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Rochdale in receiver ship -- When Clarkson and Gordon the building’s receiver, took over in 1972, the Community Guardians, came along as their security, we called them Greenies because their uniforms were solid green. This security force was made up of police type individuals and was established for provincial housing facilities. Syd recognized an invasion by a police force, and created a barrage of stumbling blocks for the new management. Nothing treacherous like sabotaging the building, just simple things like continuous building complaints designed to harass but not cause destruction. After a couple of months of this minor harassment, he decided to claim a turf and moved into the 2nd floor lounge setting up court with his entourage. The property managers that were sent knew who Syd was by his old reputation, not his new one. Syd was feared and seen as a genuine public enemy by the interim receiver. He was a thorn in Clarkson’s side just for being himself. I was Head of Maintenance at this point and was asked to move him out. I pointed to his following and suggested it might not be a good idea. As receivers they did not have complete run or control of the building, the Greenies were not allowed above the 2nd floor except for specific purposes. Rochdale still ran itself with its own security, rentals and maintenance departments so there were turf claims throughout the building. As the maintenance department we were very tied to the building both physically and philosophically. I pointed out the potential of trouble the residents could make. Stern would hold court with upwards of thirty people and the order from Clarkson and Gordon was to maintain order, so to avoid chaos he was left alone. Syd was very accommodating; the lounge was always unlocked and available to anybody so all parties held there went through Syd. One day he was sick so we put a sign on the door saying to be quiet in the lounge because he wasn’t feeling well. The residents brought all the cures down from chicken soup to pure witches brew. The next day he was still out of it but on the third he was up and about saying he had to get up to get away from the cures that the residents were bringing down. “The cures were going to kill me” he said “so I had to get up to make them stop.” I told him I saw it as an act of love from the residents to Syd. He did too and it made his heart swell, now he was going to stay where he was in the lounge for everybody’s sake. The carpet in the 2nd floor lounge was a mess and needed to be replaced. Everybody complained about it; there were stains of all kinds on it, it was ripped, some slobs had let their dogs defecate and urinate on it, it was torn and a tripping hazard. I saw it as a health hazard carrying disease. Finally the health inspector and the building inspector said it had to go. Carpets were expensive to buy and took equipment to maintain. The level of stain damage, traffic abuse, animal defecation and just plain vandalism that occurred regularly made it hard to keep the carpets together on any floor. So the call went out to find a new carpet, this was not as easy as it might seem. Outside contractors did not like to come in and do business with us because their workers would invariably fall under the spell of the building and start partying in the middle of the work day slowing up the job and keeping the guys around a little longer. The building corrupted many an outside worker; I had a plumber run from the building in tears because he liked the party too much. He hadn’t come home one night and his fiancé came looking for him. She and her friend had snuck into the building via the basement. I found them wandering around the parking area looking for the elevators and took her to my office on the 2nd floor. I then tracked down her plumber future husband. When he found her in the office he was mortified. By the time she got done crying and screaming everybody on the 2nd floor knew what was going on. Luckily for our plumber nobody from the building said anything about his partying antics. Syd Smith had become the property manager in early 1973. He was ex-military, very experienced and wily. Syd and Syd sized each other up very quickly and held mutual extremely negative opinions of each other. I was in the middle of it all; partly because it was my job and also because I honestly didn’t want any heavy handedness on either side. There was deep and dangerous anger towards each other in both men. There was an incident in Syd Smith’s office with just the three of us in the room. The two Syds got into what seemed to start as a philosophical discussion; almost like a chess game with each man throwing cleaver quips, then came the accusations and hardly veiled threats. It was my first experience with this type of deadly emotions and I was not at all comfortable being in the room. I didn’t realize it showed or it might have been my comment that there were too many people in the room for these things being said. The game stopped immediately and both men apologized to me as we cleared the room. Syd Smith sold himself as a living control specialist and property manager for troubled residential buildings. He was hired to deal with buildings that had maintenance problems caused by the residents. Smith was into the latest ideas of how to control people’s moods, one of the systems he was experimenting with was the colour management of a room. He was under the impression that bright gaudy colours were difficult to live in. He was probably right for the average person, but not necessarily somebody that has tripped on psychedelics. He had people to do the carpet installation and gave me a sample of the carpet and colour he wanted to use. It was a brilliant, fluorescent, burnt orange, clown hair colour long shag carpet. Smith asked me to show the sample to Stern and see what he said; remember this carpet was going down no matter what. I immediately took the carpet piece to Syd Stern. I can remember his words; ”Syd Smith is going to give me a hot orange carpet to live on? I don’t believe it. This is really cool. What does he want?” I asked him if it was alright and he said; “Are you kidding? I love it. This will make the room really a groove to trip in. This is exciting. Tell him thanks- never mind- I’ll tell him myself, I want to see his face when he realizes it backfired.” And so he did, it was the only mutually agreeable incident bet ween these two men. Stern took careful note of the activity going on around his squat. Before the new carpet could be laid the room needed to be painted, he gladly made the room ready for the work and helped pick the colours to match the carpet. He held the sample up to every paint swatch making sure they worked together. He made his plans to move his stuff out for the day or two it would take to install the new carpet. The process from decision to completion of installation took about a month. Everybody seemed happy about the changes, I felt I had dodged a serious problem. Syd made sure the carpet installation went smoothly, including announcing to everybody in the building what was happening and it would be in the best interest of everybody if there were no hassles. The paint and carpet installation went without a hitch. Syd threw a party when the installation was finished and all the carpet guys and painters were stoned before they left. Syd Stern lived happily on his hot orange 2nd floor lounge carpet for the next two years. 
2nd floor lounge Syd Stern worked against the marijuana laws for the rest of his life. He openly smoked pot in restaurants, defying the police to arrest him. Every time they put him in jail for it, he used the court as his soapbox to expose the hypocracy of the law. He openly exposed the high cost of jailing thousands of people for a victimless crime and the making of criminals out of the prime youth of the society. Jail did not bother him and he was never arrested with enough contriban for a long sentence. By the time he left Toronto in 1983, the police didn’t bother arresting or fining him because of the message he would deliver in court. He moved to Vancouver for a couple of years, then decided to come back to Toronto and visit his daughter and grandchildren. Syd enjoyed the stay for a week or so and was wondering about coming back or not. After supper one evening he went outside and played catch with his grand sons for an hour. They came in and the boys went to bed, Syd laid down on the couch and fell asleep while having a conversation with his daughter. He did not wake up. At his funeral the rabi told us no matter what Syd had done he had paid for it and he was forgiven. He was a blessed man kissed by God; he slipped away happily, at home with his family in peace. 
Syd Stern 1971 
Bob the Greenie and Syd Stern 
Syd stern 1981 
Syd Smith 1973 
Syd Stern 1972 |