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A blog, finally, maybe

Well, through our whole trip to Israel, I’ve been jotting things down, intending to post up a trip blog. Now with just about a week to go, there is still nary a post. A lot of Facebook updates and photos, I’m proud of that. But no blog posts. So here I will try to get up some things that have been rolling around in my little brain. Starting with a simple one about my favourite piece of travel gear, the bandana. May there be a torrent more to come.

 

Everything’s Better At Camp

Hi everyone. I am currently ‘starring’ in some 10 second you tube videos called ‘everything is better at camp’. Basically I play a dorky office worker (a big stretch) who yearns to be back at summer camp and does all sorts of camp stuff around the office. They are to promote a jnf fundraiser called ‘one summer night’, helping out kids from Sderot, who have had thousands of rockets land on their town over the last few years (http://www.jnf.ca/toronto/onesummernight/info/index.html).

There are four up already;
#1 – ‘Roasted Marshmallows’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqrRxftG9ao
#2 – ‘Bunkmates’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXr9KqHGYWA
#3 – ‘Campfire’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHIQ5Gmo3E0
#4 – ‘Canoeing’: http://www.jnf.ca/toronto/onesummernight/info/camp4.html

There is one more to come: ‘Arts and Crafts’. I’ll post it when it’s up.

 

Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization

A great article from The Onion:

Report: Nation’s Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/report_nations_gentrified

“A three-block section of [Chicago neighborhood] Wicker Park that once accommodated eight families, two vintage clothing stores, a French cleaners, and a gourmet bakery has been completely razed to make way for a private livery stable and carriage house,” Kennedy said.

I know that the Annex still has a few old carriage houses that could return to their former glory.

 

Lovely Spaces in Unkown Places

I’m a graduate student in the University of Toronto’s program in Planning. I recently presented my Masters Degree research. Here’s the executive summary:

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Toronto’s suburbs are a creative wasteland and historic mistake.
Toronto’s downtown is stimulating, eclectic and full of life.
The suburbs are the home of the Strong Neighbourhoods strategy – targeting ‘priority areas’ marked by violence, poverty and a lack of community.
The downtown is home to the Creative City strategy – targeting the hip, intelligent and worldly creative class, with new solutions to every problem.

Are these two perceptions accurate? Are these two strategies incompatible?

In this report, I examine the applicability of a creative cities strategy to Toronto’s inner suburbs, particularly its priority neighbourhoods. I study two priority neighbourhoods – one in North York, the other in Scarborough. This research is done through personal observations, and interviews with individuals working in arts, culture and creative industries.

Examples of interview subjects include:
• Sadi Ducros, whose graffiti art and ideas for community youth engagement continue to enliven the community a decade after he moved downtown
• Rev. Denise Gillard, whose church/music/dance school is internationally lauded, and hidden in the back unit of an industrial park
• Albert Sliwin, whose abandoned manufacturing plants evolved into the city’s second fashion district

Observations from these and other interviews showed:
– Patterns of creativity and building use similar to those in downtown environments, but adapted to different built form
– Significant social benefits to marginalized communities
– A creative class strongly rooted in local neighbourhoods
– Physical dispersion and a lack of connectivity between organizations
– Significant funding challenges
These results demonstrate that the creative class is having a significant impact on the social, physical, economic and cultural life in the inner suburbs and has the potential for even greater impacts in future. I therefore propose the development of a Creative City Strategy for the Inner Suburbs, to be developed through community engagement and integrated with existing creative city and strong neighbourhood agendas. This perspective would lead to a more inclusive, diverse and effective creative city vision for Toronto.