Uno Prii was light years ahead of his time. The Estonian-born architect shot Toronto into the space age, an Orbit City right out of The Jetsons animated TV series, with futuristic apartment buildings sporting curved, looped balconies and white concrete structures pointing skyward like rocket ships. They were so unlike the boxy, no-nonsense Modernist designs of the 1960s.
Some admired his peek into a where-no-one-has-gone-before Star Trek universe, while no-frills advocates dissed his designs, considering them strange, dull and blights on the landscape.
But whatever camp you were in, his creations were something that couldn’t be ignored and were as ubiquitous as the stars strung throughout the galaxy. Prii designed no fewer than 250 buildings, many of them in Toronto, during the 1960s, with a handful in Ohio and Miami Beach.
“Even now, decades after they first appeared, these are structures that speak of the future,” wrote the Star’s Christopher Hume in October 2009. “Little wonder people called them the ‘Jetson buildings.’ They conjure up images of winged cars, robot butlers and space ships.”
The future has now become something to be feared, Hume said. “The optimism of Prii’s architecture will likely never be replicated in this or any city,” he concluded.
Prii utilized his engineering background and took advantage of the slipform moulds at the time, which slide up the buildings as liquid concrete is poured. He favoured white concrete, which stood out against Toronto’s traditional brick buildings.
October was another hot month for the Toronto area's residential real estate market, with the number of sales hitting a record high and prices soaring by double-digits.
The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) says there were 9,768 sales in the Greater Toronto Area — up 11.5 per cent from the same month last year.
Its benchmark price index was also up by 19.7 per cent from a year ago and the average selling price for all types of homes rising by 21.1 per cent to $762,975.
The board of Toronto Hydro is considering whether to slash the dividend the company pays to the City of Toronto – worth $56-million last year – as the utility commits more cash to fix its aging infrastructure, according to senior city hall sources.
The Hydro board met on Monday night and will meet again on Nov. 23, when the utility is scheduled to release its third-quarter financial results. It is unclear when the decision on the dividend will be made.
City finance officials, at the urging of Mayor John Tory and city council, are taking a close look at whether to sell-off a portion of Toronto Hydro in order to raise money for other priorities, such as new public-transit lines or repairs to its crumbling public housing.
Reducing or eliminating the dividend could undermine one of the key arguments used by left-leaning city councillors who oppose the sale, which is that Toronto cannot afford to forgo the dividend – typically about half of the utility’s net profits – because the cash helps the city balance its own books every year.
However, Toronto Hydro chief executive officer Anthony Haines has warned publicly that theutility needs to raise more money to cover the costs of fixing its aging electricity infrastructure. One source said that in the past few months, Hydro has been considering the idea of cutting the dividend to shore up its cash flow.
They call themselves Glo'erm and Tuggy, and last week the "urban interventionists" (aka Daniel Rotsztain and Mike Stulberg) provoked a timely discussion about the state of the city by erecting a fake development proposal sign outside Old City Hall announcing plans to convert the historic building into a 90-storey condo. Not everyone got that it was a parody. Rotsztain says buildings going up as part of intensification reflect developers' vision of the city more than anyone else's.
What triggered the idea to shame runaway development in Toronto?
It was inspired by the profusion of existing development proposal signs downtown. The black-and-white signs have been updated, but even the new ones seem to announce what will be happening on a particular site rather than offering an invitation for a conversation about the future of the city. Some of the real development proposals out there already look like parodies, with giant glass towers rocketing out of tiny heritage buildings.
Your fake proposal to turn Old City Hall into a giant condo is only slightly less preposterous than an idea floated a year ago to turn it into retail space.
Yes, the development proposal sign we put in front of Old City Hall was so mundane that most people didn't notice it at all. And of those who did, many thought it was real, even when they read that the heritage building was going to be turned into a parking garage. And there's the problem: the bureaucratic language and the lack of engagement with these signs numb the mind to the point that ridiculous claims can be slipped under our noses. This [art] project hit a nerve because it reflected the helplessness many of us are feeling toward the shaping of our city.
