Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
There were 4 more murders in Toronto on the weekend, meaning we only need 11 more to tie the all-time record of 89 set back in 1991. A spokesman for City Hall said that sure, the numbers look bad now, but crime would drop once all the thugs had killed each other.
Not only more violent, but poorer too––a United Way report says that the median family income in Toronto is $10,000 lower than the national average, and $6,100 less than it was in 1990. Say, what time does that bus leave for Calgary?
Continuing the Monday morning special Our Collapsing City edition of news roundup, Federal finance minister Jim Flaherty has suggested that mayors should stop being "grumpy" and start budgeting more carefully if they want funds to rebuild infrastructure. In the meantime, Torontonians should just get comfortable with their Federal tax dollars being used to pay for services in areas that are smart enough to vote Conservative.
The Canadian-owned Explorer cruise ship that ,hit an iceberg in the Antarctic has sunk but all passengers are safe, probably because the rich did not refuse to associate with the poor. Please note that the shuffleboard tournament has been cancelled.
The Grey Cup––the three-day bender that is Canada's second-greatest contribution to sport after synchronized swimming––culminated in a football game on Sunday in which the Saskatchewan Rough Riders beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 31–19.
Photo by Metrix X from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
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The trend in homicide rates is puzzling. Toronto is a growing city, so you expect some creep upwards in numbers, but there have been too many years lately with murder totals in the 70s and 80s. Why have Toronto murder rates risen when American cities are still experiencing historically low homicide rates? Obviously they had huge spikes to drop from (murders in NYC in the early 90s: over 2000. This year: under 500) but you have to wonder if there isn't some sign here of something else. Is American urban quality of life improving while Toronto wades deeper into poverty and becomes more like those US cities it used to love to mock?
Was there a local media conspiracy to hype the Grey Cup this year? Seems the papers were all over it, and they were actively and relentlessly pushing Torontonians to not only embrace the game, but to join in on the "party atmosphere" for a sport that many people, quite reasonably, could not give a good goddamn about.
Was this driven by a lobby of wealthy Western Canadian investors? Or we just sucking up to them because they've got some oil? Bizarre.
I've noticed the CFL boosting this year too, but I think it's largely an attempt to curb the popularity of the NFL here in Canada.
But, back to more important issues: the Poverty thing is shocking, but not surprising to anyone who lives in the city (and ventures outside their condo/Yorkville).
Maybe this will finally open some eyes, and we can start seeing a push to start solving the particular problems of Toronto.
It's interesting that pretty much all of the stories about poverty in Canada coming out in the last few months specifically mention the words "housing" and "Toronto" as being things we need to take a closer look at, as a society.
Wasn't CTVglobemedia a sponsor of the Grey Cup this year? that's a multi-multi-multi-platform to generate advertising/hype from...
Right, it was a vast conspiracy involving all those free-wheeling tycoons from Saskatoon and Winnipeg, all 4 of them. It's sad to see how cynical people have to be sometime just because they don't get the same enjoyment out of an event as somebody else. Ever think it's possible the reason for all the media attention is the fact that the city hasn't hosted the event since 1992? God forbid Eye Weekly take a week off from the latest Broken Social Scene spinoff or some donut shop being forced out of West Queen West by gentrification...
And just an FYI, the game was carried by CBC for the last time before it shifts to CTV/TSN exclusively next year.
Has the murder rate actually been keeping pace with the growth in population? I thought we cracked 100 one year back in the early 90s.
Thanks Skippy; I couldn't agree more. I had used up all my complaining about sports coverage points.