Mock Turtle

What neighbourhood is this?

The neighborhood of 35,000 or so has attracted screenwriters and composers, Web designers and animators, who labor on their laptops in cafes, discuss film projects at Friday night wine tastings, and let their children play with the handmade wooden toys in a Scandinavian-style coffee shop, Swork.

No, not Leslieville — it’s Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, where the recession is leading to rapid de-gentrification. Turns out, when 30-something creative class types aren’t getting paid, they don’t buy charming retro knicknacks either.

So with Leslieville in mind, consider the conclusion this New York Times articles draws:

In bad times, neighborhood idealism can be compromised with one trip to Wal-Mart. In terrible times, idealism goes the way of that baby boutique that just tanked.

Welcome, Smart Centre overlords?

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Re the link to the new beekeeping site:

You might find this interesting — David Yassky, an up-and-coming Brooklyn city councillor, has taken up the crusade to legalize urban beekeeping.  Apparently there are quite a few underground (or more precisely rooftop) apiculturists operating in the shadows of the city.  Two links below — the second is to a local TV news story:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/6/32_6_bm_beekeepers.html
 
http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/politics/93978/the-big-apple-hides-many-secret-beehives/Default.aspx?ap=1&Flash

P.S. I tried to post this comment on the site itself, but that was apparently beyond my technical capabilities…

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Local real estate agents have assured would-be sellers that the real estate market will pick up in the spring, and judging by the number of new listings on MLS, many gullible (and/or cash-strapped) homeowners are taking them at their word.

Guava.ca tracks the actual reduction in listing prices in Toronto (for single-family houses only) by cross-referencing new listings to the original ones that were pulled. While the majority of price decreases continue to be minimal (and no more than might be expected to be presented in a competitive offer to purchase), there are some significant reductions beginning to appear, like this one, for a Mimico home on the market since November that’s been reduced by more than 30%:

W1512095 – W06 – 2656 LAKE SHORE BLVD W,TORONTO, Ontario, Canada – $295,000

Price Change. Feb 23: $295,000 Jan 25: $299,900 Dec 21: $319,900 Nov 15: $429,000
Olde Mimico Charmer Built In 1928! One Of The Largest 4 Br Semi-Detached Homes Ever Built On A 40 Ft Lot With Private Driveway For 4 Cars! Renovated Kitchen, Bath,Flooring,Waterproofing,Newly Paved Driveway! W/O To Newly Built Wood Deck! (Opportunity For Duplex,Triplex Or Rooming House To Be Confirmed By Buyers!)Across From Lake Ontario And Homes From 1 To 5 Million Dollars! Hurry****

I guess those hundred Iranians don’t like Etobicoke.

Guava also charts several indicators, including months of inventory, which sits at about 8 months right now, or double what it’s been in any January for the last five years.

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Who knew we were actually ahead of our time at Trinity?

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Another day, another study showing that, all things considered, the kids are OK. Guess what? When kids play around with each other at school, they occasionally get hurt. Amazing, according to researcher Alison MacPherson:

“When a mom or a dad sends their child off to school in the morning, they kind of expect them to come home healthy and in one piece. It’s a bit of a surprise to have them end up in the emergency department when they’re going to school, which is what children do every day.”

I’m glad that “kind of” is there to modify the “expect”. As parents of human children, as opposed to cuddly sloths or something, parents are no doubt aware of the energy and enthusiasm with which children can approach “playing or informal sports”, and might even be able to reach back (in fond amazement) to their own childhood to recall those sadly-dissipated feelings of invincibility and recklessness. Why parents should be particularly surprised that injuries happen when large groups of children get together with lighter supervision than they may experience at home is unfathomable to me, but as accidents are by nature accidental there is no doubt some element of surprise no matter where or when it takes place.

(There’s more to parse in the paragraph, like the oddly non-parallel matching of “mom” and “dad” with “child”, not kid. But onward.)

More than 26% of the at-school injuries involved fractures, aka broken arms and wrists. Once a childhood rite of passage, now a statistic to be feared.

