[URBAN NOTE] Torontonian Violence
Dec. 27th, 2005 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldI was curious to see the site of yesterday's fatal shooting, and so I wandered south down Yonge Street this evening from the Wellesley TTC station. I went past the small dingy little shops that line the stretch of Yonge between Wellesley and College, occasionally dipping my head into one store or another, listening to the aggressive clerks advertising their deals ("Two pairs of jeans for ten dollars!"), and stopped for a cheap lunch in every sense of the word, at a Wendy's near College, a restaurant with air permeated by salt and grease.
The shooting took place just to the north of Yonge-Dundas Square, the City of Toronto's perhaps overly planned response to New York City's Times Square, outside of a Foot Locker shoe store. The square has its flaws, what with its quick transition to Regent Park in the east and the area perpetually under construction on the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas and the excessively open nature of the square itself. Even so, it is located squarely in the heart of downtown Toronto's biggest commercial district. I myself was thinking of heading over there at the time of the shooting to cash in a gift certificate.
Someone in the![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
toronto community posted just before 1 o'clock that part of Yonge Street was still closed and that some of the shops were almost empty. When I passed by there at a quarter to nine, the only reason that things seemed to be quiet lay in the time. At the Foot Locker in question, someone had circled two irregular patches on the closed glass doors with greasepaint; outside, the standard raft of memorials, candles and flowers and a cardboard poster with a quote from the Qu'ran and a line expressing sorrow at the loss of "our sister." Heading south, I passed a women in a sleek winter jacket who was talking to her friend, saying that "I saw it on the TV, but I've always felt safe here." The thing is, recent history demonstrates that the Yonge-Dundas Square area isn't particularly safe.
Large numbers of people like this area; I like this area. The law of averages requires that at least some of these people not have good intent. It's best we accept that and stop lamenting a lost innocence that we never really had.
The shooting took place just to the north of Yonge-Dundas Square, the City of Toronto's perhaps overly planned response to New York City's Times Square, outside of a Foot Locker shoe store. The square has its flaws, what with its quick transition to Regent Park in the east and the area perpetually under construction on the northeast corner of Yonge and Dundas and the excessively open nature of the square itself. Even so, it is located squarely in the heart of downtown Toronto's biggest commercial district. I myself was thinking of heading over there at the time of the shooting to cash in a gift certificate.
Someone in the
toronto community posted just before 1 o'clock that part of Yonge Street was still closed and that some of the shops were almost empty. When I passed by there at a quarter to nine, the only reason that things seemed to be quiet lay in the time. At the Foot Locker in question, someone had circled two irregular patches on the closed glass doors with greasepaint; outside, the standard raft of memorials, candles and flowers and a cardboard poster with a quote from the Qu'ran and a line expressing sorrow at the loss of "our sister." Heading south, I passed a women in a sleek winter jacket who was talking to her friend, saying that "I saw it on the TV, but I've always felt safe here." The thing is, recent history demonstrates that the Yonge-Dundas Square area isn't particularly safe.Police shut down Yonge St. from Dundas to Gerrard, forcing shoppers to detour through side streets and back alleys as they sought a way around the emergency vehicles.
There have been two other shootings this year in the area. On a Saturday night in late July, a man was fatally shot in a crowd of about 1,000 people at Dundas Square despite a heavy police presence.
On a Sunday afternoon in April, three people — including two bystanders — were wounded after a gunman opened fire on another man on the same stretch of street where yesterday's shootings occurred.
There have been 78 murders in Toronto this year, including a record 52 involving a firearm.
Large numbers of people like this area; I like this area. The law of averages requires that at least some of these people not have good intent. It's best we accept that and stop lamenting a lost innocence that we never really had.
