How about a REAL change to the policy?

So Sammy is trying to make it look like he wants to do something about the arson problem in this city. That's cute. I say trying because although part of the problem is that there is only pickup once a week, it is certainly not the whole problem, or even the biggest.

According to this article in the Metro residents will still have to report the garbage under this "new" system. See, that's the biggest part of the problem - it's purely a complaint driven system.Call it a hunch, but I don't think the people doing the dumping are going to call it in, and if they happen to live in a cluster of other like minded people then it could take quite a while before it gets called in. The problem as well is these piles grow quickly once they get established. What starts out as a mattress and a chair quickly turns into giant piles.

 Now, most of the North/West End is not filled with people who don't care about their community, quite the opposite in fact. There is always talk from suburbanites who don't quite "get it" that it's not a simple matter of charging the house where the garbage is. Often, garbage ends up behind neat and tidy houses with caring owners, that's why it's called DUMPING. Is it really fair to charge the homeowner when they didn't do it? By that logic, suburbanites beware, there will no longer be such a thing as a hit and run or vandalism claim for your car - I mean, honestly, you shouldn't have had your car parked where someone could harm it.

So, for any of my readers who aren't lucky enough to know the ins and outs of the system, let me break it down for you.

1. Email 311 (having a nice tidy paper trail makes it easier to hold them accountable later with times/dates)
2. Wait up to 48 hours for a response. Hope no one lights the mattress someone put up against your fence/garage on fire
3. Get email back from 311 asking you to clarify if it's actually in the lane or on private property.

Thank you for contacting Winnipeg 311.  Due to a new process set up by the City we would need you to clarify if the items included are in the lane or on private property before we would be able to a request to have these items removed.

Private property includes:

1) The 1 to 1.5 foot section of property adjacent to the lane behind or beside a person's fence or garage is considered their property and not part of the lane.

2) If the items are on the person's driveway (or part on their driveway, part on the lane)

3) If the items are in the yard.

4) If the items are beside a garbage bin as The City of Winnipeg no longer owns any bins and these are all considered private property.

Once we have this information we can forward these issues to the correct department.

1. Get frustrated because blogger started the count again at one even though this is number four and you can't figure out how to change it.
2. Email back 311 clarify that it's not on private property (you must say this even if it's leaning on your fence, which by their definition IS private property - otherwise your complaint ends there and you still have the problem).
3. Wait up to 48 hours for a response. Hope that the couch that has joined the mattress also doesn't get set on fire.
4. Hurray! A response. Oh crap, it says that it will be investigated within 3 business days. It's now Friday. And it's cheque day*. Cross your fingers and toes that the mattress, couch, and their new friend, Mr. entertainment unit don't get lit on fire over the weekend.
5. Mythical inspector comes by on Wednesday, verifies that it's abandoned, and that you don't secretly store your extra furniture in the lane.
6. Oh crap, if today is Wednesday that means by the time he puts in his request for the pick up it is too late to be 48 hours from the next pick up, which at least here in a lot of the North End is Friday. So it gets scheduled for the next Friday.
7. The inspector then drives by all of the other garbage in the lane and doesn't schedule it for pick up because it hasn't been reported. Even though they see all of it and could add it to the pick up sheet. It's just not how it works people, someone has to call that in or it's invisible to inspectors. That's my favourite step.
8. It's next Friday! Yay! Wait, why didn't it get picked up? Oh, Emterra sucks doesn't have enough trucks/their truck is broken/who the hell knows...
9. Seriously start praying, even though you're not religious, that the mattress, couch, loveseat, entertainment unit, bags of dirty diapers, chair and broken kitchen table don't get lit on fire.
10. Sometime Saturday it hopefully all gets picked up. It might not though because the original ticket didn't list all of those items.

I bet you think I'm exaggerating. I wish I was.

So, sure, adding another pick up day will help a little, but if they want real change this is what needs to happen:

1. No more of this complaint driven b.s. - if they are serious about wanting to prevent arson they need to just send trucks up and down the lanes picking up stuff
2. If that can't happen because of some b.s. clause in the contract that was cooked up, then the by-law inspectors who spend all of their time driving to specific addresses to write down only the problems at that address need to be dispatched to just drive around generating the request for pick up tickets. Then that garbage MUST be picked up within 24 hours and ideally must never be out over the weekend (when crime really does seem to spike).

