Lawrence Heights TCHC Building Ribbon Cutting

Above is Mayor John Tory performing the actual ribbon cutting on Saturday June 8th, 2019 at 20 Zachary Court in Lawrence Heights.  Below are the various dignitaries that spoke including Mayor John Tory, Kevin Marshman, the President and CEO of Toronto Community Housing, Howard Cohen, the President of Context (Heights Development), Marco Mendicino, MP, Eglinton - Lawrence, Robin Martin, MPP Eglinton - Lawrence, and Michael Colle, City Councillor Ward 8         

My favourite moment other than when Michael Colle admitted that there had originally been quite the push back in the beginning for this project.  Odd favourite I know.  If you think about it though it's good to know that seemingly impossible things can be accomplished despite the naysayers.  They always seem to yell the loudest.    

Anyways, back to my other favourite moment.  I simply delight in exploring new places and spaces.  The rooftop at 20 Zachary is such a charming location that I would never otherwise have had access.  I hope the people in this community enjoy this little rooftop haven.  I know I would.        

My not so favourite moment was when I realized that what TCHC, "in their infinite wisdom", (Mom's expression) with their developers, have designed a kitchen space in a five bedroom RGI unit that has less cupboards to store food and dishes to feed umpteen number of people than what I have in my one bedroom unit.  I even have substantially more (like double) the available counter space in my kitchen.   

As if that wasn't bad enough there was no separate dining room/living room.  Not even a sizable combined communal living space.  You can either fit a dining room table with enough seating for a large family in the space OR you can fit a living room set on the main floor.  Adding bedrooms on either side of the family space drastically cut down on the number of interior design options for tenants.

I'm not the only one that felt that way. As I recall one lady muttered under her breathe that she felt like she was in jail as we were on the tour of the units.  Now, if someone feels like that on a tour I can't imagine what forcing people to live in those conditions on a permanent basis could do. 

​Maybe Lawrence Heights is a longitudinal study in space deprivation.  Let's see how that works out for them.   ​