Unconditional Fail

The Bad, Toronto

Green pass cardBetween Bathurst and Spadina Streets, on the north side of College Street, there are 21 restaurant/cafes of various states of trendiness. I counted this morning while walking to Aunties and Uncles for breakfast (nice food, wasn’t all that impressed with the service) and while I counted I made note of how many of those 21 have Health Code inspection violations: little cards in their window with check marks beside PASS, CONDITIONAL PASS, or CLOSED.

Out of the 21 foodies, 10 had “Conditional” passes, 9 had full passes, one had no check mark and one restaurant didn’t have their sign displayed in the window (which is against the law).

The City of Toronto website posts the infractions on their site but they’re not linkable. Searching on “College”, “Conditional Pass” and a full year from July 08 to July 09 comes up with 47 infractions either active or in the past year, with 23 of them between Spadina and Bathurst. These postings are as current as can be in a city strike – the user has to click an acceptance that the information might not be accurate before searching. But within this search criteria, half the length of College street violations are within the Annex area.

50% seemed like a high number to me. I imagine the inspector was having a bad day with the spouse, screeching into their cell phone as they go from door to door and harshly marking down each incredibly minor infraction just because they were in a bad mood:

“(Shouting down a cell phone) Honey, stop calling me at work! No I will not call the school… (to a waitress) Did you wash your hands? (to the phone) No! I know you wash your hands because we pay so much for fucking Williams-Fucking-Sonoma soap… (to waitress) Not you. (to phone) You! Yes you! What is he doing now? Locked in his room? (to waitress) Way to wipe that counter with that rag! (to phone) I said ‘rag’. Not to you! But I think you are! (to waitress – ripping off a fine notice) Clean up your fucking act (to phone-exiting) You too!”

Probably not, but still, 50% over a solid “city block” area certainly makes you wonder.

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