#LoveLocke but….

Advanced warning, this one is likely to be long.

So recently there was a story in Hamilton about a masked mob marching down Locke Street throwing bricks through shop windows, and vandalizing cars. I have to admit I’ve had some mixed feelings about all this, my first reaction was they were gutless cowards that were not advancing any dialog.

I had a long discussion with my friend Nick, and as usual he opened my eyes a bit to some thoughts on this. He doesn’t always change my mind, but he often challenges me to look at things from different perspectives and that was the case here.

While I still fully disagree with their actions, I do not disagree with the offenders position. The idea that Hamilton, and from outward appearances, most of the world is still ignoring poverty. City leaders talk a lot about attracting investors, developers and business, but they don’t talk a lot about addressing the poverty that plagues the city, and the impact the relatively fast expansion Hamilton is experiencing has on the lower income people in the city.

One and a half years ago we were informed that our landlord was selling the house we lived in and we had to move. After a couple of months of looking at terrible duplexes in run down neighbourhoods for $1,300 a month, and nicer homes in nicer neighbourhoods for $2,000+ a month, we moved to St. Catharines. Now, we’re lucky. I am a freelance web developer, my wife is a chef. We can literally live anywhere that has internet connectivity, not everyone is so lucky.

Hamilton is quickly becoming unaffordable and it doesn’t seem anyone cares.

But we care about donuts!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am certainly not picking on Donut Monster, they do good things and they should be proud of themselves for being contributing members of Hamilton’s community.

My issue here, and my reason for writing this, is the outcry over this incident on Twitter primarily. The fact there was this big coming together of the city to support the businesses on Locke Street. The #LoveLocke movement.

This was nice to see. Then I started thinking more. Hundreds of tweets, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of people, out supporting businesses on a rather affluent street.

Let me go off topic here for a second, this was the major misconception of the mob to begin with. Locke is not some shining example of gentrification. I am 50 years old. Locke has ALWAYS been affluent, it has always been the area for the niche expensive shops where people went to spend a special afternoon. It isn’t what it is because of recent changes to Hamilton, it’s always been that way, so it was a stupid target to begin with.

Anyway, back on topic.

Tons of outcry to support a neighbourhood that honestly… doesn’t really need your support. This isn’t to vilify the residents or shop owners in the area, but face it it IS affluent. The shops there aren’t cheap, they aren’t generally struggling to survive and cater to an upscale clientele.

Where is this support for the people being driven from their homes because they can no longer afford to live in the city where they’ve spent their entire lives? Where is the outrage?

I mentioned on Twitter that I thought this was really nice that people were doing this, but asked how many of the businesses benefiting from this were doing anything to help the poverty situation in Hamilton. I got one response by a person saying she believed at least 2 were donating to Indwell.

Two. These businesses were seeing a major influx of potential customers based on public outcry over an “injustice”, and all the while, no one, not one person I saw on Twitter was talking about WHY this happened to begin with.

I’m now saddened by all this. I still do not support the methods of the mob. What they did was indiscriminate violence and I cannot condone that, but in all this the message was lost entirely and there was a ton of energy supporting local business in an affluent part of town, and still ignoring the message.

People are homeless and starving in Hamilton. Being driven from their homes and no one cares.

Money talks.

#HamOnt Twitter users. You want to impress me? Spend as much effort as you did supporting #LoveLocke on supporting those that are losing their homes, that are struggling to meet rent and their bills, that have to decide between hydro and food.

They may not be as visible or pretty a subject, but in my opinion they are far more important than supporting any business owner.

PS. This vandalism of shops has happened in lots of neighbourhoods, oddly those got no real news. I honestly hope it’s because of the whole mob angle and not because they were just less affluent neighbourhoods and therefore less attractive people to support.