The Shanley (née Electrohome, 152 Shanley St) | 8 fl | U/C

[MidTowner]

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My idea would be that the City would do something with the property itself, essentially acting as a developer.

Heh, I wonder what the neighbourhood reaction would be if the City said “we’re expropriating and cleaning up the property … so that we can build an affordable housing apartment building”.

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I'd be in favour of that, as a resident of the neighbourhood.

The current building is generating no value to anyone. It's not even generating value for its owner at present, and is a cost to the rest of the community. I'm not in favour of expropriation generally, but in this case you can't even say that the land or building is a part of the city's tax base.

Why not affordable housing? The City has said it's an issue and we need more of it, and a very strong case could be made that this is the type of neighbourhood where it should be located. Expropriate it and set up Kitchener Housing to build on it. I'd be a lot happier walking by one of their properties every day than what is there now.