Comments on: Field trip to Ottawa’s rotting core

By: natalie

natalie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:26:36 +0000

That Second Cup was renovated in 2008 and it looks amazing, the washroom are way much nicer and cleaner

By: kloii

kloii — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:13:46 +0000

You missed the core of crackhead city by a few blocks my dear.
I live on the corner of murray and cumberland.
This is where they all live, eat, sleep etc.
Come and walk from rideau to st patrick up cumberland, and you’ll see them all. I’ve had to push them out of my dorrway to get out of my house on many occasions.

By: knitnut.net » Crack in the media

knitnut.net » Crack in the media — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:39:54 +0000

[...] The media, in my opinion, has been a bit weird about crack lately. It’s as if they’re trying to cover the problem, but they’re having trouble finding it. It’s all a bit contrived. First there was the Toronto Sun’s Christina Blizzard describing Ottawa as a city rotting at its core. Now the Ottawa Sun is sending reporters out with undercover officers who are conducting searches of people and not finding drugs. There was media coverage of a so-called “crack house raid” on King Edward Street a couple days ago which resulted in a number of people being evicted and searched, but none of them had any drugs on them. Even though no drugs were found, the media saw fit to call the place a crack house. (It sounded more like a flop house to me.) [...]

By: Jo (from Illinois, USA)

Jo (from Illinois, USA) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 22:58:03 +0000

Gosh, I just happened by this blog and here I am commenting twice (within 30 minutes!!). But I HAD to comment about ‘Crazzy Dave’. Of course I only read that one poem (which by the way I saved) but I have to say I LOVED IT! It’s a real shame that this obviously talented man is on the streets of ANY city/country when he could most likely make a wonderful living with his poetry (and possible did). But sadly that’s the NATURE of drugs, they steal lives. My son spent the bulk of his teen/adult years (from 12-30 or so) RUINING his life. But thankfully God was faithful to the prayers of his parents and at the age of 39 he has a wonderful wife, one almost 2yr. old daughter and a baby boy on the way & his mental abilities are all intact! Not all people are so fortunate.

And of course we have all too many unfortunate people in our country I’m sad to say. It’s too easy to judge those in that position and I like to tell myself ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.

Anyway, just wanted to praise Dave’s poetry and SOMEone needs to help him up and publish a book for him!

By: Zoom!

Zoom! — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 03:17:15 +0000

Excellent observations Julia. In addition to the comments on the blog, I’ve received countless emails from people who were mystified as to how Blizzard’s observations of the Market area could differ so radically from their own.

Ok, maybe not countless emails. Maybe ONE.

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:40:11 +0000

It has always bothered me when people see one thing and then, when relating the tale to someone, add an ‘s’ to what they saw to make it seem bigger or better. Blizzard didn’t even do this – she resorted to extreme hyperbole by using words like numerous, countless, dozens and infested. As a “writer”, she should know better. Even if she saw three addicts, it doesn’t add up to any of those words. And I will bet a silk pyjama that she never saw more than one “dealer” (I’ve never seen any). Shame! Of course, maybe it’s like when you own something you thought was unique, like, say, I don’t know – a tandem, perhaps? You never see any of them until you own one and then they are everywhere (we saw at least 8 different tandems on our ride last Sunday). I think Blizzard was stretching for a subject for her column and maybe trying to justify writing off her weekend expenses.

By: Zoom!

Zoom! — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:58:09 +0000

Thanks for commenting on my blob!

David, excellent work doing the math on Ms. Blizzard’s assumptions. I knew she had to be numerically challenged when she used the word ‘countless.’

Pearl, the ‘posh’ restaurant we checked out was the one you mentioned (Milestones at Sussex and Rideau). But Ms. Blizzard must have been hallucinating if that’s where she thought she saw the ‘infestation.’

Regarding your remark about ‘Nancy’ – actually I think she might be the one I described. I got a terrific picture of her, but I didn’t post it because it didn’t seem right.

And you are absolutely right about the ‘cosmetic fix.’ My primary objection to Blizzard’s article, even though I didn’t even mention it, is that she seems to think cities are for tourists rather than the people who live in them, and we should hide any evidence that something is wrong. This is what Toronto does – it’s passing all kinds of legislation about where the homeless can and can not sleep. The poor are being legislated out of sight.

Something’s wrong when we collectively tolerate poverty but refuse to tolerate the poor.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:29:12 +0000

And because I’ve already commented too much already, do want to add one more, like how you profiled particular people to bring it home.

By: Pearl

Pearl — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:26:58 +0000

Posh? What about the one at Sussex and Rideau? It aims to be posh doesn’t it?

I tend to go for walks too at all hours of downtown, and haven’t seen anyone “brazenly” shooting up or taking crack on the street in 3 years. I have seen occasionally people talked in loud voice about their drug deals, and how they are living with drug dealers, or having trouble with them, but more north towards Cumberland and Clarence. And more once or twice every few weeks. Dozens in a day is out an order of magnitude of what I’ve seen.

When a person feels under threat and what happens isn’t how you visualized it going down, one can want to call from the ramparts that change is needed, a crisis needs intervention and if you don’t call in high voice, particularly in newspapers that sell Big Stories, who prints it, and who listens? A more detailed level-headed look into what is going on downtown might be a fallout?

By: Pearl

Pearl — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:14:53 +0000

Aw but David, Ottawa’s only really the downtown, isn’t it? And it feels like a visible politician town. The recognizable faces are here.