The following email was sent to the Friends of Christie Pits Park:
Your dump site and how it got there here.
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:27:15 -0700 From: Subject: Your dump site and how it got there To:
Dear Friends of Christie Pits,
Your reputation precedes you and your website shows your vitality.. Of all people involved in the current city dispute, you deserve some truth.
For obvious reasons I cannot identify myself. Let's just say I work with City of Toronto management. My role over the last few months has been as a " special consultant - risk management". I have had the job, with others, of determining where the temporary garbage dumps go. I have found this work disgusting in its political cynicism and preferential treatment, and have thankfully engineered my way out of that work group for the time being. My cheques are cashed, so to speak.
Christie Pits was NOT chosen simply because of the superficial environmental excuses that were given.
Your area was chosen because we analyzed your income levels, voting behaviours and ethnicity and decided you would be a soft touch.
Using the city's privileged data, we looked at property tax payments. business licensing levels in the neighbourhood and the financial background documents they would provide such as tax returns, voter turnout records as well as some more cofnidential information ' on loan ' from strategic communications and other levels of government, as well as candidates and parties re: political contributions. The councillors in each ward are given a head's up also, and are allowed a veto if they think a neighbourhood is too important for their re-election to be dumped on now, so to speak. It is an arm's length process only superficially - enough so that the councillors and mayor can cover their asses.
So you have garbage and stench there now because you are not rich enough, not white/anglo enough, don't vote enough, don't contribute enough to the right election campaigns and are otherwise not a threat for reasons that have nothing to do with whether your "site is suitable".
I have my fingerprints all over this process for other areas so have to be careful in what I say. But rest assured, if you check some 'potential' dump sites in other more affluent or homogeneous parts of the city, you will find no garbage there. Interesting, huh....
I have vowed I will not be sucked into this cesspool again. This kind of cynical and secret deliberation is not why I got into the field of urban affairs many years ago, but it will surely hasten my departure.
Don't be afraid to speak up. Something really IS going on and it is appalling to those with a conscience. Sorry to say I did not stop it.
R.
Comments
2009-07-21 11:47:06 DISCLAIMER: It is prudent to hesitate in accepting anonymous emails as fact, especially this one which makes very serious allegations, without offering hard evidence. Nevertheless, numerous people are in receipt of the above, it is already in circulation. Asking soft questions such as why some parks are chosen and others not, remain valid questions and the answers thus far have been unsatisfactory to great many number of Torontonians.