Saying that an extra pick up day will be added is merely putting a band-aid on something that needs stitches. As well, if the by-law folk were actively spending time looking for the garbage they might also be more likely to catch people in the act. I won't even bother to get into how ridiculous the process of getting people fined for that is - lets just say hopefully you have a smartphone set permanently on video and you get close enough to videotape clear pictures of people/license plates/and the garbage they dump - all without getting your face bashed in.

*Cheque day for those who are fortunate enough not to experience it, is the day when various government cheques come out (welfare, child tax, etc) and some (and I'm certainly not saying ALL, because lots of people have just fallen on hard times but are good people) of those recipients choose to spend that money on drugs/alcohol instead of using it for its intended purpose. This means that people who are clearly a bad judge of things are out and about making bad decisions because they are heavily under the influence. It's sort of like how even some people with jobs who get their paycheck on a Friday and blow it all by Sunday morning and spend the next two weeks bumming cash and smokes from you; except that instead of it being your one friend with bad judgement, it's him, all of his friends and some of their friends and they are more predisposed to lighting things on fire and stabbing each other. It's really fun, you should come see sometime. <--- i="">sarcasm font required.

A job (not) well done

As I've written before, it's nice to see the City finally (threaten to) start to hold Emterra accountable for not fulfilling their contract, all it took was rich folk not getting served properly. Please read that last sentence in the as-yet-to-be-developed "dripping with disdain" font.

The latest bee in my bonnet is the annual fall street cleaning. I have a corner lot and I spend an extraordinary amount of time keeping my curb clean throughout the summer, sweeping up the dirt and garbage, all for the sake of neighbourhood pride. Twice a year though, I don't have to do it. I look forward to the street cleaning in a way that normal people probably don't even think of. Not only will someone else haul away all the crap, but the street will actually be scrubbed down with water!

So imagine my disappointment when this is what I returned home to yesterday:

I was working from home yesterday so I know that there were no cars parked on the street, so what could the reason for this be? Laziness would be my guess. Now, I have emailed 311 to ask who does the street cleaning, the City or a subcontractor, but of course it could take up to 48 hours to have my email answered. There is also no guarantee that they will have an answer.

Could you get away with this level of completion at your job? "Yeah boss, I got it mostly done." This isn't a task that has different stages to it. There is no room for interpretation. Either the street is clean, or it isn't. And my street isn't.

Now, are they going to send someone back to complete the job properly? My guess would be no. Are they still going to pay whoever did this their full payment (particularly if this was a subcontractor)? My guess is probably. Will my complaint serve any purpose other than making someone in some City department think that there are bigger things in life to worry about it and would this stupid woman just shut up and go away?

I just think keeping the City accountable for all the little things will remind them that all of what they spend our tax dollars on is important. Over time, wasting dollars on things like this adds up to the things (like dodgy land swaps and over-budget buildings) that it is easy to catch them on.

If a tree falls in the forest...

...and that forest is in the North End, does it make a sound? Nope, but it sure does if it's in South Winnipeg.

And if that forest isn't a forest, but poor garbage service, it makes a sound within 10 days.

"The department made it clear there would be some kinks that would have to be worked out the first little while. It's not unreasonable to give them a reasonable amount of time to work out the kinks. After that, there are penalties that should be implemented on the contractor," Katz said  ... If problems such as missed collections persist, the city could take work away from the company, she added. - From the Winnipeg Free Press

Now, I wrote a post back in August, specifically about the NEW garbage service, for which I know some of my neighbours are still having trouble with theirs (well over the one month grace period). I have also been questioning, literally for years, asking someone to get back to me about the specifics of the contracts that the City has for garbage pickup. In fact, I am still waiting on a response from Councillor Eadie to an email I sent months ago.

What specifically have I been asking? I've asked what the penalties are for the contractor not fulfilling the contract. For example, when I, on many many MANY occasions have called in bulky waste to be picked up, only to have it continue to sit there and then follow up with 311 only to be told that that case has been marked as "closed" (or completed). I've questioned why we are paying a contractor who gets paid per piece* (or rather, ticket, which contains up to 6 bulky items) who fraudulently claims they have done the work. *To be fair, I've not actually been able to verify that this is how their contract is set up, however it has been expressed verbally to me that the system runs along those lines.

Can you imagine the uproar if you tried any of this cr@p at your job? "Oh hey boss, I know I'm supposed to have this report in today, I'll get to it within a few days, I'm just running behind" and a few days later "what do you mean all the pages of the report are blank? I totally completed it, file closed. What's that, do it again and you'll give me the same wage to do what I already got paid to do, but didn't?" Sign me up to work for the City please!

