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Current News and Events Next Meeting Our next meeting will be on Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 7 pm at at Parkdale Community Legal Services (1266 Queen Street West, west of Dufferin, at the corner of Noble). Recent News April 29, 2006 - The fight To Save Dowling Beach! The Parkdale Tenants Association's fight to save Parkdale's only public beach, which has long been coveted by two of the city's most exclusive private boat clubs, was a complete success. February 2, 2006 - The Parkdale Tenants Association's Slums Unlimited Bus Tour premiered on February 2 to stellar reviews. September 13, 2005 - The PTA has recently been re-examining conditions at one of the buildings we surveyed in 2004. See the special case of 1475 King St. W. June 23, 2005 - The PTA picketed The Wynn Group's head office to protest harassment of Neelam Sharma.
Past News and Events November 25, 2004 - The PTA presented the Golden Weasel Award to the City of Toronto for weaseling out of its promises to tenants. We presented the golden statuette to Mayor Miller and met with some of his staff. October 19, 2004 - The PTA announced the winner of the 2004 Golden Cockroach Award. October 2004 - Success story? The Parkdale Tenants Association spent most of the winter of 2003-04 rating buildings, knocking on doors, talking to tenants, taking pictures of bad conditions. Sometimes our building ratings lead to success. Sometimes they don't. See the full story. October 2004 - Thanks to the Parkdale Liberty for great coverage of the Golden Cockroach Award in their October 2004 edition. "And the Award Goes to ... " is a front page article, and "Going for Gold" is a supporting editorial. October 2004 - The Parkdale Tenants Association is now a Corporation! (but without 'share capital'). Recently the Parkdale Tenants Association decided to change from a non-profit community group to a non-profit corporation. In July of this year we received our 'letters patent' from the Ontario Government as a corporation incorporated under Ontario law as a 'corporation without share capital'. The legal name of the Corporation is 'RESIDENTS FOR BETTER RENTAL LIVING IN PARKDALE', and our business name is registered as 'THE PARKDALE TENANTS ASSOCIATION'. The Corporation continues to work as a volunteer organization driven exclusively by the donated labour of community volunteeers. But the Corporation has no money! (or very little!) The cost of incorporation and some other expenses set us back a bit financially. And we need some money to stage the GOLDEN COCKROACH and the GOLDEN WEASEL award ceremonies. Fortunately we received a generous donation of $500.00 from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), Local 525. This will enable us to carry on for a while. We thank OPSEU Local 525 for its financial help! The Corporation charges no membership fee and receives no formal grants or subsidies from either private or public sources. We carry on our work for the Parkdale tenant community without any remuneration. Our expenses are paid for by whatever we receive in donations. In order to retain our political independence, donations from landlords, governments or any other source which could lead to a potential conflict of interest in the Corporation's advocacy work are not accepted. Thursday February 26, 2004 - The Parkdale Tenants Association announces nominations for the 2005 GOLDEN COCKROACH Award for the worst landlord of the year. For immediate release - Monday, November 3, 2003 The Parkdale Tenants Association unveils its website dedicated to This is part of an ongoing campaign by the Parkdale Tenants Association to eradicate slum conditions in Parkdale apartments. By rating and condemning apartment buildings, we force landlords to do repairs and the City to enforce its own housing standards. So far, tenants in 40 Parkdale buildings have been surveyed, 9 buildings have been rated, and 4 buildings have been condemned (see Rated Buildings for more information). The worst landlord will get the
GOLDEN COCKROACH Award. The City will get the GOLDEN WEASEL award for weaseling out of its obligations and letting its citizens rot in slum buildings.
On May 31, 2003, the buildings at 157 and 165 Jameson, owned by the Wynn Group, were condemned by the community. We took a few photos of the event, and the Toronto Star was there to cover it. This was followed on July 9, 2003 with public condemnations of the buildings at 40 and 60 Tyndall, owned by S. Tobis Investments. This event featured music from the Z-Rays, and attracted attention from Global TV, CityPulse, Sing Pao, and Eye magazine. Photos are available here. These four buildings are all in contention for the infamous Golden Cockroach Award! Further nominees will be announced in the coming months. |
| Last Updated: 13-May-2007 |
February, 2005 - Phony PTA posters: The PTA is 
Based
on early results from our building rating surveys, the PTA has held four community
condemnations to date. 