NEEDING HELP!!!

A Candid Conversation By Theresa Grant Real Estate Columnist We’ve all heard for some time now that downtown Oshawa is in desperate need of help. If you’ve driven or walked through the downtown in the last few years you have probably seen firsthand the very sad decline of a once beautiful and vibrant area. I was making my way home from grocery shopping the other day and I turned left onto Simcoe from John St. I no sooner made my left-hand turn when traffic came to a complete stop. There was no visible reason for this abrupt halt in the middle of a beautiful sun-filled day but there we were, several cars behind a big orange school bus stopped dead in the street. I immediately assumed that the school bus was the reason we were going nowhere fast. In a way I was correct. However, after what seemed like an eternity people started getting antsy and pulling to one side or the other to try to get going, someone naturally laid on the horn a couple of times. Finally, the school bus which had been the vehicle blocking traffic, started to veer to the left and in doing so actually exposed the real issue that had traffic at a standstill. There, in the middle of Simcoe St. was a man looking very statuesque, half bent over at the waist with one arm seemingly bent as if posed. Truly looking like a stone statue. It was as though he was in midstride and then just froze. I have never seen this to this degree before. I have witness people in odd positions and have been told that it is the effect of particular drugs. I have seen many times groups of people in the downtown core either stooped or in a questionable pose, but I have never witnessed this in the middle of a major street and being able to bring traffic to a complete stop. It made me wonder, how is it that if this is happening in broad daylight in the middle of our downtown that the powers that be and I mean the Mayor and the Councilors are not witnessing this on a regular basis? Are they seeing it and ignoring it? Surely, they are aware of the state of our downtown. I know they like to say that they are not responsible for any of it and that the drug addiction and homelessness problems that Oshawa faces are the problem of the Region and or the Province, but does that mean they walk by it or drive by and just continue on their way? I would really like to know what, if anything at all the Council of Oshawa does on a daily basis in regard to this matter. I think it’s a question every citizen of Oshawa should be asking themselves.