Ford

Whatever Rob, Whatever!

I haven’t written anything for months. In all honesty I have just got totally fed up with Toronto Politics. You’d think I’d have all sorts to say about the whole Fordian drama thing but it simply does not interest me. What interests me is the ease with which Torontonians can bitch ad infinitum. We live in a fabulous city. Not a perfect city. A fabulous city. It’s become trendy to criticize and bitch non stop about how dreadful we are. We elected a total idiot with zero morals, an addictive and irresponsible personality, and absolutely no idea of what the job entails. We bought into his nonstop messaging despite the total inaccuracy of virtually anything he says. WE did that.

I am disgusted with the people of Toronto. If you don’t like the way things are done then step up and do something about it. For instance. I have attended the meetings about the redevelopment of the Mouth of the Don. You know. The place that has so far caused 3 floods of the DVP this year. Those floods directly affect  at least a million citizens in one way or another. ONE MILLION. Yet at those meetings I have seen maybe 300 people.

We are to blame for all that happens in City Hall that we don’t like. City Councillors are simply people. Our neighbours who decide to get involved. They aren’t necessarily experts in the fields we expect them to run. The learning curve is high. Some of them dig in and learn and do and listen and become fighters for us. They work damned hard and tolerate the shit and abuse we dish to them with aplomb. Some of them just put in the time and let their staff do the work without interference. Some of them use their positions to further their own interests alone. They are a diverse bunch. You have to really look and ask yourself who cares and who doesn’t.

I go to City Hall and I watch it on TV when they’re sitting. The same faces are there all the time. Some because they are journalists. The press. There’s a surprisingly small number of citizens for a city this size. Yet we all have an opinion and we all mutter on like we know what we’re talking about even though we get all our information from the headlines in the various media we scan or half listen to. It’s all bullshit!

We have exactly what we deserve in City Hall. If we want to deserve better then we ALL need to get involved in this glorious city we live in. I know I sound naive. I hear all the “I have a life to live” chatter. Well fine. Then live your life and shut up. Pray the good Councillors can over ride the bad ones. Don’t get out and vote on Oct.27. Why bother? They’re all the same, right? Don’t look beyond the headlines. Don’t find the truth. Just continue on your merry way. Live your life. But know this. You surrender the right to an opinion or any bitching whatsoever when you don’t bother to vote. If you can’t even be bothered to go spoil a ballot then you don’t get a say in anything that happens next. Good OR bad.

 

I watched Mr. Ford’s little speech on Monday. Anyone who buys into that total pap deserves what they get. I saw nothing sincere. I heard no contriteness. I saw a man who desperately wants us all to believe his little vacation in the Muskoka’s has made him a new man. He’s not new. His 60 day vacation caused him to lose a little water weight. He looks like he got some rest. That’s about it. He’ll be drinking again any day now if he hasn’t already started. Nobody gets cured of multiple addictions in 60 days of what appeared to be very casual rehab. Besides which, that is simply not the point. He was and is a bad mayor. This city was never ever even close to bankruptcy though he has said it more than once. He has not saved us anywhere near a billion dollars anywhere but in his own strange fantasy world. He has embarrassed this city the world over. He does arrive late and leave early every bloody day. Hell, he was late for his little speech on Monday. He does not have a grasp on the real parts of a single significant issue affecting your life. While you applaud his insistence that he will lower our already insanely low taxes. Our city is crumbling around us from a lack of funds to upkeep infrastructure. By he way he has not lowered taxes. They’ve quietly risen every year he’s been in office. He does not even know the difference between a street car and an LRT. Do you? 

In spite of the Ford ‘s belief system. A city is not a business. It is a service agency. It’s job is to look after us and our city. When we choose to live here we agree to chip in and help get the work done. That’s called taxes. It costs money to run a city. We are fools if we believe that taxes in Toronto are too high. We are fools if we buy into the bullshit “gravy” message. I’m quite certain there are efficiencies yet to be found in City Hall. I’m also quite certain that Rob Ford has not one clue where to find them. His real brilliance has been that skill that all bullies possess. He has continually pit Councillor against Councillor. Divide and conquer is his mantra. It was only when they began to see him for what he truly is that they began to fight back. Still he has done enough damage that it will be a misery for Ms Chow who looks awfully like our next mayor.