This type of garbage nonsense has been going on in our Neighbourhood for years, but hey, the rest of Winnipeg goes 10 days with poor service and the Mayor is calling for action. He must not be friends with the owner of Emterra.

Well, it's 50% solved

So you'll recall this time last week I was a little choked because of the lacklustre garbage and recycling services being provided around my neighbourhood.

You'll be thrilled to know, that after many many phone calls and emails to 311 by myself and neighbours (at least 3 neighbours that I spoke to reported the same garbage all over the boulevard from where the bin used to be) this morning it was FINALLY being picked up. Of course, that was as I left the house, it remains to be seen how good of a job they will do. I say that because, while I'm thrilled that someone was finally dispatched, it seems as though it was a man with a giant claw machine - not sure if he's going to manually pick up the festering dirty diapers that the claw doesn't quite manage to snag.

Please pretend I have awesome graphic design skills and was able to create some sort of crazy graphic merging the claw of garbage into the claw toy machine. Ideally the end result would depict the falling garbage morphing into the toys left in the machine to have full dramatic effect.

So, I suppose for now, we will call that a win. However, the fact that my recycling was not picked up AGAIN last Friday is a big tick in the losing column. It also was not picked up on Saturday. Or Monday. So based on my call with 311 a few weeks ago, I guess today is my last hope, other than waiting for my next scheduled day, Friday. At which point my bin will almost be overflowing.

I was also told that the contractor would provide reasons for missed pick-ups but that it could take up to 24 hours for that comment to be entered into the system. I requested that reason to be emailed to me, and it still hasn't been (and that's for the August 10th pick-up).

I know it may seem petty to be quite so obsessed with the garbage and recycling pick-up (not the bulky waste pickup, as I don't think anyone thinks that is unjustified) but it's a very steep, slippery, slope. Imagine if you will, in my slightly more crime infested neighbourhood that you need to put a easily meltable bin full of combustibles out for pick-up. Now, sure, you could get up at the crack of dawn so that it was out for the 7am start of collection, or, you could be like most people, and put it out the night before - and then toss and turn with every siren that drives by hoping that its not your bin (and then your fence/garage/house) on fire. Now imagine that it doesn't get picked up and you have to repeat that the next night. Imagine, that since some genius decided that the North End would have Friday pick up, this means that it might need to sit out on a Friday night to be picked up on Saturday instead because of a missed pick-up. Picture Friday night. Yup, way more bored, wandering youth who might decide to burn it (to be fair, that could probably be said for most neighbourhoods as I remember getting up to my fair share of trouble in Charleswood back in the day). I don't know about you, but I EXTRA don't want to get up at the crack of dawn on the weekend to put out my bins because some contractor was not doing his job the day before. I have emailed my City Councillor asking for details about the contract that they City has regarding these pick-ups, however, it has been a week and I still haven't gotten a reply (not even a "I'm looking into that for you"). Must be awesome to have a contract with no accountability.

How much of a stink do I make about it?

Pun intended.

Well, we've switched to the fancy new garbage carts on my street. I completely forgot to use it the first week that we could (August 3rd) because the autobins were still around and I was still using it. My recycling? Well, I just plain forgot to put that out, but that's nothing new - at least now the big cart holds two weeks worth.

So, enter week 2 (August 10). I put my carts out Thursday night and when I came home Friday after work, the garbage had been picked up, but not the recycling. I called 311, waited on hold for ages to talk to a real person, only to be told that the contractor had until 6pm to pick it up. It was 530. So, when of course it wasn't picked up at 6, I called back to lodge a complaint.

I was told that there were any number of reasons why the truck may have missed the pick up, however it could take up to 24 hours for the reason to be input into the system. I asked when I could expect it to be picked up. I was told to put it out on the next business day (Monday) and if it wasn't picked up on Monday it probably would be on Tuesday, but that if it wasn't picked up on Tuesday to just put it out on my next regular day (Friday). I would like to give that policy an official WTF?? So you're telling me, that if my garbage/recycling is missed, I have to wait TWO DAYS before it might be collected? Whose genius idea was it to have the North End have Friday as its pick up day? The part of town where stinky plastic bins are most likely to be set alight should wait an additional two days? If our pick up day was Monday, then in theory missed collections would be rectified on Tuesday.

