The Old Queen Street Business Improvement Area (BIA)
was established in Sept 2006, and was renamed the Historic Queen East BIA on Jan 2008. The process that spawned this BIA was somewhat murky.
This BIA has never approved a budget; their Jan 2008 AGM approved a motion to dissolve the BIA. Sixteen years (and 3 local councillors) later, Chris Moise, in his July 2024 newsletter states he was “working to restore the Historic Queen Street East Business Improvement Area (BIA). Many Queen East addresses are either residential, institutional, or vacant storefronts (see inventory), so it’s perplexing why Chris Moise thinks that the few active commercial properties on this stretch of Queen E could sustain a BIA.
A 5 person board (Mandrozos, Mark, Silver, Wells, Wong) was appointed in Oct 2024. City Council approved a totally different 6 person board in Jan 2025: board members are Julie Conte (also on this BIA board in 2007), Adam Damelin (Eggplant Music and Sound), Victoria Frans (Allied Properties), Jim Giontsis (pharmacist), Devin Glowinski (realtor) and Claudia Mac (Downtown Camera).
The Feb 2025 Bridge reported that the BIA met Dec 2024 and turned down a proposed $130,000 budget; the Bridge questioned why Christ Moise clearly intends to ramrod the BIA through and ignore obvious signs of local opposition. The Dec BIA meeting was also reported in torontotoday. Apparently no one has seen written minutes from that Dec 2024 AGM. Chris Moise shared his version of the Dec 2024 BIA AGM. In Feb 2025 City Council approved annual BIA budgets, omitting Queen E since that BIA didn’t approve a budget. More sparks to fly …