I've been busy lately so I haven't gotten to update for a while. There are a few articles that I'm working on right now but I wanted to do an update with a few quick stories.
There were two topics that the Oshawa city council has debated recently. One has to do with the Methadone Clinic we has here in the downtown area. For anyone that doesn't know what a Methadone Clinic is, its basically a small hospital where they subscribe Methadone to the patients to ween them off Cocaine or Heroin addictions. Yeah, I'm proud of it too. A local business man went to the council to complain about the residents that live there constantly loitering outside, vandalizing his storefront and dealing drugs. Among, one of the dumbest things Ive ever heard they offered him $100 000 to move his business OUT of Oshawa. This is the opposite of what a normal city wants. Cities WANT reputable businesses to come to them not the other way around. This is the kind of backwards logic that has been killing the city for years. I'll post pictures of it soon.
Second, I was talking to a city councilor and he was telling me about a recent discussion they had about raising the price of parking meters by 10 cents to generate a little more money. While 10 cents isn't such a big deal the problems is that they debated it for 3 hours, 3 HOURS?! Come on, just come to a decision either way, just wrap it up and move on. Its 10 cents for god sakes. The councilor got so frustrated that he just walked out.
On a good note, there have been rumors that council is debating the relocation of the St. Vincent Soup Kitchen away from the downtown core. Just a rumor but that would be a great step in revitalizing the downtown. Good for them if they do it.
So two bad things and one good rumor. hopefully they go through with it if they hope to save the city.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
Too Late to Turn Back
I was thinking the other day about writing this blog and about all the problems that Oshawa has and why previous leaders in this city did nothing about it. I was reminded about our previous Mayor, Nancy Diamond. For the life of me I couldn't figure out anything good that she did for the city aside from planting flowers downtown and renaming it "The Village District" like that will solve any problems. I seem to remember during her 12 year reign seeing more and more empty plots of land "spring up" so to speak. I could rant on and on about the clusterfuck that was Nancy Diamond's Mayoral tenure but..........maybe I will in the future.
The point of this article is to highlight a fundamental problem that the city has had since it's inception and that is the city's actual layout. Now I'm no architect or a city planner but it seems to me that Oshawa doesn't follow of a normal city in the way it's laid out. Everyone talks about the North End of the city and how it's for stuck-up, rich people, which may be true. There are a lot of nice neighborhoods in the North but that really shouldn't be the case since Oshawa is on Lake Ontario in the very South End of the city. The rich and affluent sections which would normally be on the water in any normal city are not there. Instead, what we see there are blocks of ultra low rent, small and crammed together apartments. There used to be a stigma attached to anyone from "the Lake" that they were nothing but dirty criminals collecting government cheese. I'm baffled at how years ago someone decided it would be a great idea to build these cheap-ass apartments on prime waterfront property, essentially rendering it and anything around it useless. The other shameful part of the lake is the park we have there. This is a big, beautiful park right on the water that is packed with families all day long. Yet, at night police regularly have to patrol there, police helicopters light up the shoreline looking for floating bodies and the city also pays for a security guard to always be there at night.
Short of demolishing the buildings and rebuilding with houses this problem has always plagued Oshawa and will continue to do so and it has been there since Oshawa was conceived.
The point of this article is to highlight a fundamental problem that the city has had since it's inception and that is the city's actual layout. Now I'm no architect or a city planner but it seems to me that Oshawa doesn't follow of a normal city in the way it's laid out. Everyone talks about the North End of the city and how it's for stuck-up, rich people, which may be true. There are a lot of nice neighborhoods in the North but that really shouldn't be the case since Oshawa is on Lake Ontario in the very South End of the city. The rich and affluent sections which would normally be on the water in any normal city are not there. Instead, what we see there are blocks of ultra low rent, small and crammed together apartments. There used to be a stigma attached to anyone from "the Lake" that they were nothing but dirty criminals collecting government cheese. I'm baffled at how years ago someone decided it would be a great idea to build these cheap-ass apartments on prime waterfront property, essentially rendering it and anything around it useless. The other shameful part of the lake is the park we have there. This is a big, beautiful park right on the water that is packed with families all day long. Yet, at night police regularly have to patrol there, police helicopters light up the shoreline looking for floating bodies and the city also pays for a security guard to always be there at night.
