dt_toronto_geek
Superstar
First, let's clear the air, Wong-Tam is a fantastic, energetic, intelligent City Councillor who overflows with great ideas, her quote was clearly written out of context by the author of the piece.
As I've mentioned a few times in this thread the kids arrive late spring, they leave early fall and cause problems in the neighbourhood during their stay. I don't know where they live or where they come from but I can tell you that they are almost exclusively white, perhaps 18 - 25 years of age, many of them have short haircuts, wear baggy clothes, walk with a strut and some ride bikes around the streets and sidewalks. When they are on bikes they are just cruising around, clearly riding with no destination or they sit on their bikes and talk. I most often see some of them hanging out at the Middle Eastern restaurant on Wellesley just east of Pizza Pizza. Cawthra Park was terrible for trouble from these people, the problems and noise only stopped last summer and has been good again this summer, I have no idea why, perhaps they have security patrols or police patrols - I don't know but it appears that they pretty much stay clear of the park by day and by night now. Every year I see most of the same faces around all summer, sometimes the following year I recognize a few faces from the the previous year (or years) but there are always new faces too. Along with attacks, store robberies and shoplifting I think many of them deal drugs too, and many of them do drugs (crack or heroin), I recognize a face here & there coming in or leaving my building to do their thing in the stairwells.
I saw the video referenced in the article, I can't remember where I found the link but it's gone off YouTube now. This is the one where a woman comes out of Timothy's at Alexander & Church and walks south, a guy comes out and follows maybe 10 seconds later walking fairly fast and then he literally jumps her right on Alexander Street at Church and thumps the hell out of her then grabs something and runs west along the street. I suspect the reason it was taken down is because whoever photographed it was probably in on what was about to happen. When I finished watching the video my first thought was, how did that person know to have the camera phone record the woman, then the kid coming out of Timothy's, which is severely messed up to knowingly photograph a crime about to happen. So that's what I know.
All that said the Church Wellesley neighbourhood isn't as bad as it might sound, there are problems but it doesn't keep me (a guy with a fairly small frame) from going out at any time of the night and I don't feel unsafe unless it's really late and the street is mostly deserted, then I'm a little on edge even though I probably shouldn't be. No one should avoid the area because of the Xtra! story, just be aware of what's going on around you whenever you go out anywhere and night and you'll be fine. There's crazy nonsense that happens in areas all over the city that we rarely ever hear about. Speaking of which, it's time to run the dog around the block for a quick walk.
On another matter I see cinder blocks going put up in the middle of the former "Reither's Fine Foods" space so it looks like at least one part is rented.
As I've mentioned a few times in this thread the kids arrive late spring, they leave early fall and cause problems in the neighbourhood during their stay. I don't know where they live or where they come from but I can tell you that they are almost exclusively white, perhaps 18 - 25 years of age, many of them have short haircuts, wear baggy clothes, walk with a strut and some ride bikes around the streets and sidewalks. When they are on bikes they are just cruising around, clearly riding with no destination or they sit on their bikes and talk. I most often see some of them hanging out at the Middle Eastern restaurant on Wellesley just east of Pizza Pizza. Cawthra Park was terrible for trouble from these people, the problems and noise only stopped last summer and has been good again this summer, I have no idea why, perhaps they have security patrols or police patrols - I don't know but it appears that they pretty much stay clear of the park by day and by night now. Every year I see most of the same faces around all summer, sometimes the following year I recognize a few faces from the the previous year (or years) but there are always new faces too. Along with attacks, store robberies and shoplifting I think many of them deal drugs too, and many of them do drugs (crack or heroin), I recognize a face here & there coming in or leaving my building to do their thing in the stairwells.
I saw the video referenced in the article, I can't remember where I found the link but it's gone off YouTube now. This is the one where a woman comes out of Timothy's at Alexander & Church and walks south, a guy comes out and follows maybe 10 seconds later walking fairly fast and then he literally jumps her right on Alexander Street at Church and thumps the hell out of her then grabs something and runs west along the street. I suspect the reason it was taken down is because whoever photographed it was probably in on what was about to happen. When I finished watching the video my first thought was, how did that person know to have the camera phone record the woman, then the kid coming out of Timothy's, which is severely messed up to knowingly photograph a crime about to happen. So that's what I know.
All that said the Church Wellesley neighbourhood isn't as bad as it might sound, there are problems but it doesn't keep me (a guy with a fairly small frame) from going out at any time of the night and I don't feel unsafe unless it's really late and the street is mostly deserted, then I'm a little on edge even though I probably shouldn't be. No one should avoid the area because of the Xtra! story, just be aware of what's going on around you whenever you go out anywhere and night and you'll be fine. There's crazy nonsense that happens in areas all over the city that we rarely ever hear about. Speaking of which, it's time to run the dog around the block for a quick walk.
On another matter I see cinder blocks going put up in the middle of the former "Reither's Fine Foods" space so it looks like at least one part is rented.
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