Get the Crack/Yuppies/Condos Outta the Neighbourhood!!!

20070117_drug_coffee.jpg

I had been working on my exhibition at XPACE, when it was still in its Kensington Market Location, when a man burst in raving that the "Crack is killing the Market" and inviting us to a local business/residents meeting to work on resolving the issue, which is a "part health/safety" and "part business/real estate value" based concern (a genuine one as noted by the comments expressed by blogTO writers below in response to a recent Globe&Mail article). My first thought was "the Crack is killing the Market! - what a great title for a show" when my friend, artist Katherine Piro exclaimed, "Leave the crackheads alone! It's the Yuppies that are killing the Market." I understood her frustration as XPACE had been given no alternative but to move as their rental price had just skyrocketed.

You see us artists don't so mind displacing the poor... as long as we aren't displaced by condos and yuppies as evidenced by another article in the Globe&Mail this week.

It seems to be the natural cycle of life for a neighbourhood: the art community displaces the poor, the yuppies displace the art community and the crackheads displace the yuppies and businesses. It's gentrification and no one wants it in their 'hood. But at least you don't hear the crackheads whining (unless you really hear them crying, pounding outside your door, wanting your silverware); junkies don't care who lives in their neighbourhood as long as they're paying by cash.

So my proposed solution is to kill two birds with one stone and move the Kensington crackheads to Queen St. West. Make those condo-living, starbucks-drinking and mono-culture-bringing yuppies think twice before moving in. It's a win-win situation.

Is Crack Killing the Market?

A guy who lives in my house was arrested by cops in Kensington this summer and beat up. He didn't look bad but you could tell he was hurting for about a week. He's about 50 and makes good coin but looks like Keith Richards and was smoking a fatty. Seems like the cops wanna crack down and keep it clean in Kensington, maybe they couldn't find any crack smokers that night so they had to settle for busting a man and his weed. -- Sookie

A friend of mine lived at Spadina & College and had crackheads up on his roof and peeking in his windows all the time. Once he had to respond to the sound of his neighbour across the hall screaming when she came home to find a crackhead in her apartment rifling through her belongings. The hard drug use, and associated problems in Kensington are real. I'm intrigued by the claims in the article... I mean, we all know that the market has always had it's drug addict problems... but to claim that in 6 months the problem has skyrocketed and that in the same time frame business are taking 50% hits is astounding. Gentrification and degradation, in my naive view, should sort of happen at similar rates, no? Unless of course, the gentrification is more spread out, and the poverty, crime, and drug problems from these various areas are being forced into tighter corners like Kensington. -- Jerrold

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another blogTo writer alerted me to some relevant discussion on these sites with comments from KM residents:

http://www.stillepost.ca/boards/index.php?PHPSESSID=c33e1ca5745367c8748d5f903cf74fe7&topic=69905.0

http://216.234.51.66/board/showthread.php?t=128581

P.S. How we agonized over the image for this post, you have NO IDEA.

Posted by: Carrie [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 17, 2007 10:11 AM

We're organizing a Community Forum on gentrification in Parkdale on Monday January 22.

The panel features Matthew Blackett (Spacing), Misha Glouberman (Trampoline Hall), Craig Peskett (Parkdale Residents Association), Victor Willis (Parkdale Activity - Recreation Centre), Margaret Zeidler (Urbanspace Property Group), and is moderated by Carl Wilson (The Globe and Mail).

More info here:

http://www.myspace.com/parkdaleliberty

Posted by: Chris Reynolds at January 17, 2007 12:32 PM

My mind is always blown when people blame yuppies for their neighborhoods problems.



Seriously, who do you think is more likely to buy your shit? Yuppies or Crack heads?



Yes it sucks Xspace had to move. But this is a problem everywhere. I worked on Queen West for 3 years and saw about a hundred business' come and go. But it wasn't because of the influx of Yuppies.



A successful business caters to young professionals, it does not spite them for dressing well and paying too much for coffee. Just because they drive a nice car doesn't mean they are the enemy!

Posted by: lathamb at January 17, 2007 1:34 PM

My friend lives across from supermarket and finds that the Supermarket coke-heads are more intimidating, dangerous and annoying that the weak and confused crack-heads.

I wonder why this article was written. Did someone from the neighborhood contact The Globe?

Posted by: Zach at January 17, 2007 3:02 PM

Well, I hope you got the sarcasm in my post regarding yuppies. Gentrification is an issue for a lot of neighbourhoods, and although people like to blame yuppies, arts communities and galleries have often gentrified neighbourhoods for those who are in lower income housing.

Self-criticism by arts communities role in gentrifying neighbourhoods is a recent phenomenon.

Posted by: Carrie [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 17, 2007 3:39 PM

I didn't get your sarcasm.

Posted by: lathamb at January 19, 2007 3:08 PM

I was on the founding committee for the XPACE and have been involved with it in some form since its inception. Getting the space up and running was a huge hurdle, as neighbors no doubt saw XPACE as the beginning of the gentrification of their community. Our loud art-parties were often greeted with vandalism from unknown hands the next day, at one point someone even scaled up to the roof, one hot summer night, and destroyed the air conditioning unit.

Supermarket and 'yuppies' aren't really the enemies when you sit down and think about it. This article is filled with sarcasm. When someone cries out "Crack is killing the Market!" isn't "Leave the crackheads alone! It's the Yuppies that are killing the Market." an equal and opposite reaction? It's dangerous to covet what the market used to be, but that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Get involved in the community and keep it growing in the tradition of its history. That doesn't mean going to community action meetings or anything like that either - not everyone has time for that. A huge help would be to not drive your car in Kensington. If you want to go further maybe campaign to ban limosines from the Kensington streets! Do anything but become a liberal-minded conservative who likes the 'aura', 'mystique' and 'trajedy' of those modern day lost shamans that wander wired in the park. That's more yuppy than anything else, in my opinion.

I have personally witnessed more violence standing on Richmond/John in one evening than I have seen in and around Kensington Market in my 6 years of living in Toronto, and I prefer to live as near as possible to the market.

Where the art goes, 'yuppies' will always follow. Everyone wants to fit in, and as an artist you must make your clients happy. The artist should find a positive roll in the development of their community afterward. Can't just fuck and expect the baby to raise itself, can you? Goddamn thing might grow up to be a crackhead!

Posted by: Despotovich at January 21, 2007 5:33 AM

^ lathab: I'm at a lost how anyone would take a bong vs latte debate seriously. You must have had a lot of artists scowl at you in the past therefore I sense you frustration.

^Despotovich: great points. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Posted by: Carrie [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 21, 2007 3:18 PM

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