Musings on Urban Life
Jan. 11th, 2008 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dewlineGentrification and its fallout are on my mind a bit of late. Or perhaps it's more about the evolution of towns and cities over time in general that's been doing that preying. Whichever it is, I thought I'd ramble a bit. I hope you'll forgive me if it doesn't make complete sense.
Over at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ottawa, there was some discussion that delved into the creeping gentrification in the back streets of Vanier, and the acquisition of several apartment complexes there and along St. Laurent Boulevard that seemed a bit suspicious to some. I can't say for certain if any of the commentary - including my own on that thread - was or is on the money. Not yet. And yet it still bothers me.
I have friendly acquaintances who consider Vanier a good place to run a business and raise a family. I'm not entirely sure they're wrong, based on the evidence of my own eyes and travels through that part of town in recent months and years. If ever I move out of Orléans, it might be a good place for me to move to. Or perhaps New Edinburgh next door, if the income situation works out just right. You see, I don't need a mansion. Just a place to hang my hat at night and stow my library and studio at any old hour at all. If it's convenient to a good tea house and art supply shop, that's even better.
Along comes Justin Beach with a new section added onto publicbroadcasting.ca devoted to the Casualties of Gentrification. He starts with a specific memorial to a particular building in Toronto that just fell to the wrecking ball to make room for something else, hopefully better than what was there...at least for those who hired out the wrecking ball.
And it occurs to me that a lot of honest people in Vanier see things in that part of town worth saving for the future of their neighbourhood and of the city forced upon them by Mike Harris' "shotgun marriage" bringing their homes into the borders of Ottawa, whether they liked it or not.
And if the improvements to the neighbourhood are done in just the wrong way, a lot of honest people who have little else in the way of alternatives are going to find it that much harder to get by. Or those who liked something they found there before it went "upscale" might find the "upscaling" has rendered the place no longer the joy it was.
And I worry.
And I don't even live there right now.
Over at
ottawa, there was some discussion that delved into the creeping gentrification in the back streets of Vanier, and the acquisition of several apartment complexes there and along St. Laurent Boulevard that seemed a bit suspicious to some. I can't say for certain if any of the commentary - including my own on that thread - was or is on the money. Not yet. And yet it still bothers me.I have friendly acquaintances who consider Vanier a good place to run a business and raise a family. I'm not entirely sure they're wrong, based on the evidence of my own eyes and travels through that part of town in recent months and years. If ever I move out of Orléans, it might be a good place for me to move to. Or perhaps New Edinburgh next door, if the income situation works out just right. You see, I don't need a mansion. Just a place to hang my hat at night and stow my library and studio at any old hour at all. If it's convenient to a good tea house and art supply shop, that's even better.
Along comes Justin Beach with a new section added onto publicbroadcasting.ca devoted to the Casualties of Gentrification. He starts with a specific memorial to a particular building in Toronto that just fell to the wrecking ball to make room for something else, hopefully better than what was there...at least for those who hired out the wrecking ball.
And it occurs to me that a lot of honest people in Vanier see things in that part of town worth saving for the future of their neighbourhood and of the city forced upon them by Mike Harris' "shotgun marriage" bringing their homes into the borders of Ottawa, whether they liked it or not.
And if the improvements to the neighbourhood are done in just the wrong way, a lot of honest people who have little else in the way of alternatives are going to find it that much harder to get by. Or those who liked something they found there before it went "upscale" might find the "upscaling" has rendered the place no longer the joy it was.
And I worry.
And I don't even live there right now.
