it?
$64000 is about what it costs to install 3 km of bike lanes.
It's a "service" now?
But indirectly and ultimately, they did get the bill because the building burned down, they wouldn't have had to clean it up if it hadn't.
So, that's it then, your business or residence burns down, and they clean it up, you get the bill?
Can you NOT have them clean it up? Can you just get some friends and a keg and say, "Hey, come on over, we'll drink some beers, clean up a burned out building and don't worry, it's safe."
So, you really have no choice then? as you stand there watching your place burn, on top of everything else, you have to worry about paying them to clean up after? I've seen firefighters sweep up glass after a car accident, do we pay them extra for that too? Can we get package deals or go a' la carte? Really, if my house burns, once I get over the smoke inhalation and trauma of losing everything, just leave it and I'll clean it up myself and save $64,000, thank you. I could pay my friends half that to help me.
If the City is so diligent about their accounting, can I then send them a bill for a refund for not once plowing my street this winter?
Gonna take one helluva fundraiser to come up with $64,000.
Not addressing specific issue here, just wanted to say I quite enjoyed the tone of your post in general.
'Oh, right, lots of people.'
hehe
Maybe the city could ask Scientology for the cash. I found out from a friend the other day that their building on Yonge (worth $4 million) has the 50% religious property tax break even though Scientology doesn't have religion status in Canada. That's a lot of property tax uncollected.
I'm thinking someone else will step in and pay this money...but it won't be to help rebuild Duke's.
"Sure, we can settle this bill for 64 grand, but uh, what's in it for us?
The Scientology building is worth $4 million? Yikes. And it's so ugly, looks old, desolate and dirty. So how is it legal for them to have the religious property tax break? No religion, let alone Scientology, should have tax breaks.
Also, question: $64000 for 3K of bike lane. What costs anything? Is it the paint, and/or the removal of paying parking spots (revenues lost)?
Let's do 3k of bike lane.
How about you get yer f**kin boss on the line there, You give me 40 grand, and I'll come up there and paint the bike lanes myself there Chief! I'll use a roller, f**kin' beautiful, I paint everything, I'm silly. Silly!
- Frank Rizzo
the city should have at least offered Duke's the chance to get a private firm in to demolish the place for a lower cost.
This is the sort of thing that you have to insure yourself against if you own property, I guess, and if you can't afford the coverage you're seriously exposed. Rough.
A private firm did the demolition. I forget the name of the company, but it is probably on the hoardings somewhere.
You wouldn't want the city paying for demolition of other buildings that have to be torn down due to safety concerns. The fact that it was in that condition because of a fire in unfortunate, but I don't see why the city should pay for it.
FOOD PRICES
What do you expect when we are buring food to fuel our cars?
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/ethanol-is-not-the-answer-sto
GAS PRICES
Peak Oil will insure that gas prices will rise, rise, rise all the way until there is no gas. Your best best is to get off the oil addiction now while it is easier to do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak_theory
BIKE LANES
See "Gas Prices" above. Also, a cross-town bike lane from the Humber to Victoria Park along Bloor-Danforth should be a top priority. It is 16km, and @ 64k for 3km, you can do it for less than $350,000.
FIRE INSURANCE
Grill your insurance agent, think of all worst case scenarios, get everything in writing. Dukes shouldn't have to be paying this bill, adding insult to injury.