Toronto says steps will cost at least $65,000; man builds them for $550

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
39,817
471
83
He then fell down them and died. Now the city is charging his family $20k for removal.

Win win win.

Anyway, old people are dumb as dog poop. What else is new..


City says steps will cost at least $65,000; man builds them for $550

(CNN)Update: The stairs are gone! On Friday morning, a group of workers descended upon the staircase and dismantled it with power tools. According to a local Toronto radio station, the city decided the stairs were unsafe and had them removed.

Original story: A retiree in Toronto was unhappy with the length of time the city was taking to build a flight of stairs on a precarious slope.

And so he did it himself -- at a fraction of the cost.

Adi Astl, with the help of a homeless man he hired, built eight steps for $550, more than 100 times cheaper than the $65,000-$150,000 the city had estimated for the job.

Astl told CNN affiliate CTV News that members of his gardening group thanked him for building the stairs. One of them had broken a wrist falling down the slope that leads to their community garden.

Astl's eight steps help residents navigate a steep slope.

But not everyone is happy about Astl's seemingly good deed.

While the flight of stairs has been a welcome addition for the community in Tom Riley Park, the city is now threatening to tear down the stairway because it was not built according to the city's regulations.

The city insisted that Astl should not have bypassed the legal steps and should have waited for city officials to handle the problem. Mayor John Tory acknowledged the absurdity of the city's estimates but said it does not condone private citizens bypassing city bylaws to build public structures themselves.

Toronto says steps will cost $65,000-$150,000; man builds them for $550 - CNN.com
 
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DaSleeper

Trolling Hypocrites
May 27, 2007
33,676
1,666
113
Northern Ontario,
He then fell down them and died. Now the city is charging his family $20k for removal.

Win win win.

Anyway, old people are dumb as dog poop. What else is new..


City says steps will cost at least $65,000; man builds them for $550

(CNN)Update: The stairs are gone! On Friday morning, a group of workers descended upon the staircase and dismantled it with power tools. According to a local Toronto radio station, the city decided the stairs were unsafe and had them removed.

Original story: A retiree in Toronto was unhappy with the length of time the city was taking to build a flight of stairs on a precarious slope.

And so he did it himself -- at a fraction of the cost.

Adi Astl, with the help of a homeless man he hired, built eight steps for $550, more than 100 times cheaper than the $65,000-$150,000 the city had estimated for the job.

Astl told CNN affiliate CTV News that members of his gardening group thanked him for building the stairs. One of them had broken a wrist falling down the slope that leads to their community garden.

Astl's eight steps help residents navigate a steep slope.

But not everyone is happy about Astl's seemingly good deed.

While the flight of stairs has been a welcome addition for the community in Tom Riley Park, the city is now threatening to tear down the stairway because it was not built according to the city's regulations.

The city insisted that Astl should not have bypassed the legal steps and should have waited for city officials to handle the problem. Mayor John Tory acknowledged the absurdity of the city's estimates but said it does not condone private citizens bypassing city bylaws to build public structures themselves.

Toronto says steps will cost $65,000-$150,000; man builds them for $550 - CNN.com
Another deceptive (post) thread by flossy
Nowhere in the article did somebody die or got hurt....
Pure bullshite thread!!
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,198
113
The old guy deserves awards, flossy deserves "E" ward.
;)
That's the one for the criminally and mentally flossed up at Oak Ridge
The "bug house" we call it.
 

White_Unifier

Senate Member
Feb 21, 2017
7,300
2
36
I'd watch my back if I were that builder. I'm sure plenty of union members see him as a scab and would be happy to send the black watch after him.

One unionists see you as a scab, you're a marked man.
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
39,817
471
83
The guy showed the city to be idiots. And double idiots for removing them.

Your belligerence to facts is mystifying.

 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,198
113
You have that right you don't
:)
Say, you look like you need a trim so people don't stare at you.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Satelitte Radio Addict
May 28, 2007
15,222
2,861
113
Toronto, ON
Your belligerence to facts is mystifying.

Fact 1: man builds staircase for $550.
Fact 2: man builds it quickly
Fact 3: city estimates cost of same staircase @ $65K
Fact 4: city has not yet built staircase and God only knows when they would get around to it.
Fact 5: rather than leave staircase in place until the royal gold covered one the city will build can be built, they tear it down.
Fact 6: paying $65k for a $550k staircase makes the city look like an idiot
Fact 7: Fact 5 makes them look like double idiots
 

Danbones

Hall of Fame Member
Sep 23, 2015
24,505
2,198
113
Fact 1: man builds staircase for $550.
Fact 2: man builds it quickly
Fact 3: city estimates cost of same staircase @ $65K
Fact 4: city has not yet built staircase and God only knows when they would get around to it.
Fact 5: rather than leave staircase in place until the royal gold covered one the city will build can be built, they tear it down.
Fact 6: paying $65k for a $550k staircase makes the city look like an idiot
Fact 7: Fact 5 makes them look like double idiots

"Looks like"?
:)
Why use simile when adjective is required?
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,340
113
Vancouver Island
The stairs were removed by the bureaucrats to prove they are in charge. It has nothing to do with the quality of the build. There are many examples of worse stairs in provincial parks that were built to government specs.
The thing to do aside from a sweeping change in city politicians next election is for the community to keep building and using their own stairs every time the bureaucrats tear them out.
 

justlooking

Council Member
May 19, 2017
1,312
3
36
The thing to do aside from a sweeping change in city politicians next election is for the community to keep building and using their own stairs every time the bureaucrats tear them out.

This, just keep rebuilding it, and hold a weekly press conference about how much $$ the city is wasting
taking them down.
 

JamesBondo

House Member
Mar 3, 2012
4,158
37
48
this kind of reminds me of a new brunswick business man that got tired of waiting for the city to repair the potholes on the street in front of his business so he filled them in with gravel. he was told to remove the gravel or be fined.