Now, thankfully, my instinct told me to put the cart out again Saturday as I know from looking at the yearly schedule that they do indeed sometimes work Saturdays. It was picked up - but had I followed the advice of the 311 operator I would have been dragging it out Monday and Tuesday only to have it ignored. Now, I am an able bodied person so dragging the cart back in forth in summer is no big deal - what about my 95 year old neighbour? What about in winter when even for me it's not going to be easy, what with the giant snow rows that are created by the plows?

As well, with the removal of the autobins, there are spots all over the North End where it's very easy to see where they once were by the rubbish that surrounds the area. Before one of the bins near me was removed I called in a complaint about the bulky waste, being sure to be very specific about the type and quantity that was there. I called it in on a Thursday night and I was informed that since it hadn't been called in 48 hours before our new regularly scheduled bulky waste pick up day (also every Friday) it would be picked up the following week. It wasn't.

So not only is it completely ridiculous that I have to call it in, so that they can then send a City employee out to verify that it is what was called in (yes, that's right, there is a paid position that drives around to simply verify called in complaints. This person does not report any waste themselves, just drives right on by anything not on their list) but then they don't even pick it up???

Can you imagine if a regular person ran their business this way? They would go bankrupt in no time because of ridiculous business practices. "Hi there, I'd like to hire your to move my things to my new house" *patiently wait on the scheduled day of move, no one shows up, call movers* "Hi there, you were supposed to move me today?" "What? You will come maybe tomorrow or the next day, you don't really know?" "You expect me to still hire you and pay full price?" Yet, seemingly this is the way the contracts that the City has work. Cool. Remind me to bid on the next one as seemingly it doesn't really matter if I follow my contract.

Boundaries

Sigh. Well, looks like the North End is to blame again, even when it isn't. By now you've all heard about the story about the puppy found in a dumpster, but what I bet you didn't know is that Jefferson Ave. is in the North End. That's because it isn't. Although according to the Free Press story it is.

A little Rayne never hurt anyone, so why would someone toss the cute little puppy into a city Dumpster?
That's what staff at Winnipeg's Animal Services Agency -- and a whole bunch of Free Press online commenters -- are asking after the eight-week-old shepherd-collie mix was found wet and cold in a North End Dumpster last week.

...

Rayne was given medical care and vitamins, and "(has) been eating a lot while she's been here," said Gordon, noting the puppy has gained a pound in the few days since she was found in a dumpster on Jefferson Avenue.

Now, admittedly, I'm more sensitive to these sorts of things and although it would be hypocritical of me not to complain if this was a positive news story that was being pegged as the North End if it happened on Jefferson, I don't think that kind of mix-up generally happens the other way around. I don't know where exactly on Jefferson Rayne was found, but it was likely somewhere in West Kildonan or The Maples, NOT the North End.

However, I do have a North End quick story for ya. So last night, after finally falling asleep (I've somehow injured my rotator cuff I think, and boy, does it make everything uncomfortable, especially sleeping!) I was jolted back to life by a hard and fast pounding on the front door. My roommate was first to answer it, but it appears the police had been led to believe that someone at my residence was being stabbed. No idea where they got this thought, but they seemed content with my roommate's simple, "um, no" and went on their way, waking neighbours up across the street, trying to find a stabbing in progress. 5 police cars later, they all left, not having been able to figure out who was being stabbed. My roommate wondered as to where our "regular" cops were - the ones who have come to take statements on more than one occasion.  Must've been their night off.

It's finally here... sort of; Roof still caving in

A month or so ago I attended a meeting to talk about the new garbage collection system that will be going city-wide, but more specifically about here in the North End as they replace the aging autobins. I live tweeted the event, mostly because I couldn't just stand up an yell and shout like I wanted to (although that didn't stop one crazy dude who kept getting off track) and partly because I don't normally attend things that people might be interested in hearing updates from.

One of the pieces of information that I was most excited to hear about was the new "App" that the City was going to have for/about waste collection. One of the things I find most difficult with reporting bulky waste to 311 is the inane questions that I get back from the operators before they will submit my complaint "ok, so you say there is an abandoned sofa behind the address in question (because god forbid you don't give them a specific address), how many inches is it away from the alley? (because if they deem it to be on private property, you know, not FULLY in the lane even though it's clearly abandoned then they send a different department, who will issue an order, and then the resident of the house will move it the few inches into the lane, and then you have to call it in again to have it picked up...) Does the sofa have a floral print or is a solid colour? (ok, I may have made this one up, but I'm sure I'll be asked it one day) So, it was my belief based on what we were told at the meeting, that an App was on the way that would allow us to report these things direct from our phone, including sending photos!

