The Queen Street Fire

My life is often one big love letter to Toronto, so you can imagine I'm pretty down today.

CBC: Toronto blaze guts row of historic buildings

Toronto Star: Fire on Queen West

CityNews:Six-Alarm Blaze Tears Through Stretch Of Queen West

Interesting that a city block, containing heritage buildings, burns down, when that block is right next door to a new -- though not yet built -- condo development, housing yuppies and big box stores. The news is saying "meth lab." I'm more cynical.

This wasn't the toniest block in the world, but it's where I got my nose pierced, bought back issues of Bitch, ate after-bar pizza... It's where the antique store catered to the bizarre and silly, and where Duke's Cycle operated for 90 odd years. And now? It'll probably look like the American Apparel building down the street. And the new residents will have a lot to say about "that element," that makes Queen Street what it is.

Edit:
Other coverage.

Torontoist: The first photo on here almost made me cry.
Blog TO:Lots of photos here.

For the non-residents:
Queen West is/was freak central. It's where me and many of my friends have spent far too much time drinking, dancing, shopping, eating, wandering, etc. Though it's becoming more gentrified and homogenized all the time. American Apparel, the Gap, H&M etc have all moved in, and now the condos are coming. Queen West is also designated a historic district, and as such, many of the buildings can't be tampered with by developers, or so they say.