|
Blog
The NDP's leader is coming to Saskatoon to speak about homelessness. I haven't heard Jack Layton speak in person before and it may be an interesting talk, even if we rarely agree on policy. He'll be here May 21st, details can be found at Upcoming. Teens living in supportive care homes run by the EGADZ outreach program are speaking out in defence of their right to live among the middle-class home-owners of Saskatoon's new Hampton Village neighbourhood. Staff of the My Home program say the young people started making plans to introduce themselves to residents living on Allwood Crescent - where two new care homes are slated to open this spring - after a woman in a van slowly drove by one of their houses Wednesday evening, rolled down her window and gave them the finger. It was the last straw. "We decided we should meet the people that disapprove of us, because they don't know what the My Homes are and they don't know what they're talking about," said one of the residents, a 14-year-old girl who had just finished her chores when she caught the obscene gesture. Encouraged by city Coun. Myles Heidt and supported by Coun. Maurice Neault, a group of Hampton Village homeowners circulated a petition and appeared before a civic committee this week to argue against a recommendation for the city to contribute about $84,000 from its innovative housing program toward My Home Five and My Home Six, which EGADZ purchased in March with funding from the federal and provincial governments. The combined price of the two five-bedroom homes was $730,800. They were selected with the help of a Realtor and approved by the senior governments after an exhaustive six-month search for suitable houses in Saskatoon's tight real estate market. Heidt, Neault and the homeowners - among them Heidt's son, who owns a house in the area - argued the money would have been better spent in some other part of the city. Several of them, including a woman who identified herself as a teacher working in Pleasant Hill, said they fear for the safety of their own kids once the My Home residents move in, suggesting the teens' presence will bring down property values and attract gang members and crime to the neighbourhood. "I do not want my children to understand high-risk youth," one resident said. Heidt and Neault have argued for years that the concentration of care homes in their wards is too high - excluding seniors' homes, which they say are not a cause of concern. Civic administrators say their data shows a relatively even distribution throughout Saskatoon, however. The city has not received any complaints about the My Homes since the first one opened in Dundonald in 1997. Several neighbours of the existing homes have become staunch supporters of the young residents and staff who live in them. Today's submission for the Photo Friday Challenge. I am not sure why I chose this one over all of the other ones I have posted on Flickr but maybe because it is going to snow 10 cm more over the next 24 hours and the idea of a green Saskatoon with a river with no ice on it is an appealing image to me. Labels: Photo Friday, photography, Saskatoon I am always being asked what kind of things the guys can use at the Community Centre. Instead of posting the information here, there is now a wishlist of items online. You can drop by these items any time of day or night and we appreciate them all. Thanks! Labels: Salvation Army, Saskatoon, work Taken a couple of years ago near my house in Saskatoon at the top of the toboggan hill at A.H. Browne Park. It is my Photo Friday submission for cold. It is also somewhat appropriate for this weekend as Saskatoon is expected to get over a foot and a half of snow in a late blizzard and it is supposed to take over a week to melt away. Labels: Photo Friday, photography, Saskatoon We have a new website at work, with a new Flickr account, a weblog (and RSS feed) a profile over at Upcoming, YouTube, and a brand new e-mail newsletter. The domain name is so new, it has that new website smell to it (and Google hasn't crawled it yet). When I am not working on the website, my main job is coordinating the Residential Services department and you can find some more information about it there. Oh yeah, before I forget, we are hiring. Labels: homeless, Salvation Army, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, work The venue is beautiful, walking out after the play from the balcony gives a wonderful view of River Landing. Inside our tickets were on the first row of the balcony, right in the middle but as I have heard many times before, there really isn't a bad seat in the Hall which seats 450. The play itself was a lot of fun. It was funny, clever, and does a really good job of telling the story of the Albert Guay Affair from the perspective of his murdered wife. It doesn't answer the question of whether Marguerite Pitre really understood her role in the crime which is part of the charm of the play. As Cheryl Jack wrote in the program, she did take some liberties with the facts but after reading quite a bit about the play, she is pretty faithful to the essence of the story. The casting and acting was excellent. It was apparent that the cast was really enjoying themselves in front of a full house and created an energy in the hall. We weren't the only ones that felt that way as evidenced by the standing ovation that was given at the end of the night. This is a play that I expect and hope will become a classic so if you have a chance to see it being performed near you, make sure you check it out. Oh yeah, for the record, Gloria, your favorite word was used numerous times. A couple of news stories in the Star Phoenix where I was quoted. One is in regards to the Barry Hotel closure and what happened to the people that called it home (the good news is that all of them as far as I know have found new places) and the other one is in regards to a tragic apartment fire in which the Salvation Army was on the scene supporting fire crews and victims. Sadly a women died due to smoke inhalation and five were hospitalized. Labels: Canada, Salvation Army, Saskatoon, work The problem is that there isn't any grocery stores in the area. The closest grocery store is the limited selection of food at Giant Tiger (really inexpensive but limited selection), 33rd Street Safeway, or the Safeway/Superstore in Confederation Mall. As for competing with other mall owners, they obviously don't see the benefit of a centralized service complex which would hold the following services. There would be some other organizations housed here. This seems to be an decision based on ideology rather than anything. The idea that the government should not be providing services it feels that private enterprise can and should. Of course this ideology doesn't work in reverse as seen my Royal University Foundation looking for private money to bring Saskatoon's main emergency room, ICU, and other facilities up to date. Is it a good project? On the government's side, the Westside Clinic is already operational and I assume isn't going anywhere and they house SWITCH. While I agree with the idea of an affordable food co-op but from it's inception, I have questioned if they are going to be affordable (which may be secondary to availability). Some friends have been involved and the questions on affordable pricing remain unanswered. It isn't a flaw with the business plan but a volume and distribution question. Also some would argue proximity to St. Paul's Hospital. So there are some questions of whether or not the government should be funding a project like this. On the Station 20 West side is availability. In my job one of my biggest challenges right now is providing health care and in particular, mental health care to the men who call the shelter home. In terms of health care, emergency room health care is not a good solution for the system (cost) or to the patient (lack of regular checkups). While it can be hard to get accessible health services for all of us, it is a lot harder to find a doctor if one doesn't have car. All of us in the house drive across town to see our doctor which would be a couple hour trip if we had to use a bus or incur a $40 bill if we used a taxi. That is a HUGE obstacle to those that I serve at work. Speaking of availability, that is the main advantage of the co-operative grocery store. As I just said, I am not really convinced that it is sustainable. At night the Shopper's Drug Mart on 22nd street often has one clerk and two uniformed security guards to stop robbery and to stop shop lifting. One can't tell me that it is making any money at all under those conditions. There is also another reason why Safeway, Loblaw, and Super Valu has all pulled out of the city centre. Despite that, affordable food is hard to come by. Wendy and I shop at Safeway (primarily at 33rd Street where we live and Wendy picks up stuff at the Centre at Circle and 8th where she works), Co-op, and Costco. We save a lot of money by being able to pick and choose. For the poorest in Saskatoon, there are not grocery stores in close proximity and if you would like to join me at the 7-11 on 22nd Street on days when government checks are sent out, it looks like a riot hit it by midnight (There is evidence that Scott Reid was somewhat correct when he made his quip about beer and popcorn). People are spending an incredible amount of their checks on food from a 7-11. Is it a great decision? Of course not. There are people with a very, very, limited food budget spending it in a horrible location (price wise and healthwise - don't get me wrong, I love a good 7-11 burger but it isn't a lifestyle I would recommend). The alternative is having to get a cab to go to a grocery store which is another huge budgetary issue. The people that most often who need to take a cab to a grocery store are often those that can't afford to. It is the reason why I was asked to drive people home from the warehouse when the Salvation Army handed out Christmas hampers. If we hadn't, the burden to get a FREE hamper may have too much for people to receive one. If you drive through Riversdale, Caswell Hill, and Mayfair, you see a bunch of homes that used to be corner stores and small grocery stores. Jane Jacobs wrote extensively on what happened to them but we abandoned them for the big box stores. While it made life better for some, it hurts those that can't make it to the mega malls. It is one of the reasons why I take Mark as much as possible to the Roxy Theatre and not the Galaxy. I don't want to lose something that means so much to the community. Of course this isn't a fight about movie theatres, it is about providing a place for healthy food, medical services, affordable dental care (even if it is done by students... shudder...), and more mental health providers in a place that desperately needs them. It is only $8 million dollars out of $9.1 billion dollar budget (wow, do we know how to spend money in Saskatchewan, where is Janice MacKinnon when we need her). It is also about investing in a part of the city that has seen so little investment over the last 40 years. Yes Meewasin and the Farmer's Market is nice but Riversdale has been ignored for much of the last several decades despite being represented by a New Democratic Premier since 1991. Investing in that part of the city also sends the huge message that we believe that we are not willing to leave behind some of the provinces poorest. I'll leave the last word to the editorial writers of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. Gantefoer believed the grant