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The Forest City Capitalist: The beginning of the end of downtown London

Since its last failed attempts at this social engineering scheme in 1980, and then again in 2008, called a "pedestrian mall", the City of London in 2018 has succeeded in forcing through its $15.6 million Dundas Place "Flex Street" on Dundas Street that is only a few blocks away from the almost identical "busway mall" fiasco location of 1974. Changing the names does not change what it is.

In 1974, City Council approved the plan for a "bus mall" on Dundas Street. Dundas Street from Adelaide Street to Elizabeth Street was closed to car traffic that was diverted to King Street and Queens Avenue. This road closure destroyed the retail trade of this area within a couple of years. The disastrous "busway mall", that the City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars constructing, was removed in a few years, but the area's economy never recovered. Hudon's was an appreciable retail store put out of business. The Hudson's old store sign is still visible on its former building located a 609 Dundas Street East. Phase I of the London Urban Transportation Study published in 1974 had recommended that the Dundas Street busway plan be extended from downtown to Quebec Street.

Currently, an entire downtown section of Dundas Street is completely closed as the area undergoes

Watermain replacement / repair, Utility repair / upgrade, Removal and replacement of bus shelter, Asphalt replacement / repair, Sidewalk installation / repair

until November when the construction is completed.

I expect the merchants downtown to be hit hard financially as customers will not be able to access their stores during this construction, and the effects of this "Flex Street" will cause a devastating loss of business to the already failing downtown core.

I am most certain the City wants to drive all the merchants out of downtown London so the City planning administration can have full control over downtown to do with it as they like, and not what the people who live and work downtown want. Closing Dundas Street in the downtown core to vehicle traffic with this "Flex Street" plan will not "revitalize" or "renew" downtown it will kill it completely. Most people do not shop in areas without vehicle traffic because the area feels dead and deserted. Walk around the streets during the early morning of the weekend, or on a public holiday, of any area where shops are located to know this feeling. The part of Dundas Street that is not closed for construction is almost completely deserted of vehicles and people. This is a indication of the future of downtown London.

This “Flex Street”, when completed, will be like an atomic bomb dropped on the economy of the downtown core, and like what is now derided as “East of Adelaide” where the 1974 "busway mall" was, downtown will never recover from this impending socialist ruination.

© Trevor Dailey

What I think of International Workers' Day

What will this new social order have to be like?

Above all, it will have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole – that is, for the common account, according to a common plan, and with the participation of all members of society.

It will, in other words, abolish competition and replace it with association.

Moreover, since the management of industry by individuals necessarily implies private property, and since competition is in reality merely the manner and form in which the control of industry by private property owners expresses itself, it follows that private property cannot be separated from competition and the individual management of industry. Private property must, therefore, be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of all instruments of production and the distribution of all products according to common agreement – in a word, what is called the communal ownership of goods.

In fact, the abolition of private property is, doubtless, the shortest and most significant way to characterize the revolution in the whole social order which has been made necessary by the development of industry – and for this reason it is rightly advanced by communists as their main demand.

Source: Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels

"We are socialists. We are enemies of today’s capitalistic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions.” - Adolf Hitler, May 1, 1927.

"We ask that the government undertake the obligation above all of providing citizens with adequate opportunity for employment and earning a living.  The activities of the individual must not be allowed to clash with the interests of the community, but must take place within its confines and be for the good of all.  Therefore, we demand an end to the power of the financial interests.  We demand profit sharing in big business.  We demand a broad extension of care for the aged.  The government must undertake the improvement of public health." - Nazi (National Socialist German Workers' Party) platform adopted in Munich in February, 1920.

Source: The Nazis Were Marxists


How much money do you want to do some work?

When I go grocery shopping, I usually go to the same grocery store from my apartment, or if I am working, the closest grocery store to my place of work. Today, it was the closest grocery store to my apartment. The grocery store is a unionized store. What that means is the employees there get paid more than Ontario’s high minimum wage that is currently at $14.00 per hour. A high wage is an incentive employers can give employees to work harder and be more productive. At least, that is how is used to be before high minimum wage laws.

One would think getting paid such a high wage, more than the job is really worth, would inspire the employees who are in charge of stocking the shelves to do more than what is expected of them. In my experience, that would not be correct.

Every time I go to this store, no matter what day or time, the store is a mess. Empty shelves, low stock, merchandise on shelves in disarray, product left by customers not put back in its proper place, empty boxes on shelves and on the floor, etc.

