Crash this pad
City will wake up if poor occupy vacant property
It's a reality that doesn't sit well with folks proud of T.O's reputation as a well-integrated metropolis.
"Toronto is a city that's increasingly segregating," says David Wachsmith, speaking to 150 folks at the Parkdale Activity Resource Centre on October 29. "The rich and the poor will increasingly be looking at each other from across the train tracks."
Wachsmith uses as reference a series of maps produced by the Community-University Research Alliance that look for all the world like a trade show display. But only sad insight is being plied here: they show that income disparity between downtown neighbourhoods is growing sharply.
For this reason, Wachsmith and others partnered with artistic agitators the Toronto School of Creativity & Inquiry to form Abandonment Issues.
The centrepiece of their project is a map showing an increasing number of properties around the city in various states of abandon. Under a "lose it or use it" bylaw they propose, property left derelict for a given period could be appropriated and turned into social housing.
Most compelling are buildings that aren't abandoned but have "abandonment issues." These are represented by yellow pins on the maps and mark blocks of housing whose landlords neglect crucial repairs and flout building standards – sometimes to cut costs, sometimes as outright blockbusting.
"Abandonment is a process," says Wachsmith, "a decision not to change the bulb in the hallway, a decision not to make repairs to the unit."
Other speakers make clear that abandonment is a continuum extending well beyond brick and mortar. Those who blanch at the idea of appropriating property don't understand the full scope of the issue, suggests Anna Willats, speaking for the Women Against Poverty Collective, which briefly opened a squat in June.
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