Comment 33389

By Meredith (registered) - website | Posted September 11, 2009 at 18:58:45

Grassroots, I don't think you understand the psychological barriers that stop middle and higher income peopple coming downtown. I don't think you understand either that it better benefits people to get affordable housing in a variety of neighbouhoods, mixed in with people of higher income levels.

The reality is, I come from a single-income family with six kids who lived in rental housing until I was a teenager.(my father was a carpenter, later a truck driver).

I've lived in poverty the majority of my life. And yes, I've been fortunate to have good examples and a good work ethic and to pay entirely for my own education, and not to be handicapped by having a kid young or addiction issues or any of the myriad things that kept my peers back. But if the environment you're in only contains those things, it's that much harder to get out of poverty when all you see is people perpetuating negative patterns.

Want to hang out in the Keith neighbourhood with me some day?

But understand where I come from, and believe me when I say it doesn't help poor people to keep the city as a negative environment populated only by other poor people like them.

Especially if you come from a family like mine that tried hard to keep good influences around their kids, they're the ones who most desperately need affordable housing in neighbourhoods with mixed income levels and a variety of opportunties available.

We need a healthy mix of people in different areas, and since downtown is already predominantly poor people, we need to shift the balance in the core, not ghettoize it further just to create more affordable housing at the expense of creating positive environements

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose... being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." - G.B. Shaw

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