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Weekend Newsstand: December 20, 2014
The Raptors have unveiled a new logo and colour scheme, to be paired with a new uniform next season. Expect big things from them (if only because every other team in this town will let you down without fail). In the news this second-last Saturday of 2014: the top baby names of the year were kind of predictable, residents react to changes at Alexandra Park, and Christmas trees placed downtown to protest the treatment of homeless people find homes.
The most popular baby names in Ontario have been the same for the last three years: Olivia for girls and Liam for boys. And while the top five names for both boys and girls were also very traditional (Emma, Sophia, Ava, and Charlotte for girls; Ethan, Lucas, Noah, and Benjamin for boys), there was a distinct trend further down each list. More and more, parents seem to be choosing their children’s names based on TV shows. Skylar, Jesse, and Walter all enjoyed resurgences that are probably due to the popularity of Breaking Bad, while only the hit Sons of Anarchy can explain the spike in babies named Jax and Abel.
As the “revitalization” of Alexandra Park begins in earnest, some long-time residents are hopeful that mixed-income housing and new through streets will be a boon to the area, while others fear a loss of community and identity. Both reactions, of course, are valid. What sometimes gets lost in the shuffle and excitement of city development is the people who will be displaced, temporarily or permanently, in order for the old to be made new. The Globe spoke to several residents of Alexandra Park who have been there since the beginning or near the beginning (in 1968) about the 15-year redevelopment of their home.
Grim black Christmas trees placed at busy intersections like Yonge and Dundas or Spadina and Queen were part of a campaign to raise awareness of the homeless people in our city who spend the holidays outside, cold and often lonely. They exhorted people to consider the homeless and then to give to Good Shepherd Ministries, the organization that had coordinated the campaign. In a sadly ironic twist, many of the trees are now gone, some of them probably taken into homes for the next week or two.