What's rather interesting is that The Globe and Mail, which did a hatchet job on Doug Ford last year, is now the only paper so far that bothered to speak to area residents and has come to Ford's defense.Residents who live near an Etobicoke home for developmentally disabled youth are applauding Councillor Doug Ford for taking up their cause by suggesting the facility be moved off their street. They say they resent being painted as mean-spirited, and that the issue has been distorted.Opposition to the home sparked a sustained public backlash online in the days after a public meeting Thursday, with critics accusing Mr. Ford and those who live in the area of NIMBYism...When interviewed Sunday on Jeffcoat Drive, a quiet street of mostly postwar bungalows with well-tended yards near Rexdale and Kipling, residents said the issue has been misconstrued as one of intolerance. They voiced sympathy for the youth, but say there have been safety and convenience issues since the home operated by Griffin Centre opened two months ago.A number of residents, most of whom did not want to be identified, say some in the area no longer feel safe. They also worry about property values and point to problems such as people connected to the facility parking cars in such a way as sometimes to block garbage pick-up. And they say that the negative reaction prompted by the youth at the home is making the neighbourhood bad for them as well. Everyone would be better off, residents argue, if the home was moved.
EYE ON A CRAZY PLANET
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There is hope yet for the Globe. Perhaps someone said in their newsroom: "Look guys, we are in danger of becoming just like the Star."
ReplyDeleteIt's really just (or what used to be) Journalism 101.
ReplyDeleteThe Star published a condemnation of Ford without speaking to anyone in the neighborhood affected by the group home. It doesn't take much to figure, "Hey, maybe we should actually talk to someone who lives around there."
This is why Ford's appeal is so misunderstood and underrated by most of Toronto's head-up-its-ass mainstream media. The usual suspects are spewing the politically correct cliches while Ford is actually representing the needs of his constituents. If these group homes are mismanaged, they can be enormously detrimental to the neighborhoods around them, and you can bet John Tory and Olivia Chow aren't living next to one.