JAIMIE VERNON – BOOT THE MAYOR, SAVE A CITY

I had another blog prepared and ready to roll today about my favourite topic, music, but in light of the last 72 hours of clown car antics from the family of my city’s mayor, Rob Ford, I couldn’t let it go without comment.

JAIMIE VERNON – Toronto the Good?

I am a Torontonian. I was born in East York at East General Hospital 50 years ago this coming Tuesday and raised in Scarborough – both originally neighbouring boroughs of Toronto. I’ve always considered these places suburbs of Toronto anyway and it was made official when they were amalgamated into the new City of Toronto in 1998. I worked for the City of Scarborough for 12 years leading up to the annexing of all the Metropolitan Toronto territories (which also included North York, York, and Etobicoke). 44 out of my 50 years have been spent living here. I’ve lived in the shadows both Yorkdale and Cedarbrae malls, on the eastern leg of The Danforth, and in the belly of Malvern when it was still radioactive but before it became a hideout for drug gangs and a haven for grow-ops. I’ve communed at the wolf den on the outskirts of the Metro Toronto Zoo and gone swimming in Lake Ontario at the foot of the Rouge River.

Segarini: The Home Tour Part Two

Part One can be found here.

Ten years ago, if someone would have told me I’d be writing prose in my underwear and living in a high rise (not a fan of heights), I would have called them loony and had a good laugh. Seriously, who could have predicted this?

I can see Toronto and Canada’s Wonderland, and everything in between from my perch in the dining room here in Casa Bespin, and it is invigorating as hell. Stepping out onto the balcony makes you want to scream, “Top of the World, Ma!” and sometimes, when no one is here, I do….

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