ABANDONED BUILDINGS are an eyesore and a great many of them are public property.
The old Welfare Department building on Bay Street looks secure from the outside, even almost bright, with the walls painted white and the windows bricked up.
In 2009, a deportee from the United States calling himself Off-Da-Brink painted what he called his stage name across various walls and buildings, including the old Welfare building. He said it was a way to promote himself as he was an aspiring hip-hop artist. A few months later, fire damaged the same building.
All of this resulted in the paint job and bricks, the latter thought to have been placed to prevent vagrants from entering as there had been evidence of fires being started – possibly to cook food. (CA)
Please read the full story in today’s Weekend Nation, or in the eNATION edition.
