Sampling Culture http://samplingculture.posterous.com Most recent posts at Sampling Culture posterous.com Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:22:16 -0700 Our city's Safe Streets Act doesn't deal with poverty http://samplingculture.posterous.com/2009/03/10/our-citys-safe-streets-act-doesnt-deal-with-poverty http://samplingculture.posterous.com/2009/03/10/our-citys-safe-streets-act-doesnt-deal-with-poverty This article was published in the Ryerson Free Press, February 2009 issue. Here's a look at panhandling and the Safe Streets Act in Toronto. The city needs a better way to deal with real poverty. -
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(photo originally on: http://therandomizer.wordpress.com) George Hill, part-time panhandler, carpenter, and father of five children, sits in front of Blockbuster video store on Parliament Street near Winchester Street, kitty-corner to his friend Chris ‘The Viking’ who sits outside the St. Jamestown Delicatessen. It's an early Saturday evening and the guys are about an hour into their regular shift from 5 to 10 p.m. (when the neighbourhood liquor store closes). In the darkening light, each of them holds a paper coffee cup up and asks passers-by to “spare some change”. Most people passing ignore them or nod their head. Chris, who refuses to give his last name because he says it is dangerous, says he has been in the shelter system in the 16 years since his wife died. He says his bed is full of bed bugs. He uses crutches, has long disheveled blonde hair and appears to be middle-aged. Hill wears heavy working boots and a fall coat. He says that he’s suffered from mental illness and left his wife and kids. Now, he says, he pays child support and rent, buys food and goes to the food bank. In order to make ends meet, he does occasional carpentry work and he panhandles. “It’s my part time job,” he says. On a good shift, he says he makes $5, two sandwiches and a loaf of bread. On rare days, he says, he makes $50. At the time the province adopted the Safe Streets Act, in 1999, the Toronto Star wrote it was “supposed to protect Ontarians from annoying beggars and squeegee kids”. Nine years later, across the GTA, people are still complaining about panhandlers. The act made it illegal to panhandle near an ATM, pay phone, public toilet, TTC stop, or on the road. It is also illegal to panhandle and: threaten; use abusive language; obstruct a person’s path; walk in front, behind or beside them; be intoxicated; or ask for money repeatedly. In 2004 police gave out 2725 tickets, and in 2007 that number almost quadrupled, with 10,584 tickets given for aggressive panhandling, according to Toronto Police Services. Panhandlers say the tickets range from $65 to $170. Even though he knows panhandling can be illegal, Hill claims that he doesn’t know much about the act. But he said the streets are safer with him there. Hill says that the regular residents who get to know him sometimes ask him to look after their dog or bicycle. Douglas Rowlands, resident of 10 years, and survey writer for the Don Vale Cabbagetown Residents Association, says he regularly gives a panhandler a few bucks for looking after his dog while he shops. He says, “I have no problem with that. He’s doing something respectful. There are some pretty ratty people who come to you and lay it on thick and that’s where my sympathy stops.” According to the association’s 2007 survey of 468 residents in Cabbagetown, 82 per cent said panhandling is a very serious problem along Parliament Street. Rowlands said residents cite panhandling as the major deterrent to bringing up Parliament Street’s appeal for residents who would like higher-end stores moving in. He said people support the local businesses but at the same time, “People are saying ‘We don’t like going to No Frills.’ Everyone goes to Loblaws at Queens Quay, or to the Danforth.” According to Rowlands, it’s not only that most people want nicer shops; they don’t want to be panhandled all the time. Rowlands said, “You can be asked four or five times in a few blocks. You can’t get away from it.” He said, “It is about perceived danger rather than actual attacks… There was one tall skinny black guy. He followed me down Wellesley Street, yelling at me. A few years ago there were some Native Canadian men in a state of drunkenness and disrepair, panhandling and yelling awful things about white people.” Toronto Police Const. Kevin Cummings, with 51 Division, regularly deals with calls in Cabbagetown, but he says they are not for panhandling. When Cummings was told about the association’s survey results about panhandling, he said, “It sound(s) like panhandlers are on every corner … They are not outside every business. It’s not like that at all.” He says he comes across panhandlers on his bike, and he’ll give them several warnings before he writes a ticket. He explains, “I am fair. I am not going to see one guy and say ‘you’re going to jail today.’ There are bigger fish to fry. I’m not going to go after the one guy that has a problem. On the flip side… If we get community complaints we have to answer to those. Our primary goal is the community’s enjoyment...” Cummings says he wouldn’t classify panhandlers as criminals, “Essentially we are giving the same kinds of tickets like you would get when you drive through a stop sign. It’s a nuisance.” Chris says he believes the way the law is written it is illegal to panhandle, whether aggressively or not. When he gets stopped Chris said the police usually don’t say much. “Most of them know me. Some of them say, ‘Chris, Move on.’ Some of them are harsh. Some of them wave and I know it’s time to move. Out of respect I move. I am not here to cause trouble. I just sit here with my cup.” He said, “I don’t know what goes on in the precinct, but it seems like they say ‘lets go hit Parliament Street and clean it up.’ Then next week they might go to Yonge Street.” He said he’s been ticketed at least once for drunken disorderliness, and on one day he said he got $750 worth of tickets. He and Hill say they post the tickets up on their walls and call them ‘wallpaper.’ Hill, who said he racked up 29 tickets in three years, said he paid his first one, and then he met Chris, who told him he didn’t have to pay. Hill laughed and said, “I stopped paying. Every time the police stop me they check to see if I’m wanted, and it doesn’t come up on their computer.” Hill said “police tell us here’s a ticket, but you know you guys don’t have to pay.” He asked “Why give me a ticket if I don’t have to pay? I don’t know what they are thinking.” Cummings said he doesn’t think ticketing is effective. He says if panhandlers get a short jail sentence it isn’t going to get people off the street. He said a panhandler will “be back out there because he has a problem. He can’t work. He has an addiction, or no housing.” Doug Fisher, from the Old Cabbagetown Business Improvement Area, said, “Panhandling is not an issue where the police are very effective. They can’t haul everyone to jail. They don’t have the legal authority to do it, and they don’t have the space to do it.” A.J. Withers, from Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, says that there are already criminal laws in place to deal with assault and harassment and she doesn’t see why there needed to be law directed specifically toward panhandling. Withers said, “This law was the province’s way of criminalizing regular behaviours that people do under extreme poverty.” Withers says their coalition used to refer people to Downtown legal Services and Parkdale Community Legal Services, but these organizations recently stopped dealing with panhandling cases. According to Withers, from 2000 to 2006, panhandlers could bring their tickets to the coalition. Withers says that with law students they fought thousands of tickets and had the vast majority thrown out. She says the coalition stopped because they only have one full-time and two part-time staff members. She said, “We could do it again, but the provincial government passed when the access to justice act, which means you need a registered paralegal. We can't afford registered legal aid.” She says that since poor people cannot afford legal defense they will be increasingly convicted. Research done at the Centre for Urban Community Studies at University of Toronto suggested that there is a sizeable sub-group of homeless people committing minor offenses who are stuck in a cycle between shelters, jails, and hospitals, and who are becoming alienated from community life. The report recommends that affordable housing be provided for this sub-group as a more cost-effective strategy. The coalition says it wants poor people to have their basic needs met through the provision of adequate shelter beds downtown. Members said they want the safe streets act to be cancelled. Withers said the police need to stop giving tickets and the city needs to provide more free legal services. This past spring, the City of Toronto said it would use a ‘homes first’ approach to get panhandlers and homeless people off the streets. Fisher, who has had some contact with staff from the city’s new Streets to Homes program, said it sounds positive. He said the staff are supposed to work with individuals in the community to figure out what they need –housing, a meal or clothing program, or community contact. On the other hand, Withers said she doesn’t like the program because she said it pushes homeless people out of downtown. She said she hears complaints from the homeless that the housing provided is far away and sometimes in disrepair. She said people have little money to pay for food or TTC to access services downtown. She said, “It makes space for rich people to not have to look at the poor… The city is working to gentrify the downtown.” Rowlands said, “I’d like that the social and economic conditions are such that we wouldn’t have panhandlers. But we’re a long way from that. …”