Well, the App is here, but, disappointingly does not offer what I was hoping for. The majority of the links seem to direct you to contact 311, have no automatic link to have your phone dial it, and the email function is also not at all what I find user friendly. It will let you send an email only from your email address set up on your phone (which I don't have as I have had difficulty setting up my Hotmail/Gmail and having them sync with things in real time) which does not offer the option of attaching a photo even if I could manage to use it. What it really needs is a built in contact sheet, similar to what their website offers for contacting 311 that does not require you to send it from your email directly but just from that page. (I'm sure there is a technical term for that but I have no idea what it is.)

Notice there is not even a email link on this page, nor mention of abandoned wast

The App also does not make mention of what to do in the case of illegally abandoned waste and how someone might go about reporting that. To be fair, the City doesn't seem to have been the ones to develop this App, but they need to be sure they're getting their moneys worth from this "My Waste" company and have them help to tailor it to our community.

This whole thing brings me to an excellent example of how I would use this App, if it worked in the way I wanted to. Following up on the work of A Day in the Hood, it seems as though the house that has been collapsing upon itself since at least September 15th 2010 (MY first email to the City about this problem) still isn't fixed. Sure, the house has gotten some attention, it looks a lot better from the front street now, but why the heck is the back addition still in this condition?

The roof keeps falling down further, and further...

This house is not occupied and the person who owns the property owns numerous properties in the community - if the cost of dealing with the problem is too great, perhaps they can sell off a property or two to help with that. If this property was actually occupied (as a primary/only residence) I could see the City extending leniency to allow the owner to raise the funds needed to fix the problem however I see no reasonable reason for this problem to continue.

What's in a word?

A lot of blog traffic if that word is h00ker.

I've reached the point where I think I might go back and change all the correct spellings of the word to the mildly ironic version where the "00" could certainly be confused for a certain part of a h00kers anatomy. Over 65% of my all-time search results that brought people to my blog were some variation of people searching for where to get busy with a stranger here in our fair city. I am just grateful that I (Love Me Love My Winnipeg that is) make the top 3 search terms!

Now, while part of me just wants to leave the word, as is, so that all the these folks looking for love in all the wrong places (hint: Google is wrong place for finding street workers, you find them on streets and it's probably easiest to ask a suburban teen where in Winnipeg they are, as that is what legends of the bad parts of town are made of) end up reading my ramblings instead.

What do other bloggers think? How do you deal with this sort of thing?

****

So for those of you who were listening to CJOB (Richard Cloutier to be specific) in the last couple of weeks you may have heard me chatting about life in the North End and also about the garbage problem that shows no signs of going away. It was great to get to be a voice for what the neighbourhood is really like, I even heard from a man afterward who said that I helped to persuade him to consider the North End as a place suitable for his daughter to live after all.

Typical sight in my back lane, especially at this autobin

We still have a long way to go of course, especially in terms of eradicating the garbage (of both the human and litter variety) but I truly think it will happen. Right now my biggest concern with the litter is what is going to happen once they get rid of the autobins; at the moment they fit some of the bulky garbage, things like chairs and non-console tv's, where is that all going to go once the bins are gone? I predict a lot more emails to 311 - I think I'm probably going to become "oh... that girl again" - but what else am I supposed to do? Even just picking up the stray litter that is all over the place has netted me over two full garbage bags this year, what would I do if I had a large family and didn't have the room in my wheelie cart for that?

Sigh. On to happier things. Today is Transcona's 100th Birthday! I really really really hope there are 100 pink plastic flamingos on a boulevard or something!

It's a bit of a cliche to talk about the weather but...

...I really just can't help myself - it's so fantastic!! Shattering records all over the place, for days on end! It also meant that I saw neighbours that I haven't seen all winter as we all slowly shed our parkas and went out into our yards again. My yard is almost officially ready for spring, shame I have to wait a few months to put plants in. A few interesting things happened whilst out in the fresh air.

Since before I could really do anything I needed to clean up the winter garbage, I grabbed a bag and my ridiculous (but handy) garbage grabber thingy. Just on my corner, and extending two houses down, I picked up almost a bag full of garbage. Now, that in itself is not all that interesting, however, not finding any used condoms or condom wrappers says tons; clearly my street is on the upswing! Please note, suburbanites may not want to use this as a barometer for their neighbourhood.