I have loved this city since I first put my foot down in it when I was 15 years old. I have explored every nook and cranny. It is still the same fabulous place it always was. We still have Little Italy and India at Gerrard and Coxwell. High Park is still gorgeous and so are Edwards Gardens. The Giraffes still gaze patiently at me out at the zoo. Bluffers Park is still almost as great a place to visit as Centre Island. The spice store at Kensington Market still smells glorious. Dim Sum at Broadview and Gerrard is still yummy.The Distillery District and Corktown Commons, and Sugar Beach and, and, and, ……… I can go on for an hour.

Toronto isn’t just where I live. Toronto is where I LIVE. I love it here. It’s where I want to live til I am no more. I am not rich and I struggle every day in this expensive city. I don’t care. This is the best city I know and I’m staying. I’m going to keep doing whatever tiny things I can do to make people see the city I believe is worth keeping. I can only hope one or two who might read this will be inspired to love Toronto with the same passion I feel.

Thoughts on the The Krista Ford Thing

I haven’t written in a while. Been dealing with a lot of “things” as we do. New job, getting healthy, stuff. But I have been watching and listening, as I do. So this “thing” has me really hot and bothered and needing to speak out loud.

Let me start by saying this. I am in no way, not any way, no way ever, defending Miss Ford’s words. Having said this. When someone goes into politics and becomes prominent in the public eye. There is a thing that doesn’t really ever get mentioned. Unfortunately you learn it by experience and it isn’t always pleasant, as Miss Ford is finding out. Whether you like it or not, and I doubt many like it, you end up by default, somewhat muzzled. You have to begin being incredibly careful about how you express your opinions in public venues like Facebook and Twitter. There are all sorts of folks out there in the media, in the blogosphere, on Twitter. If they know your relationship to that politician they can just hardly wait to use your words to go after your loved one. I have learned the hard way that once you put it out there, it’s out there to stay. You can delete it and you can apologize and it’s still gonna be there and you’re still gonna pay. Think very very hard before you press send.

Now to the real issue. Krista Ford is a young and very naive women. She grew up in a privileged and protected world. She has zero concept of what it is like to live in downtown Toronto, alone, without a car, needing to work often long hours and weird times just to barely make the rent. I used to walk home from Bloor and Bay to Dav and Dupont at 4 o’clock in the morning years ago when I worked in a restaurant that was open til 3. Try that on for size Krista. Last 4 or 5 days of the pay period I didn’t even have the money for a bus ticket. That’s called real life. That’s how 99% of the population live. That’s the city you live in.

I belong to a generation where men forced themselves on women in a rather subtle and constant fashion. We did not know that no means no. Wives were raised to believe that whatever their husbands wanted they got. You always acquiesced to the man. Girls gave in to their boyfriends. Date rape was not a term that had even been invented and we sure as hell didn’t say anything if it happened. The police would not be any help at all if there was no violence involved. If you hadn’t been hurt you must have wanted it. The shame and responsibility was all yours. If you got pregnant, Mr. Akin’s opinion notwithstanding, you were generally hidden away in some awful home and the baby taken from you at birth. It was just understood that you couldn’t keep it. What would the neighbours say.

We cluck our tongues righteously these days when we hear about the way raped women are treated in third world countries. Yet I am only 60 years old and I remember all to well when that was standard treatment right here in River City. I had a friend who got “knocked up” when we were 16. She was not allowed to admit it out loud until she was big as a house and the elephant in the room was impossible to deny. Her parents “made” her marry the boy. Another friend got pregnant at 18 and denied it to the bitter end. None of us said a word as her overalls got bigger and bigger. One day she disappeared for about 4 or 5 weeks and when she reappeared there was no baby and life went on.

So don’t tell me we haven’t changed, and changed a lot. Now we have guys like @sol_chrom or @bryck123. These are enlightened and smart young men with profound respect for women. That is a step forward.

As long as there have been men and women, there has been rape. A sad but true statement. I really hate to say it and I know it will make some folks really crazy but as long as we exist there always will be. Having said that, we must work very very hard to make it one of those rare anomalies that can always be called mental illness. It happens as much as it does now because too many men think they somehow have a right to take what they want. They somehow believe that they are reading signals that say the opposite of what is really being said. They do not know how to listen.