was cut because there was little chance the proponents of the project could raise the "$12 million to $14 million" needed to come from private interests. By next day he was admitting he was in error, and the necessary private funds were a minuscule portion of that amount. Even more incredibly, McMorris suggested the money had to be pulled from a project that would make it easier for inner-city residents to access timely health care because the funds were needed to buy a fire alarm for St. Paul's Hospital and to ward off a mould attack. The decision, he assured us, had nothing to do with politics. At least Wall's weak excuse was credible, if only because it illustrated an ideological basis to the ill-considered decision. The premier suggested the grant was killed because his government saw the inclusion of a co-operatively run grocery store within Station 20 as a threat to private industry. But to cancel the entire project rather than deal directly with the situation is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. When the NDP absurdly castigated Wall for giving his 14-year-old daughter driving lessons on a publicly owned rural gravel road, it demonstrated just how far out of touch with rural Saskatchewan that party has become. But Wall's clear lack of understanding about the dire needs of core neighbourhoods and the history of Saskatoon demonstrates just how out of touch he remains with urban Saskatchewan. Considering the role the province's largest city is playing in the economic revival of Saskatchewan, such ignorance could have dire consequences. The proponents of Station 20 want a grocery store not because they want to compete with private industry but because many people in core neighbourhoods don't have the wherewithal to keep hiring cabs to go shopping. The last of the downtown grocery stores left more than a decade ago. To ignore such realities for the sake of political partisanship and ideological reasons is an inauspicious beginning for a government that Saskatchewan people hoped could lead them to a prosperous future. If you have strong feelings about this, contact your MLA and let them know. Labels: economics, politics, poverty, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon Every Easter weekend, the Draggins Car Club hosts the Draggins Rod and Custom Car Show in Saskatoon and several thousand of us turn out to see the old cars. On Good Friday, Wendy, Mark and I went over and looked around and took a couple of photos. Mark's favorite, the SpongeBob SquarePants car. Mark and I loved the Legend Car Racing. The bodyshells are 5/8-scale replicas of American automobiles from the 1930s and 1940s, powered by a Yamaha motorcycle engine. The rule book committee for Legend car racing is called INEX, which stands for "INEX"pensive. Of course INEXpensive is still to expensive for me, other than as a fan (they race in Saskatoon on June 14th) It wasn't as good as previous years but we did enjoy seeing some of them. It wasn't a bad way to kill a couple of hours even if there wasn't the jaw dropping cars of years gone by. More photos can be found over at Flickr. Labels: Saskatoon I don't get the paper at home but here is the story that got me up at 5:00 a.m. and off to work so I could get the Star Phoenix. The story does have some factual errors in it. We did not turn away a mother and 20 day old child. She was housed for the weekend and was safe. I was feel I was quoted out of context but it happens and it wasn't that serious that I can't chalk it up to a misunderstanding. Labels: Salvation Army, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon There are a lot of reasons for doing this but I am starting a new project a few of you might find interesting. It is a documentary about life in the inner city of Saskatoon (which is now famous as the second most dangerous place to live in Canada). Those that live there, a look at how some of the NGOs and government agencies are doing to help them. Some friends are helping out as well which should be fun and several agencies, elected officials, and others have been quite receptive to it. In some ways, it is Saskatoon's version of a Westside Story. Why video? I was torn over this as I am more comfortable writing or even with a still camera but I thought back to a series of columns in the now defunct Saskatoon Free Press about the west side. Stories of prostitutes, homeless people, and addicts and I thought he was making it all up. I am hoping that doing a documentary makes this seem a little more real to people and hopefully change a couple of incorrect stereotypes along the way. If you are interested in helping out, let me know as I will be shooting video over the spring, summer, and fall and there is a lot to get done. I'll keep you posted. Labels: documentary, personal, Saskatoon, video The Barry Hotel is being demolished. In some ways I am not all that upset. It is old but not particularly well loved by the people of Saskatoon and is a well known flophouse. At the same time I struggle with it because when you live in a city with 0.6% vacancy rates, where do all of the residents who call it home (60 of them) go? Many are hard core addicts or have mental health problems and have been kicked out of every single care home in the city. Yeah the city may be better off with it gone but in 2 weeks, there will be 40 of Saskatoon's poorest who will be on the streets. Some have been there for 14 years and others are too socially challenged to be housed in group homes or shelter (violence, drug dealers). The cost of progress in this case does have a face and a name. Update: A few of you asked about the CMHC workshop. It was quite amazing. Faith based organizations from across the city were invited and it was well worth the time. I learned more about