I witnessed a lady placing apples into a plastic produce bag the store supplies. The bag broke, and the apples spilled out onto the floor. She was upset over this because she lost her apples, she was embarrassed, and the fruit was likely bruised from hitting the floor. There were a couple of store employees, shelf stockers, who were starting their break and were walking by when this happened. They stood and stared. Not one of them assisted this woman, a customer.

Yes it was their break time, but they still work at the store and they could have taken less than the one minute it would have taken to assist the woman and say some words to let her know it was not her fault and it was not a big deal. Instead they just stood and gawked.

When one has not earned the wage one is being paid, one tends not to want to do much work for the wage one is being paid.

© Trevor Dailey

Another kind of colour blind

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

“I Have A Dream…” Speech by the Rev. Martin Luter King Jr. at the “March on Washington”, 1963.

 

 

 

There is no political spectrum

Imagine a roadway that is divided into two separate lanes by a solid painted line along its middle. There is a right lane, there is a left lane. Imagine one is driving along this roadway in one of the two lanes, and one crosses over the dividing line into the other lane.

One is now travelling in a new lane, and one is no longer travelling in the other lane. One may only travel in the right lane or the left lane. One may not drive along the line because this is not a lane. There is no centre lane.

One can not drive in two lanes at once, nor drive more in one lane, or partially drive in another. There are only two lanes: Right and Left.

I think Lindsay may just be begining her journey along this imaginary roadway.

© Trevor Dailey

Just Right #510 - June 22, 2017 - The broken political compass

Just Right #513 - July 13, 2017  - Repulsion – Left meets Right

Just Right #535 - December 14, 2017 - Left right out: A valid 'political spectrum' analysis

Just Right #550 - April 5, 2018  - 'Unpacking' the Left and Right

Just Right #562  - June 28, 2018 - Still getting it wrong about Left and Right

Just right # 563 - July 5, 2018 - Fascism, force, and the Left

The Internet did not kill radio

Newspaper image via Allan Weiner, WBCQ The Planet.  (April, 2018)

How many people listen to shortwave radio?

The truth is that there are no worldwide surveys to determine the number of listeners to a particular shortwave station, or to shortwave radio in general. It would simply be too expensive and time-consuming to undertake these kinds of surveys. The number of letters that a station receives is really no accurate indication of its listenership either, since this is often affected by factors such as contests, giveaways, the literacy levels in different countries, listeners' abilities to afford international postage costs, their propensity to write to radio stations in general, etc. Some of the larger government-funded shortwave stations like the BBC and the Voice of America have been able to fund local surveys in certain countries to determine listenership rates. These weekly listenership figures range from less than 1% up to 30% or more of the population of a given city or country, depending on the availability of shortwave receivers and the availability of alternative programming on local radio stations. Shortwave listenership is generally higher in countries where the domestic media are largely government-controlled, or where there is a desire to hear programs from countries which the domestic media do not provide. The BBC and the Voice of America have estimated their worldwide audiences at as much as 200 million per week. Not many stations have all of the technical facilities or the number of languages that these government-funded stations have, but even if they only have a small percentage of the BBC's and VOA's audiences, these are still very significant numbers. 

SOURCE: National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters

Radio Canada International: Canada’s Voice to the World

RCI ends shortwave broadcast  (June 26, 2012)

© Trevor Dailey

Tracking down radio transmissions

In Canada, the USA, and likely other countries in the world, there are Family Radio Service (FRS) and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) capable portable two-way radios. These average 1 or 2 mile maximum range “walkie-talkies” as many people call them are free for the public to use without a government issued licence. They can be bought in many retail stores. For the past couple of weeks, my scanner receiver has been tuned to these FRS/GMRS frequencies. There is not much activity that I hear except two groups that I am now attempting to find out who and where they are.

These two groups broadcast each day, but they do not broadcast frequently. Both are some kind of business as the radio users are employees. They have not yet said anything over the radio that I can use to identify them. All I know for sure so far is that they must be fairly close by because the radios they are using are not long range. Probably within a couple of city blocks. Not all transmissions are clear, so that also makes me guess where they could be coming from.

To assist me in my search, I have the audio from my scanner recorded by my computer through Audacity having it set in the “sound activation recording” mode. This way I can listen to all the recorded transmissions in a few minutes and pick out any clues I might hear. I can also listen again to hard to hear transmissions. What is annoying is there are many radio "call" transmissions recorded.

Another thing I can do is walk around with my scanner and earphones where I suspect these people could be. I may be able to identify them this way.

It is a fun game that kind of makes me feel like an investigator, or a spy, or somthing sometimes.

UPDATE: I think I may have identified one. A new transmission was heard. I keep listening.

© Trevor Dailey