Perhaps more significant: of the kids admitted to emergency rooms in the study, just 18% were injured at school.

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Public servants south of the border have more to fear than Rae Days. In Kansas, their pay cheques may be delayed; in California, they may not get a pay cheque at all as Governor Terminator does what he does best:

Governor prepares to lay off 10,000

There’s a fair bit of obliviousness among civil servants in Canada — so far. Harper did try to squeeze the collective bargaining process in the original fiscal update in November, and the Ontario public service has been subject to a halfhearted hiring “freeze” since the beginning of December, which seems to only prevent new positions from being added and filled. The bad memories of the massive federal cuts in the 1990s and the 5,000 civil servants who were axed as part of the Rae Days package have faded from memory for some, and for a younger cohort that believes there’s nothing safer than a job with the public service, aren’t known at all.

However, tumbling revenue has to be offset by decreased spending somewhere. Laid off workers in the private sector and bankrupt companies don’t exactly enhance the tax base. There are 66,000 provincial public servants in Ontario (and another 80,000 or so feds, if we assume the majority of NCR employees live on this side of the Ottawa river), and they don’t come cheap.

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I got a little excited when I saw this month’s Atlantic Monthly on the newsstand. “The suburbs lose. The sun belt fades. Toronto wins. How the crash will reshape America,” touts the cover over a nighttime shot of Toronto seen from the lake. A little strange, granted, since Toronto is in Canada and there is no sun belt here, unless you’re talking midnight sun — but, with the author listed as Toronto-based urban affairs guru Richard Florida, it made sense.

Except… the article doesn’t mention Toronto. And this is the cover on newsstands in the U.S., where the Atlantic sells all but probably a couple hundred issues of its magazine:

All that tolerance, openness, creative, multicultural stuff is represented in the article by… New York, not Toronto. And, having completed whatever paperwork was necessary to get a working visa for Canada, Florida now knows well that there is a border dividing northern North America. The article is focused on how the United States in particular can reinvent itself — which either has absolutely nothing to do with, or has some potentially negative implications (top U.S. scholars returning to newly-science-friendly, more tolerant homeland) for, Toronto.

Sure, Richard Florida’s ubiquitous in Toronto these days, and we’ve all heard him gush about the city and its creative class. I don’t doubt that the tiny number of Atlantic readers in Canada are, for the most part, familiar with his vague ramblings about the charming ethnic neighbourhoods that exist close (but not too close) to his Rosedale home. But it still seems unreasonable to expect readers who pick up the magazine because of its cover to have to think back to whatever he may have written about Toronto elsewhere in order to make sense of a cover promoting an article that ignores his adopted hometown all together.

UPDATE: Mock Turtle picked up by Torontoist and the Driven magazine blog.

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For morning news, the BBC podcast wins, hands down. Yesterday in an interview about bailouts, an interviewee’s comment on bankers:

…put on airs and graces not justified by talent or industry

Ouch!

Beat that, Globe and Mail, source of the morning’s most blathery podcasts…

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And does so with great glee. Bob Rae penned this note-perfect letter to Harper, published yesterday in the National Post. Highlights:

You have learned that deficits are not the product of the devil incarnate, but happen when there are recessions. You will regret that your every prior thought is in print. Your old copies of Milton Friedman and Hayek’s Road to Serfdom will somehow seem less relevant and helpful.

I must confess that while I did invest in an airplane company, save industrial towns, advance pay equity and spend heavily in housing and transit during my time as premier, it never occurred to me to pay people to sod their lawns, rebuild the docks at their summer cottages and pave their driveways.

With the impeccable sense of timing that has marked my career, my wife and I chose to renovate last year. But next spring we shall be joining millions of Canadians in saying “sod it.” And then sending you the bill.

As the song says “everything old is new again.” I am no longer the Deficit Poster Boy and Punching Bag. You are. Wear it in the best of health. And rewrite all those speeches complaining about investing in small-craft harbours. Tear up those notes when Preston Manning told us all to “stop digging.” You’re shovel-ready and it looks good on you.

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