“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

When strangers pound at the door of her downtown Toronto apartment, Janice Bellmore has learned to keep calm, make sure her lock is secured, and turn up the TV to drown out the noise. Calling security, in the complex she’s lived in for two decades, often feels futile.

It’s not unusual for unfamiliar faces to roam her building — a weathered concrete and brick apartment, with rusting metal railings looking over a wide courtyard connecting it to hundreds of other homes. In many cases, the people who enter this sprawling complex are desperate to find potent street drugs, tenants say. And it’s a reliable place to look, as vulnerable tenants having their units taken over by dealers is a chronic problem.

On a January morning in 2022, Supt. Stacy Clarke sat inside a Toronto police interview room, her lawyer by her side.

The first Black female superintendent in the history of the service was being read her rights. She was the focus of a criminal breach of trust investigation.

Her intentions were in no way honorable. She’s a crooked cop, end of story.

Canada’s government has refused Toronto’s request to decriminalise the small possession of hard drugs in the city.

It was denied because of concerns over public safety and lack of political support, officials said.

Toronto had initially made the request in 2022 in a bid to tackle its overdose deaths crisis.

The rejection comes after British Columbia (BC) rolled back its own decriminalisation policy last month.

I knew a couple who ran a pizza joint in Washington, D.C. Previously they had, between them, lived in Scarborough, Central America, South Asia and the Middle East. Once, we were sharing our impressions of the U.S. capital city.

“It’s a beautiful city,” I said, then thinking of the sky-high cost of living there, added, “if you have the money to afford it.”

She responded, “Every city is a great place to live if you’re rich.”

Every time I come home from a trip to Europe, I feel a little ashamed. Ashamed and perplexed. Why is everything so much better over there? The parks, the public transit, the highways, the squares, the museums – even the garbage bins are better than ours.

Arriving in Toronto, where I live, feels like crossing into the East Bloc from the West during the Cold War. Everything looks so shabby. The main route into downtown from the airport is in scandalous shape. Rusting guardrails. Garbage and weeds on the shoulders. Potholes and bumps. The inbound drive along the Gardiner Expressway is like a ride on a decrepit roller coaster.

The City of Toronto is turning to the public for guidance on what to do with its empty office space as vacancies continue to rise.

The percentage of vacant office space in the city rose throughout every quarter last year, closing out 2023 at 17.5 per cent – a three per cent increase from the same period in 2022, and a 13.6 per cent spike from the fourth quarter of 2019.

Covid accelerated Toronto’s decline.  I have a feeling the city will come to be regarded as Detroit North.

This won’t help.

Headaches, frustration and anger. Brace for three years of Gardiner Expressway roadwork

Within city hall, the project is known as the “Gardiner Expressway Strategic Rehabilitation Plan.”

For the thousands of people who commute and visit the city each day by car, it’s becoming known by a host of other names, none of them flattering and none of which we can print in a family newspaper.

Suffice to say those curses capture well the headaches, frustration, anger as motorists have seen their daily trips along western stretches of the Gardiner Expressway turn into a plodding crawl.

Sun’s out, shovels out.

As the warm weather sets in, Toronto will welcome its unofficial fifth season: construction season.

Workers will be outside taking advantage of the weather to get all sorts of projects done, such as road maintenance and sewer upgrades.

However, the season is notorious for its traffic congestion, and with the amount of work going on, planning experts say better execution is needed to reduce the impact on people’s lives.

Driving in Toronto sucks at the best of times.