Thursday 12 July 2012

You say "The Beaches", I say "The Beach"

Last Saturday, Phil and I had lunch in The Beaches. Or The Beach. There is a lot of debate about what the neighbourhood's "real" name is. If I have my local history right, it was originally "The Beach", and then people started referring to it as The Beaches, because there was more than one - Balmy Beach, Scarboro Beach etc. Some insist that the "correct" name is The Beach and get very aerated when people persist in calling it The Beaches. About 20 years ago, the city of Toronto put up street signs that identified the neighbourhood as The Beaches, and the resulting firestorm of controversy led to the signs being taken down and replaced. Your tax dollars at work, people.

It's funny, isn't it, what will get the knickers of the priveleged classes into a twist? But anyway.

Here's what gets my own knickers twisted: vandalism. The Leuty Lifeguard Station is a heritage building, dating back to the 1920s. It was almost demolished. It cost thousands and thousands of dollars to restore - money that was raised by citizens who didn't want to lose it. The creeps who did this should be made to lick the graffitti off. Naked. In January.