Re: A World of Hurt, May 28, 2008

To: Louie Rosella, The Mississauga News

It’s not that bad. There’s good food in that plaza. | Steven Der-Garabedian/The Mississauga News

Ivery much appreciate journalism that focusses on neighborhoods that rarely get the spotlight. But such journalism is meant to help us learn more about our communities and what’s really going on there. Your piece accomplished the former, but failed in the latter, settling into a pre-written script that sheds no light on life in Malton and provides little insight into the spate of violence that has racked the neighborhood I grew up in.

The first part of your series on Malton, [“A world of hurt, May 28, 2008”] plays into preconceived notions of immigrant-driven violence and popular fear, even when such fear is as irrational here as anywhere else in the incomparably safe suburbs of Toronto. Six murders since mid-2006 is not a crime wave. The statistics you produce show no significant differences in crime rates between Peel’s police divisions, except for the high rate in Brampton’s 22 Division. Peel Police Chief Michael Metcalf hardly endorses your theory that Malton has a unique problem with crime. If he did, it is curious he wouldn’t say so on record, or make the connection, as you do, between crime and Jamaican and Punjabi gangsters or a black community struggling with violence.

And then there is the fear. I somehow doubt your survey in Westwood Mall meets well-established standards. That 28 out of 46 of your Maltonite respondents said they were afraid to go outside after dark is not an enormous surprise, although it is hard for me to discern if this represents a veritable panic or a collection of folks who just happen to say they wish things were safer at night. You could have asked my father, who still lives in Malton, the same question, and he might answer no. I’m still left with questions, since your survey provided so few answers.

There are other problems I will mention now, although I don’t want this to be a laundry list of complaints. As a working journalist, I’d hate to get those every time I publish something. So I’ll try to be quick.

First, Malton was never paradise. My family lived there for nearly thirty years. I grew up there. That Morning Star was the “jewel” of Malton is an utter joke. I’m not sure there ever was a jewel of Malton. Malton’s Greenway was never a stretch of picturesque forest. I should know. The home I grew up in backed onto the Greenway. Over the years, I saw it transform from a dirty city-maintained lawn to a dirty stretch of feral grassland. (It’s better now, without the lawnmowers.) “Today, the greenery is dotted with pop cans, beer bottles, pizza boxes and empty cigarette packs,” you wrote. Yesterday, it was dotted with pop cans, beer bottles, pizza boxes and empty cigarette packs, used condoms, syringes, crushed beer cans, cardboard boxes people slept on, dirty clothing, and liquor bottles.

Second, Roy Willis never spoke for my community. The following statement sums up my perceptions about his beliefs on crime: “A lot comes with that airport; it’s an international airport. You really don’t know what’s coming through there, but you can rest assured that Malton will get a taste of it.” I’m sure he’s a nice guy.

Third, and finally, I believe journalism like the first part of your series on Malton is what gives neighborhoods—viable, interesting, safe, communities where, despite some paranoia, people manage to raise families and conduct the majority of their lives—a bad rap. And that’s no joke. Bad reputations discourage investment, give residents a stigma, and actively make places like Malton worse places to live. I’m not one of those idiots who think the place they live in, no matter how violent and crummy, should be immune from criticism. Call a spade a spade, especially if it helps solve the problem. I simply believe that when it’s not deserved, such such rumours and innuendo can lead to intense insecurity and instability in a community.

Right now, I live in a community that’s been a victim of that stigma. Bedford-Stuyvesant, population 150,000, was once one of the most violent neighborhoods in America. It’s still more violent than the rest of New York. And this creative, vibrant, beautiful community is still off limits to the ignorant and fearful. That’s why gentrification in Bed-Stuy has been slower and of a different character than in other traditionally run-down areas in Brooklyn. If this neighborhood didn’t get the stigma it earned in the 1970s through the mid-90s, it might be richer, cleaner, safer. It’s getting there slowly, however, and much because of what locals themselves believe: that they have a community that is worth taking pride in, to hell with anyone who doubts it.

While I clearly take issue with the first part of your series on Malton, that doesn’t take away from my appreciation for the second part of your series. The airing of truth is a kind of justice, and your profile of two murder victims was thoughtful and appropriate, the kind of truth we should see more of in newspapers. Such violence should not be tolerated because it has real impact on our lives, as your piece shows.

Andrew Garib
Brooklyn, New York
Born & raised, Malton, Ontario End.