Heard on the street
Sunday, September 7th 2008
The Oracle has just heard from unofficial sources that the Wellington Street crosswalk being lobbied for by a
group of local residents has been approved but at Harmer Avenue rather than at Caroline as had been expected. It would represent a move of only a few feet and would seem to have implications for a bus stop and for users crossing from the south side of Wellington near Bridgehead
If any reader has more specific knowledge please share it with the Oracle; we can be reached via the ‘contact’ details at the top of the page. Meanwhile we’ll be following up with Councilor Leadman’s office.
Messages left with the city’s engineering department appear to be going unanswered for the duration of the Big Dig.
Dear Editor,,
I am happy to say that Hintonburg and Mechanicsville have been my home neighbourhoods several times now, and I may be returning this autumn, so please accept my sincere thanks for sending the Oracle to me via email to Peterboorugh, Ontario.
Perhaps I take too easily a negative outlook on life, but I am troubled by the Oracle’s reported rumours of a crosswalk near Bridgehead, as Ontario had 140 pedestrian fatalities in 2002 (as reported in the Toronto Star) and many of those were at crosswalks. Crosswalks without stoplights for vehicular traffic are simply killers, all the more so considering the huge increase in pedestrian and vehiclular traffic recent economic ‘advancement’ has brought to Wellington Streets.
Also, I will highlight the false but highly esteemed image of ‘advancement’ in neighbourhoods by quoting your front page: “Art galleries continue to lead the way to neighbourhood transformation ….” Art galleries may be good for economic activity, but economic activity is not necessarily an advantage to a neighbourhood (witness the prostitution and high level drug dealing which comes with casinos) and should not be the measure of advancement. When I see the improvements in air quality through restrictions on vehiclular traffic, when I see many trees planted, when I see vastly improved efforts in park sanitation and recycling opportunities, when I see pedestrian activated traffic signals which do not require a waiting time which encourages children and adults both to take risks on crossing the street before the walk signal activates, when I see low income homes being visited with offers of assistance in education, employment, lifestyle opportunities, and spiritual help – poor being assisted in education and employment, then I will see our neighbourhoods as advancing. When I see a transformation on the interior of rooming houses, an improvement in the lives of the roomers, rather than an improvement on the exterior which might signal a rise in values for surrounding properties, then I will see advancement. I have lived in a Mechanicsville rooming/apartment building which is devoid of ‘fancy facade’ twice now and that is my choice of building to return to because it is not devoid of warmth and hospitality among the low income and generally crime free residents who I am happy and proud to call friends. Mechanicsville is largely devoid of economic activity, and because of that it has far cleaner air, far safer streets and sidewalks for drivers and pedestrians, and very little crime compared to Hintonburg.
To summarize, I will say that Mechanicsville is advancing in quality of life, whereas Hintonburg is degrading;and I will lay Hintonburg’s decline squarely on the fact that Wellington Street’s economic activity is the politically correc guideline for status.
Robert Mosurinjohn, Peterborough