In countries like Lebanon and Egypt there are women who practise the art of Belly Dancing. They wear those spare costumes we’ve all seen and they are often seen walking to work in cities like Cairo. They practise an art form that receives respect. It is not assumed that they are “looking for it” because of the way they are dressed. This doesn’t mean there isn’t the occasional pig about but in those societies, men do speak up when other men behave badly towards women. It isn’t acceptable to speak badly about women in mixed company. Before you all start commenting about somewhere like Pakistan, I am talking about Arabic countries. Where men can kiss each other without any fool giggling. Where men are allowed to cry when it’s called for. Where strong emotion is never hidden but expressed with vigour.

We could learn a whole lot about how to raise our sons, from these countries. We live with this North American arrogance that is our worst enemy. We aren’t better than everyone else. Our ways are not the best ways. There are no best ways. We have so little respect for the rest of the world, it sometimes makes me scream. I don’t have a son but if I did there would be non-stop criticism of how I would raise him. I wouldn’t care. I would raise a strong self-aware man. One who would not be afraid to cry. Who would hug and kiss without inhibition. Who would know how to grieve outwardly, be happy out loud when it was warranted, and be angry without explosion when that was what was called for. He would be a man who would have respect for all human beings. It would never occur to him to judge a woman by her clothing and ignore her words. It would never occur to him to come up behind a random woman and take what he wanted. He wouldn’t want that without love and respect.

So what I am saying is that the responsibility for changing this mindset belongs to us all. Krista was so wrong. But attacking her was wrong too. We all created the mindset that allows her to think that way. It is way to easy to say “well Doug Ford is her Dad”. Anyone who knows me knows I am no fan of the Fords but fair is fair. This is a societal problem and it is us as a society that will fix it, working together. Men should call their peers on stupid conversations. But guess what? So should women. Don’t walk away when a joke is told in poor taste. Say politely but loudly that you are offended and you would like it to never happen again. Then walk away. Don’t go on and on. The point gets made very quickly and it’s called shame. If you preach it’s called boring and after a while not only does no one hear you, they begin avoiding you, but the jokes go on.

When I was a 20-year-old, the asshole who’s working in the Bloor and Christie area would probably have gone unabated for literally years. We would never ever have known the total number because too many victims would have said nothing. He will be caught, and likely very soon. I pray that it is before he hurts anyone else. Rape is a thing that I don’t believe you can ever completely recover from. It becomes a fundamental part of you and it colours your reactions to the world for the rest of your life. He is a bastard.

Things have changed enormously since I was 20. Just no where nearly enough. If we give in to anger and begin blaming and confronting and chastising we will never change. We must stay calm and work together. Not men and women but enlightened people, teaching the unenlightened people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Smoke and Mirrors

I haven’t written in a while. I know that’s not how you get followers but frankly, I’ve been wordless. Many writers across the city, pro and blogger alike have said it all very well. But……… Only Royson James seemed to get the real story behind the temper tantrum. Rob Ford’s reaction to Daniel Dale in the park, for that IS where he was, simply made no sense. He knows Daniel Dale. He outweighs him, bare minimum 2 to 1. Danger to his family?

Stop here and just think about it. All he had was a Blackberry. Ever take a picture with a Blackberry? Unless you are on top of your subject there will be zero detail. How the hell would anyone take a picture of any definition from 30 feet away through a small back window? The mayor’s children are small. His daughter is only 7. Unless she were standing on a tall chair in front of the window she would not be viewable. So what’s that about?

This man will give you his phone number and address at the drop of a hat. Good God he has broadcast it over the radio. Is this the action of a man concerned with the safety of his children? He refuses to have a security detail. He refuses to be driven. It is my personal view that he does not give a damn about the safety of his children.

He was quietly making a move on this piece of land which is a part of our nature conservancy. He knows that he is not entitled to this land on multiple levels. He does not think the rules apply to him. When he saw Daniel outside I believe he exploded in rage because he knew the jig was up. Once again the Toronto Star was going to thwart him and show him up as the sneaky bully he continually shows us he is.

He doesn’t need that land to build a fence. He has a nearly 6 foot fence now. I’ll bet any money, the ultimate goal has always been to expand his land. Swimming pool, maybe, but I bet it’s reno time at Casa Ford. Rather it was. There is no way in hell he is getting approval for this now. He had very little chance anyway. But now he has created such a storm that he is under a microscope yet again and his favourite whipping post, The Toronto Star, will get the blame.

