Junction Triangle residents live in fear of a roaming cloud of rendered-pig-skin odour

There are certain things that aren’t obvious about a neighbourhood until you’ve lived there for a while: which laundromat is the best, where to get a good hamburger—and, of course, when to flee in terror from the clouds of pig-scented miasma that escape from the nearby gelatin factory. That last dilemma isn’t a hypothetical. The Star reports that, since the start of 2014, Junction Triangle residents have lodged 52 complaints against Nitta Gelatin, a nearby processing plant that turns pig hides into the base ingredients for things like gummi bears and skin creams. “You can almost feel it,” a ten-year resident named Whitney Miller told the Star. “It soaks right into you.”

The thing is, as the Star points out, the plant has been a Junction Triangle resident for far longer than any of the homeowners who are now complaining about the smell. It opened more than a century ago, though Nitta didn’t move in until 1990. The up-and-coming neighbourhood’s industrial vibe has even worked to buyers’ advantage, to a certain extent: according to Toronto Real Estate Board data, average house prices in the area remain relatively reasonable, with detached homes tending to sell for less than the city average (which was $921,127, as of June). It may be time for homebuyers to accept that finding a place to live in today’s market means tolerating the occasional waft of slaughterhouse exhaust.