[PHOTO] Looking down Bathurst Street at night

In this night photo, I'm looking down Bathurst Street towards Davenport Road.

[URBAN NOTE] "Winter storm expected to hit Toronto area on Boxing Day"

This CBC report about Boxing Day weather in Toronto strikes me as oddly wistful. Yes, the Weather Network, among other weather sources, is still predicting snow for this evening and night, but the amount of snow being predicted is meagre, the temperatures barely below freezing. The tone of the CBC article seems to me to betray a wistfulness for the sorts of cold snowy winters no longer enjoyed in much of Canada.

It might not be a white Christmas, but it could very likely be a white Boxing Day in and around Toronto.

Environment Canada has issued a special weather statement saying a low-pressure system will develop over Texas on Christmas Day and then move northeastward, affecting Ontario.

The storm track would place southern Ontario on the cold side of the storm, creating the right conditions for significant snowfall.

"Big-time snowfall accumulations are certainly a possibility," said CBC meteorologist Jay Scotland.

Scotland said the weather system will start in southwestern Ontario early Boxing Day then work its way across the province from southwest to northeast.

"If you do not have the snow tires on the vehicle, do not plan on doing any driving, certainly through the second half of Boxing Day."

Environment Canada is calling for 10 to 15 centimetres of snow in the southwest and St. Lawrence Valley areas, while Toronto and the rest of central Ontario could see up to 10 centimetres.

[URBAN NOTE] "No stopping shopping at Pacific Mall on Christmas"

The Toronto Star's Alex Consiglio writes about the Pacific Mall. Located just north of the City of Toronto, on the other side of Steeles Avenue, the Asian-themed Pacific Mall is the only mall in the Greater Toronto Area open on Christmas Day.

Not a creature was steering, so quiet were the roads on Christmas Day — until drivers hit the intersection of Kennedy Rd., and Steeles Ave E., that is.

Vehicles lined the Markham intersection, some impeding traffic, as thousands of people clogged the entrances to Pacific Mall, the only major shopping centre open in the GTA.

Once in the mall’s parking lot, impatient drivers leaned on their horns, attempting to navigate the lines of cars looking for a spot.

Some shouting matches were heard but once inside, the holiday cheer became infectious as people continued traditions, enjoyed the festive atmosphere or finished last-minute shopping.

Catherine Walker strolled with her elderly father, who’s visiting from Windsor for the holidays, as a way to escape her hectic home for a while.

“I left my twins at home with my husband,” laughed Walker. “Got up early, prepared the food, had Christmas, and told him he could handle the rest.”

Walker, whose twins are 8, said her father enjoys coming to the mall ever since she ducked out of the house for the first time a few years ago.

Now it’s a tradition, including an extra present for her during the visit.

“There are so many things here that you don’t see elsewhere,” said Walker. “My dad just loves it — he can’t get over that it’s open on Christmas Day.”

[URBAN NOTE] "It was a grim year for the Ford brothers"

The unanimous consent of Matt Gurney, Chris Selley and Jonathan Goldsbie, writers in the in the right-leaning National Post, that Toronto mayor Rob Ford and his brother Doug have had a very bad year. Their consensus is that Rob Ford has demonstrated he's completely unworthy of being mayor.

Looking back over 2012, looking for a low point for city politics, I found my mind turning to the conflict of interest ruling against Rob Ford, obviously. But I decided to discount that from my personal running. Both because it was too easy and because it was too recent. After I decided that anything related to that fiasco was out of the running, it didn’t take me long to settle on what bothered me most over the last 12 months: When the Mayor and his brother decided to tear into the media, including NewsTalk 1010 reporter James Moore, when Moore sat just feet from them. To refresh your memories, this was during the kerfuffle in the fall over whether the Chicago trip would cost the city money. Fords said no. NewsTalk 1010, with Moore at the microphone, reported yes. That set off the Fords. Moore is as nice a guy as you could hope to meet, but that wasn’t what bothered me. Nor was I just showcasing my tribal loyalty to a member of the media pack. It was more fundamental than that. The Brothers Ford felt no compunction about attacking the media for their perceived bias … while hosting their weekly two-hour radio show. I think that some of the media outlets in this city have absolutely gone after the Fords were unprofessional zeal, but NewsTalk 1010 sure isn’t one of them. To pretend otherwise demonstrates their fundamental disconnect from reality. And for all their macho posturing — on this occasion, Ford told the media they’d better “keep their chin straps tight” — they didn’t even address Moore by name, even though he was sitting in a booth that connects directly to their studio, with a glass wall between them. That, for me, was the low point in this town for 2012. What say you fellers?