Mayor John Tory and senior city staff are being condemned in Mississauga after Toronto made public a $470 million LRT funding expectation of the local airport authority and Mississauga — without telling officials in the neighbouring city.
“Mr. Tory, we’re not going to pay for your wall,” Councillor Jim Tovey bellowed during a committee meeting Wednesday, comparing the Toronto mayor to Donald Trump, who expects Mexico to pay for a border wall it doesn’t even want.
Tovey joined a chorus of staff and council voices expressing outrage that Toronto would publicly reveal plans to get Mississauga to pay for part of Tory’s Smart Track plan, without even asking if the city supports the idea.
“There has been no request of us,” said Mississauga mayor Bonnie Crombie. After the meeting, Crombie, Tovey and Mississauga city manager Janice Baker voiced their incredulity over the note in a public report from Toronto’s city manager this week that assumes Mississauga and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) will fund $470 million toward the extension of the Eglinton West LRT into Mississauga and Pearson airport. The report assumes a $1.18 billion contribution from Toronto, and a $822.9 million contribution from the federal government toward the $2.47 billion cost of the Eglinton West LRT extension.
“That is just a crazy number in our world,” Baker said of the $470 million, acknowledging that it’s unclear how much of the money Toronto expects Mississauga to pay and how much the GTAA is expected to contribute.
Cathi Delaney chooses a shady spot on the terrace to sip a refreshing cup of iced coffee. It's October, but with temperatures well above 30°C (86°F), the nearly 60-year-old British woman is perfectly comfortable wearing just a floral dress. This, after all, is what brought her to Cyprus: the sun, the sea, the sweet life.
But in recent months, back in her country of origin, a majority of voters opted for Brexit, that will force the UK to leave the European Union — adding a major element of anxiety to her otherwise trouble-free existence. "Brexit raises a lot of uncertainties," she says, noting the various legal and bureaucratic issues. "Will I get my state pension in six years? Will my husband benefit from the General Hospital Scheme that gives affordable access to health care?"
Delaney is one of an estimated 80,000 subjects of Her Majesty the Queen currently residing in Cyprus, an EU member for the past 12 years. Together they represent about 10% of the small republic's population. Around half of these ex-pats are retired. The rest work in finance, tourism or in the military. Cyprus has two British bases.
A former insurance agent, she retired early with her husband, at 45, to move here to this house they had built in the village of Tala, where half of the population is foreign. That was 14 years ago. "We'd fallen in love with this quiet, cool place in the hills, 10 minutes from the Coral Bay beach," she says.
The couple has lived on their savings. But like many Brits, they now fear they might need private insurance to cover their health care costs. Delaney, who serves as a town councilor (as allowed under EU rules), also worries about the impact Brexit may have on local commerce.
Malta is positioning itself as an alternative for companies willing to enter the EU market, and plans to use the EU Presidency, which passes to Malta for the first time in January 2017, to promote itself to UK-based international banks.
A recent visit to the island’s highly competitive, English-speaking (yes, we are not the only ones touting this advantage after Britain exits) and onshore EU jurisdiction allowing “passporting” and “re-domiciliation” of funds, with an efficient fiscal regime, a balmy Mediterranean climate and an ethical and professional workforce, left me with the impression that we will need to put our best foot forward to attract financial services from London as the Brexit talks get underway next year.
[. . .]
Malta, in a Trojan-horse-like-strategy, is focusing on maintaining the harmonious relationship it has with the UK.
“We see ourselves partnering with UK operators to provide solutions to help them sustain their business models; we’re not looking to try and take business away from the UK,” said Kenneth Farrugia , chairman of Finance Malta, which promotes Malta’s fund management industry overseas, as well as its insurance sector, trust and foundations and wealth management.
Financial and insurance activities contributed €149bn or almost 98% of all foreign direct investment in Malta last year. It is obviously an important industry for Malta.
From a regulatory and legal perspective it is difficult to differentiate Malta from other jurisdictions such as London, Paris, Frankfort, Rome or Dublin.
I try to discover
A little something to make me sweeter
Oh baby refrain from breaking my heart
I'm so in love with you
I'll be forever blue
That you give me no reason
Why you're making me work so hard
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