No. 4: Germinating
All things housing co-ops! Rooftop gardens and community building.
Hey heckling hawks,
Why hawks? A hawk has taken perch on the building our apartment window faces. Mat (my partner) swore he saw it eat a pigeon. I recognize people are bored, but I wish they didn’t throw bird seed and random bread buns for the pigeons persist and swarm our narrow sidewalk.
The weather is improving (gradually, up and down), which brings up my mood considerably. I dream of warmth and patio weather and careless days of soaking up the sun. Soon.
I want to garden; it feels like it is time to germinate seeds for seedlings. We weren’t able to last year, as our building shut down our rooftop garden due to COVID-19 measures (frustrating, as we very well could have done it socially distant, in shifts, and it’s all outdoors). Unfortunately, I feel like they may not let us garden again this year (and Mat and I are considering moving for a variety of reasons)… so alas, must figure out my urban agriculture dreams again.
Anyways, things are weird. There’s so much uncertainty about “recovery”, vaccinations, when we’re going to see (and hug!) each other again. I am feeling a tad overcommitted lately, but am going to try to slow down as we move into summer. Plus, for those following along, there’s an added pressure, as people are circulating rumours about a federal election in 2021. I cannot say I’m leaning one way or another, as I want absolute confirmation before making a decision. It’s extremely challenging to put your life on hold for snap elections.
OK, that’s enough moping from me — let’s move on to the exciting stuff!
HOUSING & CLIMATE JUSTICE
either or both or taxing the rich
For the last few months, I’ve been part of a grassroots community group: the “More Co-operative Housing Collective”. We are part co-op housing members, part community members who desperately would love to live in a co-op.
Tomorrow, we’re launching our first public event “Let’s Grow the Co-op Housing Movement” (RSVP asap if you haven’t done so!).
For those who may not know, I lived in the Kingston Student Housing Co-operative for 3 years during my undergraduate (and was on the Board for two years). I love the model and the commitment to co-operative values. As many of us are renters concerned about rising rents, the co-op model offers us a solution to the profit-driven motives of landlords in this heavily financialized housing system. In our co-op, the Board could not raise rents without a vote by the membership at a general meeting, often with a presentation of the co-op’s finances. I’ve canvassed a number of the incredible Toronto housing co-ops, found several I would absolutely love to live in, and then found that their waitlists are endlessly long and thus impossible to join.
As with most things, it’s not acceptable to just assume that our government will move the needle on this — although many of the Toronto co-ops were built in the 1970’s with federal funding. So this is our initial convening to see who’s tried to make a new co-op in the last decade, assess opportunities and challenges, and figure this shit out. Co-ops aren’t perfect (are there examples of ones that are deeply affordable for the long-term? What is the relationship between co-ops and social housing?), but they’re pretty fantastic when we consider the market-based housing system as an alternative.
Moving on! In the climate space, I have three articles and an event to share:
“Energy efficiency programs can change the energy poverty conversation” —This is a cool deep dive into “energy poverty” by Efficiency Canada, particularly as it looks at narratives surrounding energy poverty by major news outlets. More reason for better local alternative media!
“2020 Changed Everything About Climate Justice” (Vice) - Perspectives from youth climate justice activists. I know we want to leave 2020 in the past, but it’s good to reflect on how we got to where we are now.
“Canada needs a major housing investment to ensure health, climate, job security” — This is paywalled, so I will admit I was reluctant to share the article because I haven’t read it … but I do really want to read it, so please let me know if you can get access to it and figure out what some federal climate advocacy looks like.
Grassy Narrows Virtual Campaign Launch: Saturday, March 27, 2PM | Online Event. — Grassy Narrows community members are launching a new phase of the campaign for mercury justice; they have turned this a decades-long injustice into a national issue. In solidarity.
TORONTO
life, activism, politics
Haha, fooled you, back to housing co-ops…
I wanted to share a few photos of the coolest co-op housing rooftop garden in Toronto (that I know of! Thank you Anthony for bringing this beautiful space to my attention). I haven’t had the fortune to visit in person, but I hope I will befriend a resident one day.
Drumroll…. It’s the Hugh Gardener Housing Co-operative rooftop garden.
If you want a fun little scavenger hunt (click the images to go to the source URLS), find the concrete frog.
Maybe I’ll make this a series. Check out more Gardens of Distinction at housing co-ops. Send me your favourites.
What else? Hmm… I have nothing new to yell at City Council or the Mayor about, just ongoing issues (e.g. tiny shelters).
And while jobs are weird (we should not dream of labour! capitalism wants us to think this is the core of our identities but it is not!)… here are some impactful Toronto-area job postings (climate and/or housing related):
Property Asset Manager - The (Parkdale) Neighbourhood Land Trust
Climate Change Coordinator - City of Mississauga
Building Environmental Researcher - The Atmospheric Fund (TAF)
Organizer (in membership, education, and leadership training) - Worker’s Action Center
Lastly, my friend, Ian, made a substack “Sprawl Crawl” for Hamilton folks. Someone asked me recently if other cities have the equivalent of Matt Elliot’s City Hall Watcher. I don’t follow other cities as closely, but I think Ian’s newsletter could be promising. I’m also including it because we made a pact to publicly shame each other for not posting more frequently (sorry it’s been a month!), haha. OK but in all seriousness, this project has made me so much more appreciative of those who regularly create content (podcasts, blogs, youtube, wherever!) to make sense of current events and political organizing. It’s hard stuff.
Cheers, xoxo, and in solidarity,
Diana