Corporate greed is messing up our urban environment
Re Toronto Walk: Liberty Village Is A Hellscape by Glenn Sumi (NOW Online, October 9).
Mega-congratulations on exposing the culprits that are paving over and molesting our urban landscape. We need a lot more strong opposition against the corporate greed that is defacing our beautiful environment. Thank you for your article. Hope it has some effect out there.
Efthimia (Mia) Efamtis – Toronto
Missing the mark on Liberty Village
I am a 70-year-old woman living in a stacked townhouses in Liberty Village. I love the neighborhood and quite frankly your article was offensive. It is a lively and friendly place. You really missed the mark on this one.
Shelley Levitz – Toronto
How to save Liberty Village
The problem with Liberty Village is its east-west zoning split.
East of Hanna there are residences. West of Hanna is employment uses. Result: apart from retail and food and beverage that gives the core of the eastern zone some semblance of a “village”, there is no greenspace and hectares of parking lot for workers who are not able to live near where they work.
How about dissolving that zoning, allowing employment and residences to mingle throughout Liberty Village, along with much needed green space?
De-zoning – coupled with heritage conservation and regulating the scale of new buildings – was the solution that saved King-Spadina and King-Parliament after 1995. Might it save Liberty Village?
Richard Longley – From NOWTORONTO.COM
Mandatory vaccinations for the self-righteous
Re Fear And Shame Won’t Convince Vaccine Hesitant To Get Their Shot (NOW Online, October 13).
I am disappointed in NOW. I’ve loved your courage in speaking to the unspeakable. Where has that gone in the matter of COVID information?
For a long time I have waited for you to investigate COVID in a balanced way and not present the usual one-sided news and contemptuous attitude towards those of us who have different points of view on COVID strategies and care.
I read recently about a Black woman’s pain at how for most of her life, representations of her and her people only pointed to those who were troubled, challenged and viewed as inferior. She listed how finally, the beautiful one’s are being represented.
It has been the same for many minorities and marginalized people now branded as anti-vaxxers. How insulting! Now we need to be convinced by those close to us to get vaccinated? This attitude is superior and self-righteous.
Sage Walker – Toronto
Dune paints over Islamic influences
Re Denis Villeneuve On Engaging In Dune’s Colonization Narrative (NOW Online, October 13).
I’m excited to see this movie but still feel conflicted about the Arab/bedouin erasure that many fans of Frank Herbert casually slip by.
Herbert uses many Arab and yes, as “scary” as it might be to the uninformed, Islamic influences. Articles that point out that he paints these influences as blandly “North African”, are disappointing.
But there is also an argument to be made for how the mischaracterizing, even full out denial, of these influences distorts attention away from the very real world effect that colonialism has had on the Arab world.
It is culturally appropriative to take a history, culture and religion to tell the story of a boy-come-prophet, centre his rise and fall and then sell this package back to us while being ignorant of the foundations of that culture.
Maybe the filmmakers should’ve hired one Arab or Islamic person for plausibility – if only so that someone on the set can pronounce words properly.
Aiden S. – From NOWTORONTO.COM
Touching Toronto history
Re Hidden Toronto: John Cox Cottage (NOW Online, October 10).
Hey, I lived there in the 1990s! Lovely place but we had brownouts all the time – and flooding in the basement. Still, I feel privileged to have touched a bit of Toronto history.
Brian Cartwright – From NOWTORONTO.COM
Toronto’s real estate market is clearly broken
Re Detached Homes In Toronto Reach Record-high Selling Prices (NOW Online, October 9).
These stories have really started to make me sick. I just read one explaining how a couple was able to buy a “starter home” for $1 million, at 40 years old. The article tries to pitch it as “there’s still hope for young people to get in this market if they are willing to sacrifice”. Obviously the place was a dilapidated shack.
We really need to ask ourselves “how did we get here”? If you have be in the highest income bracket to even afford the most basic home, the system is clearly broken.
Keith Leblanc – From NOWTORONTO.COM