Short of demolishing the buildings and rebuilding with houses this problem has always plagued Oshawa and will continue to do so and it has been there since Oshawa was conceived.
Downtown Oshawa Part 1
For those of you who don't know, Oshawa has a few very glaring problems. First, a shithole for a Downtown core full of Dollar Stores, Pawn Shops, Tatoo Parlors and prostitutes. During the day it's not so bad. There are a lot of reputable businesses. At night the only reasons to go there is for a $20 blowjob or to beat up someone for the $20 to get your blowjob. Don't bother.
What a shame. From what my parents said used to be a great downtown core where you had to dress up and walk the area with your wife or girlfriend and go to upscale bars, restaurants and theatres (Movies and Plays). Now, it has degraded into a place where you go to score drugs or go to a soup kitchen.
On a positive not the city recently cut funding to all "drop in" centres in the downtown in place of actual businesses. The two that come to mind are "The Arc" and "Buddies" (pictures to follow). They were originally designed for less fortunate people to have access to the internet to find jobs and do laundry but ended up a place to go to simply smoke and drink free coffee. Yes, some people that hang out there are nice but when I was talking to someone outside of Buddies one day I made everyone mad at me when I mentioned I had two jobs and a cellphone.
There are many bad things to talk about in regards to the Downtown and few good things. I'll get back to that after a few more articles. Namely Coffee Time or "Crack Time" as we call it.
What a shame. From what my parents said used to be a great downtown core where you had to dress up and walk the area with your wife or girlfriend and go to upscale bars, restaurants and theatres (Movies and Plays). Now, it has degraded into a place where you go to score drugs or go to a soup kitchen.
On a positive not the city recently cut funding to all "drop in" centres in the downtown in place of actual businesses. The two that come to mind are "The Arc" and "Buddies" (pictures to follow). They were originally designed for less fortunate people to have access to the internet to find jobs and do laundry but ended up a place to go to simply smoke and drink free coffee. Yes, some people that hang out there are nice but when I was talking to someone outside of Buddies one day I made everyone mad at me when I mentioned I had two jobs and a cellphone.
There are many bad things to talk about in regards to the Downtown and few good things. I'll get back to that after a few more articles. Namely Coffee Time or "Crack Time" as we call it.
Introduction
Welcome to everyone reading this blog and thank you for visiting. As the name suggests this will be dedicated to the City of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. I will be updating this blog with my experiences of living in Oshawa and other interesting news concerning the city. Sometimes I may put on news concerning other cities and towns in the Durham Region but will try to focus mostly on Oshawa.
I don't love this city but I have lived here my whole life (28 years) so I will update this with whatever I find interesting, good or bad. For people familiar with the city will say there is a lot more bad than good. Oshawa has a lot of problems. Oshawa's bad reputation reaches as far as Toronto and many citizens really don't like living here. Lately there have been some positive things happening mostly thanks to a new proactive Mayor. Many things happen in this city and I will try and update as much as I can. Most articles will put a bad light on the city but so be it. I'm not going to sing the praises of Oshawa if there isn't anything good to sing about.
Who knows if its too late for the city to rebound but we will see.
I don't love this city but I have lived here my whole life (28 years) so I will update this with whatever I find interesting, good or bad. For people familiar with the city will say there is a lot more bad than good. Oshawa has a lot of problems. Oshawa's bad reputation reaches as far as Toronto and many citizens really don't like living here. Lately there have been some positive things happening mostly thanks to a new proactive Mayor. Many things happen in this city and I will try and update as much as I can. Most articles will put a bad light on the city but so be it. I'm not going to sing the praises of Oshawa if there isn't anything good to sing about.
Who knows if its too late for the city to rebound but we will see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
