The $22 Billion Plan to Turn a Defunct Airport Into a Small City

Canadian developer aims to preserve airport’s features, including hangars and a runway, to draw residents and businesses to the neighborhood

A planned community for about 55,000 residents in Toronto will include the usual playgrounds, bike paths and shops. It will also feature 11 airplane hangars and more than a mile of airport runway.

That is because the 30 billion Canadian dollar, equivalent to about $22 billion, development will be located at the city’s former Downsview Airport.

Airports have been repurposed as communities and parks before, but developers typically raze the original infrastructure and start from scratch. In this case, Northcrest Developments is betting that by preserving the airport’s main features it can enhance the community’s allure.

City subsidized Slum in 5 years time is my bet.

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WARMINGTON: SIU probing push by Toronto Police that landed bystander in hospital

One thing that’s clear is if you interfere with a police arrest, you may be arrested yourself and perhaps violently.

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I hate to say I told you so ….

‘Nothing is really getting better’: This Toronto park went from zero tents to being the city’s largest homeless encampment. What happened?

Kai Downey does not want to be in a tent in Dufferin Grove Park.

She arrived a few days back, hauling her bright blue tent from her former campsite near Toronto’s lakeshore, after unwanted attention from another person left her feeling scared. The west-end park, a 5.3-hectare expanse of green space across from Dufferin Mall near Bloor Street, meant access to a washroom, a water fountain and basic essentials in the bustling area.

On a sweltering August afternoon, Downey, who is in her early 20s, stood beside her setup in a less populated area near the park’s northern edge, as two outreach workers from a local social service agency made their rounds to hand out water bottles and single-use SPF packets. They asked what she needed. The answer was the same as it’s ever been: housing.

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‘It was harassment’: Ford weighs in on video where cop appears to give middle finger to heckler

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is coming to the defence of a Toronto police officer who was captured on video flipping their middle finger to a citizen during a heated exchange.

“Let’s support our police. Let’s thank them, rather than getting Google Glasses and trying to, you know, harass our police, that’s what I call it. It was harassment,” Ford said of the video while taking questions from the media in Mississauga Wednesday morning.


Hard to pick a side here.

The videographer was over the top but rules for thee and not for me is a bad look for a public relations problem child like the TPS.

The TPS has been selective about enforcing the rule of law in Toronto.

Their decisions are driven by identity politics and the charge of “Two-Tiered Policing” is a valid complaint.

It seems their primary role is to escort Hamas support rallies and ignore the crime that contributes to Toronto’s deteriorating quality of life.

They always want to be paid more of course and that is no longer sustainable in a city enduring economic decline.

Cops with attitude are all too common and it must be remembered they are not your friend just the paid militia of the government.

UPDATE WARMINGTON: Former Toronto officer’s viral clash with coffee cops leads to probe

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Canada’s major cities are rapidly losing children, with Toronto leading the way

Since 2016, the number of children under the age of 10 as a proportion of the population has shrunk in every one of Canada’s six largest cities. Most of these major cities are losing children at a rate faster than Canada’s overall national decline.

Not a surprise. Toronto will be a desert soon. I see rewilding in it’s future.

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How the vacant home tax ‘fiasco’ happened: City emails show senior staff blunders that led to thousands of homeowners being overbilled

Despite clear signs behind the scenes that Toronto’s vacant home tax had been going off the rails for months, the city’s chief financial officer didn’t get crucial data about its low response rates until two days before the program deadline.

The CFO took action to boost uptake of the program, but a key measure that could have helped was rejected by a senior director, who appeared to blame the low response rate on homeowners who didn’t “follow the rules.”

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Off-duty officer shot after locating suspect wanted on Canada-wide warrant: TPS

Javell Jackson

A Toronto off-duty officer was shot on Saturday night after locating a suspect wanted on a Canada-wide warrant since 2022.

In a media scrum on Sunday, police say that the off-duty officer was in the King Street West and Bathurst Street area at around 11:30 p.m. when he recognized the accused. The officer then alerted on-duty officers, and approached the male suspect who proceeded to flee.

h/t SDMatt

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Chairman Chow defends steeper Toronto parking fines

Some parking fines in Toronto will more than triple as of today in a move Mayor Olivia Chow says is necessary and not something she is willing to apologize for.

Chow made the comment to reporters at an unrelated news conference on Thursday morning as she discussed increases in parking ticket costs for 123 different offences.

… For example, fines for parking a prohibited vehicle on a bicycle path will go from $60 to $200.

Soon she’ll ban cars.

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Toronto sees ‘troubling’ rise in youth gun violence, fatal shootings

As detectives pored over the details of a “senseless” shooting in the parking lot of a Toronto school on June 2, they zeroed in on a young suspect.

Weeks after the shooting, Toronto police announced the arrest of a 14-year-old boy, charging him on June 24 with two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder.

His arrest, the force’s chief says, is part of a growing and deeply worrying trend that has seen gun violence, particularly among young people, in Ontario’s capital city.

Sometimes I wonder if they just run the same story every 6 mos. or so. Nothing changes.

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Toronto Jewish sites attacked: School bus burned, anti-Israel graffiti found

A school bus parked in a Jewish Toronto neighborhood was consumed in arson and several Jewish community sites were daubed with anti-Israel graffiti, Canadian politicians and Jewish groups announced on Monday.

York Center Parliament Member Yaara Saks and Eglinton-Lawrence MP Marco Mendico said on social media that the local Police were investigating the burning of the school bus.

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Chris Selley: I’d assumed Toronto had reached maximum cringe. I was wrong

After 15-or-so years observing and covering Toronto municipal politics — only a few of those years, thankfully, being full-time — I thought I had come to terms with the untethered heights and depths of maddening, petty irrelevancy to which city council can rise and plummet. I thought I had cringed as hard as I could cringe, raged as hard as I could rage, about and against the legions of parochial zeroes, elected and otherwise, who want to hold this hard-striving city hostage to their various whims and preferences.

h/t DS

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Toronto’s war on the car

Yonge Street Toronto 1960’s

If congestion is chasing people out of Toronto, there’s only one thing left to do

“… Last year, as part of Mayor Olivia Chow’s transition team, I was in the room with city and private sector experts working on managing congestion. City staff are capable of developing smart solutions and, in Chow, have a leader who is not afraid to be bold and push good ideas forward.

However, we can’t deal with traffic congestion without being honest about the fundamental issue: The days of being able to drive wherever you want, whenever you want, are over. It’s about math, economics, and geometry — not politics.”


Toronto is an overcrowded expensive city with a rapidly declining quality of life that simply isn’t worth the cost.

Public transit is a homeless shelter and the situation will not get better, especially under Chairman Chow.

The exodus, (White flight?), has begun and affordability is only one of the reasons why.

The negligent mass import of incompatible cultures is turning Toronto into a 3rd world municipal wreck.

Foreign ethnic conflicts dominate our streets and the rule of law is undermined by the identity politics of our politicians.

I have lived here since 1964 and see no hope for the future.

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