Corner of Lansdowne and Dupont

Hi Neighbours,

How do you deal with the drug problems at this corner, and the two buildings next to Coffee Time? There are always drug users and dealers around that area, and even the police couldn't care less. Do you think they will slowly be pushed away from this block when the Fuse Condos are up? Or, they will remain as long as the two ghetto apartment buildings and Coffee Time are still there?

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It's been awhile since the

It's been awhile since the last comment, but I'm also wondering about this area.

Did anybody buy into the Fuse condos? I'm concerned about the noise (railway, busy intersection, etc.). The sales person said that you won't hear anything with the windows closed. Can anybody already occupying the unit confirm if this is true?

Also, how smooth was the overall purchasing and moving experience? I want to remove my phone. My lawyer brought to my attention a few highly unfavourable clauses.

Any insight would be great!

Neighborhood

Hi Everyone! I'm looking to buy an apartment and found one at the Junction, I don't know the area that much but I have read that is growing. I currently live around Queen st and it will be a big change for me. I have gone around there for summer but I would like to hear from the neighbors how is living there? Is it a walkable area? I'm sorry for all the questions, but it's my first big purchase and I don't want to mess it up. I heard also about the contamination, the train noise. The building I'm looking at it's the one at Heitzman.

Thank you! :)

Just one question neighbours,

Just one question neighbours, is it safe to live around this lot? it's confirmed that there is contamination, so what effects it has on the surrounding neighbours who live there? any health issues?

I've heard stories of the

I've heard stories of the contamination, but I've never experienced it. I've been living in the area for 7 years. I've also have never heard of anyone having health issues because of it.
The best thing to do is contact the city councellor in the area who HAS to keep track of all of this. Better have actual numbers than rely on people guessing.

I'm not certain background

I'm not certain background checks are the only thing that is needed. The one landlord made the building on Lansdowne go into such disrepair but was still granted millions of dollars a few years back to do some cosmetic work to the exterior of the building and clean up some of the units within. If you choose to own a building don't be an absentee landlord. He and whomever owns/runs the one on St.Clarens should be brought to task. Due to the fact that many of their tenants are on assistance they know they are getting their cheque by month's end and they have to do nothing for it. That's why they are in the state they are in. I believe the owner of the Lansdowne building doesn't even live in the city, he's from Montreal! So that attracts all types of different activities let alone the deplorable conditions for people living inside the units! Again, unless the city gets on it, what are the cops going to do? The problem runs deeper than simply busting some heads with a baton and making a few arrests. Frankly, the criminality is how the residents and community is being treated by some slum landlord.

i am moving in in this area

i am moving in in this area soon (wallace and lansdowne), and i am extremely concerned about the activities in this corner (especially the safety and the overall well being of the kids in the proximity). Do you think whether it's possible for the neighbours to collectively apply some sort of pressure to the city so they do something about it? is there anything we can do...im just concerned for the kids...

Again, get people to contact

Again, get people to contact the local councillor: councillor_palacio@toronto.ca is in that particular Ward but so should councillor_bailao@toronto.ca have a vested interest in what's going on. You guys are just lucky you didn't move in 10 years ago...we all allowed this type of stuff to happen because no one bothers. And we have absentee landlords running the place with no accountability.

Palacio/Bailao

Dupont and Lansdowne is Ward 18 - Bailão.

Palacio's ward 17 is north of the tracks.

yes most definitely the

yes most definitely the landlords should be accountable for this as they should be performing more in depth credit/background checks of their potential tenants. It just ticks me off a little bit that even the cops could not do much here.....on the side note, i would apprciate a tim hortons over starbucks for this particular corner due to tim horton's affordability relative to starbucks...

The sad reality about that

The sad reality about that corner is that many of its residents are just trying to get by. I know that the "activity" is not as bad as it once was but it's still present. The buildings offer housing at a pretty cheap rate and for those who need to be in the city and close to transit it's the reason we have a vast number of residents that draw from different walks of life. There are also those who live there with mental illness. So perhaps the people just hanging out at the Coffee Time are also those who appear to be up to no good when in fact they suffer from mental illness and are maybe off medication and don't "look" right. Write and call your local councillors like I have. It's great that you bring this up, but that does nothing to help the situation. Let's make the owners of the buildings accountable. I know there is an outreach program in one of the buildings for these types of residents. But once funding gets cut off, they are on their own with very little life skills to cope. Also, they eliminated the tables they had outside the Coffee Time and some phone booths to dissuade certain activities. I sympathize with what you're saying but there is also a hint of NIMBYISM behind it. Let's look to the source of the issues there, and not how quick we can get rid of people. The sad reality is that not only will those activities eventually became lessened with the development, the fear should be that some people on low incomes will be slowly removed too if rents increase. And I've heard that Starbucks is involved with acquiring the Coffee Time location. So it may make us latte loving folk happy, but some of the residents won't be able to afford a simple coffee. Let's make the landlords, councillors and businesses accountable and equitable for all.

Well put. Lets be careful

Well put. Lets be careful dont to demonize everybody because of a few. That corner has improved over the years just as the whole area has. One thing that changes an area is eyes on the street and with the development and stores and new library there will be a lot more people around. As expressed in the idea of a "donut city" the marginalized are being pushed out of downtown to the burbs but even middle income people are finding it harder to afford housing downtown. It will be interesting to see how long that coffee Time landowner wants to hold out....I think a developer will look to buy it and the 2 towers.

they should really put up a

they should really put up a police station in that TTC lot south of wallace on lansdowne...that is going to make the area a lot better

TTC / Police

That was considered, but because of the ongoing legal issues over three contamination, the police chose to make their new station at Davenport and Osler a few years ago.

i see, i wonder what is going

i see, i wonder what is going to be built in that lot. it's a big lot.

That empty lot just south of

That empty lot just south of Wallace on the East side of Lansdowne has been contaminated with some kind of toxic ground level water from what I understand. That's why you look in there all you ever see is huge mounds of loose gravle - I believe they do some kind of toxic cleanup behind those fences and contain as many traces of the toxic water by smothering it with gravle that can be loaded into heavy trucks and disgarded somewhere safe, while tons and tons of new gravle gets dumped around where it's needed....I honestly don't know the logistics, but I assume the gravle makes it so that it can't evaporate into the open air.

What I would like to know is, what kind of toxic water/chemical is it and how did it get there?

The contaminant is

The contaminant is Trichloroethylene (TCE). It's from the GE factory, and seeped underground to that whole area. There's more about this property on this site here.