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Kristyn Wong-Tam's (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) motion calling for a comprehensive review into why glass is falling from condo's was defeated in Council. The item was referred to another committee for consideration. What in the hell is happening to this city? I want to know what morons defeated this motion.

On a lighter note, Wong-Tam posted this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOebslMD1BA&feature=player_embedded
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Kristyn Wong-Tam's (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) motion calling for a comprehensive review into why glass is falling from condo's was defeated in Council. The item was referred to another committee for consideration. What in the hell is happening to this city? I want to know what morons defeated this motion.

On a lighter note, Wong-Tam posted this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOebslMD1BA&feature=player_embedded
Click to expand...

There was an article posted somewhere on the forum taht they found what the cause of the exploding glass was impurities and also the 2 buildings (murano and Festival Tower) that used Architects Alliance as an architect are willingly replacing the glass with a more durable car windshield type glass. No real need to persue it further in my opinion.
 
Saint2844 said:
There was an article posted somewhere on the forum taht they found what the cause of the exploding glass was impurities and also the 2 buildings (murano and Festival Tower) that used Architects Alliance as an architect are willingly replacing the glass with a more durable car windshield type glass. No real need to persue it further in my opinion.
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I don't recall reading anywhere that there was a definitive conclusion as to what happened with the glass blowouts around the city. This needs to be reviewed by the City and recommendations made to change the building code so that this can never happen again.
 
I don't know about festival tower, but one of the papers posted the reason why the glass exploded at the Murano building. It was due to impurities. Last I read, Daniels is still looking into it. It may or may not be the same problem. If that's the case, the city should put a by-law to force buildings to use laminate glass. It seems impurities from glass is hard to detect. You can't detect it unless you can find the point where it cracked which is impossible if it falls apart in the sky. They only found out because the glass broke apart while sitting in the lab, so all the pieces could be picked up to find the breaking point and they discovered nickel sulphide as the cause.
 
Didn't CityTV have U of T conduct those tests? If that's the case it seemed convincing (and may well be) but the two pieces I saw didn't draw definitive conclusions on the glass.
 
Maybe you're just reading articles about glass falling? Lanterra is trying to remove the glass, but it's not removed fast enough. The glass can shatter at any second. It's not the weather or temperature instating it to shatter. One article mentioned it shattered while they were taking it off. One shattered while sitting in the lab.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1041662--flaws-discovered-in-exploding-glass-balconies?bn=1

The safest way is using laminate glass. This way, even if it shatters, it won't fall down and hurt people. It just needs to be replaced. But I think the warranty on the balcony glass should be a long time. You never know when it will shatter and it will be expensive to replace. There could be other factors such as installation. If it's too tight or too lose, it will be a problem as well. But currently, the issue is the glass quality, not installation problem.
 
AKS said:
The safest way is using laminate glass. This way, even if it shatters, it won't fall down and hurt people. It just needs to be replaced. But I think the warranty on the balcony glass should be a long time. You never know when it will shatter and it will be expensive to replace. There could be other factors such as installation. If it's too tight or too lose, it will be a problem as well. But currently, the issue is the glass quality, not installation problem.
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I agree, and that's why I'm so ticked that Kristyn Wong-Tam's motion to a comprehensive study into what is really happening here was voted down and deferred. With all these condos flying up I think at the end of the study (some year down the road) that the recommendation has to be that balcony glass going forward has to be laminate glass. Not only to prevent future injuries (or death) but imagine if panels start blowing out that are flawed, but not as flawed as Murano/One Bedford/Festival Tower etc. and they start blowing out four, five or six years after a building is built? That could clear out the building's reserve fund or warrant a very high special assessment being levied against every owner to pay for the expensive repairs to the balcony systems.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
I agree, and that's why I'm so ticked that Kristyn Wong-Tam's motion to a comprehensive study into what is really happening here was voted down and deferred. With all these condos flying up I think at the end of the study (some year down the road) that the recommendation has to be that balcony glass going forward has to be laminate glass. Not only to prevent future injuries (or death) but imagine if panels start blowing out that are flawed, but not as flawed as Murano/One Bedford/Festival Tower etc. and they start blowing out four, five or six years after a building is built? That could clear out the building's reserve fund or warrant a very high special assessment being levied against every owner to pay for the expensive repairs to the balcony systems.
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You don't need to waste money on a study to do that. Just change the building code to force builders to use laminate glass and lengthen warranty. A study on it would waste a lot of money if you know what the issues are already.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Kristyn Wong-Tam's (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) motion calling for a comprehensive review into why glass is falling from condo's was defeated in Council. The item was referred to another committee for consideration. What in the hell is happening to this city? I want to know what morons defeated this motion.

On a lighter note, Wong-Tam posted this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOebslMD1BA&feature=player_embedded
Click to expand...

I was watching city council on TV, and it would appear that certain councilors won't given Wong-Tam a break on anything, regardless of how reasonable. She is articulate and informed, but the Mammoliti and Minan-Wong types get all stubborn looking every time she speaks. This (as mentioned) is an issue that affects large swaths of the city, not just Ward 27. In the Dundas scramble debate, selected councillors stubbornly argued that their input was warranted given the city wide implications of traffic, but in the next breath voted this way...
 
I happened to see that too and yes, she is articulate and informed. They also like giving her a rough time, adding amendments to her motions, or amendments to her amendments, it's become an embarrassment.
Re: balcony glass, I can't see how the building code can be changed without a firm reason to do so and I'm willing to bet some developers will fight this given the additional cost for the laminate glass without a study & investigation to support the change.
 
Saint2844 said:
didnt make news. Maybe on Toronto Police website but I doubt it. I know, because I knew the victim and persons place he jumped from.
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I passed by on Sunday and I didn't notice anything different. I suspect this is a made up story.

Normally any suicide/homecide will be mentioned (e.g. 680 news).
 
rv2843 said:
Normally any suicide/homecide will be mentioned (e.g. 680 news).
Click to expand...

Homicide yes, suicide no.
I met a fellow who has the rather unpleasant job of driving from one place to the other on night shift collecting those who have died/killed themselves after the coroner and/or police releases the body. Suicide is much more common than anyone thinks, that's all I'll say to keep the topic from getting too macabre.
 
dt_toronto_geek said:
Kristyn Wong-Tam's (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) motion calling for a comprehensive review into why glass is falling from condo's was defeated in Council. The item was referred to another committee for consideration. What in the hell is happening to this city? I want to know what morons defeated this motion.
Click to expand...

The new City Legislative website makes it quite easy to find items on council or committee agendas. Go to http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/index.do and select the "Search Items" tab. Choose "City Council (2010-2014)" in the Committee drop-down list. Put "falling glass" as keywords in the "Word or Phrase" field and hit the Search button. Result: the member motion http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2011.MM11.5 was referred to the Planning and Growth Committee; there's a caution note the City Clerk has yet to update the page with the confirmed voting record for that meeting--weird, usually voting records are added quite soon after the meetings.

UPDATE: I referred to the wrong document; voting results are listed in the "Decision Document" at http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewPublishedReport.do?function=getDecisionDocumentReport&meetingId=5053 These are accessed by the "Decisions" button on the individual meeting listing available for each city committee on the Committees tab at the first link above.

The next meeting of Planning and Growth is on Oct. 6, but no agenda is published yet. Once it is and Wong-Tam's motion is on it, then you should either send an email to the chairman of the committee stating your views (it will be included in the materials printed for committee members), and, even more revolutionary, request to make a deputation to the committee to support Wong-Tam's item and give the committee something to think about.

UPDATE: This is now agenda item 2011.PG8.8 http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2011.PG8.8
 
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