Portable toilet claims squatter’s rights on sidewalk

Outhouse curiously appeared last week, even though there is no construction in the area

A wise construction worker will tell you a porta-potty is essential to any building project.

But that doesn’t justify plunking one down on a sidewalk.

The ongoing scourge of condo building has infected Kingston Rd., with no less than a dozen of them sprouting up like weeds over the past two years, and a lot more to come.

Sure, people have to live somewhere. And developers have a Boy Scout-like responsibility to sell them overpriced shoeboxes. But a lot of people with no skin in the game are sick and tired of accommodating condo construction.

For about a year, a condo project on the north side of Kingston Rd. has occupied the curb lane, just east of Victoria Park Ave., all day every day, funnelling two lanes of traffic into one.

If you drive on Kingston Rd. and don’t like it, you fail to recognize the privilege and excitement of living in a city that keeps growing and growing and growing, like the belly of an overfed house cat.

The people building all those condos must be able to sit down on the job when nature calls. And those who employ them are required to provide them a seat with a hole in it.

But like condo development, it’s all about location, which brings us to the portable latrine that appeared recently on the sidewalk on the north side of Kingston Rd., west of Warden Ave.

A reader told us she first noticed it last week and wonders how it ended up there, since the condo project is about 100 metres down the street, and there’s nothing else in the immediate area to justify it.

We went there and found that the outhouse covers nearly half the sidewalk, leaving barely enough space for a person using a wheelchair or motorized scooter to squeeze past it.

The only thing we could see that could possibly require it was a sign in front of a series of several abandoned houses, saying they are to be knocked down to make way for — you guessed it — more condos. Status: We sent a note to right-of-way management. Cheryl San Juan, a spokesperson for transportation services, said a compliance officer has ordered the company that rented out the latrine to move it ASAP.

The officer will check on Monday to make sure it’s gone, she added. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. Send an email to jlakey@thestar.ca. Report problems and follow us on Twitter @TOStarFixer.