The Golden Cockroach Award

The Parkdale Tenants Association presents

THE GOLDEN COCKROACH AWARD
for
WORST LANDLORD

The Golden Cockroach is a tastefully decorated trophy much coveted by slum landlords and art exhibits.

Mounted on an imitation marble and stainless steel stand, the illustration below the mounting bracket subtly hints at a crumbling apartment building, thus signifying the ever-present effort by slumlords to run their buildings into the ground at high rents.

The stainless steel curves sweeping upwards towards the sky symbolize the ever-increasing rents which know no limit and the efforts by slumlords to charge sky-high rents.

Finally, at its pinnacle, there is the Golden Cockroach itself, clad in all its gold and splendour, thus subtly denoting the filth and health hazards which these landlords aspire to create for their tenants. The gold also symbolizes the huge profits which slum landlords are making at the expense of their tenants.

After painstaking research and exhaustive canvassing by the Parkdale Tenants Association in many Parkdale buildings, we are very disturbed at what we have seen. Families with children are forced to live with cockroaches, mice, broken appliances, no hot water, holes in the ceiling … it goes on. Rents have gone out of control and maintenance seems non-existent. This is inexcusable.

There appears to be a lot of competition among landlords in Parkdale for this award.

On October 19th, 2004, the PTA announced the winner of the 2004 Golden Cockroach Award.