I may want to study Canadian city demographics
I used to live in the south end of the city. Then I sold it all and moved to Ontario to live in the south end of that city. It was odd because these cities had tremendous similarities but were so far apart.
First of all, and most notably, both cities had an acronym of where you didn't want to live. NOP and NOD, both referring to North of P or D, and the even more bizarre thing is that the two rhymed and were both accepted phrases that everyone understood. And if you did happen to live NOP or NOD, you wanted to live substantially further than the area. In both of these cities the south side of D or P is perfectly fine, almost crime free, but ten steps into D or P and you are struck with huge wage disparities and unbelievable poverty.
Within these pockets of the two cities a different culture reigns, one that looks down on 'snitches' and looks up on petty crime.
Both cities have relatively low murder rates, but very high crime rates. They both have a highly educated population that is mildly transient due to university, yet very low literacy rates paired with generational poverty.
Both cities have firm boundaries around the poverty. Major roads, train tracks, waterfront, and hills fence the issues in and keep them hidden from the rest of the city. Both cities are too small to support the growing number of people that cannot support the tax base, forcing the cities to be costly places to live.
I know educators from both cities that work in these areas, and they have told me that their students have said to them that when they grow up they plan to live on welfare.
I have also heard people suggest that we should 'blow up the whole north end and start again'. But that will not solve, or treat poverty. It will not force us to see what is a sinkhole in our town, that are the individual lived lives of people who live there everyday. Dispersing the poverty throughout the city will also harm the culture of the neighbourhoods and further alienate the poor in these communities.
So, what do we do?
That's all.
First of all, and most notably, both cities had an acronym of where you didn't want to live. NOP and NOD, both referring to North of P or D, and the even more bizarre thing is that the two rhymed and were both accepted phrases that everyone understood. And if you did happen to live NOP or NOD, you wanted to live substantially further than the area. In both of these cities the south side of D or P is perfectly fine, almost crime free, but ten steps into D or P and you are struck with huge wage disparities and unbelievable poverty.
Within these pockets of the two cities a different culture reigns, one that looks down on 'snitches' and looks up on petty crime.
Both cities have relatively low murder rates, but very high crime rates. They both have a highly educated population that is mildly transient due to university, yet very low literacy rates paired with generational poverty.
Both cities have firm boundaries around the poverty. Major roads, train tracks, waterfront, and hills fence the issues in and keep them hidden from the rest of the city. Both cities are too small to support the growing number of people that cannot support the tax base, forcing the cities to be costly places to live.
I know educators from both cities that work in these areas, and they have told me that their students have said to them that when they grow up they plan to live on welfare.
I have also heard people suggest that we should 'blow up the whole north end and start again'. But that will not solve, or treat poverty. It will not force us to see what is a sinkhole in our town, that are the individual lived lives of people who live there everyday. Dispersing the poverty throughout the city will also harm the culture of the neighbourhoods and further alienate the poor in these communities.
So, what do we do?
That's all.
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