After spending hours and hours raking up leaves (#$%^& poplar trees don't lose their leaves until the snow weighs them down) I then had the mammoth task of picking them all up. Enter random community encounter. One of the guys who picks scrap metal out of the autobins was hard at work in the back lane and I asked if perhaps he'd like to help me bag leaves and sweep along the curb (yes, I sweep along the curb - I take this house pride thing seriously!) for some cash instead. It was an unconventional way to meet a neighbour (turns out he even lives on my street) and saved me some back breaking labour, we'll call this another win.

Something I've been meaning to mention for a while but haven't had a chance, is, has anyone else noticed the distinct decline in crime in the North End this year? Of course, there is still crime, and just last night there was a violent incident in Lord Selkirk Park, but it seems as though after the "shot in the eye but wants to finish her beer lady" incident late last year that crime has shifted. Now, as I hold down two jobs, neither of which is in journalism, I have not tracked all of the violence in Winnipeg in 2012 so I don't have hard and fast stats to back this up. What I do have is the knowledge that as my radio wakes me up every morning with news reports and I wait for the inevitable North End street announcement following every "Police responded to a stabbing/robbery/arson/murder last night" I've been hearing a lot more from the south side of the bridge than usual. I suppose it could entirely just be my perception (and I was away for most of February...) but we all know I am a little sensitive to things be mislabeled as North End so my eagle (elephant?) ears are usually listening for mentions of my 'hood.

I had one more exciting thing happen this weekend, but I'll save it for another post, but a teaser is that it's another "small world" sort of story (and it involves me stalking the MLS, again). Gotta keep you wanting more ;)

Spring has sprung

For better or worse (mostly better) I think it is safe to say that spring has arrived!  It looks like 3 of the 4 mini lilacs that I planted last year survived the winter, the fourth may still pull through, so that is nice. The trees have wee little buds on them and although not really a huge fan of rain on the weekends, the snow/rain of the first weekend in May and then the rain of this past one seem to be doing wonders for greening things up.

A big heartfelt thanks to the folks who came out on Saturday for the St. John's Clean-up; two of the people I coerced into coming out won prizes (besides the obvious prize of my charming company) for their valiant efforts. I was also able to make sure my street probably got the most thorough cleaning, although that being said, it took 5 people two hours to clean just the front of about 6 blocks - the back lanes didn't even have a chance to get touched.

Spring is a great season because there is so much hope in the air; you see folks who you never normally see out in their yards cleaning up, wanting a fresh start and you can't help but feel like this is the year it's all going to be different. Sadly, in a few weeks, once the grass starts to grow much of the hope gets abandoned and too many people just give up again. With absolutely no scientific evidence behind this statement I think spring is the best time to suss out the absolute rottenest apples in the neighbourhood - if they can't be bothered in spring, if they don't have that initial burst of pride in their surroundings then there is basically no hope.

The house I was having a bit of a dilemma with has sprouted two broken windows since my last post, which can only lead to trouble. That being said, if only arsonists took requests.... It's one in a cluster of no so great houses, but there is hope on the horizon - I hear through the neighbourhood grapevine that the owner is thinking of tearing it down to build a nice shiny new house. Combine that with the other houses that are hopefully going to get some fix-up orders from the City and Voila! all should be good with one little section of the North End again.

Spring also means flowers. Oh how I love flowers! If you need flowers, please skip the Home Depot's and Wal-marts of the world and pick them up at a little family owned garden centre - I suggest the Jolly Green Thumb at 6905 Roblin Blvd - it's only about 100m outside the Perimeter, but there are dozens of them all around the city. Since Mother's Day came about as early as it can and spring has come about as late as it can come this year I didn't have my flowers out in time to have them stolen re-gifted to someone's mother. I know flowers get stolen in all part of town, if I had better googling skills you'd have links to the articles that have made the papers, so this isn't just another plague of the North End, but let me tell ya, it sucks when it happens.

Spring also means the neighbourhood gets a little rowdier. I'm at an awkward age - I'm very much an adult but not so old that I don't still almost remember what it's like to be a teenager. Being a homeowner makes the fist shaking "kids these days..." old person come out a lot but I try to remember that some of the stuff the kids are up to here is no worse than what we got up to in the suburbs. It doesn't make the petty vandalism or theft feel any better but I know that most of the kids I grew up with turned into mostly functioning members of society regardless of if they stole a garden gnome or two when they were young. 