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Tue, 10 Mar 2009 04:22:39 -0700 Can Gourmet Burgers do well in the recession? http://samplingculture.posterous.com/2009/03/09/gourmet-burgers-in-recession http://samplingculture.posterous.com/2009/03/09/gourmet-burgers-in-recession Cabbagetown was my local neighbourhood beat for my reporting class last term. I wrote this article in November 2008 . It appeared in the Ryerson Free Press in February. Read the whole article below for details on the ever-changing Cabbagetown neighbourhood!

The grey-haired former restauranteur known as Trevor Barryman sits on a bar stool, to eat his gourmet burger with onion rings. He faced the window, looking at Parliament Street, on a Tuesday afternoon. He’s having his second burger in a week at the newly opened Gourmet Burger Co. in Cabbagetown.

Finishing a bite, Barryman says that people have been predicting the complete gentrification of this commercial strip for the last 30 years. He explained, “They told me it would be the next Yorkville.” He continued, “They were wrong.”

He said, “If someone told me they were opening up a hamburger place here I would have told them it was a terrible idea. Who would pay for a $13 lunch in this neighbourhood?” But, Barryman said that when he came in for his first burger on Saturday there was a line-up out the door.

This new burger joint faces the usual challenges of setting itself apart from the other restaurants that sell burgers in Toronto, and begs the question, can a gourmet burger joint do well and bring people in from other neighbourhoods?

In November, John Ward, 39, who is an experienced restauranteur and caterer from Australia, opened this burger restaurant at 482 Parliament Street. His new take out and small sit-in spot can appeal to a wide range of people with varying budgets - from those who want to pay $6 for a gourmet burger, to those would can afford $13 for a deluxe burger with sides and a drink.

Because of the diversity in income levels in the neighbourhood, Doug Fisher, staff of the Old Cabbagetown Improvement Area (BIA), says the businesses that do best here appeal to the largest spectrum of incomes. Fisher said that like a hardware store, which everyone likes, the same may be true for buying lunch. According to Fisher, “A burger place also appeals to everyone.” Fisher says the Gourmet Burger Co. has a great chance of gaining loyal customers from across the city.

