It’s not news that condos are sprouting up all over Toronto and a real estate boom is afoot. Some of the developers and realtors on bohemian Queen St. W, however, are trying a little too hard to be edgy and end up being scary:
That is the partial face of local realtor-to-hipsters Lucy Sanford. Local residents are familiar with this ad, as it appears on every available surface, and last week the city even provided a new, otherwise useless surface just for her pretty face.
If her dark, smoky eyes aren’t enough to make you want a hip, west side condo, then perhaps the indescribably ugly showroom for the West Side Lofts (pictured at left) will catch your eye. This gaudily painted particle-board structure was slapped up last year to foretell the coming of condos that have yet to even get their permit, but there is already a television commercial trying to convince us that these mystery units are going to provide true aspirational living. In the commercial, a bouncer holds a young, middle-class couple outside of a club asking them if they are “on the list.” They evidently are not and the girl is so mad. “Don’t make your girl mad. Buy one of these condos that we can’t tell you anything about. We think they will have bathrooms. There will at least be a sink.”
In other Canadian news: Torontoist is looking for a few good writers.
The Bohemian Embassy has arrived
Look what has landed on Queen West! I have written previously about the terrible tackiness that is seeping into the trendy, dare I use the word “bohemian” Toronto neighborhoods of Queen West and Parkdale. But I actually feel uncomfortable using the wo…