It is what it is

Oh Parkdale. I'm never quite sure what to make of this neighborhood that I call home. If you live in Toronto you are probably aware that Parkdale is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance these days; young hipster-artist types are moving in at an astounding rate, new vintage boutiques and designer stores are opening up and, as if to seal the deal, a Starbucks has been put in.

However, the old Parkdale problems are still at large here. There is a large homeless population, half-way houses and mental health centres can be found on just about every side street and some major ones. Just now I watched a man being kicked out of a bar across the street from me, he didn't take it well. He stood outside the bar for a full 10 minutes swearing and yelling at the employees. The thing that struck me as odd about the whole thing was it's lack of oddity, people continued about as if this inebriated and angry man shouting racially charged diatribe was not even there. They walked by without even lowering their heads or turning away, some men across the street unpacked a car and smoked cigarettes without even looking up and even I sat on my balcony watching the whole thing go down as if it were an every day occurrence, which of course it is. After the man finally got it all out of his system and left the whole event was punctuated by Kevin Clarke, out for his evening rant, coming by to fill in the silence. (For those who do not live in Parkdale, Kevin Clarke is a (possibly) homeless man, who begs on the street for money and yells political tirades to anyone who will listen, which is everyone because he is impossible to ignore. Once you sit down and talk to him though, you realize that he is a very smart man, even if he is a conservative. Did I mention that he's running for Mayor?)

The whole event led me to question what would have happened if the same thing had occurred on the streets of a more affluent neighborhood. Would people have stopped and stared? Told the man to move along? Called the cops? All in all it was a rather benign incident, it's not as if the offender pulled out a weapon of any sort. I do feel badly for the bar owners, no one should have to put up with that kind of abuse for simply denying service to someone who probably deserved it. But in the end the man moved along and business resumed.

There has been a lot of debate recently about what is happening in Parkdale. Some hate the gentrification that is currently taking place, which was available for all to see when someone spraypainted "Drake you ho this is all your fault" on the new Starbucks. Others love the way that Parkdale is headed and are calling for the area to be cleaned up. I see the whole issue as being much more complicated then a simple rich vs. poor; us or them scenario.

To make a neighborhood work, I believe, a verity of income levels are required. This is the reason why the St. Lawrence neighborhood worked and Regent Park didn't. St. Lawrence has a rich diversity of co-op housing and pricey townhouses interspersed with parks and playgrounds; it is a joy to visit and to live there. Regent Park, however, is a big ugly mass of low-income apartment buildings with a few big ugly lawns thrown in, in a pathetic attempt at green space.

In my dream of dreams I see Parkdale becoming something like St. Lawrence, albeit trendier. A place where public space is shared and valued, where, those who want it, can get a Starbucks coffee and where, those who need it, can find the support they need to get their lives in order.

Thankfully Parkdale has one of the strongest MPs in the country going to bat for them and many, many, many community groups and centres that keep residents in communication with eachother. The one thing that I think would be a big mistake is to just continue to accept the neighborhood as it is what it is.