Firecrackers were going off with abundance this weekend, which I hate mostly because they always turn into tales of "gunshots all the time" by "a neighbour who didn't want to be named" in the paper later on when they are reporting on some other crime. We used to do that in the suburbs a lot too, it was a big thing in the late 80's/early 90's to bring a bucketload of firecrackers back from the States (was it legal then? I'm so confused, because EVERYONE seemed to have them but now you can't bring them back, what gives?) and we'd shoot them off. So I mostly hate them not because life has come full circle and I am now the cranky adult but because every time I hear one I see a quote.

I am also excited for spring as it means outdoor projects can get underway for the year. Last year I painted the house (still hoping Google street view will come back for a new shot of the place!) and this year I am putting in a new sidewalk. One of the best things about living in the North End is that I got double the house at half the price so I get do way more projects than if I had bought elsewhere. Even with how property values have skyrocketed the North End is one of your best bets for value for money and a chance to be able to afford to personalize.

So now that spring is here, bring on summer!

Meet Winnipeg Girl this weekend!! (and other interesting things)

I know, I know, it's finally here - try to contain your excitement. This Saturday is the big cleanup in my neighbourhood! I know you all already have it in your calendars from when I first told you about it in procrastination post, but in case you *forgot* here are the details again: Meet at Ralph Brown Community Centre, 460 Andrews St. (but better directions would be at the corner of Machray and McGregor, it faces McGregor) at 10am this Saturday. There you can opt to pick a street/back lane to help clean or randomly be assigned one. Winnipeg Girl would love it very much if you would pick Boyd or College Ave. Hint hint.

After spending a mere two hours cleaning up, bags/gloves etc., provided, head on back to Ralph Brown at noon for a free BBQ and a chance to win some great prizes! Tips for how to make cleanups fun:

- Note the places where the most garbage comes from (McD's, Timmies, Dollarama, etc.) and mention it to their manager next time you visit the establishment. Or even better, write their corporate office
- Spot the by-law violation! Careful, this one is easy to get distracted by.
- Name that gang! This is a fun one for graffiti in back lanes - that being said we've cleaned a lot of it up. FYI, if you do ever find yourself with new "artwork" on your garage/fence, just pop on down to any police station and request a voucher for a free gallon of paint to paint it over. Unless you have biceps like tree trunks do not take the graffiti removal wipes. They require more elbow grease than you have. Trust me.
- Meeting new people - the cleanups really are a great way to meet some of your neighbours (or my neighbours if I'm dragging you in from elsewhere!)

Now, if garbage isn't really your thing I haven't been able to guilt convince you into coming out for the cleanup then maybe you're more up for a Jane's Walk. Although the timing and locations work out very nicely if you come to the cleanup and then head to one of the afternoon walks with a belly full of free food. Just sayin'....

Now next weekend also holds some exciting things, like the Giveaway Weekend, three cheers for free stuff! I mostly use it as an excuse to drive around my favourite neighbourhoods looking at the houses but free cool stuff is an added bonus. In fact the chair that my butt is currently plunked down on, and my knees for that matter (it's one of those fancy kneely chairs) is from the giveaway weekend last fall.

See you all on Saturday morning!!

It's all relative

*Reminder! Tomorrow, Saturday April 30th, 1 to 4pm, is the Community Clean-up in the West End. There are numerous starting points, the old Library (Ellice at Arlington) being one, see you there!*

So today I had occasion to spend a lot of time in one of Winnipeg's more marginalized neighbourhoods. But Winnipeg Girl, don't you live in a neighbourhood just like that? Good memory dear reader, why yes I do! However, I was in a neighbouring area and a few streets in that particular area made me feel an erroneous sense of superiority if even for a brief minute.

People are like that. In general we have ideas (right or wrong) in our heads as to what a particular neighbourhood is like and we make assumptions based on that. As I was on my very very long tour of said area I scolded myself for being a touch snobby, and I realized it's all relative. When I grew up in my extremely socially acceptable postal code and went to my sufficiently snobby high school I lived in the house that was the bane of the neighbour's existence. The grass didn't get mowed, the garbage cans didn't get taken in after garbage day, and at one point we had a goat in the backyard. No really, we did. For the record, I am adopted and am mortified to this day over the actions of my parents, but I digress.

