11-25-2017, 09:03 AM
(11-24-2017, 12:54 PM)ijmorlan Wrote:(11-24-2017, 09:39 AM)Canard Wrote: I’m always gobsmacked that some can talk about “buying up homes” like people don’t live there or have lives. “Just destroy them, who cares about them”.
We’re talking about a project to benefit the entire Region, hundreds of thousands of people. In that context, 30 houses should not stop the project. The point is, even homes (and I use the word advisedly, normally I would use “houses” but I want to be clear that this argument still goes through even though the houses in question are people’s homes) have a market value, and if the market price of buying out the people on those streets is less than the price of moving the CP line to a new alignment, it would be silly to waste money on the more expensive alternative.
Having said that, that is an extreme approach offered more as a reductio. In actual fact, I think we could either take the approach that sometimes people just have to accept that their street will change (and similar to good old Mr. Aissa up on Northfield, I predict we’ll see most of them stay put, thus acknowledging by their actions that LRT tracks down the street aren’t actually that bad), or we could offer the property owners compensation for the change in their street without buying them out. Would those people really still be protesting if they all knew they were each getting $25,000 out of the deal? The total cost of compensation would be something like $750,000 under this made-up-on-the-spot idea. I’ll eat my shirt if it’s possible to move the CP line for that money.
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My aunt and uncle owned a home on Madison Ave. and what is now Charles St. The house and land was expropriated and they were given good compensation that allowed them to buy a house on Filbert Street. A very nice house and neighbourhood. However, living in a house that has lost the front yard may not be a very good deal.
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