Only in Toronto...

Biff: 5th Apr 2006 - 00:57 GMT

You were parked in front in Tim Hortons, no one is touching your pouch...

jeeff: 5th Apr 2006 - 02:37 GMT

i've had 3 bicycles stolen in toronto. all were locked. maybe this is the key.

EvilGentleman: 5th Apr 2006 - 08:14 GMT

When I was 12, I lived in Cornwall, Ontario. I remember locking my bike up and going into the local Mac's Milk convenience store, and when I came out, my bike was still there, but some smartass had stolen my lock! I guess my bike was not worth stealing.

And in Montreal, I never had a whole bike stolen, but twice I have had the back wheel stolen. When I think about it, it is such a common crime, yet I have never seen anyone walking around with a back wheel at night. I wonder if they do it as a commercial venture, and pile the wheels in the back of pickup trucks or something.

EvilGentleman: 5th Apr 2006 - 08:17 GMT

As far as homelessness among the wealth goes, I think I may have already mentioned in some other post my experience of seeing a homeless man sleeping in the glass and chrome entrance of a Beverly Hills Mercedes dealership. Quite the stark contrast, but reality cannot be escaped, no matter where you are.

Elicar: 5th Apr 2006 - 10:54 GMT

In 1998, I was working at Bay and Elm. A girlfriend of mine went for a walk and saw a man who appeared to be homeless picking the lock of a bike in front of a pub (the name escapes me right now). The gave away was a rolled up blanket on the curb. It was very obvious that he had no key as he was tugging and pulling the bike. There was a police car parked not 10 feet away. There was a cop sitting in the driver's seat and had no intention of getting out to question the man. I went out to him and asked if he was going to do anything about it. I can no longer remember exactly how he responded, but I believe it something like, "I am not sure if he is stealing it!" I do remember looking at him with a, "I couldn't believe you said that!" look. Not long afterwards, a small dark guy with an apron came out screaming from the restaurant, "That's my bike, that's my bike!" It was only at this time that the cop got out to see what was going on. At this point, the bike had some damage in it already. To serve and protect, eh?

However, the posted bike was not stolen. I saw the owner riding away and before I can get the presence of mind to snap his picture, he was gone. He looked like the owner anyway.

Peter: 5th Apr 2006 - 14:30 GMT

ahh photo-taking walks. nice! these are some good views of toronto, especially... it helped me put lots of the more close-up shots ive seen on here into perspective...

drea: 5th Apr 2006 - 23:52 GMT

Great pictures once again. I like the shot with the CN Tower between the two buildings.

chiamattt: 6th Apr 2006 - 00:27 GMT

I woke up one night during my final year of highschool because I heard someone running up and down the side of my house. I went upstairs and looked out my window to see a guy walking around my backyard. When he opened the shed I ran downstairs grabbed my minimag and ran back up and went out into the front yard to see the person running down the street with my bike (It had no front wheel on it). I unloaded about 100 paintballs at about 280fps into his ass and he fell forward and got tangled in the bike and cursed. I yelled "asshole" and went back inside.

He had taken the wrong bike. I found it the next day close to my house in a parking lot. The bike he wanted was in my house. I knew who it was. I knew he was going to trade it for drugs. I saw him a few months later working as a cashier at my local grocery store.

grange: 6th Apr 2006 - 15:41 GMT

Elicar , see if you can take the pic of the statue of the two fat white guys in hats and put the homeless people in the same picture .
Fucking Bay Street assholes ....Excuse my language please...

jack: 6th Apr 2006 - 16:20 GMT

good story chiamatt, grange don't be angry you have too much smarts to curse.

grange: 6th Apr 2006 - 16:28 GMT

bay street , Like wall street in NY .I like the pics but for some reason the thought of homeless people sleeping in the streets on the weathiest street in Toronto just irks me to know end .Some of the people how have offices their include ,Ken Thompson ,Billionaire . Gave 70 Million to the Royal Ontario Musuem last year,Frank Stronch ,Magna International , Who earned last year 50 million alone ( his pay went down this year due to lower than normal revenues to 37 million ) gives generiously to the art musuem ,ROM , Opera etc . Those are just a couple of guys on Bay name two . So you have to figure that having been on the bay street all this time they would have maybe noticed the homeless from their limo windows . Not to mention the min, wage workers serving their coffee and scones . I figure that had they even concidered that if they had to donate to a worthy cause ( and i like the arts as much as anyone BTW ) that maybe going to help some of those people sleeping at the base of thier office towers might be a good place to start . Nope they didnt .Think of it, some of that money could feed the homeless for years ,make for safe housing and hostels . Put up clinics for the mentaly ill ,who make up a majority of homeless , ( put there by their buddy Mike Harris who closed metal clinics and hospitals .kicking thses poople out on the street . So I figured that a pic of the statue with the homeless superimposed at their feet would be a good pic .
So now I have ranted , and raved like a lunatic , but my hearts in the right place .
Give to your local food bank ..

Micah: 6th Apr 2006 - 16:58 GMT

Grange, that's a very good point, when you think about all the money donated by high-profile people to high-profile causes, when they could take some of that money and save so many lives and make those lives so much better. Dammit why are people so greedy? There's an e-mail onwww.makepovertyhistory.ca that you can send to the finance minister and to your MP to encourage them to think of the poor (at home and abroad) when they make their budget this spring. Not that that would be as effective as someone rich saying, here's a few million dollars, build some homeless shelters and food and invest in anti-poverty-type stuff. Oh and while you're at it put some of that into improving social programmes to help people improve their situations, not just put a band-aid on the owie. I dunno, is this too idealistic?

grange: 6th Apr 2006 - 21:45 GMT

Sorry everyone ,,, Sometimes social injustice gets to me .Please except my appology for the profanity
Derek

Tamara: 6th Apr 2006 - 22:01 GMT

Say it loud, yell it from the rooftops... I understand these issues, I use to work on behalf of the Canadian Association of Foodbanks, who support over 250 foodbanks across the country.

