(Best story of the day?) Toronto man builds park stairs for $550, irking city after $65,000 (to $150,000) estimate

Let’s hope that we see more and more of this sort of thing. On the ground. Doing the right thing. Outmaneuvering the bureaucratic beast.

Good on this guy.

$65,000 – $150,000 dollars for these steps according to the city. Wonder who gets that contract?

(From CTV)

A Toronto man who spent $550 building a set of stairs in his community park says he has no regrets, despite the city’s insistence that he should have waited for a $65,000 city project to handle the problem. The city is now threatening to tear down the stairs because they were not built to regulation standards.

Retired mechanic Adi Astl says he took it upon himself to build the stairs after several neighbours fell down the steep path to a community garden in Tom Riley Park, in Etobicoke, Ont. Astl says his neighbours chipped in on the project, which only ended up costing $550 – a far cry from the $65,000-$150,000 price tag the city had estimated for the job.

“I thought they were talking about an escalator,” Astl told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.

Astl says he hired a homeless person to help him and built the eight steps in a matter of hours.

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