They ain't the Ropers

I was just reading fellow basement-dweller/aspiring-above-ground renter Jamie's blog, and my curiousity was piqued by a reference he made to a property in the Yonge and St Clair area. He said it was owned by one of Toronto's "most notorious slumlord families". So, natch, I just had to use my librarian powers to find out who that was, because I don't want to be renting from them if I can help it.

So I Googled ' "slumlord" toronto' and got my answer in a split-second - well, the answer according to Google, at any rate. It's the Wynn family. They've been in the property biz since the 1960s. You can read about some of their buildings here and here. You can visit their website here.

Here is some information potential apartment-seekers might be interested in: the Wynns own the apartment buildings at 103 and 105 West Lodge Avenue in Toronto. These buildings have often been in the news, and it's never been good news. Rats, roaches, repairs not done, no reliable heat or hot water, huge rent hikes and most recently, grow-ops. This last item, to be fair, is not the doing of the landlords, but still, it makes you wonder what kind of business they're running if they can't keep on top of stuff like this?

When a tenant in the Yonge-St Clair building, 125 Lawton Blvd, started a tenant's association in order to advocate for her fellow tenants, the Wynns harassed her with long letters (at least one of which threatened eviction) and labelled her "pathological".

Here's another fact: their commercial holdings include the Waverly Hotel, a notorious dive, albeit one that appears to be cleaning up its act - I think there was a Toronto Star article about this a couple of months ago.

Anyway, I don't know about you all, but I will not be looking into a Wynn rental property any time soon.

It's about nothing

It's "Au contraire". Not "Oh, contraire!"

It's "correct me if I'm wrong". Not "current me if I'm wrong."

It's "for all intents and purposes". Not "for all intensive purposes".


February 04, 2006 at 10:45 AM in Complaints Department | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
It's about nothing

I'm 30. Thirty. Thir-dee. Three-oh. Trente.

When I was 20, I rather looked forward to turning 30, because I looked young for my age and nobody took me seriously and my "superiors" condescended to me all the time. One of my professors actually literally patted me on the head when I ran into him at the library, while I was on a leave of absence (I was going through a Bad Time). Can you believe it? He was my Creative Writing instructor, and this is what he said to me as he patted me on the head:

"Conrad didn't publish anything until he was in his thirties."

Well, I'm 30 now, and I still haven't published anything worth mentioning. And I still look young for my age. Actually, according to one Smug Married woman I met a couple of months ago, I "look really good for 30". Which I think - but I'm not entirely sure - was a back-handed compliment. A polite, gentle, genteel, well-bred way of saying, "You're definitely in Old Maid Country now, but you just might be able to fool some unsuspecting male into marrying you and impregnating you before you end up with the expired yogurts and the day-old pastries. Have you tried Botox?"

So anyway.

And people still condescend to me, maybe because I look young, but also, I'm a woman and I work in a "customer service" role and I smile a lot and I don't wear suits, so obviously I have very little power or authority or brains.

So. Not much has changed. Well, I have a lot more money than I did when I was 20 - no complaints there. And I have two degrees, and back then I didn't have any. And I have my own apartment, so while it's technically smaller than my shared apartment when I was 20, it's actually bigger because it's all mine. I'm certainly more content than I was then. And I can do things that I couldn't do when I was 20, like run two miles a day and swim thirty laps without stopping. I was skinnier then but I was in terrible physical shape.

Roll on 40!