I had a bit of a disturbing experience yesterday as I was running errands downtown. First, I was glad to see the south Queen sidewalk east of University finally open. (Months of construction on the new opera house had blocked it off.) As I continued walking eastward past the acclaimed new structure (where I have enjoyed a performance or two) I wondered about why the the sidewalk was so narrow. It seems this stretch of Queen should feel a bit grander.When I reached the corner of Queen and Bay, I saw some police officers and city workers “taking action on sidewalk clearance”. They were clearing a homeless person’s worldly belongings off the sidewalk. Using shovels. And a pickup truck.
Now, I’m not sure where this homeless person was at the time, but he eventually showed up, the city workers stopped shovelling his stuff into the back of their truck, and the police ticketed the man for “obstructing the sidewalk.” Soon enough, a woman named Vicki from Street Survivors Central Neighborhood House showed up to help the homeless man, Scott, load his possessions into a minivan to haul back to his place.
“Scott does have a place he can stay,” Vicki said as she folded damp quilts, trying to clear the site as quickly as possible. “But he keeps on coming back here. This isn’t the first time this has happened.”
“Yeah, I got a place, but it’s full of crackheads and women of ill repute,” said Scott, smiling somewhat. He fussed about with a ragged copy of the Old Testament and motioned the minivan to pull up further.
Now, I don’t know what Scott’s story is. I don’t know what his building is like. I don’t know why he keeps going back to the street. I don’t know the bylaw he was written up on, and I don’t know whether the cops who ticketed him really like doing that kind of work.
But what I do know is it seems really sad for the police — and, by extension, the City — to aim their powers of “public space protection” at those, like Scott, who are most vulnerable (i.e. those who most easily targeted, most easily caught and, coincidentally, most likely to suffer as a result of said targeting).
I wonder where has that kind of “civic vigilance” been for the past three years as hoardings at the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas slow busy subway exit traffic to a crawl? Where have officers been every Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights when a lineup outside the Drake cuts the sidewalk width in half, narrowing foot traffic to a single file between a bus shelter and the velvet rope? Where was City Hall’s rampant passion for pedestrian freedoms when the MegaBins were being reviewed?
I know I’m likely being equal parts catty and naive (“cative”? “naitty”?) but I think what I saw yesterday is unacceptable. Sure, the situation is complicated. Yes, there area lot of stakeholders and stories to appreciate. But it’s unfairness I want to see shovelled out of public space. Not people. Not blankets. Not kindness. And I hope I’m not alone.
Photo by Leah Sandals
11 comments
no real comment on the substance of your post (sounds ugly, not what you’d want to see under the banner of protecting public space at all), but the sidewalk around the opera house does suck, it’s true. I like the hall in general, but that aspect of the project was a huge ball’s up.
What I would far prefer to see is a pickup truck filled with city employees coming along and taking away all those horrible sandwich boards and newspaper boxes on an obstruction of public space violation.
Didn’t the authorities do the right thing?
a) clear unaccompanied junk off the sidewalk. This is calling “cleaning”, and if the city didn’t do it, you’d be ankle-deep in garbage.
b) when junk is claimed, contact a group that works with the homeless.
I’m at a loss as to what else the city should have done. Ignore a pile of trash on a busy street corner (it might be someone’s trash!)?
In most cities, they would have kept on chucking his stuff when he showed up, and if he protested, he would have been arrested. Instead, some homeless group funded indirectly by my tax dollars showed up in a minivan to give him and his stuff a ride to some place where he will turn around and shuffle back to his street corner, lather, rinse, repeat. Seems to me that Toronto has been extraordinarily kind to this guy. Considering the cost of the minivan and various employees, that man just cost the taxpayers of the city hundreds of dollars. And he probably repeats the behavior every single day.
leah:
Here here!
*blushes*
that should be “hear hear.”
*retreats in shame*
As for Michelle’s comment – I agree! I took some photos of sidewalk advertising boards and newspaper boxes after the encounter as well, thinking, “don’t these take up as much space as a person – or two?”
As for the Anonymous comment – Yes, city officials should clear trash from the sidewalk – but why do I see them doing it to the possessions of society’s most vulnerable, rather than to the corporate detritus of illegal billboards and the like?
I think the reason city officials fail to turn their sights elsewhere is that going after corporations is much more difficult, basically. *But* my tax dollars (as well as yours) are paying city officials to do that difficult work, not just pick more often at the vulnerable, less societally threatening, “low-hanging fruit” of bylaw enforcement.
What you didn’t see was another homeless person have their arm run over by a truck at the same location a few weeks ago because he was sleeping too close to the road. The guy was running like a maniac in pain while EMS workers tried to catch him to treat his arm.
Now, I’m a pretty left leaning person, but I have to question anyone who thinks someone has the right to sleep on a grate in Toronto in January. There is nothing humane about allowing a human being to sleep on the sidewalk in -10 degree weather. What would people say if we treated animals at the zoo like this?
Alison, you’re one of the very first people I’ve ever seen actually correct themselves on this matter. I think you have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about 😛
Leah, I don’t see this individual as being “low hanging fruit” for bylaw enforcement. That category is filled with people who have money to pay fines, like car owners, dog owners, property owners etc.
It sounds as though this guy is mentally ill, as are so many of the not-really-homeless people we pass on the sidewalk every day.
And if sleeping in the middle of a crowded downtown sidewalk in winter is preferable to the shelter, then that’s more a testimony to how accommodating our city and our citizens are, not necessarily a denunciation of the shelter.
That being said, I agree 100% that corporate infringers upon pedestrian space need to be delt with better and more consistently.
That guy’s stuff is always there. I have seen people stealing his things over the years, which is how long he has been at that corner. There is often a sign about how it’s his birthday, as well.
Not really sure what to make of him because I don’t have any alternative ideas to sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk.
How about listening to homeless people to see what would make shelters more attractive. I keep hearing that they don’t like the lack of privacy and are afraid that other people will steal their stuff when they’re asleep. How about semi-private rooms and lockers, its not rocket science. Shelters must be pretty bad if someone would rather sleep on the sidewalk in January and February.