Fifteen tenants living in a Park Avenue building have been evacuated because it looks like it might collapse – or like the building next door is at risk of collapse. This happened near Van Horne, near where another building collapsed in March, although the brief item doesn’t say whether it was directly next door.
Update: CBC has some coverage of the situation described below by Ian, as does CTV.
Usage question. CTV has this: “But Johnston wants the city to use its powers to take over the demolition process and foot the owner the bill.” Footing the bill usually means paying for it, not passing it to someone else – right?
Ian 20:42 on 2025-07-04 Permalink
The collapse was in the shared passageway between the two buildings, in the building that had already started to collapse. There was a small tree growing in the windowsill of one of the upper floors that was making the wall below it bulge menacingly, it was just a matter of time. Nobody was injured, the bricks didn’t fall on the street or sidewalk or in the alley behind, but the building will now be demolished immediately. At least that’s what the firemen blocking my alley told me.
If the building next door is also considered to be at risk of collapse as opposed to at risk from collapse of its neighbour, I think it’s a matter of being overly cautious, but better safe than sorry.
Ian 23:53 on 2025-07-04 Permalink
Update: this block of Parc is still blocked to traffic, all southbound traffic going down Hutchison. The firemen say it depends on when the city gives the order that the site is considered secure, but it looks like the southbound lane and maybe centre lane will be closed indefinitely.
Kate 08:42 on 2025-07-05 Permalink
Thanks for the deets, Ian.
Nicholas 17:54 on 2025-07-05 Permalink
Kate, they mean “…and get the owner to foot the bill.” “To foot”, in this sense, is a transitive verb, with the direct object “the bill” and the subject “the owner”. Usually we do subject verb object, but here they rearranged the sentence to make “the owner” the indirect object, footing the bill to the owner. But then, also, instead of doing verb direct object indirect object, they’ve moved the indirect object into the middle. You would do this normally, like “to give him the bill”, but “foot the bill” is its own idiom, so shouldn’t be separated. Even in French, you would say “donne la lui”, not “donne lui la”; you could do “donne lui la facture”, which is my best guess as what happened, but then it’s “donne la facture à lui”. Maybe there’s a French idiom I don’t know that would do this, but I think it’s just wrong, and even if it’s acceptable, there’s no reason to do it.
CE 18:14 on 2025-07-05 Permalink
“Foot the owner the bill” is definitely wrong. As Nicholas said, ”foot the bill” is an idiom and idioms aren’t very flexible. A copy editor would have fixed that on first reading but I don’t think many news outfits have copy editors anymore.
Blork 18:35 on 2025-07-05 Permalink
When tenants are evacuated in a case like this… where do they go? And who pays for it? (Genuine question, not loaded.)
Kate 18:45 on 2025-07-05 Permalink
Blork, one of the items says some people were going to stay with family or friends, and some are helped by the Red Cross, much as happens when people are displaced by a fire. I don’t know what kind of residential facilities the Red Cross has, or where they are, or how long people can stay.
Ian 20:00 on 2025-07-05 Permalink
I know with the building on the other side the landlord allowed tenants who were dispalced to move into their choice of several other properties in the area that he also owned, for the same rent.
SMD 08:03 on 2025-07-06 Permalink
For people evacuated by fire the Red Cross often puts them up at Ruby Foo’s for up to a week, then they are on their own. Depending on their situation (income, health, number of dependents) they might be eligible to skip the waiting list and get a spot in social housing.
Orr 13:34 on 2025-07-07 Permalink
I passed by that spot and wondered what was going on, as I saw the sidewalk and parking spots were included in the barricade and no protected pedestrian route around it existed and as I passed I saw a mom push a baby carriage around it as cars whizzed passed inches away from her. I hope it’s better today bc that’s very dangerous.