Parkdale Stirring...
The neighbourhood of Parkdale in the West-End of Toronto has been a long-time focus for OCAP. Back in 2000/2001 we had an office right off the main Queen Street strip on MacDonell Ave.
The most infamous OCAP campaign in Parkdale has of course been the fight for affordable and decent housing at 1510 King Street West- aka The Pope Squat. The building was squatted for four months in the summer of 2002 and as recently as last fall was at the centre of a renewed fight for housing that saw the takeover of a full city block near High Park.
Out of the momentum from that Fall Housing Campaign there is a renewed push to begin organizing a serious neighbourhood force that could begin to systematically address the enforced poverty in Parkdale.
There are few areas of Toronto more affected in terms of low standards of income from wages and social assistance, the pressure of condo development in an area full of rooming houses and low income buildings, the cuts to services enacted by City Hall and delinquent landlords charging enormous rents for run down units.
But the Parkdale Coffee Houses- a new monthly initiative from OCAP- could provide a space from which to build the kind of unity and strength required to turn the tide around. The first event last night provided a relaxed space for a frank discussion of the challenges we face and an opportunity to begin organizing against them and as one audience participant said- "to tell the government exactly what we want and force them to give it to us".
Next month our attention will turn to "A People's History of Parkdale" so that we can begin our fight by identifying the struggles that have succeeded before us and so that we can take lessons about our past and use them to better define our future.
The Winter isn't gone yet but Parkdale is about to start heating up.
To get involved with the Parkale Coffee Houses give OCAP a call at 416 925 6939.
The most infamous OCAP campaign in Parkdale has of course been the fight for affordable and decent housing at 1510 King Street West- aka The Pope Squat. The building was squatted for four months in the summer of 2002 and as recently as last fall was at the centre of a renewed fight for housing that saw the takeover of a full city block near High Park.
Out of the momentum from that Fall Housing Campaign there is a renewed push to begin organizing a serious neighbourhood force that could begin to systematically address the enforced poverty in Parkdale.
There are few areas of Toronto more affected in terms of low standards of income from wages and social assistance, the pressure of condo development in an area full of rooming houses and low income buildings, the cuts to services enacted by City Hall and delinquent landlords charging enormous rents for run down units.
But the Parkdale Coffee Houses- a new monthly initiative from OCAP- could provide a space from which to build the kind of unity and strength required to turn the tide around. The first event last night provided a relaxed space for a frank discussion of the challenges we face and an opportunity to begin organizing against them and as one audience participant said- "to tell the government exactly what we want and force them to give it to us".
Next month our attention will turn to "A People's History of Parkdale" so that we can begin our fight by identifying the struggles that have succeeded before us and so that we can take lessons about our past and use them to better define our future.
The Winter isn't gone yet but Parkdale is about to start heating up.
To get involved with the Parkale Coffee Houses give OCAP a call at 416 925 6939.
posted by miked at 4:40 p.m.
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