MB Toronto
Morning Brew: Rob Ford at a loss over gun violence, no more shelter beds says Ford, questions over Downsview Park, condo owners kept out, and Toronto sees Hadfield
Rob Ford says he doesn't know what else he can do to curb gun violence in the city, admitting he's "frustrated" by the deaths of three 15-year-old boys in a month. The mayor said that while he and his brother regularly volunteer their time, speaking on the issue of youth gun violence at council would be unlikely to have an effect. However, Ford maintained he's open to suggestions. Could the city do more to tackle gun violence in Toronto?
Also at city hall, Ford says he's against adding more shelter beds despite a recent protest outside his office by members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, a group demanding an emergency meeting on homeless care in the city. OCAP will hold a press conference at today's city council meeting and coun. Adam Vaughan says he'll table a motion on the shelter issue.
More question marks surround the future of Downsview Park, the former air base turned political red tape dispenser. The federally-owned, 231-hectare site was slated to become an sprawling urban park but a change of heart by Public Works and Government Services Canada signaled the site could be sold for development. Not so, the site's custodian tells the Toronto Star. A review of the site is due imminently.
Residents of a Yorkville condo driven out by an electrical room fire on Jan. 30 won't be able to return to their homes for at least another eight weeks. The owners of the property cite difficulties sourcing replacement parts for a damaged generator as the reason for the delay. Emergency funding from the city, which includes a daily $10 lunch voucher and two TTC tokens, has expired for many residents.
A bar in Little Italy played host to a final town hall meeting organized by former mayoral candidate George Smitherman on the topic of an MGM casino complex at Exhibition Place. Coun. Mike Layton spoke against building a major gaming facility anywhere in the city, saying there would be "deep social costs" to any development. Council will vote whether to allow a casino in April.
Finally, the world might be getting used to being in the lens of Commander Chris Hadfield, the Ontario-born astronaut currently aboard the International Space Station, but earlier this month the camera was facing the other way. One of Hadfield's friends, Andrew Yee, snapped this neat timelapse of the Toronto skyline as the ISS streaked above. Around the same time the astronaut took this picture of a gigantic sunset.
IN BRIEF:
- Young people desensitized to extreme violence: police chief [Globe and Mail]
- 2 more charged in Little Italy shooting [CBC]
- Former Toronto figure skating coach faces more charges [CBC]
- Second arrest made in connection with 2009 murder [CP24]
- Raptors defeat Wizards for 5th straight win [CBC]
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: "Day at the Beach" by DdotG/blogTO Flickr pool.
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And taking a closer look you will see that--suprise, surprise--they appear to have more cohesive family units that have both parents (and even extended family) involved.
If they had the money it would be nice to make some more separate spaces in the drop-in programs. E.g. One area for people who've been there at least a certain number of times before and not caused trouble, so that people have a bit of a sense of safety when going there. They'd need to keep a list of people's names, but not necessarily ask for any ID.
You want an uncomfortable 100% solution to the cycle of poverty which leads to crime? There it is.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/09/17/no-one-helps-black-youth-more-than-rob-ford-toronto-mayor-brother-defend-record-on-radio-show/
http://www.globalnews.ca/toronto+mayor+ford+voted+against+hug+a+thug+initiatives+for+at-risk+youth/6442682373/story.html
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2012/07/19/rob_ford_wants_ottawa_to_use_immigration_laws_against_gun_crimes.html
Meanwhile, Bloomberg in New York actually does stuff:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/19/bloomberg-super-pac-tackles-nra-with-2-million-in-chicago-race/
Maybe Rob should be putting the family money into taking political action rather than throwing company birthday parties on freshly repaved streets.
I thought all the poor people moved out of Toronto by now...I guess its time to raise the property taxes.
That's a problem. Saying "whitey does bad stuff too" isn't a solution, in fact, it makes it worse.
No solution in that attitude either.
If yes, isn't a life of poverty the absolute, definitive, #1 leading factor that steers folks towards crime?
It's tough. There's a grey line between victim and willing participant and single moms straddle it. Single moms who have more kids when they're on assistance or can't locate the father, and likewise, guys who do the same, they've crossed that line. That needs to end. That's a solution.
You say that pointing out that whitey does bad stuff too isn't a solution, well neither is fixating on the skin colour of the victims and alleged perpetrators in these cases. In other words, let's say that everyone involved in these shootings is black - so what? How does that piece of information lead to a solution any more than pointing that most of the people perpetrating mass shootings in North America are white?
Fixating on race just leads to simple-minded solutions (such as "midnight basketball" in the hood) that don't accomplish jack because they make assumptions about race and behaviour that just aren't true.
I'm not going to jump on the whole "racist" bandwagon, because I'm going to assume that ultimately we all want the same thing - no more kids getting shot in the streets. I don't think there's a conspiracy against black people going on here, I just think there's too much of a tendency to seek simple answers to complicated issues.
What's your reasoning behind the city of Toronto being less than 10% black, less than 5% black male, yet 90+% of the murder victims and murderers are black males?
Yep. Something absolutely rotten in those homes, in that culture, and in those neighbourhoods. Keep dancing around it though. It's cute.
If we really wanted to reduce crime we'd reduce poverty, it's the obvious root of most crime. How we do that is anyone's guess though, it simply seems to be a part of our society. We thrive on competition and the result of any competition is winners and losers, even though the competition is never fair and probably never will be. Sorry, I don't mean to be depressing, I just don't see any end to poverty that doesn't mean a huge loss of freedom.