Now, otherwise the house was in good repair, the eavestroughs were up and functional, the paint wasn't peeling and we didn't have any broken windows, nor did we run drugs out the back door (of course in the suburbs that would be tough without the back lanes), these are all pretty common things in my current area. I recently had a friend over from London, England - you know the place you are all PVRing to watch the nuptials of Kate and William (oh the Royal Wedding! How exciting! What an obvious attempt at tricking random googling folks into reading my blog!) and she was completely surprised that I live in the worst* part of town. Had I not informed her she would have thought I lived in a fairly average area. Why? Because dropped in London, my street would be pretty close to average. Some houses need repair, some look cute and tidy, garbage everywhere... If you've never been to London it's baffling how dirty it is - in EVERY part of town.

So now that I live in a not so great part of town (or so the media tells me), my perceptions have changed a bit. However, to a person from the suburbs the subtle differences between where I live and a "worse" part may not be so obvious. But Winnipeg Girl, what is with your hate-on for "the suburbs"?? Nothing really, but it's easier than singling out one particular neighbourhood, and hey, I know it'll take at least a 1/2 hour to get here if any of them want to come after me. Ba dum dum ching!

Now that being said, just because you live in a not so great place is not an excuse to treat it poorly, two wrongs don't make a right. I saw some absolutely great looking rooming houses today and they looked that way in part because the tenants chose to care. I also saw some very scary looking houses that were probably owner occupied.

So I will finally bring myself around to a genuine point of sorts. Yes, Winnipeg has some absolutely deplorable housing and people live in it, for any number of reasons. Maybe they came from a place that had no indoor plumbing and a housing stock that is even worse and that house you call a slum is an improvement. Maybe they were homeless. If you think about it, it's all relative.


*to be fair, I usually say I live in the medium worst part of the worst part of town, I don't deserve the street cred for living in the totally worst part of town.

Procrastinators of the world unite....fail?

I think they might kick me out of the procrastinators club.  I actually got a bunch of stuff done off my "to do" list this weekend.  The garage door now locks (probably should've done that one a bit sooner!), frosted the glass on the bathroom door (why it was clear in the first place I'm not sure, house came that way - that one has been on the list for, ahem, 5 years), took some pictures of stuff and put it on kijiji, put an owl on the roof so that the freaking pigeons might actually stay away, watched a movie that I had borrowed from a friend.... there were other things I'm sure but it was such a busy weekend I don't even remember them all now!

Example of what gets left by bins

Moving day

I suppose one other thing that I usually do in bits and pieces but I decided to do a blitz on (as inspired by A Day in the Hood) was to report some by-law infractions. I went down two back lanes in my neighbourhood (about six blocks worth of each) and came up with THIRTY FIVE separate addresses to report to 311, many with multiple items/violations. Now, this wasn't me getting all picky and looking for the most minor of infractions, this was mostly bulky garbage in back lanes or piled up in back yards. A total of 15 couches/loveseats, 36 mattresses and about 8 extremely derelict cars (broken windows, up on blocks, sunken into ground etc).  All of that from just two back lanes (about 12 blocks total). Can you imagine if I was looking for dangling eavestroughs and peeling paint?!

Since I think I may have invited folks over for a BBQ when I visited the Winnipeg Internet Pundits show last week, let me revise that invite slightly - I will be taking part in the St. John's Community Clean-up on Saturday May 7th and I would like to ask you to come.  The clean-up starts at 10am (varying start points, TBA) and will have a wind-up at noon at Ralph Brown Community Centre (corner of McGregor and Machray) that will have a BBQ or some other sort of food goodness.  How does this tie in to my post you ask? Simple. Do not procrastinate and think "oh that sounds good, I should do that, I'll remember this" or "neat, what a great idea to get to see the North End and meet Winnipeg Girl, it's so important I know I won't forget". Stop. Take out your phone and go to the little calendar function. I'll wait. Okay, now put in an event or whatever you call it with your phone and put in an alarm for 9am on Saturday May 7. It should say this: Get butt out of bed, explore Winnipeg and help clean it up - go to North End to help Winnipeg Girl and her community. Now.

See how easy that will be? For those of you who don't use a mobile phone (?!) get out your pen and write it on the calendar on your wall that you got from your insurance place or wherever it is that people still get wall calendars. DON'T PROCRASTINATE!!  If you're good and show up maybe next time I'll have the BBQ at my place (and my place has steaks and beer and Bailey's, mmm.... Bailey's)