Transition This
I got loose a couple of weeks ago…..err went
on an unscheduled walk I should say and decided to head for a quiet little spot
I know. Nice big wall to mark my territory on and a nice grassy strip should I
decide to go for the full experience.
To my shock and horror I discovered a roving
band of (or one really, really big) tagger had tagged this beautiful wall and
painted it in circus tent style colours. This little strip of lawn and wall along
side of the TTC bus barns on Coxwell Ave. just below Danforth had been turned
into an eye sore of monumental proportions. As I lifted my leg to this sea of
turquoise and blue I realized the paint was still wet and got some on my foot.
(There’s an art to peeing while standing on three legs and if you don’t think
so just try it sometime.)
Who would do such a thing? Then I noticed the word sort of half painted
“Transitions” That explained a lot, Transition is a lefty key word like
“sustainability” or “safe space” or “LGBTQ Community”. Did a wondering troupe
of artistic transvestites do this to my beautiful wall??? What would be the use
of peeing on this wall now? Instead of smelling my magnificent sent high up on
this wall all you could smell now would be some transitional transvestite paint
job?
What was the real message behind this act of state sponsored vandalism?
Make no mistake; this was a message in six foot high letters to this quiet
neighborhood of single family homes, children and dogs. There’s a transition
coming. On a wall within direct sight of three schools and surrounded by family
homes somebody was letting these people know that even more changes were
coming.
In the last 20 years within two blocks of this wall there has been a
large block of social housing built less than two blocks away and a large apartment
building for the disabled build right next to this wall and the TTC had sold
off part of the bus barn property which was developed as cheap row houses that
were quickly sold off to new immigrants. How much more “Transition” was this east
end neighborhood in for? Well for one, an art project that will make the local
residents feel like they have to walk through the carnival to get to the subway
station every morning. I’m not kidding here folks, while lifting my leg to this
wall I half expected that Rosie the tattooed lady and the dog faced boy would
jump out at me.
As much as this is a really bad city sponsored art project it is also a
warning to the people who live within sight of this ugly act of vandalism. That
they are not yet finished socializing your neighborhood.
The only thing I can do about it at this point is to alert my colleagues
at the paper to dig into this story a little more and chase down some of the
squirrels around here, You got way too many infesting this hood. Oh I also
dropped a turd right under the “T” Thought that was pretty cool, please feel
free to come by and sniff it.
Shep The Talking Dog
Oct 2015
