RIP Jack Layton

I heard a comedian a few months ago. One of his lines was that when Canadians get angry, they write letters. It was funny when he said it. My delivery is somewhat lacking. But, we write letters. When we get really ticked off, we write letters.
And Jack Layton was no different. To the end, he fought for what he believed in. He spoke his mind. And in the end, he wrote a letter.
He wrote a letter just two days prior to his death. It ended with this message:

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world.

Words to live by, I think.
No matter what your politics, I am sure you would agree that Jack Layton was a good guy and will be sadly missed.
In memory of Jack Layton, lets keep optimistic, share hope and love, and lets change the world.

One Year Anniversary Of "A Day In The Hood"

It was on this day last year that I starting writing "A Day In The Hood". Wow, has it been that long? Or Wow, I can't believe it has only been one year. So much has happened. And so much has been documented.
But what, if anything has really changed for the better?
I would have to say my writing has improved.
Here it is .... the post that started it all. In memory of that day, the day I got so mad, I started a blog.

A day in the hood in Winnipeg

I looked out my door on August 21 as I was getting ready to go out for the day. To the right of me, at the end of street was a police car. It was blocking traffic from going down the side street. Behind the police car was the swat team truck, and there was an ambulance sitting on the street as well.
Wasn't it just yesterday when there was an ambulance and two police cars on our street? It was to the left yesterday, so it was not the same issue. And it was yesterday when a guy in a half ton truck stopped at our dumpster to deposit his garbage. Apparently he feels it is his right to use our residential dumpster to deposit his door and metal construction scrap. He even told us to clean up our back lane and be happy that he is putting garbage in our dumpster.
Oh ya, and the day before that we had another guy come to the dumpster to drop off his construction material. He said he does have a dump truck, but the Brady Landfil charges him to dump garbage so he prefers to use the dumpsters in the north end.
The night before that our neighbours decided to bring their loud swearing, and screaming into their backyard. They started partying at about 2pm, but took the party inside while it rained. I guess the rain stopped by 4am, because that was when I woke up. I did call the police about the noise after a full half hour of screaming being heard, even after I closed the window. But the police are too busy with more violent activities to respond to a neighbourhood who cannot sleep.
If it was the only night we were without sleep, I would not be so upset. But it seems that every night that it is nice, either the rooming house / crack house or the duplex beside it is partying.
Well, I am mad and I am not going to take it anymore.
What I just mentioned was a small picture of my neighbourhood.
I am going to start writing about the activities in my neighbourhood. I don't know if it will do anything, or promote any kind of change, but it will allow me to get it off my chest.
In my wildest dreams maybe it will assist in some small way to help change the laws that allow the many issues to continue. Maybe we can have the "catch and release" of criminals changed to catch and discipline.

Feral Cats Attacking Dogs

We have cats on our block. I am not talking about those Cougars found in Transcona. I am talking about kitty cats. But they are not your ordinary kitty cats. These are animals that are running loose in the streets and alleys. I can't tell you how many different cats go through my yard on a daily basis, but there are a number of them. Some are missing ears, one was seen looking really beat up, with no hair left on it's tail. These are not ordinary house cats. They are not pets. They don't let you get too close to them.
And we have neighbours that care about the stray cats. They feed them, and they don't want the cats trapped. For some reason, these feral stray cats are considered to be treasured kitty cats that need to be taken care of.
But, I am not sure that is the right way of viewing the feral cats.
In the last three weeks, I have heard  of three separate neighbours recount stories of feral cats attacking their dogs. One neighbour spent over $400 at the vet stitching a gash closed in the side of her poor pet dog. Another neighbour had her dog traumatized by the attack, while she took her leashed dogs for a walk. The third dog I heard about second hand, and don't have a lot of detail on.
The way I see it, we should be taking care of the pets we own. You know the kind. The ones you can approach without loosing an eye. The ones you take inside, or keep in a fenced yard or on a leash. We should not be feeding feral, dangerous stray animals. And we should not view these feral animals as cute little pets that need to be saved.
For those who don't want to hear it, close your ears or stop reading now.
It is time we got these feral animals under control.
STOP FEEDING FERAL ANIMALS.
Next time it might be your kids that are attacked by these animals, or it just might be YOUR dog that gets its side ripped open by the feral animals you are feeding.
I am sorry to be so harsh about this, but it just ticks me off when I keep hearing about yet another dog getting attacked by a feral cat.
Or at least that's the way I see it, as I chase feral cats from my yard, in the North End of Winnipeg.

The Pipes Broke And Landlord Wouldn't Fix It

I read an article in the Winnipeg Free Press today, Nobody should be living like this, and it reminded me of a tenant I once had.
Now, I don't know what happened with the people mentioned in the Free Press today. Nobody really knows but those intimately involved. But I know what happened to me.
I had a tenant a few years back. He was a nice guy. He had a job. And he rented the suite above me. Our house is a duplex, we were living on the main floor, and we rented the upstairs suite. Or at least that's the way it used to be, back when this particular guy lived here.
One day I noticed a ripple in the wall in my kitchen. I thought it was a bit odd, and didn't remember seeing it there before. The next day the ripple was larger, and there were more ripples developing. It quickly became apparent that something was wrong, and it was coming from upstairs. We paid our tenant a visit, and had a look at his bathroom. The sink was leaking. It was leaking so bad that the rug in front of his sink was soaking wet. I asked if he was aware that his sink was leaking. And I asked if he was aware that the rug in front of his sink was soaking wet. He was. He said he didn't want to bother us.
I explained to this tenant that the water was running down the wall in our kitchen. I said it was wrecking our house. And I told him to please bother us when something isn't working. And please bother us when there is water all over the floor. Again, I told him that the water leak was wrecking the house. We got a bucket for the sink, until we could get it fixed properly. And we asked him to keep an eye on the water in the bucket when using the sink.
Next thing I know, a few months later, there was a strong odor of cat feces. I mentioned this to the tenant. I asked if maybe he needed to empty his litter box. He said no, it was clean. The odor continued. Finally, I said I wanted to have a look at the apartment. We went in, and found the entire apartment covered in cat feces. It was up the stairwell, and on the floor in all of the rooms.
His cats looked sick as well. One was missing an eye, they both seemed riddled with lice. I asked that he do something about the cats, and get the place cleaned up, fast.
We also noticed a huge ice dam behind the entrance door. It was surrounding the drain pipe from his kitchen sink. We asked how long it has been like that. He didn't know. We had a look at the kitchen sink, and it was full of stale, dirty water. We asked if the sink worked. He said it did not. He said it had been clogged for quite a while. But again, he did not want to bother us.
We started defrosting the pipe, and taking care of the new issues. And we told our tenant he had to get his place cleaned up or leave. He was already 2 months behind in his rent and we were getting a bit tired of hearing him tell us that he didn't want to bother us.
The tenant left in the night, never to be seen again.
We were within feet of this tenant, and he didn't want to bother us as he was destroying our home. We said hello almost on a daily basis and he still never said a word. I wonder what stories he tells HIS friends about his slum landlords when he lived in the North End of Winnipeg.
This person was a friend before moving in, and destroyed our desire to be landlords.
That was the end of our having tenants. We cut a doorway in the wall and took over the entire house.
And that was the end of trying to earn extra income in a duplex.