The difference a few blocks make

Last week I wrote about crime and safety at Bloor and Lansdowne. I mentioned that I became more aware of problems along Bloor when I started meeting people who live closer to that street. Today I went for a walk with one of my friends who lives near Bloor and who in the past has had to cope with drug addicts and prostitutes using the laneway behind her garage.

I asked her about what I had written. I was interested in her opinion because she's closer to the problem than I am. While we were talking I suggested that some of the things people worry about are more of a nuisance than a safety issue. She responded by telling me about coming home one evening shortly after she moved here and finding drug addicts sitting in front of her garage. When she blinked her car lights to get them to move they were reluctant. She said she found that scary and I can see why.

Her story brought back my own memories of going on evening walks with people from DIG IN and always seeing a large group of drug addicts congregating at the laneway entrance on St. Clarens just north of Bloor. It's intimidating when a group of rough-looking people are blocking the route people use to get to their garages. That was two years ago when we had a particularly bad summer. As I wrote last week, things have improved dramatically since then though there still are problems.

This conversation with my friend was a reminder of how much difference there can be in the space of two city blocks. I live north of Wallace and while there are problems sometimes - over the years our garage has been broken into more than once - I haven't had the same dramatic experiences as my friends closer to Bloor.

The conversation also brought home to me something else I think about from time to time: it's hard to know a neighbourhood well. When I tell people I grew up in the area they usually assume I know a lot about it. That makes a certain amount of sense. It's hard to live in the same neighbourhood for fifty years without learning something; yet, almost every day I am reminded of how little that something actually is. My view of Bloor and Lansdowne is largely shaped by the particular spot where I live and it's easy to forget that people who live just two blocks away from me have very different experiences. It's almost as if we live in different neighbourhoods.