Paul Wilson: Home sweet home in the factory zone
There is no name for this dusty pocket of homes, just east of Kenilworth, just north of the tracks.
There are 20 houses here — eight on Beach Road, seven on Beatty, five on Roosevelt.
It's an island surrounded by industry.
But it would be wrong to think that no one wants to move to this part of town.
John and Kathy Foot had a place here for 30 years. But they did sell this summer. Home now is a two-acre property near Dunnville.
The Foot house at 532 Beach Rd. went on the market at $200,000. The first two offers were a little over asking. But neither prospective purchaser could persuade a bank to give them a mortgage.
Six more offers came in. Same story. Finally, the party that made the ninth offer was successful in getting a mortgage. The deal closed two weeks ago at $190,000.
The area is zoned industrial. You can't build a new house here.
When one offer after another was getting sabotaged, the Foots wanted help from Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla. After all, they figured, city zoning was causing the problem.
But Merulla says the zoning is an old story. What's new is increased home values, even deep in the factory zone, and it's taking banks a while to get used to that.
"They're saying, 'We're not sure if we want to finance that.' But nothing's changed from our end."
The councillor says he cares about this corner of his turf. One Saturday this past spring, on a ward tour, he drove down Beach and onto Beatty.
He decided he had never seen a sidewalk in such bad shape.
"I was disgusted … the people there don't complain, but they're paying taxes too."
So he dipped into the ward's area-rating fund, and Beatty Avenue got new sidewalks worth $52,000.
Phil Logan, 61, lives at 15 Beatty. He arrived 20 years ago from a highrise and isn't going anywhere. His daughter lives with him, and when he's gone the place is hers.
His front yard includes a big "I Am Canadian" banner and a fine flock of fibreglass Canada geese.
"A guy on the Mountain told me those geese would have been gone in a day up at his place," Phil says.
Across the street, Steve Perry, 47, lives in a house that's clearly cared for. He grew up around the corner. He's sorry there aren't as many children now. A school bus comes down Beach, but he takes his kids to French immersion.
Not long ago, just beyond his backyard, Lawson Lumber left and Posner Industries, the king of scrap metal, expanded right to his lot line. But Perry still does improvements to the house. "We've made it what we want it to be."
A couple of doors from the house the Foots just sold, Brian and Laurie Simpson say life is good in their two-bedroom brick bungalow, plum trees out back.
"We look after each other around here," Brian says. "It's that kind of neighbourhood."
Suddenly the air gets pungent. Brian says down the way they must be turning over the compostables. The contents of your green bin end up not far from here.
"Won't last long," Brian says.
In minutes the smell is gone. But there have been complaints, and the city is investigating.
At 8 Roosevelt Ave., Tom Sokoloski, 67, lives in the house where he grew up. There's a vast dirt marshalling yard at the end of the street, transports kicking up dust. He remembers when there were five industrial-league ball diamonds there.
He figures it could be time to move on. His small frame house is covered in old Insulbrick and the front porch has a serious sag.
"The place needs work," he admits, but thinks it might fetch $120,000 in today's hot market.
Still, it would be tough to leave.
"A lot of memories," he says. "My mother taught me to polka right here in the living room."
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