Sell 5050!

Lets sell 5050 Yonge St.!

Look. I am not completely against selling board property. I am just against selling stuff as a major part of  a capital plan. Public assets, in the community will never be replaced and closing schools and selling them just to make up for a failing funding formula is stupid.

So, lets look at 5050 Yonge Street. It became the head office when the board sold the old Toronto board building on College St. That building had character with its wooden line rooms and classy spaces.

By comparison, 5050 has none of that class. It is too small, for an organization of this size and its public spaces are inadequate and unimpressive. It is almost not wheelchair accessible.  It is not located near a centre of power. And it is located on some of the most expensive commercial property in the city. If the board wants real bang for its buck then it should not be selling schools, most of which are located on residential land in the communites of the city.

The only good thing about 5050 is its location on the subway line but is another sales point.

If we did sell it we could build a much more appropriate building for the administration on one of our own sites like at Bathurst and Finch, on the oversized Northview lot. Just look at Peel’s office. Open spaces, a great board room etc. It has its faults but we would be starting from scratch.

So lets sell 5050.

PS. This is not my idea originally. The late North York Trustee, Ken Crowley suggested this to me.