#21 last winter, in case you missed it

There's no place like this home for Toronto's pesky raccoons (edited for space)
JEFF GRAY January 24, 2007
TORONTO -- In the middle of the real-estate agent's paradise that is Toronto's Riverdale lies a spacious Victorian semi that would ordinarily be filled with polished hardwood and stainless steel appliances by now, a half-million-dollar home for a professional couple with a baby and a Bugaboo stroller.

Instead, inside the crumbling red-brick house at 21 Langley Ave., which neighbours say has been vacant for at least 30 years, lies a festering mixture of rotting furniture, mould, garbage, flyers, raccoon feces and raccoons, both alive and dead (...)

The raccoon house is the legacy of an eccentric old man named Wlodzimierz (Walter) Schimming, who owned it and another decrepit place next door, where he lived. He also owned a bigger but also dilapidated and now empty house on nearby Broadview Avenue.
Believed to be in his 80s, he died alone on the August long weekend last summer in his stiflingly hot third-floor bedroom.

With his heavy Polish accent, distinctive European cap and ever-present housecoat, Mr. Schimming become something of a Langley Avenue institution, a source of both annoyance and amusement to his increasingly wealthy neighbours, who still seem to enjoy telling stories about his strange behaviour.

Mr. Schimming appeared to have a deep-seated distrust of any government authority, several of his neighbours said. Ms. Downey said he told her he didn't want to sell the decaying house because he did not want to pay capital gains tax.

Property records show he bought No. 21 in 1961, for $17,600. It is currently assessed for tax purposes at $511,000. The neighbouring house where Mr. Schimming actually lived was assessed at $672,000. The 46-year-old property records list Mr. Schimming as a "painter decorator" and show he co-owned the house with a sister, Sophie. (A neighbor says) he had a library of philosophy books, she said, Polish-language versions of Hegel and Descartes. But he became more "paranoid" as the years went on, she acknowledged, once calling the police when city property-standards officers showed up.

City Councillor Paula Fletcher (Toronto-Danforth) said she noticed the terrible state of No. 21 Langley while canvassing during the fall municipal election, and phoned it in herself in to city inspectors.

We Won !

Hey Everyone,

OK my first BLOG entry ever ! Really I have no idea how this works. Sooooo here goes....

A little news from a few Langley folks:

This Friday (November 30th) Derby Crewe (165 Langley), Sammy Ray Welch(official Langley member) & myself (125 Langley) had a film entered in a short film festival called the Toronto Film Challenge www.torontofilmchallenge.com . It's a crazy little contest where a 30 groups of filmmakers are tasked to write, shoot and edit a short film (between 4 & 5 1/2 minutes) in a period of 24 hours. Go check out the website. It's really a blast what people are capable of in such a short time.

Anyways. Long story short. We WON!
We won 1st place in the judged competition and also the audience favorite award.

I will see about posting the video here soon. But in the mean time it should be posted soon on the competition web site.

Alright, that's all for now.
John JohnnyBoy Healy
125 Langley Avenue

Happy Snow day!

What luck that the first major snowfall happened on a weekend!