Last week, SharkBoy and I wandered directly through the heart of Regent Park to get to Queen Street (yeah we live dangerously – who knew there was a huge cricket practice in the heart of that vanishing community?). Half way through, he mentioned something regarding the homes that remained. Dainty Bastard posted today a visual of that same comment:
Why, in a neighbourhood known for it’s low income, are there so many satellite/cable dishes?
6 thoughts on “They’re All “Decoded””
i walk through regent with some regularity. the few times i see cars that could be described as nice and new, they’re parked in front of the church at the corner of dundas and sackville.
Now, that could just be visiting relatives.
Did you notice how many nice, new cars there were? I’ve always thought the same thing.
about two years ago 51 division took part in a crackdown on stolen and hacked satellite dishes. we can only speculate what corporate delights inspired the interest of the cops, but they did make a lot of noise about catching these ‘criminal threats’.
add in some standard criticisms: the poor have limited impulse control when it comes to spending and are uninclined to read the fine print in contracts that sound too good to be true. these are, of course, true of people in all classes, but it’s easy to point out the flaws of the poor. we should also factor in the cost of housing in regent – the standard is 33% market cost. then think about how many of the residents add in unreported income from renters or under the table jobs… suddenly those satellite dishes don’t seem so out of place.
as an aside, i just applied for a job contract in regent. if i get hired, i’ll let you know more about the spending habits of the segment of the population living there who are on odsp or using trillium or other health canada aid.
…oh yeah, and they’re all illegal hookups.
Tech is cheap. Express Vu called the other day offering free hookup, three months free service, five bucks off my Sympatico bill, phone bill and another five off the cellphone. So: free, three months free and fifteen bucks off my monthly bills. So of course I said no… the dish would have been right in my view of the mountains.