The hideously ugly rusted corrugated metal walls of Golden Metal will no longer haunt your dreams as the structure that sits just downhill from Montreal's skyscrapers has been removed after uglifying the cityscape for a mere 65 years. |
| Golden Metal, bottom right, is gone |
Golden Scrap Iron and Metal sat at the corner spot since 1949 and prior to that was listed as the home of H. Goldenberg, who we surely have to thank for unsightly barrier to beauty.
I've long pined to know what stood behind the rusted corrugated metal walls of this cornerstone corner of Griffintown, which once gloriously sat across from the Stewart Bottling plant on William, (a softdrink maker that fused with Cott in 1955).
It turns out that the stuff behind the walls was probably even uglier than the wall itself, as shown by the Bing Maps image above.
The 10,000 square foot property has a 2012 municipal evaluation of $242,000, including $52,000 for the value of the structure on the property, although we're not even sure that there actually was one.
The evaluation had been hiked up from $165,000 just three years prior, so the 50 percent tax hike from the Southwest borough (the downtown Ville Marie borough starts just a stones throw to the east) might be construed as a little taxey-hikey shovetastic encouragement meant to get the too-complacent owner to do something a bit nicer with his land.
Since 2012 the property has been owned by 8241945 CANADA INC which appears to be based in the Aldo Shoes warehouse. Whether they're behind the current construction - surely condos - remains to be seen.
With reference to taxes, isn't it ironic that people are running to the defence of Laval and Longueuil--cities which want to increase their respective property taxes despite the fact that they actually have surpluses--while the Quebec Minister of Finance is threatening to penalize them and give the money back to the people?
ReplyDeleteSuddenly it is somehow "wrong" to want to reduce taxes when for generations all we have ever known in this province has been rising taxes and endless deficits.
I find it truly astonishing how short memories are and how some people can be their own worst enemy and not consider the big picture.
The argument that it would "cost more" for Quebec to refund such taxes is nonsense since the procedure could be incorporated as a line-item on the next annual tax form and in that way claimed by the residents of the aforementioned cities without cheques having to be printed and mailed out.