Lofty Ideals

[bcholmes]

So I've been looking at lofts, recently. I've had this quasi-fantasy of moving into a loft for a while, now, and I've been looking at various lofts in the city. Online browsing. Occasional wandering by the loft neighbourhoods.

The other day, I saw that someone had written "Toronto needs affordable housing -- not more lofts!" in spray paint on a concrete barrier in front of a new loft construction site. And, hey, I really agree with that.

Siobhan and I were talking the other day about Tent City and about how nobody knows that it's there. In an age when everyone knows who Julia Roberts is dating, the media has almost nothing to say about Tent City.

But I'm still shopping for a loft. Despite my pinko-commie ideals, I still live like a yuppie.

My friend, Debbie, was talking about this at WisCon: "You have to set your own personal boundaries." She talked about Ian, and how he will only work for non-profit organizations. But I'm a long way from that.

There've been a lot of things I've been meaning to do. Contribute to the New Democratic Party. Up my contributions to my favourite charity. Become more informed about municipal politics. Write my MP and my MPP about the Dudley George case. But I just haven't. Harold Nicholson once said we were inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals and others by their acts. My acts aren't living up to my ideals.

Comments

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

H.

How about affordable lofts?

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

"You have to set your own personal boundaries" can mean a lot of things; most importantly, it can mean choosing the battles that you want to fight for reasons that you want to fight them.

What can be said about the Tent City? "It's bad"? Does affordable housing happen the same place loft projects go? Or is affordable housing only affordable in places that aren't worth much anyway? Gentrifcation and increasing property values are bad things?

Yeah, doing the things one intends to do are good things. Those are battles that can be fought, at least at the level you're talking about.

The Non-Profit Gig

[snickerpuss.livejournal.com]

Who can say what will happen to me in the future, but personally, I'd like to think that I might continue to work in the non-profit sector for the rest of my life - that's just because I'm a selfish babe. I mean, now that I've experienced working in a job where I feel like the work I'm doing is actually worth something, where I feel like I get the chance to help people, and make a difference in my community... it's pretty addictive. Of course, you have to not mind being broke. :)

Not that I don't understand where you're coming from; I've been busy helping folks to read, but haven't recycled a damn thing in about three years. Not to mention the land-fill full of take-out cartons that's building up just outside of town, courtesy of moi.

I think it's good to keep thinking about these things, though, even if we're not living up to our own ideals. It's when we allow ourselves to forget...