Stop again. Think for a minute. It is now Day 5 or 6, I forget. Point is, the police have the security film, the phone and the recorder. No charges have been laid against anyone. Curious that, don’t you think? Try and convince me it isn’t because they can’t make up their minds what the fall out could be if they charge the mayor with assault and theft. Because that’s what it was. Plain and simple. You cannot think for one second that if that evidence showed Daniel Dale had done one single thing wrong he wouldn’t be in jail right now. Please! The mayor would eat off that for the next year.

What would you do if a neighbour told you there was a man out back in the park taking pictures? I’d head out there, watch for a minute, assess the situation, decide if there was danger. The I would A/ call the police or B/ ask the man what he was doing. That’s all. If I recognized the man as the mayor did I might be a bit more assertive. But charging him with up raised fists, possibly entertaining the thought of hitting him? For the mayor has publicly admitted this. Why? Why would I do that? Why would anyone? Unless they have paranoid anger issues and are seeing their grand plan evaporate.

I think the police are hoping that if they maintain radio silence this will go away. It probably will. That is outrageous. This is a man who has multiple tangles with the police in his past. All are about out of control rage. He has been charged with domestic violence, DUI, uttering threats. Is there really any reason to doubt he broke the law yet again out there in that public park? Why does he continue to get away with this? That’s the real question. Neither you or I would have gotten the same deal.

I’m sick of the embarrassment. I’m sick of the sense of entitlement. I’m sick of the arrogant self-righteous crap. I’m sick of the complete ignorance of the obligations of the office. I’m just plain sick. This man needs to be read the riot act. It might do him all sorts of good to be held accountable for his actions. A sensible judge could then order him into anger management treatment. The day will come when he goes too far. It is the history of such men. Pray he doesn’t hurt anyone too badly and pray it happens after he leaves office for we can’t take anymore international embarrassments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Casino, Casino

Had a nasty little bout with a tummy thing and was basically out of commission for 2 and a half weeks. Thank’s Mt Sinai for fixing me up. Came home Friday and began the “take it easy” portion of one of these thingys and now I can’t seem to stop writing.So the air seems suddenly thick with casino’s. We’ll make the money we need on the backs of the people who can afford to lose it the least seems the prevailing thought. But is this really true? It’s much to easy to go there. Facts and figures for problem gambling vary widely from one survey to another. As with all surveys you can twist the numbers to suit your purpose. That problem gambling exists, no one will deny. But then so does heroin addiction, alcoholism, food addiction, and even, according to TLC addiction to eating paper towels.

We’ve done nothing but stoke the fire by prohibiting drug use. Obesity is a pandemic despite a multi billion dollar diet industry. Prostitution is as it ever was and, I fear, will be. Meanwhile Las Vegas chugs on. It hasn’t been swallowed by the abyss. It’s streets aren’t crawling with the disenfranchised, there isn’t a brothel on every corner, it’s one of the fastest growing cities in North America and it has one of the best medical care systems in the U.S. What’s happening there that we’re missing? Life is happening there folks. Just like here or anywhere else. Life.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not necessarily thrilled with the idea but this one isn’t going away. This one has absolutely nothing to do with Hizzoner. Though the Province will let you think it does. Toronto will probably see precious little of the coin from this endeavour. They are counting on our good old Toronto ways right now. We will start a pitched battle. Excuse me, we have started that battle. Oh My God the horror! Single Mom hookers to the right, slobbering compulsive gamblers to the right. We’re all going to hell at Ontario Place. Except we’re not.

Make no mistake here kids. There is going to be a casino. It’s a done deal. Been a done deal for 4 years. While we wail and carry on and blame the Fords and Mammo, the shovels will quietly start digging out at Woodbine where the way has long since been cleared. Remember Woodbine Live? Well its live kids. Best part? Fifteen years of city tax breaks galore. My favourite part in this? It’s in the Ford’s own ward and it’s a provincial imperative. You just gotta love that part.

There will be some problem gamblers about, and there will be some hookers. But there are hookers on Isabella for God’s sake. I don’t hear you screaming about that. There are needles on the street in High

Park. We have tolerated the sad state of ex mental patients in Parkdale for years without lifting a finger. What exactly, is it about this that so offends our sensibility? To much CSI perhaps? We live in a big city. Big cities have not so pretty bits. Hide in the burbs if you must, but I live on the border of Scarborough and North York and I see homeless folk out here every day so I guess you better head for the 905.

