The Star: Is it closing time for the Matador?

[Prometheus The Supremo]

it's funny how some NDP'ers, the the supposed saviors of all that is social, have a dr jekyll & mr. hyde personality.


twas a dark night, the stench of bullshit drift through the air....

 

[salvius]

I've been out of the loop for a day or two, and I find out that they're REALLY going ahead with expropriating a historic site for a SURFACE PARKING LOT!!!!!!!! In 2007!!!!!!! EXPROPRIATION!!!!!

I can't help but think 'abandon ship' in my head... Shock doesn't quite begin to describe what I'm feeling. I'm speechless.

 

[RJR123]

It's unreal. I wrote an email to Giambrone today (you can link to councillor's emails at toronto.ca) and expressed my amazement at this decision. Doubt I'll hear anything back, tho.

 

[beaconer]

I'm quite amazed as well.

How the city decideds to exercise it's power of expropriation for this particular building for a parking lot, while other buildings with historic value crumble to the ground due to neglect, makes no common sense.

 

[RJR123]

Don't look for common sense from the city, at least with the current group of fools that we have in charge. The municipal government can be considered either useless, or actually harmful to the city (ex. bureaucratic inertia on the waterfront, charging the ROM for its overhang, the Matador). As usual, we should be looking to the cultural and private sectors for any salvation and signs of progress.

 

[Hydrogen]

As for Giambrone, do remember that this is the guy who viewed the greening of Lansdowne as carte blanche to cut most of the exisiting trees down.

 

[adma]

Vaughan's a total embarassment. What Gatien is trying to do is akin to what Strober did with the Drake, which is to kick things up several notches in a neighbourhood. He's a legitimate businessman opening a legitimate business and following all the proper channels, yet Vaughan still feels he can shit all over him because it's contrary to his Whitby-esque vision of downtown Toronto.

Paradoxically, I think it's Vaughan who'd view Gatien as more Whitby-esque, just like he might view Cityplace as more Whitby-esque. That is, not as something that belongs in Whitby, but as something which dorks and twerps from Whitby would wish for Toronto so it'd become more NYC world-class-like.

Remember: some two decades ago, the guy was CKLN station manager. And to an 80s CKLNer, CFNY was a Whitby-esque dork/twerp idea of what "alternative" music radio was all about. *Back then*, when CFNY was supposedly great (or at least better than now).

Say what you will, but the Matador is neither a dorky nor a twerpy nor a "gee whiz, we're world-class like NYC" cause. Use this rule of thumb: WWJJD (What Would Jane Jacobs Do). I can see *her* sticking up for the Matador, while viewing Gatien rather circumspectly...

Edit: sure, JJ was from NYC. But in her case, it was more like being "Toronto-class in spite of being from NYC", and maybe more genuinely world-class for it...

 

[tracyjacks]

Here is the (automated) reply I got from Giambrone:

Dear Resident,

Thank you for contacting me about this issue. I can confirm that the Toronto Parking Authority is interested in purchasing 466 Dovercourt Road, known as the Matador, for a new parking facility.

The TPA is an independent agency of the City, the municipal equivalent of a crown corporation. The TPA, not the City, funds its own capital purchases out of its own revenues. They do not come out of the City budget.

The TPA is pursuing this property because it has made a business case showing that it believes there is sufficent demand for parking in the area and it will be profitable for them to operate there. The owner of the Matador is willing to sell, and the TPA wants to buy.

The reason the TPA has come to the City is for the authority to expropriate if necessary. The expropriation process requires both a 'hearing of necessity' and third-party arbitration to determine the price if there is a discrepancy between the City's assessment and the seller's.

If the TPA does end up acquiring this lot, I want to use this opportunity to to make some real innovative changes to our community. How can we make it contribute to the pedestrian and cycling environment? How do we reduce its environmental impact? Are there opportunities for the inclusion of public art? Can some sort of memorial to the Matador be included?

I would like to invite community members interested in this issue to work with me and explote creative opportunities. Let's start sharing our ideas on how we can re-imagine and re-invent this space so that, if this purchase does happen, it ends up being a very different kind of parking lot than what this city is used to---one that contributes more to the neighbourhood than just space for cars.

You may also want to contact the TPA about this issue. Their website is www.greenp.com, their email is tpamail@toronto.ca, and their phone number is 416-393-7275.

Yours truly,

Adam Giambrone
Toronto City Councillor
Ward 18---Davenport
Chair, Toronto Transit Commission
Toronto City Hall, Suite C42
100 Queen Street West
Toronto ON M5H 2N2

(416) 392-7012
www.adamgiambrone.ca

I absolutely love how he tries to spin this into some progressive initiative, by using phrases like "contribute to the pedestrian and cycling environment" and "re-imagine and re-invent this space" etc. Guess what: the most progressive thing to do would be to NOT TEAR DOWN THE BUILDING FOR A PARKING LOT. What a dick.

 

[Hydrogen]

If the TPA does end up acquiring this lot, I want to use this opportunity to to make some real innovative changes to our community. How can we make it contribute to the pedestrian and cycling environment? How do we reduce its environmental impact? Are there opportunities for the inclusion of public art? Can some sort of memorial to the Matador be included?

A parking lot?



The mentioning of a memorial to the Matador made me laugh out loud. It's too fucking funny to be serious.

 

[syn]

I find it hard to believe another club owner in the city wouldn't be interested in purchasing a local institution like the Matador.

 

[salvius]

The mentioning of a memorial to the Matador made me laugh out loud. It's too fucking funny to be serious.

It really takes a certain kind to be a politician. How can you write tripe like that without crawling under a rock in shame?

 

[adma]

He's a politician. So? Treat it as an opportunity to further persuade, not an opportunity to demonize.

From that auto-reply, my feeling is: Giambrone's feeling the pressure. He now knows he's backed into a nest of worms, and he's desperately trying to save face--at the moment, as a wouldbe best-of-both-worlds half-measure. (And I also wonder if, as w/the Lansdowne matter, there are potential provincial-election repercussions, too.)

What I'd like to know is, who in the community is *for* the removal? And given the community, where might Jutta Mason and the Dufferin Grove gang stand? (Now, *there's* another crowd that'd be pro-Matador, anti-Gatien. If they're anti-Matador, I'd be shocked.)

 

[Hipster Duck]

we can re-imagine and re-invent this space so that, if this purchase does happen, it ends up being a very different kind of parking lot than what this city is used to---one that contributes more to the neighbourhood than just space for cars.

This line's my favourite.

 

[AndreaPalladio]

But isn't this a case of the owner not being interested in keeping the place going either? It appears from the Globe article that they aren't so much concerned about shutting the place down, only in the price the TPA pays them for it. Presumably, if it were a viable business, there would be someone willing to buy it and keep it running.

 

[ShonTron]

Expropriation generally occurs "when there's a valuable social purpose," Mr. Aaron says - such as the expansion of Ryerson University's downtown campus, for which the university has expropriated the former site of Sam the Record Man, or the redevelopment of the Yonge and Dundas area beginning in 1996.

That's news to me. I know Ryerson is interested in the land, but I haven't heard anything about it going ahead and expropriating it.

The Matador should be sold on the open market. If the TPA goes ahead and buys it (without expropriation) and turns it into a parking lot, than shame on them. I'd like to think the land is far too valuable to turn into a parking lot though - an $800,000 parking lot (plus demolition and site preparation costs) for 20 spaces. It's worse than the Sylvia Watson Parking Lot across from the Palais Royale.

I don't see how this thread turned into more Adam Vaughan bashing either. Though this is such a let down for anyone who had faith in Giambrone (like I did).