financing housing projects than I thought possible. I also walked away with some good ideas that occured to me about how to help some of our clients. One key thought was the difference between need and demand which is something that I need to keep in mind around here. Mark outside the Mendel Art Gallery in Saskatoon. Labels: art, Mark Cooper, Photo Friday, photography, Saskatoon View from the side View from the front I have been fascinated with Saints Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church since I first saw it years ago but I had never taken any photos of it until today. It is a cross shaped church that is similar on each side and the front. I went looking for this history of the church and the architect information but I couldn't find it which is kind of too bad as it is one of the more unique buildings in Saskatoon. Some of the other photos I took today can be found here. Labels: architecture, church, photography, Saskatoon Blizzard conditions persisting over western areas this morning and should gradually taper off by afternoon. Blizzard conditions expected to develop over eastern areas this morning and then taper off this evening. An intense low pressure system over western North Dakota this morning will track northeastward into northwestern Ontario by Tuesday morning. This system has generated 5 to 10 cm of snow across western Saskatchewan during the night and this snow continues to spread to the northeast. Strong northerly winds on the back side of this system have been gusting over 60 km/h at times and combined with the falling snow, blizzard conditions have been widespread across western and central areas of the province during the night. Southeastern areas will escape much of the snow, so blizzard conditions are less likely but there is still some snow developing over Montana that may move into southeastern Saskatchewan later today. The winds will definately pick up over the eastern later today and thus the potential for blizzard conditions is still there for later today and this evening. Blizzard conditions should ease off over western areas near noon. The strong northerly winds are ushering in a frigid Arctic airmass and wind chill values will be in the minus 40 to minus 45 range today through Tuesday. Temperatures will fall dramatically today over southeastern areas as this Arctic airmass sweeps in so extreme wind chills are expected there later today and last into Tuesday. Labels: Saskatchewan, Saskatoon The game wasn't that great to watch. The Huskies jumped to a 10 point first quarter lead and then extended it to 25 by the fourth when the reserves were subbed in on mass. Alberta began to play physically in the second half but the Huskies were making their free throws and it just created a lot of easy baskets. Two weeks from now the plan is to head back to the PAC watch the Huskies host the University of Calgary Dinosaurs for the season finale. Depending on how the cookie crumbles, we may be able to take in a playoff game or two. More photos can be found on Flickr here. You can view it as a slideshow here. Labels: basketball, Mark Cooper, photography, Saskatoon, sports, Wendy Cooper I realized that my role as a mentor was to provide a space for self-discovery, there is no setting better than a youth retreat outside of their hoods. Two weeks ago, along with some colleagues, I took 14 youth camping, three of them were females and the rest were males. They were all 8th graders. They came from all gang backgrounds, Norteno, Sureno, Cambodian and Laotian Crips. Half of the kids had criminal records, and most of them had been involved in a gang related fight at their school. Some of them had tattoos and all of them claimed to have a gang affiliation. During the first day of the three day camp I asked them to introduce themselves by answering, "What is it that you fear?" With the exception of two kids, they all said that they feared their fathers. For the first time, they all shared an intimate moment with their "enemies." Through out the camp we did activities that talked about our own strengths, families, and other discussion that dealt with us taking control of our destinies. For those three days they bonded; they played hide and seek together, ate together, laughed together, and shed tears together. The last night young Crips, Surenos, and Nortenos hugged one another. Although they returned to their hoods represented by different gang sets, they will embrace the moment when with the help of there rival gang members, they were able to share some of the most symbolic moments of their lives, reflect on them, and heal their wounds. Labels: community, Saskatoon, Third Space, urban On Friday, just as the kitchen brought some snacks down the hallway to munch on, I was dispatched by my boss to drive for the Salvation Army Christmas hamper distribution day. It was cold out and not everyone has a car so I spent the afternoon driving people home after they got their food hampers from the Salvation Army and Rock 102. I like to think I am as cool as The Transporter or the guy in the BMW Films although Friday I was driving a Chevrolet mini van so I kept the shooting and jumping to a minimum. I had my camera on me and took a couple of photos of the warehouse. I got there in the mid afternoon and a bunch of the hampers were already gone. These are some of the 15,000 toys that were collected as part of the Rock 102 Toy Soldier campaign. The blue bags are full of wrapped toys that have been chosen for each family according to age. The unwrapped toys are ones that are given out for people who signed up late. This way their kids still get some cool gifts. They aren't wrapped so people can figure out which gift to give away. On top of the boxes of food, each family got potatoes, carrots, and Mandarin