Here are some facts to consider. A well run casino does make money. Lots of money. They do provide jobs, sorry but they do. And they are good jobs, lots of them. At all levels and multiple fields. Once built they are a destination point. What is wrong with a huge complex of businesses all set up for the pleasure of those who can afford it? Have you been to Casino Rama? Some superb restaurants, a not bad entertainment complex, the steady hum of slot machines, smiling employed people wherever you turn. People enjoying themselves. Seriously, what is wrong with that? Are we really prepared to throw that away over some imagined problems that we actually already have and are not dealing with anyway.

How about this? The casino gets built. It will get built. Once again I implore you to set your natural Toronto tendencies aside and work with this thing. Let’s make them commit some of that vast sum of money they will have back to us, to deal with the problems we’re sure we will have, and the ones we already have. They’re not going to save the province from its deficit and they aren’t going to build us a subway but they can and will help us with some of the social issues we have that we don’t seem able to fix with what we currently have.

At Woodbine they will be accessible to both airports, and the major highways. They will also be very available to the 905. They won’t create a big fat parking mess on the lake front and they won’t be competing with the down town core bars and theatres. In an area that the recession we aren’t having has hit hard, they will provide thousands of jobs. Plus, transit could serve them well. Break a line off the Finch West LRT and Voila!

Just think about it for a bit. Try to push down your instinctive moral outrage for a moment and just think about it. Not single Mom brothels, single Mom dealers making very good salaries. Chefs, waiters, valets, dealers, middle management and so on and on and on. Yes the requisite percentage of problem gamblers but how is that different from the requisite percentage of problem drinkers in every bar in town. In truth the businesses most hurt will be the Bingo halls. A casino will not create new compulsive gamblers. They already exist. Not building a casino will not make them go away nor will it fix the problem. It will just make us see it out under the lights. Hey we might even get Celine Dion!

Democracy in Action?

I’m pondering the actual title I gave my blog. Given some of what’s taken place here in Toronto in the last week or maybe even the last year. It’s not easy to be my age in  these weird times. I’m one of those misbegotten pseudo hippies of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Kind of displaced in history. Some of us grew up to be Yuppies. Some of us didn’t grow up at all. And some of us are still kind of stuck somewhere betwixt and between.

We still rail at what’s wrong in the world and there are youngsters around us who look up and see something really cool. Not that I was ever cool. But I have friends who were. If you scratch the surface of us “individuals” you will find someone who’s often just a little scared and a little lonely and still angry as hell at a world that never quite get’s it right. We just never stopped wanting to fight for the things that others decided to let slide. And let’s face it, there’s never been a shortage of causes for us to shriek at. Somehow we didn’t quite ever fit into the right box. We’re not stupid. Often we’re quite smart. But being smart can be a drawback. Especially if you can’t keep your mouth shut.

We see how things are and we feel we must point out how they should be, could be. People don’t always want to know how it should be. It’s actually very sad to figure some of this out at this age. We stopped the war in Viet nam. Nothing could stop us. Nothing but looming adulthood and impending unemployment. They forgot to tell us that the degree they made us go get wasn’t really going to be of much use.

Call me a hopeless romantic. Forget all the philosophizing at one level or another. Who cares whether we have subways or LRT’s or bloody rickshaws. Twenty-Nine people, each of whom has their own agenda came together for a shining afternoon and made it right. They did what they should have. What they could have done all along. They did what they were elected to do. They ran Toronto. O.K. I’m a fool but my heart soared. We just beat Viet nam again.

I’m not a total fool though. It was hard-won by a lot of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing and cajoling. If we want this kind of leadership to continue we have to keep reminding them we are here and we are watching, and we have power too. And we don’t like how Mr. Ford has manipulated our fears and ignorance to lay waste to our city for no good reason at all. None of this was necessary. We fell asleep at the switch and a not very bright man and his brother snuck in and knocked us to our knees.

We’re standing now. On shaky legs, but we’re standing. So let’s start the walk. I want the Toronto I grew up in back, and I can’t think of a single reason why I shouldn’t have it. It’s still there. It’s fashionable to bitch right now but come on. Where else would you like to be? Where else can you eat Jerk Chicken for lunch and Tibetan curry for dinner?

Happy week Toronto. I live in hope.

 

 

 

 

have.