Stairway to Bureaucracy
20th July 2017
A Toronto man who spent $550 building a set of stairs in his community park says he has no regrets, despite the city’s insistence that he should have waited for a $65,000 city project to handle the problem. The city is now threatening to tear down the stairs because they were not built to regulation standards.
Bureaucrats get snippy when you show them up.
Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the stairs after several neighbours fell down the steep path to a community garden in Tom Riley Park, in Etobicoke, Ont. Astl says his neighbours chipped in on the project, which only ended up costing $550 – a far cry from the $65,000-$150,000 price tag the city had estimated for the job.
Astl says he hired a homeless person to help him and built the eight steps in a matter of hours.
Surely he didn’t have a permit for that? And liability insurance? Did he withhold taxes properly?
City bylaw officers have taped off the stairs while officials make a decision on what to do with it. However, Astl has not been charged with any sort of violation.
Hang in there, it’s early days yet.
“I think everyone will understand that it will be more than $550,” he said on Wednesday. “We just can’t have people decide to go out to Home Depot and build a staircase in a park because that’s what they would like to have.”
Geez, next thing you know this place will turn into a democracy. Can’t have that, not in Modern Socialist Canada.