City takes down $500 DIY park staircase, will replace it for $10,000 | Toronto Star
One step back for two steps forward — the homemade staircase built by a 73-year-old Etobicoke resident in Tom Riley Park has been taken down, but he says he’s been told it will be replaced by an official, city-made staircase for $10,000.
The DIY staircase was built to solve a problem it seemed the city wouldn’t, at least at a reasonable cost. To access the Etobicoke park from Bloor St. W., people would have to make their way down a steep hill, something Adi Astl felt was too dangerous.
“I’ve been watching people tumbling down the slope and hurting themselves,” Astl said Friday. “I said there’s got to be a better way.”
But when he suggested the city build a staircase, the city came back with a price tag of $65,000 to $150,000 to build it. So Astl, a retired mechanic, took matters into his own hands and built a wooden staircase for $550.
“It was crazy,” he said. “This is only eight steps, not 100 steps and wide like Taj Mahal. For me, I said I can build this thing for almost nothing. I took a chance.”
But city inspectors quickly roped it off, declaring it unsafe because it wasn’t built to regulation standards.
To Astl, the issue boiled down to “bureaucrats, bureaucrats, bureaucrats.”
“A bureaucrat, you can’t fault his way because he’s told to go straight. Even when I would go left, he has to be told to go straight,” Astl said. “He’s not allowed to think on his own and say ‘maybe I should go left.’ The only way to change anything is you need to change the thinking at the top.”
One step back for two steps forward — the homemade staircase built by a 73-year-old Etobicoke resident in Tom Riley Park has been taken down, but he says he’s been told it will be replaced by an official, city-made staircase for $10,000.
The DIY staircase was built to solve a problem it seemed the city wouldn’t, at least at a reasonable cost. To access the Etobicoke park from Bloor St. W., people would have to make their way down a steep hill, something Adi Astl felt was too dangerous.
“I’ve been watching people tumbling down the slope and hurting themselves,” Astl said Friday. “I said there’s got to be a better way.”
But when he suggested the city build a staircase, the city came back with a price tag of $65,000 to $150,000 to build it. So Astl, a retired mechanic, took matters into his own hands and built a wooden staircase for $550.
“It was crazy,” he said. “This is only eight steps, not 100 steps and wide like Taj Mahal. For me, I said I can build this thing for almost nothing. I took a chance.”
But city inspectors quickly roped it off, declaring it unsafe because it wasn’t built to regulation standards.
To Astl, the issue boiled down to “bureaucrats, bureaucrats, bureaucrats.”
“A bureaucrat, you can’t fault his way because he’s told to go straight. Even when I would go left, he has to be told to go straight,” Astl said. “He’s not allowed to think on his own and say ‘maybe I should go left.’ The only way to change anything is you need to change the thinking at the top.”
