It’s the end of another week here in London, Ontario, where nobody minds if you’re late because you can always say there was a train, and where the trains would run on time if only somebody would tell us what time to expect them. Cool art, though. Hello, weekend!
My name is Mike, and as almost everyone should know by now, this is where we round up local news every week in the public interest, because education is all, community helps community, and we should give a damn about this kind of thing. This is journalism presented with an assumption you are intelligent, values-aligned and open to it, and we will never, ever farm you to make our business more successful. We live here too1.
Off we go.
Support for drug users
Top story comes from CBC London’s Andrew Lupton here: libraries are third spaces and the closure of the supervised consumption site will have a dreadful effect on them. LINK
Homelessness
This issue continues to be discussed in the public conversation as we move into a new season with similar, though different challenges.
Here, Councillor Susan Stevenson continues building her political base with opinions about homelessness services, including some barbed comments at the expense of agencies. That’s CTV and so is this earlier scene-setter.
And… I’ve been turning this one over in my mind for a couple of days before reacting. CBC London quoted a homeless person’s criticism of the micro-modular site and the story has been trending high on their site since. That’s clicks doing business for mainstream media, and I’m unsure how well the story contributes to the conversation, in context. A few thoughts:
He’s bored? And the wifi is bad? And rent costs? Uh, well, you’re welcome, I guess? And I can see many people having a strong reaction to these unguarded comments.
Strong feelings don’t always lead to good debate. We should try to leave them aside here, if we can.
Homelessness is a complex issue and quoting one person’s opinion doesn’t cover it, even for that individual.
I doubt this fella has access to PR advice, but I would have advised him to take more care in his comments.
These opinions are not a measure of success, especially with a waiting list and other, apparently complementary, services in London.
Let’s move on.
Housing
Still the biggest deal among big deals, because everybody deserves a roof over their head.
London Free Press crime reporter Dale Carruthers filed this report about evictions and body cameras.
And Norm De Bono delivers another story about new housing. This development is in South London. (At some point soon, we need to group all of this stuff in one milestone post, unless the mainstream reporters get to it first. Lots of housing is being created this year and I’d love to see it all in one place.)
Housing sales something something. Again, let’s do a story with context soon. They’re not great, OK.
Health
London Health Sciences Centre is shedding more than 200 nurses, with the total depending on whose story you read. We have lots of reporting of this very sad circumstance:
Kate Otterbein at CTV London has this initial story and Reta Ismail has a great reaction piece here
Brian Williams at the London Free Press - story
Isha Bhargava at CBC London - story
And rock-and-roll journalist Craig Needles, fresh from his triumph of having me on his podcast last week, somehow manages the “difficult second album” with this great episode unpacking the cuts. Well done, Craig.
Opinion alert: we hear a lot about London expanding and, with that in mind, it’s painful to watch public services contracting. It’s also bewildering; I see there is an explanation and still I am asking: why? This feels wrong.
Hey, need a doctor? This Reta Ismail story includes a link to sign up.
Roads and such
Winter… and construction season, ha haaaa2 etc. Small biz fretting about construction, and well they might. This is from CBC London’s Jessica Singer.
Will the province take over maintenance of Highbury Avenue? If so, what noise will it make? Neither of these questions is answered in Daryl’s reporting, but it’s still great.
Tough times for London Transit, with ridership down. This from Brian Williams at the LFP.
Opinion alert: FUND IT. Just fund it. Fund the buses. Fund it.
City Hall news - planning, etc.
I covered a lot of City Hall business in my post yesterday, and will surface this piece about Councillor Shawn Lewis’s lifeline for the housing development on Cheapside Street.
Best wishes to Councillor Elizabeth Peloza. “Healing in the public eye.”
The Lightning Round
Jeremy Hansen is on a spacecraft going where no one has gone before3 - literally. The four-person crew will be as far away from home as any human has ever been4. This is mind-blowing and so exciting. They’re off to the Moon!
There’s a new piece on Steve Cordes’ video blog, Community Matters, about social enterprise and its relationship with business. This is great food for thought, and I know there are strong opinions on this in the local business sector.
Bit of theatre, marvellous luvvie darlings marvellous marvellous5: The Western Gazette reviews The Grand Theatre’s The Importance of Being Earnest here.
You can get journalismed locally
Sports: Gameday London - get those London Knights facts and happenings.
Business: London Inc - rounding up biz news every Friday.
Roving: Cedric Richards’ Southern Ontario Journal.
Commentary: Steve Cordes’ Community Matters.
Discussion: Matt Brown’s podcast.
Theatre: The Beat Magazine and TheatreInLondon.ca.
Local stories with just enough syrup: Larry Cornies’ audio blog
Are you telling true stories locally? Get in touch.
Weekend time
I’m off to find some bad health choices and good folks. There will be British candy, Canadian hospitality and probably Scottish music6. I hope your weekend is great.
Thanks for following. We’re almost at 200 and plan to grow more. Keep telling your lovely friends.
PS: Fund it.
Yes, we. This is indeed becoming more sustainable.
This joke was never funny and everyone needs to stop giving it oxygen.
Too obvious. Nope.
But I’ll go for that one, because I really love this meme:
I had the pleasure of interviewing actor and astonishing luvvie daaaaarling Michael Sheard on one unforgettable occasion, during which he told me all about how he was choked by Darth Vader. Marvellous, darling. Simply marvellous!
Nice list of local news. Did you catch this one: http://strongtownslondon.com/articles/fare-games/ ? There are a few more in the works from the STL group.