oranges. They also got to chose from a ham or turkey. Despite my preference for ham at Christmas, most people preferred the turkeys so what do I know? When all was said and done, the hampers weighed about 100 pounds. It was freezing cold out Friday and it would have been horrible to have to take that big of hamper home on the bus so we drove anyone who didn't have a car home. Many of the people I drove home could not carry the hampers so I made a lot of trips up apartment stairs and almost always to the top floor. While I didn't mind doing it, my body was hurting by the last trip of the day. What made it worth it was a) the people I talked with really appreciated it and b) I realized I was being paid to get a pretty good workout. It was my first visit to the warehouse and it was cool to see the scale of everything. A lot of time and hours go into making it all happen and it is kind of mind boggling to think about 1 of 15 people in Saskatoon donated a toy to the Toy Soldiers campaign. I am working on a photo set of Christmas down at the Centre. You can find it here. Labels: Advent/Christmas, Salvation Army, Saskatoon, work Labels: Saskatoon, Wendy Cooper Wendy and I went to the staff Christmas party the other night at The Barn Playhouse and she has a rather nice blog post about it. Labels: Advent/Christmas, friends, holidays, Salvation Army, Saskatoon, Wendy Cooper, work For those of you who are looking for a new job and or know of someone who is... The Salvation Army Community Centre in Saskatoon is looking for a couple of people. The first position is Night Janitor/Security Relief which is a pretty laid back job if you enjoy working nights. I have done this job and enjoyed it a fair bit. The other position is a full time position during December but goes to half time in January and it is a day janitor position. Both are permanent. Wages are competitive and while I am biased because I enjoy working here, it is a good place to work and you will enjoy your co-workers. Labels: Salvation Army, Saskatoon, work Labels: media, Salvation Army, Saskatoon, work I guess I am officially in the Christmas mood. The snow and cold are here to stay in Saskatoon. Yesterday it was almost -30 with the wind chill. Just walking across the street from my car to work was enough to make me want to move. Labels: Advent/Christmas, family, Mark Cooper, Saskatoon, Wendy Cooper Many friends and people I respect subscribe to the idea of a buy nothing Christmas. Christmas is too commercialized and how much stuff does the average person really need any ways. How about a different way of looking at it. Instead of filling a shoe box with a bunch of stuff and thinking we have done a great thing, how about making a difference locally? I did some media interviews today (one for French CBC Radio) with the cold weather descending on Saskatoon. In the one interview, I said the guys at the shelter could really use cold weather gear like wool socks, gloves, toques, scarves, used jackets, and stuff like that. You can drop them off at the Community Centre day or night. Don't "buy nothing" this Christmas but use some of your wealth to make a real difference in someone's life. Guys come in all of the time with frost bite or half frozen. I think because we don't see burning barrels on the streets we think people aren't homeless during the winter but there is a segment of the population that not only do we give shelter to, they also need the basics to keep warm outside. There are a lot of other organizations that are doing excellent work in Saskatoon that would appreciate some help over the holidays. In other words, embrace the strangers in your community this holiday. Labels: Advent/Christmas, poverty, Saskatoon Labels: Mark Cooper, photography, Saskatoon, Wendy Cooper Labels: photography, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon I looked for the receipt to e-mail the manager. No receipt was in the bag. I called the store, no manager was on duty. I asked when one would be in, the employee didn't know and told me there was nothing he could do about my cold fries, flat Diet Coke and defiled Big Mac. I logged onto McDonalds.ca so I could e-mail someone. No e-mail address is listed on the site. I guess I could wait until Monday and call you (on my dime) or I could write you but instead but c'mon, I shouldn't have to work that hard to give you a legitimate complaint. I have been eating your food since I was a kid and I still remember the day I had my first Big Mac but never again. This has happened so many times and for so long (your late night quality control is non-existant) that it is pointless to hope for something better. I'll see you around. No longer your friend, Jordon Labels: Saskatoon Labels: books, church, Church of the Exiles, Saskatoon, theology The other night Wendy and I went walking downtown with the tripod and took some photos. None of them were spectacular but these looked okay. Later that night at work, I took this photograph around 4:00 a.m. It set up the camera and tripod and did as long exposure as my camera would allow me to set. If you click on the photo, you will be able to read the notes that I have made for it. I had everything set up to capture the sunrise but just as it got perfect, the emergency phone started to ring and I missed it. The funny thing is that the agency on the other phone, had been by the office during the night, had seen the tripod up and knew I was planning to take a photo. We had a chuckle over the timing of the call but there wasn't anything we could do about it. I had forgotten all about the photo until earlier tonight when I was asked if I ever got my photo of the sunrise and no I haven't but I have a couple more graveyard shifts to work and see if it works out. Labels: photography, Saskatoon |
