As of this post, Google Street View’s only capture of Housey Street at approximately this spot is from 2018. One step in the opposite direction and you’re back in 2009. Besides the interesting visual contrasts I’m curious about why the Street View car appears to be avoiding this street. Consider that there are more recent captures at each of the roads that connect to Housey yet the small avenue itself hasn’t been fully traversed by Google since 2009 (and even that “traversal” is arguable).
Posted on
May 8th, 2025
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I remember walking by Empire Office Equipment many years ago when its Queen West storefront displayed quaint and dusty office hardware that had been stacked there, seemingly, for convenience rather than for display. The grimy windows and murky interior made it hard to see inside but it appeared to be packed with nicotine-infused business furniture and apparatus that weren’t modern even at that time.
The place didn’t ever look open to casual foot traffic or, for that matter, ever actually open at all. Posted business hours were nowhere to be found and given the stuff perennially piled up against the front door it now seems appropriate that all that remains today is found in an alley at the back.
Posted on
May 27th, 2019
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A large swath of Yonge Street is in the process of being demolished to make way for sterile, corporate homogeneity. Most of the businesses along the lengthy strip didn’t leave by choice.
You might be tempted to think it was the government-imposed 100% — i.e. double — tax increase (with more planned), that drove so many businesses either out of the area or into bankruptcy but “think tanks” like the C.D. Howe Institute beg to differ; Toronto has very “competitive” property tax rates, they say, it’s just that they’re difficult to estimate because of complexity, obscurity, and lack of transparency.
You may think that taxing property “owners” twice — i.e. double — for simply living on a piece of land throughout the city would be similarly problematic but the eminent Ryerson University along with some councilors believe that the city could easily squeeze another 20% from taxpayers who have the audacity to live in a home that they “own”.
There’s something very Edward Gorey-esque about Allan Gardens that keeps me coming back. Maybe it’s the moody Victorian atmosphere that they invoke, or maybe it’s the holiday weekend crowds — they can be murder. For Sarah it’s all about those sinister turtles.
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