A walk along Parliament Street reveals a real mix of restaurants. There are older dinners, ethnic take-away places and gourmet restaurants, alongside organic butchers, dollar stores and the discount no-frills grocery store. According to Fisher, the rents in this commercial sector range from $1,500 to $5,000 a month. He said, “Our rents are lower that those on Church Street, so they are a bargain for business owners because they can still get customers from some of the nearby neighbourhoods for a third the rental price.” He said that the rental costs have been inching up, but not to the point that older businesses are being priced out.

Walking the streets there are panhandlers, renters from James Town and Regent Park, students and home-owning professionals. On Parliament there are no exquisite floral or chocolate stores, upscale clothing boutiques or bookstores. For a long time the area has not even had a Starbucks (although one is going to open soon in the same block as Gourmet Burger Co.) If you were walking along Parliament Street, you might never guess that just a few blocks east is a neighbourhood that boasts million-dollar homes.

On the west side of Parliament Street, in the first block north of Cartlon, Spiros Maniatos owns the block of buildings. They currently house a dollar store, Johnny G’s Diner, and now – Gourmet Burger Co.

Fisher said, “Based on my blog research, there seems to be a lot of talk about Gourmet Burger Co.” He said the key for businesses in Cabbagetown that aim to attract people with higher incomes is to draw people into the neighbourhood. Fisher said he thinks that Gourmet Burger Co. can potentially draw people from outside, as a few other businesses in the area have done.

John Lee, the owner of Omi, a sushi restaurant that moved into the area in November, said that business has been very good since the move from Church Street. He said, “We have a lot of our existing customers and the neighbourhood locals coming to our new location.” He said he gets around 70 per cent of his business from his existing customers, and the remaining 30 per cent from Cabbagetowners.

At a home furnishing store, Mi Casa, which has been in the area for 20 years, the manager, Andrew Halkewycz, said they draw roughly 60 per cent of their customers from outside of the neighbourhood, and around 40 per cent are Cabbagetowners.

In spite of the few stores that regularly draw people into the neighbourhood, Fisher said Cabbagetown has not become a destination spot, like the Distillery District or Church Street. “People don’t wake up on a Saturday and say ‘Let’s go to Cabbagetown.’ The neighbourhood is still a locally serving area, with businesses largely there to suit the local populations,” he said.

There are many well-known long-standing restaurants on Parliament Street that Cabbagetowners frequent. Fisher said, “Gourmet Burger Co has a good chance to compete.”

Sure enough, every pub in the area serves a burger; but, Gourmet Burger Co. is the only place specializing in various kinds of unique burgers. Fisher said, “I had a smokey bacon burger with fries and spent around $10. I could have spent less on their normal burger with condiments for $5.50, but I was happy to pay more for the unique toppings. I think they have a good broad price range for their customers.”

A glance at the menu at Gourmet Burger Co posted on the meticulously hand-written signs above the ordering counter reveals that in addition to the cheaper basic burger, the signature suggestions made by owner John Ward, range in price from $5.95 to $9.95.

Down the street, the popular House on Parliament pub offers their basic burger with sweet potato fries for $12.38, around $4 more than at Gourmet Burger Co. The Pear Tree, Ben Wicks Bar & Bistro, Big Mamma’s Boy, JAM café, and Stonegrill all offer burgers with sides ranging in price from $7.99 to $16. At these restaurants the burgers are among the lowest-priced items on their menus.

Fisher said, “If you sell only a burger, you need to sell more.” John Ward says he is selling between 100 to 175 burgers a day, which is quite good, according to Geoff Wilson, a restaurant consultant in Mississauga, who did a quick calculation of Ward’s sales and costs.

Wilson said that the decision a potential customer makes to buy a gourmet burger versus one from McDonalds will be based on a couple of factors. “Is the customer in the group that has been significantly influenced by the trend of ‘premiumization’? If so, that customer will be looking for more than just a regular burger, and if it’s different they are prepared to pay more. It has to have an enhanced flavour profile and a more appealing quality proposition. They have to want to buy it for the experience rather than just for filling up their stomach,” he said.

Ward says he has the differential gourmet aspect covered. He’s offering customizable burgers with the toppings they want, and including some unique Australian options – fried egg and beets - which are common in his home country’s standard burger, but found rarely (if ever) in Toronto. Furthermore he says he’ll soon be introducing a burger of the week with either salmon, bison, or pulled pork. Currently he has chicken, beef, and lamb burgers on offer with toppings like avocado, bacon, pineapple, gouda and brie.

At around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Ward’s wife and two-month-old son visit the restaurant. Ward says he’s happy to have started this new business, after owning six other successful ones in the last 14 years. He says he’s glad, because with the restaurant he won’t be working late night pub hours, and he can spend more time with his son. Ward says he is up for the challenge of serving anyone who enjoys good food. He said he wants Gourmet Burger Co. to be like a good pizza place: “Everyone enjoys it… 12 year olds and grandmothers. It transcends age. I want people to leave here saying it was the best burger they ever had.”

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