[URBAN NOTE] "The condo market: Toronto’s sky-high housing yardstick"

The Globe and Mail's Tara Perkins starts her article speculating on the future of the condo market in Toronto by looking at plans for an opulent unit not yet built. There's cause for concern.

In the summer of 2017, if you walk up to the triangular parcel of land that sits beside the Gardiner Expressway near the foot of Toronto’s York Street, you will be able to ride the elevator to the 41st floor.

Just down the hall, enter suite 4110. It’s newly constructed and still bereft of furniture, but step onto the plank laminate flooring and take a look. To your left sits the master bedroom; to your right, two smaller bedrooms. Continue through the walkway between them and you’ll find yourself in the living and dining area. The suite stretches across 1,305 square feet before you hit the balcony. Step out. Swivel to the south and you can see out over Lake Ontario; pivot right to see the city’s downtown core.

The suite at Ten York is currently for sale with an asking price of $922,000, plus $55,000 for a parking spot and a monthly maintenance fee of about $588. But at the moment, it’s nothing but air hundreds of feet above a parking lot. And its sale coincides with rising questions this year about just how far the condo market in the country’s most populous city will fall.

In 2013, everyone from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to economists – and condo buyers – will be keeping an eye on condos like suite 4110 to see if they sell, for how much, and to whom. The hope is that they will, for a solid amount, and generally to Canadians who want to live in them. The fear is that they won’t sell, or only sell at a much lower price, to speculators with no long-term skin in the game.

The fate of condos like suite 4110 will determine whether the highrise market in the country’s most populous city is dangling precariously in midair, or has been lifted by strong underlying demand from residents. Policy makers have shown that they stand ready to intervene at any sign of the former.

Construction of the Ten York tower is scheduled to begin about a year from now, with completion slated for 2017. Some economists expect prices in Toronto’s condo market to fall by 15 per cent or more in the next couple of years, and few will hazard a guess about what the market will look like in four years. Sales are already dropping significantly, and the rising prices of recent years have vanished.

[. . .]

According to Urbanation, a data firm that specializes in tracking the Toronto market, resales of existing condos in the third quarter were down 22 per cent from a year ago. And the market for newly constructed condos has seen even steeper declines: 3,317 new condos sold in the quarter, down 30 per cent from the prior quarter and down 47 per cent from the same period in 2011.

To put things in perspective, the unusually strong sales of 2011 set a record – one that likely marked the market’s peak. And, also on the bright side, the steady runup of unsold units ended in the third quarter, with the figure retreating back to 17,182. Prior to that, the number of unsold condos had risen for five straight quarters and topped 18,000.

But it’s the cranes in the sky that worry many economists. Urbanation is still tracking about 242,000 condo units that are planned but not yet built in and around the city. If built, those units represent nearly a 20-year supply.

[URBAN NOTE] "Looking Back: Toronto By Night I"

Toronto transit writer Steve Munro has a wonderful photo post up, of night-time pictures of the TTC taken at different points from the late 1960s through to the early 1970s.

During this period, a friend and I spent a lot of time chasing works equipment to various track projects around town. Standard M.O.: sit opposite Hillcrest gate waiting for the work cars to depart, follow them on their way, and set up for photos when they stayed put long enough.

Many of the PCC photos are from all-night charters, yes, I admit it, “fantrips” where a bunch of rail buffs of dubious sanity would not only stay up all night riding a streetcar and photographing it, but would charter a car for the purpose. Professionals have words for such people, and these tend to be dismissive at best suggesting that the “foamers” are unfit to comment on transit policy. I won’t say anything about the competence of those making such remarks beyond noting that I have a blog now, four decades on, and they don’t.

The pictures are remarkable for their historical value, not only regarding the TTC but regarding Toronto as a whole. See this single example.

C2 westbound at Dundas and Bathurst. The library on the southeast corner was brand new, but most of the office towers (not to mention the condos) that now make up the view of downtown had yet to be built.