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Saturday’s headlines

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ST. CLAIR
• Fire chief says St. Clair is safe [ Toronto Star ]
• St. Clair streetcar lanes safe for fire trucks, chief says [ Globe and Mail ]
• St. Clair ‘safe,’ chief now says [ National Post ]
• Fire chief changes his tune on TTC right-of-way [ Toronto Sun ]

CITY HALL
• Tighter expense rules for councillors not tight enough [ Toronto Star ]
• The Fixer: Parking tickets vanish [ Toronto Star ]

NEIGHBOURHOODS
• The dark side of Queen West [ Globe and Mail ]
• Redeeming Bloordale, one gallery at a time [ Globe and Mail ]
• Toronto unbound: OCAD students to transform the city’s neglected nooks and crannies [ Globe and Mail ]
• Parkdale residents squabbling over a new swing are set to meet today [ National Post ]
• Renewal makes perfect sense [ Toronto Star ]

MISCELLANEOUS
• It’s nasty out there on the edge of the greenbelt [ Globe and Mail ]
• Yanks are staying home and T.O. feels the pinch [ Toronto Sun ]

6 comments

  1. Wow I never thought I would see a day when in the same paper my hood is called cool and up and coming and Queen and Niagara is called the dark side.

    I have to go to BIG on Bloor but when I get back I will explain why the Niagara story is a hack job.First clue? That “But the death toll in the neighbourhood is low in comparison with Toronto’s more notorious areas, likely because of the “eyes on the street” phenomenon.” is almost the last paragraph after all the vague implications and innuendo about the “dark side”.

  2. The dark side? Queen and Niagara is one the quietest, cutest low-rise communities ever. I walk through there all the time, and it’s like the place that time forgot.

    It reminds me of that children’s book where the one detached house is eventually dwarfed by the construction of highways and skyscrapers all around it.

  3. OK this story is so sensationalistic, you cant see the actual map that was printed in the paper but it shows halfway houses and low income housing as to suggest that they somehow played a role in the recent shootings. The story never provides one stat or piece of evidence to link these locations.

    The writer would seem not to know much about the area and taints every description with some kind of spooky negative vibe such as the ‘ drab, one-way back streets” and the “dreary, cinderblock lamp factory” and tops it off with “Pockets of poverty exacerbate the situation”. What situation? And how about “Foot traffic is scarce in the area. There are no major arterial roads.” There is tons of foot traffic in the area as anybody who visits knows; thats why many live there, so they can walk up to Queen to shop and hangout. And a lot of the other foot traffic is to the supposedly abandoned buildings that actually house film and Tv offices, I know, I work out of one. I am not sure what is meant by ” arterial roads” but last time I checked Queen, King, and Bathurst were pretty busy and if the writer means highways then most people don’t live near them. And what does that mean anyway?

    How about the writers brief and inaccurate history of industry in the area that leaves out Massey Ferguson and the Admiral Plant or the assertion that the area is “hesitantly beginning to gentrify”; hello the area has been changing and adapting since since the un-mentioned plants closed in the early 80’s.

    I could go and on about this piece slop pretending to shed the inside scoop on an area. All it really does is stigmatize for no reason an entire area and ALL the people who live there. I have always loved the area and think it is diverse, funky, and from time to time a bit edgy. It makes me feel alive to be in it. The fact that it defies pat answers and descriptions is what makes it so interesting. Cheers to a great area and lets hope this crime is solved.

  4. “Asked if such efforts, if successful, would eventually mean residents would want his business removed, he smiles: “I’m helping the community, not harming it. They love me.”

    Yes the residents love the strip club owner who says in a news story that he is going under then receives a big city grant to fix up his strip club (and he happens to be the head of the BIA) meanwhile the Perth Boys and Girls club is closing and the City has no money.

    Go figure.

  5. re: the bloordale article… does anyone know more about the Communist’s Daughter opening a new location in the area? I would love to have another decent bar in the neighbourhood.

  6. Thanks Scott D! I live right in the area, and heard the shots the night of the murders. I like you love this area and see this tragic incident as more an aberration rather than a trend. I could barely believe what I was reading when I came across this. What a piece of dreck. Anyone who really cares about this neighbourhood has his or her feet dug in and is proud to be a yimby rather than a nimby. Dark and dreary, my ass.