We can never be too idealistic... as this is the only way to create adequate change in the country. If we don't speak up and voice our opinions nothing will happpen.

chiamattt: 6th Apr 2006 - 22:05 GMT

Some people prefer living on the street. No responsibility. Not all of course. Some people are on the street because more than a few people who do choose to work do not feel compelled to pay taxes or pressure their local members of government to spend money on shelters, hospitals, etc.

There was a surge in people on the street in Ontario when the government promised cost cutting measures and simply put ill people on the street and asked them nicely to go to a counter once a day / week / month to pick up their meds. It saved a lot of money.

I read somewhere that a majority of, by definition, homeless people have jobs. They live in seedy hotels or couch hop. The people we see on the street are a minority of the "homeless" group. A lot of them have given up on the accepted concept of living and don't want or can't handle the pressures and responsibility. A lot of them are sick and need expensive hospitalization.

Tamara: 6th Apr 2006 - 22:22 GMT

Very true Chiamatt...

But the problem now is that even if you want to change your situation, without some support and helping hands.. it is nearly impossible. If low income families have a hard time, can we even imagine how hard it is for the homeless, who as Chiamattt mentioned earlier, need hospitalization or medication?

Some Foodbank Stats...

People with jobs constitute the second largest group of food bank clients, at 13.1%. Anecdotal evidence in the HungerCount 2005 report shows that the majority of food bank clients with jobs are employed at low wages. The expansion of the low-wage economy has generated more working poor who, even with full-time jobs, are unable to meet basic needs for themselves and their families.

And children continue to be over-represented among food bank recipients in Canada. This year, 40.7% of food bank clients were under 18. Child poverty has not improved since 1989, the year when Canada made an all-party resolution to end child poverty. Child poverty is directly tied to the level of household income. Among food bank clients, families with children make up more than 50% of recipients.

Any ideas on how to create effect change? I can see here that we have many Robin Hoods in disguise...

chiamattt: 6th Apr 2006 - 22:28 GMT

Here is one www.ceedweb.org/iirp/factsheet.htm

chiamattt: 6th Apr 2006 - 22:35 GMT

Here is another www.millenniumcampaign.org/

Get out of your car, buddy: 12th Apr 2006 - 20:26 GMT

I'm not clear on how the wealthy people of bay street are responsible for homelessness, or are key to the solution.

That is a function of social policy, which we all set, and should collectively be responsible for. We all need to take ownership for the problem, so focusing on the rich is misguided in my opinion. Every dollar in a rich man's pocket was not stolen from the people. There is nothing wrong with being rich. There is something wrong with being ignorant. And we can all be guilty of that.

People always blame Harris. Man, that was so long ago, and there is no improvement, but we will continue to hear about how Harris is responsible. That's done. Harris is not the government, he is not responsible for this anymore. It is our fault as a society. We have not placed sufficient value on this.

Think inclusively. Singling out groups as responsible is irresponsible and will not get us to where we want/need to be.

Joe Blow: 12th Apr 2006 - 21:22 GMT

get out of your car, buddy ~ I believe, you are the first person to even mention Mike Harris. You're right when you say that "There is nothing wrong with being rich. There is something wrong with being ignorant." But the only way to increase government spending towards poverty in this country is to talk about the issues and make them understand that change is needed.

anon: 12th Apr 2006 - 21:23 GMT

If you or I was mentally ill and living on the streets with no means to improve our situation... wouldn't you want your government to help out? this is the real issue here.

Blaming Bay Street is silly, but most people working on "Bay Street" ( i use this term loosely) have disposable income and great luxuries, while many canadian live week by week and some live on the street... I belive this is the point, with regards to big business and Robinhood. We are not talking about communism here... it's socialism, meaning that people can have some quality of life.

For those who disagree: try sleeping one night outside on the street and not eating for a whole day, then come back and tell us how you felt.

Elicar: 12th Apr 2006 - 22:40 GMT

We all have some valid points in here, but some of us are talking as being rich is a curse. We do not know how the rich help out the poor. Most of them, if not all of them are very private about that, otherwise every charitable organization would be knocking on their doors or creating issues about it.

Most of the rich, whether it is their generation or the generations before them worked for their money. Perhaps luck and timing had something to do with it. They employ a lot of people, including you and I. For us, who live from paycheck to paycheck, we can only hope to be like them.

We can do more than talk about issues. If we do not have extra change to spare (our expenses seem to grow with our income), then volunteer your time.

Ask yourself, "What have I given back to the community lately?"

Elicar: 22nd Apr 2006 - 21:02 GMT

This is for Grange. I have no intention to incite, inflame or rile anyone's sensibilities. I just learned today that I could do this with the software I already have. So, this is the first result. Perhaps, I'll improve with practise.

This is what rain can do to you. One has to amuse herself indoors! ;)

jrhather: 5th Sep 2006 - 01:15 GMT

Um. kind sir, you and i need to go for a coffee sometime.
email me jrhather(at)hotmail.com

i love the urban jungle

Guy McLaren: 13th Jan 2007 - 17:31 GMT

My opinion, make the lazy buggers work as hard as I have to. The Rich become that way because of their inability to accept charity. Screw the poor.